484 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
April 2, 1892. 
FLiORlCUHTURE. 
The Carnation and Picotee Union. 
Owing to the long continued illness of Mr. 
Dodwell, and the yet more grievous illness of his 
wife, the issue of the report of the Committee of 
the Oxford Union has been somewhat delayed, but, 
better late than never, it is to hand now, and does 
not appear to have suffered by the delay. To the 
average Carnation mind the most interesting portion 
of the report will be the comments upon " the 
incidence of the season ” contributed by a number of 
well known growers, including Mr. Dodwell himself, 
who states the consensus of opinion to be, that it was 
one of the most trying to the florist, even of the try¬ 
ing seasons of the recent past.—Continuing Mr. 
Dodwell says:—“The sunless summer of 1890, 
followed by the long and severe frosts and fogs of 
November and December, and January, 1891, and 
these again by the blizzard of the gth of March, had 
wrought a destruction of stock or induced a debili¬ 
tation without a parallel in the memory of florists of 
the longest standing ; in several cases reported to 
me resulting in the entire loss of very valuable 
collections. In my own case, from August, 1890, to 
May, 1891, our losses were not less than 10,000 
plants. Of course the blizzard referred to kept back 
the plants and the potting for bloom to an abnormally 
late date ; many plants, which in the end gave us 
very satisfactory growth, getting no farther than a 
3-in., 4-in., or 5-in. pot until late in June—indeed, in 
place of the one shift system, the normal rule for 
Carnation growth, we went upon successive shifts, 
giving the plant additional room only when its ball 
of soil had been filled with healthy roots. This is a 
practice I can commend in the case of all weakly 
rooted or partially ripened layers. Let the plant 
have just so much food as it can healthily assimilate 
whilst it is sweet, bracing and strengthening its root 
action with the aeration through the sides of the pot 
(which, however, should be plunged, say in cocoa 
fibre), and it speedily gets power of digestion, and so 
rapid and robust growth. This was our experience, 
and the experience of Mr. Rowan, and I believe of 
some other friends, and I rarely remember our stock 
doing better or making a more healthy, though of 
course starting with such weakly stools it was in the 
majority of cases a scanty growth, up to the end of 
July. Then came storms, a deluge of rain, and a 
temperature so low, ripened growth was hopeless ; 
hence a large proportion of the layers failed to make 
root, and I fear we shall again have to face a serious 
loss. I am glad to believe that our case is, if not 
singular, more extreme than that o£ friends in local¬ 
ities more favoured as to subsoil and rainfall.” 
We quote also Mr. Ranger Johnson’s contribution, 
and the chief's reply—“It is unnecessary that I 
should say much about the character of the season 
of 1891. I never remember one more disappointing. 
It was especially so in my own case, because I was 
laid aside by illness for several weeks in the growing 
season, and sent away on business in the flowering 
season. Neglect and insect pests scarcely left me a 
flower worth looking at. I was unable to inspect 
the annual exhibition at the Drill Hall, and was 
therefore unable to compare the two great Carnation 
feasts of the year ; but I thought the Oxford show 
fully maintained its well-won reputation, and I only 
regretted that I could not come again the next day 
and the next. As a purist-florist I could not help 
noticing the further progress towards decadence 
manifested in the increasing popularity of Selfs and 
Fancies. Not that I do not admire them, for I do, 
almost passionately, and am never so happy as when 
decorating myself or my house with them. But on 
the exhibition stage I want them to take a back seat, 
and I find them every year getting more and more 
to the front. One inevitable result is already 
apparent—and, with all due respect to the Master 
and the Judges, I mention it as having been promin¬ 
ent at Oxford—that flowers with impure grounds 
and contradictory, heterodox markings pass unques¬ 
tioned in prize collections. Perhaps such criticism 
is a little hypercritical when applied to flowers pro¬ 
duced in such an untoward season ; but the 
prevalence of spots and bars and stripes where they 
ought not to be, and of tinted white grounds every¬ 
where, vexed my righteous soul beyond measure. 
It seems to me that the finer feelings and more 
refined tastes of the judges have been blunted, and 
they pass both for prizes and for certificates flowers 
which they would have passed by in years agone. 
I was surprised to see a flower of Novelty in a first 
prize stand of twelve Picotees, as I regard it as a 
Fancy. Here let me say that I hope we shall retain the 
name ‘ Fancy ’ for fanciful flowers. The word 
‘Variety’has already a definite, almost scientific, 
acceptation amongst horticulturists and floricul¬ 
turists, and to adapt it to another significance 
altogether would lead to endless confusion. Well, 
there were other Picotees, 1 remember, at Oxford 
that were terribly barred and splashed. The premier 
flower of Mrs. Payne was thus disfigured, though 
perfect in form ; and the fault was still more notice¬ 
able in Little Phil, charming flower as it is—a flower 
shown by Mr. Read being positively striped. I must 
admit that all the Heavy-edged Picotees showed 
evidences of the same character, but not so pro¬ 
nounced.* The Purple Flake Carnations were very 
spotty this year—Mayor of Nottingham especially 
so, but it took a first prize. I do not think the 
premier George Melville was open to the same 
objection. Robert Houlgrave showed up very badly, 
the petals being curled, rough, and uncertain in 
colour. I noticed a fine flower of C. H. Herbert, 
which thoroughly bore out the character I gave it 
last year; it was much spotted, and so cloudy that I 
question whether it is entitled to rank as having a 
white ground. Fine flowers of Rifleman were shown 
in two stands. Among the Pinks and Purples, an 
improving class, J. D.Hextall struck me as being the 
best ; Sarah Payne varied considerably ; E. Rowan 
was good. In Mr. Sydenham’s collection there was 
a wonderfully fine Pink and Purple named ‘ Mrs. 
Payne '; was it Sarah ? Undoubtedly the strongest 
section of the show was the Yellow-ground, Self, and 
Fancy varieties — I lump them together of malice 
prepense. The premier Tournament (Y.G.) and the 
premier Fancy Dodwell's (S. 859) were grand flowers, 
but there was too much of them ; and the same fault 
attached to the large flower of Germania, which was 
adjudged the premier Self—its size had exhausted its 
colour. Mr. Rowan’s Selfs were especially good. 
Vandyck struck me as an attractive Fancy ; Dorothy 
and Dodwell's S. 154 showed up well. A Prince of 
Orange shown by Mr. Phillips seemed quite equal to 
Agnes Chambers. Mr. Turner's lot formed a picture 
in themselves, and I noted some pretty and promising 
blooms among Mr. Hooper’s Yellow-ground Seed¬ 
lings. How greatly I valued the privilege of joining 
in the feast of the Oxford Carnation I need not say, 
and I cherish the fervent wish that once again we 
may gather around its venerated and esteemed 
Founder.” 
[My much esteemed friend’s paper raises points of 
far too great importance to be passed without remark, 
and I am constrained to say, both as to doctrine and 
as to policy, if I rightly interpret his suggestions, I 
am directly at issue with him. 
Of his criticisms I think we may fairly say, with 
himself, they seem somewhat hypercritical, when we 
consider the character of the season. But this is a 
small point, and no sensible florist could object to 
the most stringent criticism, if directed, as this most 
palpably is, to the maintaining or attaining a higher 
degree of excellence. But I am surprised, indeed, 
that with his gifts and attainments, emphasized by 
his claim to speak as a “ purist-florist,” he should 
regard the increasing popularity of Selfsand Fancies 
as evidence ' ' of further progress towards decadence ; ’' 
and whilst professing a passionate ad miration for them, 
he should propose to banish them from the exhibition 
table. Surely, surelj-, my friend has spoken without 
due thought. What could come of such a policy, 
save what comes of the cold shade always—inevitable 
degeneration. 
God forbid that any subject of Flora shall be 
denied the sunshine of comparison, the inestimable 
help of competitive comparison. 
There yet remains the larger subject of purism. 
My friend speaks as a ” purist-florist.” What, then, 
is purism ? Has it been attained ? When did it 
begin ? Where was it completed ? My friend pro¬ 
poses to banish Self and Fancies. By inference he 
accepts Flakes and Bizarres, and the curvilinear 
marked flowers (White-grounds) which by a 
misnomer we now term Picotees. 
Why so ? Are these sections within the purist 
line ? If so, when did they enter the charmed circle, 
and what is their title to exclude others ? Our 
fathers used words as symbols—to express things 
* A new variety named Campanini struck me as better than 
Little Phil n form of petal and absence of bars. 
seen. Bizarre! what does it mean ? " Odd,” 
" fantastical.” Where is its present application ? 
Flakes! what should we understand? Let the 
Laureate help us. 
“ Or like the snow flake on the river, 
A moment white, then melts for ever.” 
What relation has the snow flake to the definite 
through stripe of the conventional Flake of the day 
And yet more the Picotee. What was it sixty, fifty, 
even forty years since ? And if the purists of my 
younger days had cried halt at that time (some did 
but, thank God, they were not allowed to prevail, 
where would be the flowers of to-day ? 
My friend thinks the better judgment and the more 
refined tastes of the judges have been blunted of late 
and so flowers are passed for prizes and for certifi¬ 
cates which of old would have been rejected. I 
dissent utterly with his theory. Unless my eye has 
quite lost its perception, and my memory its power, 
it is inconsistent with historical fact. What Scarlet 
Bizarre, prior to the advent of Admiral Curzon, had 
we with a pure white ? What flower of that day in 
Crimson Bizarres could have been successfully pitted 
against a well-grown Master Fred ? Nay, it is not 
purism which prompts the utterance of my friend 
it is that which has cast a veil over many a subject, 
and hidden its true proportion in the eyes of many a 
man equally able, intellectual, and tasteful, as I know 
my friend to be—it is prepossession. For purism I 
am indeed ready to do battle ; but my purism is for 
inclusion, not exclusion. 
One closing word as to the Picotee Novelty. Why 
does my friend assume it to be a " Fancy ” ? In 
what does it differ in points essential to that we term 
a Picotee ? It has smoothness, purity, form, sub¬ 
stance, definite markings, and brilliancy of colour 
Is it possible my friend rejects it (other than as a 
Fancy) because it is veritably a Novelty, and cannot 
be called a rose or red or purple ? If so, he ties 
himself to the proposition that no new shade of 
colour shall be recognized, and identifies himself with 
those who forty-five years ago declined to accept 
rose and salmon-pink as colours for the edged 
flowers, Picotees, of that day. I will not willingly 
think my friend can be so retrogressive.— E. S. D.j 
JAMES’ STRAIN OF 
CINERARIAS. 
The high quality of the strain of Cinerarias grown 
in the low, span-roofed houses of Messrs. J. James 
& Son, Wood Side, Farnham Royal, Slough, is now 
well known. Beyond this quality, and the effects of 
good cultivation, there is nothing that any intelli¬ 
gent cultivator may not attempt. He has merely 
to start with seeds of the strain and give them 
reasonable treatment, including plenty of light and 
air all through the growing season. A box of blooms 
was sent us the other morning some of which are 
well represented in the accompanying illustration. 
A white variety with a dark blue disc is well shown 
at A. That shown at B, was a bicolor, or a tipped 
flower as it is sometimes termed, of a rich dark 
purple with a broad white zone round the purple 
disc. That at C, represents a dark violet blue flower 
with a narrow, white zone round a blackish blue 
disc. A warm rosy-mauve self is represented at D. 
A crimson purple with a small white zone around 
the purple disc, is shown at F. Besides the above 
there was a rich crimson-purple self, a dark violet- 
purple self, and a bright, rich blue self. The blooms 
were of great size, and the ray florets measured from 
half an inch to three-quarters of an inch in 
diameter. 
--S-- 
The Royal Horticultural Society of Southampton, 
which has this week issued its annual report for last 
year, deserves the warmest sympathy' of all engaged 
in the promotion of horticulture for its courageous 
efforts to deserve success under very trying circum¬ 
stances. For several years past the society has 
been endeavouring to do for the district around the 
famous southern seaport what York, Manchester, 
Shrewsbury, and Wolverhampton have been doing 
for their respective localities, but hitherto, owing to 
unfavourable weather and the half-hearted support 
accorded to them by the inhabitants, have met with 
a poor reward for their labours. The Council, 
however, stick manfully to their guns, and announce 
two important exhibitions for the present year, one 
for Whit-Monday, June 6th, and the other for July 
30th and August 1st. We hope on both occasions 
the sun of prosperity’ will shine upon them lustily 
