258 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
December 26, 1891. 
Japan, applications are already arriving; the most 
curious exhibits from the last-named country will be 
the dwarf fruit and other trees, over a century old 
and not more than two feet high. Many of the states 
and territories have arranged to make a complete 
herbarium of their flora, and wax models of all their 
fruits ; it is the intention of the chiefs of this de¬ 
partment to make a great collective exhibit of these 
objects. 
‘ 1 I think that there is every reason to suppose that 
this section will receive very warm and practical 
support from English horticulturists. Not only is 
our pre-eminence in the art fully recognised in the 
United States, but the importation of plants is not 
saddled with the heavy taxation that applies to most 
other objects to that country; in fact, all plants in¬ 
tended for indoor cultivation, for the production of 
cut flowers and for decorative purposes, are admitted 
free. In the same way many garden seeds are equally 
unencumbered, and, as will be seen from the follow¬ 
ing list of exports for 1890, a very large trade 
is done in them by seed producers in this 
country :— 
Untaxed Exports. 
Value. 
Flower and other seeds. £ 67,000 
Trees and plants. 114,100 
Taxed Exports. 
Bulbs. 73.730 
Garden and agricultural seeds.. 60,400 
Plants, &c. 934.990 
“ It will be within the remembrance of many persons 
who visited the Centennial Exhibition at Philadel¬ 
phia in 1876, that the Rhododendron displays made 
by British growers gained the wonder and admiration 
of millions of American visitors ; this exhibit laid 
the foundation for a large and constantly growing 
trade in this particular shrub, and I was recently in¬ 
formed by one of the chiefs of this department in 
Chicago—an eminent horticulturist—that, despite 
the advance that has been made in America in this 
branch of culture, we still maintain the lead that we 
had nearly twenty years ago. In 1876 there were 
less than a thousand nurserymen in the whole of the 
United States ; this number has been increased more 
than fourfold at the present time, and the trade in 
America with cut flowers and decorative plants is 
enormous. At the beginning of this year there were 
4,659 floriculture establishments in the United States, 
with nearly 39,000,000 square feet of glass. The 
value of these establishments is about £8, 000,000 
sterling, while the value of the plant sales during 
1890 amounted to nearly £%, 500,000 sterling, and that 
for cut flowers to nearly £3, 000,000. With this very 
extensive business, with the acknowledged fact that 
we, as floriculturists, are far in advance of the United 
States, and with the very favourable conditions that 
exist, there is every reason to suppose that in this 
department, at least, British exhibitors may go to 
Chicago without the least doubt as to the commercial 
success of their undertaking. 
“Before dismissing theHorticulturalBuilding.it 
may be added that extensive grounds will sur¬ 
round it; that these grounds will be laid out 
in the most elaborate manner, and be adapted for 
flower displays which will also form exhibits. The 
art of carpet bedding has been carried, according to 
our more sombre eastern ideas, to theatrical extrava¬ 
gance in the United States, and while one cannot but 
admire the ingenuity which tortures, foliage plants 
and brilliant flowers into ' Gates Ajar,’ terrestrial 
globes, canoes, sundials, and the like, the British 
landscape gardeners will probably be content with 
admiration, and refrain from imitating these curious 
triumphs of floral decoration.” 
SOME FRUITING 
HOLLIES. 
Holly berries seem anything but plentiful this year, 
and although quantities are making their appearance 
in the markets, they have no doubt been collected 
over wide areas. The heavy and reckless pruning 
to which the trees are subjected in supplying 
the London markets must affect their fruiting powers 
in succeeding years, but independent of this the 
trees do not fruit equally freely every year any more 
than in the case of fruit trees generally. Apples, 
Pears, and Plums bore excellent crops during the 
past summer, so that, considering the fruitless condi¬ 
tion of the Hollies, different agencies must have been 
at work and must be held responsible for the differ¬ 
ences in the two cases. We hear little of the prog, 
noshcation? of the old weather prophets this year 
about an approaching severe winter, because of the 
relative scarceness not only of Holly berries, but 
of wild fruits generally. Notwithstanding this 
scarcity of food for the birds, we are by no means 
assured that the winter will be a mild one. 
The ornamental value of the Holly is well recog¬ 
nised whether in fruit or not, but there can be 
no doubt that all the green-leaved varieties which 
bear fruit are greatly improved thereby. Fruiting 
Hollies, if they happen to have variegated leaves, 
sometimes lose much of their effect, because the 
scarlet berries are never seen to better advantage 
than against a background of dark green foliage. 
The yellow and white fruiting varieties of the com¬ 
mon Holly come under the same rule, and they are 
seen to the best advantage only when planted in 
association with the red fruiting sorts, so that the 
colours may be contrasted. 
Even in the common European Holly (Ilex Aqui- 
folium), all plants or trees do not fruit alike, as some 
of them bear male flowers only. It would be well 
therefore if fruiting trees are desired,to take grafts from 
trees that are known to fruit well, so as to make 
sure of getting the right sorts when the trees attain 
a large size, and get into bearing condition. When 
grafts however are taken from fruiting trees, they 
often come into bearing when yet quite small, and 
that is more than can be expected from trees raised 
from seeds. Besides the typical form there are 
others differing in habit as well as in the form of 
the leaves, and which would be desirable in a colle- 
tion. The Weeping Holly (I. A. pendula) has long, 
drooping branches which sweep the ground and in 
most years bears fruit, sometimes very heavily. 
The broad-leaved Holly (I. A. platyphylla) is also 
fruiting fairly plentifully this year, and in fact seems 
to compare well with any other kind. The berries 
are globose or oblate, bright red and very large. 
The leaves are broadly oval, bright green, shallowly 
and distantly spiny-serrate, and on young and 
vigorous plants attain their greatest magnitude. 
The leaves of I. A. Moonlight are large and ovate, 
of a bright green with paler veins, and are strongly 
spiny. The uppermost ones on tall "specimes”are 
often quite entire reminding one of the poet Southey’s 
tree. The berries are bright red. 
There are several narrow leaved sorts which are 
as interesting from the character of the foliage as 
from their berries, including I. A. ciliata, having 
lanceolate leaves, sharply serrate with small spines. 
The berries are relatively large and bright red, while 
the small size of the leaves does not conceal the 
fruits. A most singular looking tree is I. A. crassi- 
folia, with lanceolate, rigid leaves of great thickness 
appearing quite succulent, and of a dark opaque 
green, the margins are furnished with strong and 
deep senatures, but they are hardly to be considered 
spiny. The red berries are oblate or flattened on 
the top_ as if partaking of the same abnormal charac¬ 
ter as the foliage. There are several varieties of 
Holly with thick leaves, but none perhaps more 
marked and peculiar than in this case. 
The varieties with fruit of other colours than the 
normal red are interesting, more especially when 
grown in proximity to the others for the sake of con¬ 
trast. The yellow-fruited Holly (I. A. fructu-luteo) 
is perhaps the most common of the varieties grown, 
because their fruits are differently coloured from the 
rest. A tree of it in full bearing has a very striking 
effect. Intermediate between this and the type is 
the orange-fruited I. A. fructu-aurantiaco, which 
has elliptic-ovate, undulate and strongly spiny 
leaves. The yellow fruited variety has leaves 
similar to the type, but somewhat less spiny. Then 
there is a white-fruited variety named I. A. fructu- 
albo ; and to complete the series a black-fruited one, 
namely I. A. fructu-nigro. There are therefore 
fruits of five different colours in the common Holly 
alone, but some of then would be difficult to obtain. 
Cultivators however would do well to propagate and 
encourage their dissemination in collections. 
There are several exotic species of Holly which 
fruit with tolerable freedom in this country, and are 
otherwise interesting on account of their different 
foliage. Foremost amongst these is the Minorca 
Holly (I. balearica) which modern authorities consi¬ 
der a mere form of the common one. It is readily 
distinguished by its ovate leaves being almost with¬ 
out spines, and of a lighter green. The American 
Holly (I. opaca) has ovate, almost fiat, opaque green 
leaves, and rather deeply spiny at the margin. It is 
therefore strikingly different from our Holly, and 
grows apparently with equal freedom. The globose 
berries are of medium size and bright red. The 
Himalayan I. dipyrena has long lanceolate leathery 
leaves of a dark green with short spines. The 
tree is of pyramidal habit, grows rather quickly, and 
is quite hardy.— F. 
GREENHOUSE 
RHODODENDRONS AT 
CHRISTMAS. 
One great advantage of growing hybrid greenhouse 
Rhododendrons is that they may be had in bloom at 
any time of the year, and if a large collection 
is grown, some or other of them will be in 
bloom all the year round. After flowering, the 
plants commence to grow again ; and if it is con¬ 
sidered desirable that they should complete their 
growth, and make preparations for flowering again, 
it is necessary that the plants be kept in a growing 
temperature, say that of an intermediate house. 
Considering their great importance as decorative 
plants, and also the value of the flowers in the 
cut state for various purposes, greenhouse Rhododen¬ 
drons are worthy of a house to themselves, specially 
devoted to their cultural requirements. Cultivators 
would soon find what treatment best accorded with 
their wants, and their response to this in the quan¬ 
tity and continuous production, would amply repay 
for the trouble incurred and the space devoted to 
them. 
We have inspected the collection of Messrs. J, 
Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, at various times of the year, 
and never found them entirely out of flower. We 
had the pleasure of seeing them quite recently, and 
had evidence that there would be plenty of bloom 
at Christmas. The varieties of the Java type are 
the most showy and useful for all general purposes, 
on account of the great size of the flowers, and their 
extremely varied character in various respects, be¬ 
sides the wide range of beautiful colours, 
Java Type. 
All of the undermentioned varieties which are 
described are comparatively new kinds, and some of 
them are only just being put into commerce. The 
improvements which have been effected in recent 
years is considerable, both in the size and colour of 
the flowers, so that many of the new kinds are 
valuable acquisitions. Many seedlings which come 
into bloom now have to be discarded if they do not 
come up to the standard of merit, as space cannot 
be afforded for their retention and propagation, 
Luteum Roseum, now two years old, has large flowers 
of a beautiful rose colour, lightly shaded with 
yellow, with a purple line joining the base of the 
segments. Those of Jasminiflorum carminatum are 
of medium size and carmine with a long tube. It is 
a very floriferous kind. Minerva, a last year's pro¬ 
duction, has very large, apricot-yellow flowers lightly 
shaded with red in the throat. Of the same size is 
Princess Beatrice, having large blush flowers lightly 
shaded with red in the throat. A beautiful flower 
is Rose Perfection, of large size, and clear rose with 
a white tube and throat. Hercules is notable for 
the size of its flowers, which have six or seven seg¬ 
ments instead of the usual five. They are of a rich 
apricot colour shaded with salmon, but more especi¬ 
ally in the throat. The variety has been certificated, 
as likewise Ajax, which is quite new and bright 
cerise with a rose throat. It is certainly fine. 
The first pure white variety of this type which 
has been obtained is that named Purity, having 
flowers of medium size. Imogene, on the contrary, 
has large creamy-white flowers with red stamens. 
Ophelia is a beautiful salmon coloured flower with a 
rose throat and broad emarginate segments. Another 
grand type is Lord Wolseley, with very large, rich 
orange flowers shaded with purple in the throat. 
Favourite has similarly large flowers, of a bright pink 
shaded with red at the base of the segments. The 
trusses are also of great size, so that the variety is 
hardly likely to belie its name. Indian Yellow describes 
its own colour, and the flowers are large with 
rounded segments. Very floriferous is Apollo, with 
orange-red flowers and a long, wide tube. 
Besides the above new kinds we also noted many 
of the choice old kinds in flower. Description in 
their case is unnecessary, seeing that they are so 
well known to cultivators of this class of plants. 
Some of these were Princess Royal, Alexandra, 
Duchess of Edinburgh, Maiden's Blush, Princess 
Frederica, &c, The above, as is well known, havQ 
