July 4, 1896. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
699 
STRAWBERRIES. 
JAMES VEITCH & SONS 
beg to intimate that they are now booking orders for all the leading kinds of Strawberries, either in pots 
or prepared runners. 
SPECIAL LIST, just published, can be had on application. 
ROYAL EXOTIC NURSERY, KING’S ROAD , CHELSEA, S.W . 
THE WEST PATENT ORCHID, FERN, <k, BASKET. 
_ ^ t—. . r, rr r- n- nT Tv CTVT TT RiSIfUT 
NEW STYLE BASKET 
(West’s Patent Improved. 
OLD STYLE BASKET. 
(Patent No. 14,573. Aug., i8gs 
FOR GROWING ORCHIDS, FERNS, AND OTHER PLANTS. 
PRICE LIST, with full Particulars, to be had from all Orchid Growers, Nurserymen, Sundriesmen, &c 
THE CHEAPEST (Under i$d. Per Inch complete) AND THE BEST (see testimonials). 
SAMPLES, PER POST, TWELVE STAMPS. 
Save expense by making your own baskets, for with a West’s Patent Bottom a child could put 
them together. 
Bottoms and Teak Rods of every description. Wire Pins and Suspenders at Lowest Prices. 
Made by the Latest Improved Machinery. Inspection Invited. 
C. WEST, F.R.H.S., Roundhay, Leeds, 
MANUFACTURER of EVERY DESCRIPTION of TEAK RECEPTACLES for HORTICULTURAL 
PURPOSES. 
N.B.—Please remember a WEST'S PATENT will PLANT a SIZE LARGER than any other, thus making 
them so very much cheaper. 
BOX’S BEGONIAS 
Received the highest award 
For Index to Contents see page 710. 
(a SILVER GILT FLORA MEDAL 
for Begonias exclusively) at the Temple Show on the 19th 
May. The exhibition under glass at the West Wickham 
Nurseries is easily reached by Mid-Kent Railway S.E.R. 
Station, only five minutes from Nurseries. Visitors are wel¬ 
come all the summer. Two acres in b’oom outdoors in Sep¬ 
tember. The best Begonias for quality and quantity in the 
trade. 
JOHN R sox:, 
“ Gardening Is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man."— Bacon. 
undertaken by Mr. Veitch with the object 
of getting a closer acquaintance with the 
vegetation of the countries visited than could 
be done by studying the representatives in 
British gardens, and to see whether the 
latter could be further enriched with the 
treasures of those far-off lands. The head¬ 
ing of this article was the title under which 
the author’s notes and hurried account of 
the long journey, appeared in the pages of 
the Gardeners' Chronicle, during the years 
1891 to 1894 inclusive. At the pressing 
request of his horticultural friends, Mr. 
Veitch has revised his notes and brought 
them together in connected form, in the 
shape of a book of some 219 pages, includ¬ 
ing an excellent index, and which we cannot 
otherwise describe than as an edition de luxe ; 
for it has been got up in splendid form. The 
thick paper on which the text is printed, is 
smooth and shining like oiled silk. The 
printing has been done in large, clear type, 
and the book is handsomely illustrated with 
a large map of the world showing the route 
taken by the traveller, and by numerous 
photogravures reproduced by means of 
steel plates. These constitute a decided 
feature of the book ; but there are also 
numerous illustrations from photographs by 
the author. Indeed everything shows that 
he kept his eyes open wherever he went, 
and was most assiduous in collecting and 
noting down information concerning the 
plants he saw, and the leading features of 
the parks, gardens and landscapes wherever 
he went, as well as the botanical rambles 
he made amongst vegetation in Corea, Aus¬ 
tralia, and elsewhere. 
The notes were made purely from a hort¬ 
iculturists’ point of view, but the numerous 
photographs of magnificent marble temples, 
palaces, * carved and other remarkable 
buildings in India, Japan and elsewhere 
together with people in their native, and (to 
us) strange costumes, all serve to convey a 
lively picture of those gardens, countries 
and people, as seen through English eyes, 
to the mind and eye of the reader. The 
chief fault we find in the book is that it is 
printed for private circulation only, thus 
limiting the number of readers who would 
otherwise enjoy reading and digesting the 
multitudinous facts contained in its pages. 
The first plate represents a Talipot Palm 
(Corypha umbraculifera) one of the inter¬ 
esting vegetable features of Ceylon. The 
tree grows with remarkable rapidity for 40 
or 50 years, after which it makes a gigantic 
effort to flower and reproduce itself by the 
production of an enormous quantity of seed. 
What leaves it now possesses are entirely 
overshadowed by thenumerous large, droop¬ 
ing panicles of seed, the production of which 
is the last effort of the Palm, for it dies after 
maturing them. The white mass of flowers 
may sometimes be seen at a distance of 
some miles. We are all familiar with Ficus 
elastica in this country, but the puny speci¬ 
mens in pots give us no conception of the 
labyrinth of forking, vertically flattened, and 
strange looking roots exposed above the 
soil, nor of the gaunt and ribbed trunks. 
The tree forms the subject of Plate II. The 
Kitul Palm or Caryofa urens is also a strik¬ 
ing object in flower or fruit, and is admir¬ 
ably represented on Plate IV. The Bamboo, 
as represented on Plate \ II., and as it 
grows at Kioto, Japan, rather puts to shame 
the puny efforts at Bamboo cultivation in 
this country. But what shall we say of the 
Pine tree (Plate VIII) at Kinhakuji, Japan, 
and which has been trained into the form 
of a sailing junk, hulk, mast, sails and all 
complete. We guess that no such remark¬ 
able specimen was ever seen in the days 
when topiary gardening was in vogue. We 
meet with something like this style of 
gardening in India, where Casuarina glauca 
has been clipped into a form resembling 
West Wickham Nurseries, near 
Beckenham, S.E. 
%* Letters to Croydon. 
ORCHIDS. 
Clean Healthy Plants at Low Prices. 
Always worth a visit of inspection. Kindly send for Catalogue. 
JAMES 
Exotic nurseries, CHELTENHAM. 
100,000 Seedling Begonias. 
(Prize Medal Strain) 2/6 per doz , strong. 
Gloxinias Erect. 
(Prize Strains) 3 /- doz,, strong ; also all kinds of 
Hardy Plants. 
LATEST AWARD, BANKSIAN MEDAL, R.H.S. June 
23rd, 1896, for Hardy Plants. 
Trade Supplied. 
YOUNG & DOBINSON. 
Holmesdale Nurseries and Highfield Nurseries, 
STEVENAGE, HERTS. 
O RCHIDS of the highest quality, every 
plant guaranteed true to name, from 2/6 each, Please 
send for free list.—P. McARTHUR, The London Nurseries, 
4, Maida Vale, London, W. 
Edited by J. FRASER F.L.S. 
SATURDAY , JULY 4 tk, 1896. 
NEXT WEEK’S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Tuesday, July 7th.—Wolverhampton Floral Fete (three 
days). 
Wednesday, July 8th— Shows at Canterbury, Hitchin, Red- 
hill, Chelmsford, Tunbridge Wells, and Newcastle (three 
days); Lee, Blackheath, Lewisham, and West Kent 
Society’s Show. 
Thursday, July 9th. — Shows at Helensburgh, Worksop, 
Aylesbury, and Woodbridge. 
Friday, July 10th.—Big Sale of Palms, Seeds, and Orchids 
by Messrs. Protheroe & Morris, at 67 & 68, Cheapside, E.C. 
—During the 
«< ® Traveller’s Notes. 
«/ a years 1891 to 1893, Mr. James Her¬ 
bert Veitch, F.L.S.,F.R.H S., made a tour 
through India, the Straits Settlements, 
Japan, Corea, the Australian Colonies and 
New Zealand, taking the route by the Suez 
Canal, returning by Cape Horn, and just 
touching the American Continent at Rio on 
the homeward journey. The tour was 
