816 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 27, 1892. 
horticultural aspects must be exerting con¬ 
siderable and highly beneficial influences 
amongst myriads of workers who on Satur¬ 
day last were neither exhibitors at or 
visitors to the Palace. 
We are very grateful for the existence of 
the Palace that it enables gatherings of this 
important nature to be possible, and there 
can be no doubt but that co-operation finds 
resulting from these annual festivals power¬ 
ful impulse. We hope as well as expect to 
see every succeeding year that the average 
quality of the exhibits will rise to higher 
excellence although now so generally good. 
J udging at Flower Shows.— The more 
we see of Flower Show Judgments, 
the more do we realise the need there is, if 
such a realisation be possible, of some sort 
of consensus of opinion on the part of judges 
as shall bring judgments somewhat into 
harmony. Even now do we often see at 
the same show different sets of judges 
basing their awards on totally diverse 
aspects, so that the confusion which results 
is positively bewildering. We are fully 
aware that even in dispensing law our 
judges are often at variance in their deci¬ 
sions. Still legal cases offer so many 
different aspects, that no one can tell how 
they are going to be presented, or under 
what varying conditions ; hence some con¬ 
siderable difference of opinion seems inevit¬ 
able. But when the matter relates, as is 
the case with flower show judging, to objects 
which may differ in degree but nothing 
else, it does seem as if any material varia¬ 
tion in decision ought not to be possible. 
It is so unfortunate for the competitors 
that they never know how to take the 
judges. There never can be any certainty 
as to the nature of the points they will 
favour, or the line they will take; so that 
exhibiting becomes very much of a lottery, 
and none can tell just how things will turn 
out. Why on earth in judging flowers or 
fruits, or vegetables, or combinations of all 
three should there be so much diversity. 
Would it be possible for some sort of par¬ 
liament of judges to meet occasionally to 
whom could be referred the making of 
judging points or rules, and to whom also 
could be referred decision on v all disputed 
points. The thing is not impossible but 
there would be no power to enforce such 
decisions were there any disposition to 
object. 
It ought not to be impossible to form an 
institution or association of horticultural 
judges, and make all the members abide by 
the rules of judging laid down by the asso¬ 
ciation, and perhaps committees of flower 
shows could in time be induced to refuse to 
engage any as judges who may not be mem¬ 
bers of the association. The matter is 
worth discussing, and we should like to see 
is well threshed out. 
J^ahlias.—T he Flower Show Tournaments 
of the present week have been lavish 
of beauty, quality, and interest. Still, they 
will by no means have exhausted the 
capacities of the Metropolis to furnish 
attractive exhibitions for lovers of flowers 
or other garden products. Towards the 
close of the ensuing week will be held the 
Great Annual Show of the National Dahlia 
Society at that temple of Flora, the 
Crystal Palace, where it is certain we shall 
see the Dahlia not only in wonderful pro¬ 
fusion, but also in almost unusual excel¬ 
lence. We are having a fine Dahlia season 
there can be no doubt, because the plants 
are clean, are in robust health, and have 
now ample moisture at the roots to sustain 
them. 
We may never get just a model or per¬ 
fect season for any flower, but at least this 
year the Dahlia grower has little to com¬ 
plain of. Whether from a florists’ point of 
view we have gained anything through the 
general introduction of Cactus and single 
forms on to our show tables, matters little. 
There is so much of room for all classes of 
flowers, both in gardens and at shows in 
these days, that we rather hail with satis¬ 
faction the introduction of sections which, 
if devoid of the florists’ points, yet have 
for us and for the general public so much 
that is wondrously beautiful. 
Without doubt Dahlia exhibitions owe 
very much to their diverse sections, because 
they have proved to be so capable of 
awakening renewed interest in not only the 
Dahlia generally,but in the florists’ sections 
especially. We may well hope to see 
Dahlia lovers of every class in strong force 
at the Crystal Palace on the 2nd and 3rd 
of next month, and there will be a further 
opportunity to admire Dahlias at the 
Royal Aquarium the following week, when 
to the Show at the Crystal Palace that of 
the National Chrysanthemum Society will 
be a sort of second and without doubt a 
beautiful addition. 
Vegetables.—“A y, sir,” said a country 
Potato grower the other day, 
“ Taters be splendid this year,” a remark 
that is emphatically true. Farther than 
that we have had to listen to some strongl)' 
expressed regrets that the once promised 
Potato Exhibition at Earl’s Court seems 
to have fallen through ; as it is believed 
that a Potato show this season would have 
been of altogether unusual excellence. 
Whilst agreeing with these regrets we 
may nevertheless express a hope that 
just what the management at Earl’s Court 
is doing so splendidly for fruit this week, 
it may yet do for vegetables general!}', 
for the}' as a class of garden produce are 
in splendid form generally this year ; and 
it is noteworthy that there are some new 
and very able growers coming into the 
field, so that it is far from probable that 
any one exhibitor could make a big sweep 
in various classes. 
To persons not much accustomed to 
vegetable exhibitions it is indeed a surprise 
to find what a fine and attractive display 
they make, how much of fine form and of 
beauty there is in them. Apart from the 
high class culture shown in the exhibits 
individually, competitors if they only have 
elbow room set their products up so 
effectively that a collection thus displayed 
often makes a very pleasing as well as a 
suggestive picture. We do strongly 
impress upon all judges that in awarding 
prizes they should lay the greater stress 
upon form and beauty, and not quite so 
much as is commonly the case on mere 
size or weight. Judges should always be 
something more intelligent than is a pair 
of scales, and so far as vegetables are 
concerned the higher the standard set up 
by judges the more elevated will become 
the aims of exhibitors and the ideals of the 
the public. Truly we do enjoy a grand 
vegetable exhibition ; and hope yet to see 
such a one in London this season. 
•-- 
Baron Schroder. — The name of this greatly 
esteemed patron of horticulture is included in the 
list of gentlemen on whom Her Majesty has 
recently conferred the honour of a Baronetcy. 
Bulbs for the London Parks —We understand that 
the London County Council have accepted the tender 
of Messrs. F. Miller & Co., 267, Fulham Road, S.W., 
for the supply of bulbs for planting this autumn in 
all the parks and gardens under the control of the 
Council. 
Peter Lawson & Son, Limited. — At the annual 
general meeting of the shareholders of this company 
held on the 17th inst , the report as issued to the 
shareholders was adopted, and a dividend of 10 per 
cent, per annum was declared ; £ 1,500 was added to 
the reserve fund, and the balance of ^2,974 12s. gd. 
was carried forward to next year. The retiring 
directors, Mr. Eastes and Mr. Paterson, were re¬ 
elected, and Mr. David Syme, the present manager of 
the company, was elected a member of the board. 
The Mourning Cal la.—Apparently this has been 
given in German}' as the common, we should hardly 
say popular, name to a plant otherwise known as Arum 
sanctam because it comes from the Holy Land, 
where its its worth first became known and where 
it was collected. It has the habit of an Arum with 
arrow-shaped leaves, of a light green not unlike 
those of Richardia africana variously known as the 
Trumpet Lily, Lily of the Nile, &c. The spathe is 
the most striking feature of the plant, and is described 
as of a shining blackish purple above and green 
beneath, while it measures 14 in. to iS in. in length 
and 4 in. wide. A coloured figure accompanying a 
circular sent us shows the spathe to be of a deep 
maroon-crimson above and greenish yellow beneath 
but something must be allowed for the attempt made 
by the artist to reproduce the colours. It is being 
sent out by Herr C. Deegen, Kostritz, Thuringia. 
Shooting at Apple Stealers.—A Saltburn gardener 
was last week committed for trial on the charge of 
unlawfully shooting at one John Morgan, who 
admitted having gone to the defendant's garden with 
others with the intention of stealing Apples. The 
complainant stated that he was shot in both legs and 
one arm, and it was submitted for the defendant 
that he did not shoot with the intent to do any harm, 
but simply with a view to frightening depredators 
away. 
Progress of Begonias. —At the Begonia conference 
held in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, at Chiswick, on Tuesday last, Dr. Masters 
said that twenty-five years ago anyone might have 
travelled the world over, including the Cordilleras 
of South America or the Himalayas for the matter of 
that, but he would have failed to find anything like 
what the visitors to the conference saw before them. 
The hybridists who had wrought the improvement 
had produced not only a new species, but a new 
genus, so different was the structure of the double 
flowers by comparison with those of the wildings. 
Mr. Harry J. Veitch said that the improvement in 
Begonias had made immense strides during the last 
twenty-five years, but he hoped that the progress to 
be reported at the end of the next quarter of a 
century would even be greater, and with that end in 
view he urged amateurs to take up their cultivation, 
and by cross-breeding and hybridising, encourage 
and help forward the great movement. 
The Prime Minister on Small Holdings. —Addressing 
his neighbours and friends at the Hawarden Flower 
Show on Tuesday, Mr. Gladstone said there were few 
things of more unmixed advantage to the community 
than the local prosecution of these most laudable un¬ 
dertakings for drawing from the earth in the small 
holdings and gardens of the country the fruits, the 
vegetables, the flowers that itis capable of yielding in a 
degree and upon a scale far greater now than in 
former times, far greater he hoped, in the near future 
than it is now. It was at one time a sad spectacle 
to notice in this country the absence of small hold¬ 
ings and of gardens. Let us hope that the 
day is approaching when these will become 
universal. We have in the last session of 
Parliament passed a law for the purpose of promoting 
the multiplication of these holdings ; it is very far 
indeed from being a perfect law—but we hope to 
mend it, and that, I even trust, perhaps in the course 
of next year. Be that as it may, be assured that there 
are few subjects more closely connected with the 
health, the happiness, the comfort, and even the 
morality of the country than the careful cultivation 
and the careful multiplication of these small holdings 
all over the country. 
Lilium Warei.—The different species of Lily give a 
long season of bloom, and the amount of variety they 
present is also a great feature in their favour. The 
flowers of the Lily under notice are golden-yellow with¬ 
out any spots whatever ; they are also pendent, with 
revolute segments,and both distinct and beautiful when 
at their best. The stems attain a height of 3 ft., and 
are furnished with lanceolate leaves in whorls, and 
terminate in a raceme of four to six flowers. It 
bloomed a short time ago in the nursery of Mr. T 
S Ware, Hale Farm, Tottenham. 
