752 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
July 30, 1892. 
F loral Table Decorations. —It might 
have once been thought that a few 
years’ run of these dinner table decorations 
would have sufficed to satiate the public, 
and that long ere now they would have 
disappeared from our exhibitions. Such, 
however, is not the case, and those who 
attend Flower Shows seem to find in the 
florally decorated tables, vases, &c., as 
much to interest and please as ever, and 
yet we have not seen any very considerable 
change in the styles of decorating tables 
since the feature first became popular. 
Generali)' they carry glass stands in some 
form or another, they still are dressed with 
flowers of some colour or another, and 
grasses and similar decorative material are 
largely used as in the days when Mrs. 
Hudson, Miss Hassard and Mr. W. Thomp¬ 
son first delighted the visitors to Flower 
Shows with their elegant displays. What 
change there is in arrangement is, except 
in one direction, not very apparent, but it 
does seem as if there were occasional 
developments of fashion in the colours of 
the flowers employed, as this year we see 
none apparently more in vogue than pink 
and yellow. The exceptional direction in 
which there is change is found in the intro¬ 
duction of fine wire arches of different sizes, 
some neat, some abnormally tall, broad 
and ungainly. These wire arches carry 
various small horn-shaped glasses, and 
these are dressed lightly with flowers and 
the usual accessories. The effect is not 
always good, yet sometimes pleasing, even 
if but that it exhibits a distinctive break 
away from the usual stereotyped methods 
of dressing dinner tables. 
One thing is certain. Flowers of gaudy 
tints find little or no favour in the estima¬ 
tion of good judges, hence perhaps the 
popularity of pink Sweet Peas, and white 
and yellow Iceland Poppies. Few and 
well harmonized colours are best, and the 
lighter in reason and the more graceful the 
arrangement the more likely is it to secure 
an award. After all, floral decorations of 
this kind should play a very secondary part 
on dinner tables. 
Whe Status of the Gardener.— Our 
Chicago correspondent of last week 
opens up a discussion once'more upon a 
somewhat burning theme in relation to the 
status, wages, hours, etc., of the ordinary 
gardener. It is hardly probable that the 
workers in gardens can escape the “ labour ” 
contagion, and naturally desire so far as is 
possible to better their position both 
socially and pecuniarily. Well, we concede 
freely there is very much room for improve¬ 
ment in many ways, and in some directions 
which the gardener has in his own hands 
to deal with. 
It is of course exasperating when greater 
mental, moral, and professional improve¬ 
ment is urged to be told that the gardening 
profession offers no inducements for such 
improvements; of that we are not at all 
certain. In any case the gardener who is 
intelligent and has striven to rise in know¬ 
ledge and morals above the ordinary lank 
and file of the fraternity is almost certain 
at some time or other to reap the reward of 
his industry. Our young gardeners should 
strive to become more studious in horti¬ 
culture, for it is a subject of which no man 
can ever know all or hardly one half of 
what may be known. The being who has no 
higher aspiration than to smoke a pipe and 
drink his beer is far too common a creature 
in the ordinary profession, and it is the 
abundant existence of such a class that 
brings down gardening as a vocation to 
such a very low level. 
Trades-unionism has no hope or place in 
gardening because of its nature. Our best 
aspirations lie in higher intellectual attri¬ 
butes which shall eventually displace the 
ignorant and unskilled, and thus give to 
gardening a higher tone and status. We 
have yet far too much of the domestic or 
flunkey element in the vocation. It needs 
to be lifted a long way above that of the 
ordinary domestic worker, and in that direc¬ 
tion chiefly must we look for such improve¬ 
ments as shall bring better status and 
wages. 
W[ree Growth.— When some fifty or one 
hundred years hence our successors 
in the world shall cut down what are now 
fine trees in the prime of life, they will 
hardly fail to note that one good growing 
year has left its mark in a broader ring of 
wood in the stem than the average year 
exhibits. Recent journeyings into Kent 
and into the Midland Counties has left a 
strong impression on our mind that in spite 
of June frosts and July storms the present 
season has been a capital one for trees. 
They are just now in grand leafage, and 
where the summer growth is more than 
usually coloured bear a very striking and 
beautiful aspect. 
It is very doubtful whether after all we 
have grander objects in nature than a noble 
tree. We may of course find ample 
subjects for wonder and admiration in 
lofty mountains, or in broad winding rivers, 
but these are not the products of active 
life, such as vegetation presents. If then 
a single fine tree be a grand object, a big 
group is perhaps more so, but noblest of 
all is a hill-side covered with noble^ trees 
of various shades and outlines. Indeed 
no more beautiful object can come into a 
broad landscape than a fine wood of trees 
presents just now. 
But our immediate interest lies in the 
trees at our own doors. Single or many, 
they all exhibit in a marked degree the 
effects of the recent heavy rains, for the 
growth is strong, indeed almost luxuriant, 
and the foliage large, green and glossy. It 
is now only needful that we should have 
some reasonable sunshine and warmth to 
perfect and mature this tree growth, and we 
shall reap the benefit of the good work for 
some two or three years. Trees are valued 
chiefly for the beauty they give to the 
landscape or to the surroundings of our 
dwellings. Happily we cannot carry them 
to market as we do Cabbages and thus 
make profit from them, or assuredly we 
should so. None the less we may well 
rejoice when our trees grow freely and are 
beautiful. 
-■*—- 
The Midland Carnation Show will take place in the 
Botanical Gardens, Edgbaston, Birmingham, on 
Saturday next, August 6. 
Mr. S. Grassing is leaving Erleigh, White Knights, 
Reading, and we regret to hear through ill-health. 
His successor is engaged. 
The West Malvern and Mathon Flower Show will 
take place on August 23. 
The Harrogate Horse and Horticultural Society’s 
show is announced to take place on Tuesday, August 
20th. 
The Stirling Horticultural Society’s show of horti¬ 
cultural produce and honey will take place on 
September 1st and 2nd. 
The Morley and District Paxton Society's seventh 
annual show will take place on Saturday, August 17 1 
1892, in the Queen’s Park, Morley, Yorks. 
Large Tomatos. —At the R. H. S. meeting on 
Tuesday, our old friend Mr. Richard Gilbert, of 
Burghly, distinguished himself by exhibiting six 
Tomato fruits which weighed in the aggregate 10J lbs. 
Mr. Gilbert has done many "tall” things with the 
Tomato during the last twenty years, but this is the 
tallest of all. 
Mr. Peter Blair, who since the death of Mr. Zadoc 
Stevens, has so ably presided over the famous gar¬ 
dening establishment at Trentham, will, we under¬ 
stand, retire from their management in March next, 
but as he will continue to reside in the neighbour¬ 
hood, it is hoped by the committee of the Trentham 
Horticultural Society that they may still have the 
benefit of his active co-operation. It is no ex¬ 
aggeration to say that Mr. Blair has not only main¬ 
tained the high reputation of Trentham as one of 
our premier private horticultural establishments, but 
made the Trentham Flower Show one of the best in 
the kingdom. His many friends, we are sure, will 
heartily wish him success in the new business he will 
so soon embark in. 
Pink Rose Queen. — Now-a-days the desire is to 
have plants which will produce a profusion of flowers 
from which the grower can cut and come again. 
Many of the newer Pinks are floriferous enough the 
first year from seeds, but plants raised from cuttings 
are frequently sparing in this respect, while their 
hardiness is not altogether what could be desired. 
That named Rose Queen, a new sort being sent out 
by Messrs. Clibran & Sons, Oldfield Nurseries, 
Altrincham, is much in the style of the old-fashioned 
border Pink with which we were acquainted twenty 
years ago, hardy, free flowering and dwarf so that no 
staking is required. The flowers are of a uniform 
rose colour, and sweet scented ; but although useful 
for border work, it is by no means a florist’s flower 
as the petals are fringed. 
Careis heterophylla—This pretty composite is also 
known under the name of Kalfussia amelloides, and 
is sometimes popularly spoken of as a blue Mar¬ 
guerite. As far as size and habit are concerned it 
may be compared to Brachycome iberidifolia, which 
a so has blue flower heads. Being an annual it may 
be sown in the open ground in April or May and 
simply thinned out if growing too closely and kept 
clear of weeds. Besides being a beautiful subject 
for the open border it is also suitable for pot culture 
on account of its dwarf and free flowering character, 
which commends it to the attention of those who 
require something of a quick and easily grown 
character to furnish variety in the conservatory. 
A New Poppy. —Poppies are very fashionable at 
present, so that any species possessing anything of 
an ornamental character, whether it is annual or 
perennial, is likely to find favour. That under notice 
is an annual named Papaver glaucum, and in habit 
and general appearance looks like being inter¬ 
mediate between P. Rhoeas, the common Corn 
Poppy, and the Opium Poppy (P. somniferum). The 
stems attain a height of 18 in. or 2 ft. and are erect, 
and slightly branched. The oblong leaves are more 
or less deeply divided and glaucous, although not 
decidedly so as P. somniferum. The erect habit and 
little branched character also recalls that species. 
The flowers are about the size of a small Shirley 
Poppy (P. Rhoeas) and bright scarlet with a small 
black blotch, edged round the upper end with white, 
on the base of the inner petals only. The dense 
cluster of stamens in the centre are also black. 
Whether it will sport into numerous varieties like 
several other of the species in cultivation remains to 
be seen. A clump of it may be seen on a border in 
the herbaceous ground at Kew. It is very showy, 
and if it can be induced to vary will be an acquisi¬ 
tion to the Poppy-loving public while the present 
fashion lasts. 
-•*-- 
C YPRIPEDIUM EVENOR. 
This hybrid was first exhibited at the Drill Hall, 
Westminster, on the 18th of May, when it received 
an Award of Merit, and again at the summer show 
of the Royal Botanic Society on the next day by 
Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, when a Botanical 
Certificate was awarded it. The seed parent was C. 
bellatulum crossed with C. Argus. We are now in 
a position to give an illustration of it, so that our 
readers may get a clearer idea of its general 
features. The shape of the flower comes nearest to 
that of C. bellatulum ; the upper sepal is roundly 
ovr.te and pale yellow, lined and mottled all over 
with purple. The petals on the other hand are 
oblong-oval, densely spotted with crimson-purple on 
a paler yellow ground. The lip is similar in shape 
to that of C. bellatulum, finely pubescent, creamy 
yellow and suffused with purple around the mouth 
as well as on the infolded sides of the claw. The 
oblong leaves are beautifully tessellated with dark 
green on a pale grey ground. The stem of the plant 
exhibited bore two blooms, and altogether the 
variety seems to be of vigorous constitution. 
