656 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
June 18,1892. 
osters’ Markets. —Without doubt the 
street nuisances to which we have 
before referred are found chiefly in what are 
called costers’ markets. These are of a 
somewhat impromptu kind, based on no 
official status or charter but have gradually 
grown up in various localities, from small 
beginnings, until they have become serious, 
if not intolerable nuisances. They serve the 
poor cheaply and fairly well without doubt, 
and they supply a great number of articles 
not always obtainable elsewhere. Still there 
has arisen a strong movement for the sup¬ 
pression of these street markets, and where 
attempted with the high hand of official 
authority, much hardship and suffering has 
resulted. 
The official element has simply striven 
to suppress without offering any substitute. 
That of course cannot be tolerated, but be¬ 
cause of the charter monopolies we have 
referred to, it has been found impossible to 
furnish the only proper substitutes, in the 
shape of public retail markets. It is im¬ 
portant that the costers—the Uhlans of the 
retail trade—should be made to see that 
only in the direction named is any satisfac¬ 
tory solution of their difficulty possible. It 
is important that their poor customers, 
their mortal enemies, the vestry officials, 
the resident traders, whom the costers so 
much annoy, and indeed all intelligent 
people, should see the same, and thus bring 
to the aid of the County Council, whether 
of London or elsewhere or of corporations, 
that force of public opinion which shall 
compel Parliament to pass measures abro¬ 
gating market monopolies, and placing the 
control of all markets free and unfettered 
in the hands of the bodies named. The 
poor costers, after all, if a nuisance in a 
crowded thoroughfare, are none the less 
an important factor in trade, and demand, 
as they certainly deserve, full and fair con¬ 
sideration. 
/yountry Market Monopolies. —A case 
\ came under our notice recently which 
illustrates in a remarkable way at once the 
evils attendant upon even municipal mono¬ 
polies in provincial towns, and the way they 
harmfully effect other rising towns in their 
neighbourhood. There is an ol'd-established 
public market for all sorts of commodities, 
held in the borough of Kingston-on-Thames 
under a charter which, as we learn, prevents 
the establishment ofanysimilar market with¬ 
in a given radius, and that radius includes 
the rising towns of Richmond and Wimble¬ 
don. 
The coster element, it appears, has be¬ 
come a growing trouble in both these places, 
and just recently the Wimbledon Local 
Board applied to the Kingston Town 
Council for leave to establish a proper 
Public Market in their town, into which the 
costers might be forced, and thus at once 
promote a public benefit and get rid of a 
public nuisance. The request surely was a 
reasonable and proper one, yet we learn 
with disgust that the Kingston Corporation 
have, with a real dog-in-the-manger spirit, 
refused to consent to it. To assume that 
a small market at Wimbledon, some five 
miles away, could affect the fortunes of the 
Kingston Market is to assume anything, 
however stupid and absurd. That, how¬ 
ever, seems to have been the basis of this 
monstrous act of refusal. 
This case, as we previously said, illus¬ 
trates in the most forcible way the import¬ 
ance of calling upon the new Parliament 
when it shall assemble to carry measures 
dealing with the question of market mono¬ 
polies throughout the whole Kingdom. It 
is so utterly monstrous that in such a 
matter Kingston should dominate Rich¬ 
mond, Wimbledon, or any other town, that 
it seems only needful to have the matter 
discussed to bring about a clean sweep of 
all such monopolies. 
he Golden Lily of the Nile.— -It has 
been the lot of very few specially new 
plants of late to create greater interest than 
has Captain Elliott’s golden Richardia, the 
entire stock of which will be sold by 
Messrs. Protheroe & Morrison June 17th. 
There have been very many new and 
beautiful plants from time to time put into 
commerce, but not all have the same in¬ 
terest which attaches to the yellow Nile 
Lily, for the obvious reason that Richar- 
dias seem to be specially adapted for 
popular sale, and hence, in their season, are 
in universal demand. No doubt Mr. 
Sander’s new Dipladenia, of which we give 
an illustration in another page, is a beauti¬ 
ful plant truly, and finds hosts of admirers, 
still it does not belong to the same popular 
class as the Richardia, and hence will never 
get into universal growth or become in the 
same way a great market plant. 
It was perhaps not a matter for surprise 
that we should have obtained a compara¬ 
tively dwarf or miniature white-spathed 
Richardia, as we see in Little Gem, because 
such breaks are in plants by no means un¬ 
frequent. To have got a really good yellow- 
spathed variety, however, creates now 
almost as much of interest as would that 
floral vara avis, a blue Dahlia or a scarlet 
Chrysanthemum. It is not enough to say 
that florally this novelty is a good thing, 
for the spathes, besides being really yellow, 
—and a very soft,creamy yellow too—are of 
good size and form, whilst the plants are of 
robust growth and have leaves somewhat 
splashed with white, which gives to the 
whole emphatic distinctness. 
We may well hope to learn that whilst 
no prohibitory reserve will be put upon the 
stock of this interesting novelty, it will get 
into the hands of many members of the 
trade, as once widely dispersed there can 
be no doubt but that we shall in a few 
years see it almost universally cultivated. 
-—i-- 
The International Horticultural Exhibition. —The 
attendance at the International Horticultural Exhibi¬ 
tion during the first thirty-one days that it has been 
opened reached on Saturday night 506,833. These 
returns are far greater than at any previous exhibition 
at Earl's Court at this time of the year. 
The Cardiff and Chrysanthsmam Society has issued 
a schedule of prizes for their show to be held on the 
9th and 10th of November. 
The National Rose Society’s Show at Chester has 
been postponed from July 14th to Saturday, July 16th. 
Royal Horticultural Society.—The next meeting of 
the society in the Drill Hall, James Street, West¬ 
minster, will be held on Tuesday, June 21st, and, we 
understand, promises to be of more than ordinary 
interest. In addition to the plants and flowers 
usually to be seen, there will be competitions among 
amateur growers of Paeonies, Delphiniums and Pinks. 
The National Rose Society will also hold its first 
show of the season, and the display promises to be a 
fine one. At 30'clock Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer will 
deliver a lecture on " The Management of Trees in 
Parks and Gardens.” 
The weather at Bingley, in the West Ridings, 
writes a correspondent, was during Whit week (up 
to Friday) everything that could be desired, “ but it 
has since changed to cold showers and wind, and 
although fair to-day (Monday) still keeps threatening. 
All outside fruit crops (excepting Gooseberries) 
promise an average return. Cherries, both on walls 
and standards, look like carrying a heavy crop, while 
Strawberries are showing good strong blooms.” We 
had a cold rain in London on Sunday, and the 
temperature since has been very low for the leafy 
month of June. 
The Rhododendrons at Heron Court. —The Earl of 
Malmesbury has given public notice that he will 
throw open to the public for three months the 
famous Rhododendron forest at Heron Court, near 
Bournemouth, but expresses the hope that visitors 
will pay attention to the rules, especially in regard 
to the prohibition of smoking. Serious fires have 
often been caused by careless and inconsiderate 
smokers, and if such conduct be repeated, he will be 
compelled to close his woods. 
Scottish Horticultural Association. — A largely 
attended meeting of this association was held at 
5, St. Andrew Square, on the 7th inst., Mr. W. M. 
Welsh, president, in the chair. The principal item 
of business was a paper by Professor M‘Alpine 
entitled “ The Germination of Seeds.” The Pro¬ 
fessor minutely explained the process of germination, 
stating that the three principal agents in the pro¬ 
duction of healthy plants were water, air, and heat, 
and showed, by means of a model, his mode of 
germinating seeds. Several fine specimens of 
Hydrangeas, Calceolaries, etc., were exhibited. 
The Sweet Briar a Pest. — Our Australian cousins 
are unfortunate in sundry of their imports from the 
old country. Everybody knows the mischief done 
by the prolific rabbit, but to hear complaints against 
the Sweet Briar is something new. Nevertheless, 
the fragrant Rosa rubiginosa has increased and 
multiplied to so great an extent as to have become a 
serious nuisance, and it is proposed to place it and 
furze in the list of plants to which the provisions of 
the Thistle Act apply. That means that the duty of 
eradicating these weeds will be thrown upon the 
shire councils. 
The Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Institution. —The 
Committee of this institution regret to announce 
that, in consequence of the lamented death of Lady 
Goldsmid, the 53rd Anniversary Festival Dinner, at 
which Sir Julian Goldsmid had kindly consented to 
preside on the 29th inst., is unavoidably postponed 
to a date which will be duly notified. Meanwhile 
the committee earnestly trust that the many friends 
who have supported the institution in the past will 
not relax their efforts, but rather increase them on 
behalf of its funds, and thus endeavour to make this 
year’s annual collection worthy of the cause for which 
it was promoted. A sum of nearly /700 is required 
on the 1st July to meet the quarterly payments then 
due for pensions alone, and the committee therefore 
sincerely hope that the institution will not be allowed 
to suffer from any diminution in the amounts collected 
on account of the unforeseen and regrettable circum¬ 
stances which have led to the postponement of the 
festival for a short time. All monies should be 
remitted to the secretary, Mr. George J. Ingram, 50, 
Parliament Street, London, S.W., who will be 
pleased to send collecting cards to any who may 
desire them. 
An Historic Elm Tree.—The Western Mercury says 
that everybody who knows anything about Devon¬ 
shire knows Moreton-hampstead, and up to last year 
there was one thing in Moreton which all pilgrims to 
the heart of Devon desired more than any other thing 
to see. It was the historic Elm which grew in the 
centre of the town. The Elm is still there, but is 
shorn of the glory that had been its own for centuries. 
The tree was a magnificent specimen of its tribe, as 
the photographer has been able to show. It had a 
curious history'. The branches were trained in the 
form of a cup, leaving a big hollow in the centre, and 
on certain great occasions this hollow received a 
plank floor, and music and dancing were carried on 
by the festive inhabitants high above the earth. 
Last winter a storm almost destroyed the tree, and 
it is now nothing more than a stunted pollard. The 
timbers that were blown down, however, have been 
carefully stacked close by, and the relic hunters have 
this year been seized with a mania for taking away 
pieces of bark and twigs. Periodical depredations 
will soon leave nothing but dust, and those who 
desire to have a fragment of the true Elm should 
not delay. 
A use for Water Thyme. — Everyone who lives near 
fresh water, whether that be rivers, ponds, lakes, 
canals, watercourses, or ditches, knows what a 
nuisance the American water weed (Elodea cana¬ 
densis or Anacharis alsinastrum) has become within 
recent years. This is more especially the case in the 
more stagnant or sluggish watercourses or ponds, 
especially if not peopled by swans and other water 
fowl, which serve largely to keep it down. In pieces 
of ornamental water it becomes an eyesore, because, 
having in itself no ornamental effect, it spoils the 
appearance of a clean sheet of water, besides 
