418 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 5, 1892. 
It is rather amusing to learn that some 
chemists have recently discovered that 
animal manures lose force or fertilising 
power when permitted to ferment. We 
had imagined chat if chere was one elemen¬ 
tary thing well known in relation to man¬ 
ures, as indeed all products permitted to 
ferment, it was loss of natural power in the 
process. We should never allow manure to 
heat at all if we would have it to expend 
all its f rtihsing properties in the feeding of 
the soil. In the making of bread by the 
fermenting process, there is considerable 
waste, and in manure there is relatively 
much greater. 
A big mass of manure, such as is used to 
form a hotbed, is when made up worth as 
plant food thrte times as much as it is 
when enti ely exhausted by heat and 
thoroughly decayed. We waste our 
natural or animal manures in this coun¬ 
try enormously, indeed, as a rule, unless 
these manures be placed in the soil whilst 
fresh, we allow one half of their fertile 
properties to escape, either by fermentation 
or by washing out. If we would be but 
more careful with our manures, we might 
add enormously to the fertility of the soil. 
all Trees. —It is an undoubted fact 
generally recognised that it is 
apparently much more difficult to obtain 
good crops of soft wall fruit on open 
walls now than it was some forty years 
since. The blame is usually laid on the 
weather, although records show that we 
have had periods when the weather has 
been quite as unfavourable for the produc¬ 
tion of Peaches and Nectarines on open 
walls as it is now. The question to be 
determined is, have our methods changed, 
or is every hing due to the weather? We 
have still at disposal for growth all the old 
sorts, many of which are as worthy of 
cultivation as are the newer ones. 
We have still ample wall space, and 
there can hardly be any lack of cultural 
skill. Against these things we have the fact 
that the now very common practice of 
erecting houses for Peach and Nectarine 
culture, and the comparative facility with 
which good crops can be obtained under 
glass, have not only served to distract 
attention from outdoor culture, but has 
also diverted cultural skill into a diverse 
groove. It is very possible that our 
nurserymen now produce their trained 
trees more rapidly under what may be 
called high pressure culture than used to be 
the case, and doubtless chiefly to meet the 
undoubted large demand for house trees. 
Of course gross grown trees are in safer 
care under glass than outdoois. 
In the former case they have protection 
from weather, and artificial ripening 
influences to aid t.iUii ; in the latter the 
strong growths from the nursery fail to find 
that maturing help so much needed, 
whereas had that growth been less highly 
fed and harder and more full)' matured the 
result might have been very different. 
Some few old gardeners can still grow 
stone fruits well on walls, too many do so 
very indifferently. We hope the old skill is 
not becoming gradually a decaying art. 
The Horticultural Department of the Chicago 
Exposition is planning to have a magnificent Rose 
garden in whicti will be fully 50,000 plants, besides 
large groups in special areas. The garden will be 
of classic design with temples, arbors, archways, and 
trellises. 
Remedy ftv Caterpillars. —The application of some 
insecticide to prevent the ravages of caterpillars, may 
be something that will either destroy them or render 
the foliage so distasteful to them that they either 
die of starvation or get poisoned by eating the leaves 
so treated. A correspondent of the Illustrirte 
Gartenzeitung recommends the employment of salt¬ 
petre in solution to the foliage. It is used at the 
rate of 100 grammes (a gramme is about 15J grains 
troy) to 17J pints of water.. This is applied to the 
foliage of plants attacked by caterpillars, at two or 
three syringings given at intervals until" the pests are 
completely destroyed. 
The Eye (Suffolk) Horticultural Society will hold 
its annual summer show at Langton Grove on July 
19th. 
Preston and Fulwood Floral and Horticultural 
Society. —At the usual monthly meeting of the 
members of this society, to be held at the Legs of 
Man Hotel, Fisbergate, Preston, this (Saturday) 
evening, Mr. William Troughton, of The Nurseries, 
Walton-le-dale, will read a paper on “ The Culture 
of Hardy Fruits suitable for North Lancashire.” 
The chair will be taken at 7 30, by his worship the 
Mayor, Councillor Humber. 
Depressing Trade.—A London correspondent of a 
provincial paper says:—-'There is no liftingyet of the 
heavy depression that has hung over the trade of 
London since influenza and Royal afflictions put 
society in mourning. A west-end florist the other 
day told a customer of his, who is a friend of mine, 
that for some time past his takings have been at the 
rate of a hundred a week below the average. This, 
of course, is a serious thing for the tradesman, and 
also for the persons he employs, for a good deal of 
the money paid for such luxuries as flowers goes in 
wages to young ladies for making bouquets and de¬ 
corations.” We are glad to be able to report that 
business in Covent Garden has shown an improving 
tendency during the last few days. 
Two Interesting Plants. —In some notes on a visit 
to the Botanic Garden at Washington, communi¬ 
cated to the A met ican Florist by Mr. W. Falconer of 
Glen Cove, the writer says of Arduina spinosa:— 
Now here is a little gem of a pot plant from the 
Cape of Good Hope. It was nine or ten inches 
high by nearly as much across, and a dense cushion 
of small box-like green leaves interspersed with 
many little spines and sweetly pretty fragrant white 
flowers. It will probably never become a popular 
pot plant with the florist, but many an amateur 
would rave over it. The other interesting subject 
mentioned is Calathea Leitzei, which Mr. Smith, the 
Curator, described as one of the best house plants 
he had for use in the same way as Aspidistras, and 
India Rubbers. "It is a glossy, deep, metallic 
green-leaved Maranta from Brazil, and seems to 
enjoy a place under the bench as much as on the 
stage.” 
Shropshire Horticultural Society. —The schedule 
for the 1892 Exhibition in August next, has just 
been issued and is remarkable for the extent of the 
classes and the large prizes offered. There are 
thirty-one classes for plants, with the sum of £260 
allotted to them, including|^20, /16, /14, and £iz for 
groups ; £zo, /15, £\o for 16 stove and greenhouse 
and ornamental plants; £\z, £S, £5 for a group of 
not less than 20 Orchids. Thirty-six classes are 
devoted to cut flowers with ^jiio in prizes, collections 
of Dahlias, collections of Gladioli, hardy herbaceous 
flowers, bouquets and decorative dinner tables 
coming in for most liberal prizes. Twenty-three 
classes are devoted to fruit with £100 in prizes, with 
sums of £10, £6, and £2 respectively, fora collection 
of fruit, and six bunches of Black Grapes, and good 
prizes also for a smaller collection of 6 varieties of 
fruit. Liberal prizes are also offered for vegetables 
in addition to large special prizes from leading firms 
in the seed trade, and 50 classes with 230 prizes are 
devoted to cottagers. 
The latest fashionable craze.—The Pall Mall Gazette 
says, it is quite safe to prophesy that the reign of the 
new ‘‘button-hole”—the fashionable green flower— 
will be neither a long nor a glorious one. To begin 
with.it is by no means a thing of beauty. On the 
contrary.it is produced by over-culture out of the 
creamy-white Carnation that was indeed one of the 
loveliest of midsummer garden flowers. The white 
background, as it were, is visible still, but all the 
dainty petals are thickly flecked and outlined by a 
hideous tint of verdigris. This is not even well dis¬ 
tributed, but leaves here and there a patch of white. 
The contrast between the startling green of the 
flower and the beautiful, characteristic bluish-green 
of the Carnation foliage is the very opposite of har¬ 
monious. Then, the new flower is as expensive as 
the choicest Orchid. The ugliest and most stunted 
specimen is sold at two shillings, and twice that price 
is put on a fully-developed flower accompanied by 
an unhappy-looking bud. Hitherto the English 
grower has steered clear of the green Carnation, 
simply and solely because of its extreme lack of 
beauty. The specimens which are just beginning to 
attract crowds round the windows of the leading 
London florists have come over from France, where, 
like a great quantity of other flowers, they are grown 
in the environs of Paris. 
“ Flowers and their Guests ” was the subject of a 
lecture recently delivered by Professor Denny at 
Walkley near Sheffield. The lecturer intrc.ducei his 
subject by explaining the origin and uses of the con¬ 
stituent parts of a flower. He then proceeded to 
demonstrate the fact that the majority of flowers 
could not fulfil their purpose in the economy of 
Nature, of perpetuating the race, without the assist¬ 
ance of certain members of the animal kingdom 
belonging chiefly to insect tribes. This dependency 
Of.many flowering plants upon their insect guests was 
first pointed out as long ago as 1793 by Sprengal, but 
it remained for our illustrious countryman, Darwin, 
to establish beyond all doubt, and for all time, the 
importance of this inter-relationship in effecting cross 
fertilisation, which is so essential for the production 
of healthy and vigorous offspring. Nature abhors 
perpetual self-fertilisation, w'hich leads not only to 
degeneration of a race but eventually to extinction. 
A distinguished German naturalist, Fritz Muller, has 
shown that in certain cases the fertilising pollen, if 
placed upon the stigma of the same flower, has no 
more effect than so much inorganic dust, while in 
other cases the pollen acted on its own flower like 
poison. The absolute necessity of insect visitors for 
the existence of many plants (by carrying the pollen 
from one individual to another) accounts for the 
development of the varied attractive features of 
flowers which humanity long regarded as intended 
solely for its own gratification. 
Ghent Quinquennial International Exhibition.—The 
thirteenth international horticultural exhibition of 
the Royal Agricultural and Botanical Society of 
Ghent, will be held during the last fifteen days of 
April, 1893, and the first draft of the schedule for the 
whole concourse is now before us. Amateurs, 
nurserymen, horticultural, and floricultural societies, 
as well as public botanical or horticultural estab¬ 
lishments throughout the entire world will be eligible 
to take part in the exhibition ; only collective lots 
belonging to several exhibitors and brought together 
by horticultural societies cannot be admitted to the 
exhibition. The awards will consist of diplomas of 
honour, works of art, gold medals, silver gilt medals 
framed, silver gilt, large silver and silver medals. 
To the arrangements of the last exhibition in 18SS 
will be added a series of special awards for the most 
beautiful examples in flower of various hardwooded 
plants and a few ether kinds. The whole concourse is 
divided into twenty-seven sections in which the follow¬ 
ing subjects receive due prominence, namely, new 
plants, Orchids in flower, stove plants, Aroids, Palms, 
Cycads, Ferns, hardy forced shrubs, greenhouse 
soft-wooded subjects, greenhouse and hardy bulbous 
and tuberous plants, Azaleas, Camellias, and 
Rhodendrons, succulent plants, Conifers, horti¬ 
cultural art and industry, illustrated publications, 
&c. Intending exhibitors must communicate with 
the secretary of the Society, at Ghent, at least 
before the 1st April, 1893, giving a complete list of 
the kinds of plants and objects they intend bringing 
forward, and also stating the competitions in which 
they desire to take part. 
Another name for Stachys tuberifera. —Several 
popular names have been given this plant both in 
Britain and upon the Continent. The botanical 
name has also been varied or altered to some extent. 
At first it passed muster under the name of Stachys 
affinis, but that soon got changed to S. tuberifera as 
proposed by M. Naudin in the Bulletin dc la Socicte 
d’Acclimitation. According to the Revue Horticole it 
had been described for a long time previously by 
Miquel under the name of Stachys Sieboldi, and 
that name must be retained by right of priority. 
Whether that name will now be adopted in this 
country remains to be seen, for gardeners here, and 
probably all over the world, are very conservative in 
the matter of naming, and when once a plant has 
got into commerce under any particular name, it is a 
matter of the greatest difficulty to get them to 
change it, or even to reduce it to the status of a 
synonym. 
