March 21, 1896. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
461 
■ I killed a queen wasp to-day (i6th inst.) outside, 
whilst gathering Daffodils.— R. W.,Gogerddan, Bowst 
R.S.O., Cardiganshire. 
Locusts are still doing a great amount of injury in 
the eastern provinces of Cape Colony. Graaff-Reinet 
suffers most, for the locusts are stated to extend for 
thirty-five miles in an unbroken line. 
Mr. Fraser,gardener at Banchory House, Aberdeen, 
being about to leave the locality, was presented with 
a marble clock, on the 7th inst., by Mr. Simpson, 
Leggart, in the name of some friends. 
A misrepresented Insect.—An English physician 
declares that the name "earwig" is wrongly applied, as 
the insect bearing it never makes a home in the ear, 
as popular fancy believes. The wings of the earwig 
when expanded resemble a human ear, and from this 
fact its name has probably been derived. 
Appreciation.—In speaking of our issue of the 7th 
inst. (the Potato number), our correspondent writes 
as follows:—"It was a capital number. The 
Gardening World ought to push its way, and will 
do, as it becomes more disseminated. I like it better 
since you took hold, it is not so dry; the articles 
want to be more humorous and cut short. Of course, 
that is my opinion.— B. Lockwood, Low Hills, Lind- 
ley, March 10 th, ’96.” 
Royal Botanic Society of London.—It seems not to 
be generally known that gardeners of fellows of the 
society can obtain free admission to any of the 
exhibitions held at the garden between the hours of 
six and ten in the morning before the judges go 
round by an application from the fellow or member 
to the secretary at the gardens when passes will at 
once be forwarded. The first exhibition of spring 
flowers took place on Wednesday, the iSth, and as 
owing to the bright warm weather we have had, 
many flowers were abnormally early. 
Tavistock Cottage Garden Society.—Mr. E. 
Horswill occupied the chair at the annual meeting 
recently held in the Guildhall room, Tavistock, on 
March 10th. The accounts proved to be perfectly 
satisfactory, a balance of £5 5s. being left in the 
hands of the treasurer. It was decided to ask Lord 
Ebrington to become a vice-president of the society. 
Mr. H. A. Gibson was again elected treasurer, 
although Mr. E. Warran’s successor to the post of 
secretary has yet to be found. The date of the next 
exhibition was fixed for August 12th. 
Horticultural Exhibition at Dresden.—The second 
Internationnl Horticultural Exhibition will be held 
at Dresden from the 2nd to the 10th of May next 
under the patronage of his Majesty the King of 
Saxony. Prizes will then be awarded for exhibits of 
plants, cut flowers, plans of gardens, horticultural 
appliances, etc. Applications for space as well as 
for forms of entry and programmes of the exhibits 
should be made by intending exhibitors not 
later than April roth to the " Geschaftsamt der II. 
Internationalen Gartenbau.-AustelluDg, Dresden." 
National Chrysanthemum Society.—At a largely- 
attended meeting of the General Committee of this 
Society held at Anderton’s Hotel on Monday 
evening, Mr. B. Wynne presiding, Mr. Geo. Gordon, 
Kew, Mr. C. Gibson, Morden Park, Mr. H. J. Jones, 
Lewisham, Mr. E. Rowbottom, Hornsey, Mr. Nor¬ 
man Davis, Camberwell, and Mr. J. Lyne, Chisle- 
hurst, were elected members of the Floral Committee 
for the ensuing three years, and Mr. T. Bevan was 
unanimously elected chairman. Mr. G. Walker, 
Paddington, was elected a member of the General 
Committee in the place of a member who had 
resigned, and the Catalogue Revision Committee, 
Messrs. C. Harman Payne, D. B. Crane, H. J. 
Jones, W. H. Lees, and A. Taylor, were unanimously 
re-elected, and will proceed at once with the prepar¬ 
ation of a new catalogue to be published in the 
autumn. The Jubilee Celebration Sub-Committee 
brought up the schedule of prizes arranged for the 
jubilee exhibitions, which was approved and adopted, 
and will be issued at an early date. It was also 
resolved that the jubilee banquet should take place 
on the evening of the first day of the show, and that 
a conference should be held on the third day. Nine 
new members were elected, and the Sutton Chrysan¬ 
themum and Horticultural Society, the Waltham¬ 
stow Chrysanthemum Society, and the Holmforth 
and District Chrysanthemum Society were admitted 
into affiliation. 
New Entrance to Brockwell Park. —Ever since the 
park was opened it has been regarded as lacking 
facilities of entrance for the residents of Brixton. A 
plot of four acres of land was secured at the top of 
Arlingford Road for £6,000. This has been carefully 
laid out and furnished with ornamental gates and 
railings at a cost of nearly £2,000. On Saturday 
last (14th inst.) Mr. Turton, chairman of the S.W. 
District Parks' Committee of the London County 
Council, named this the “Brixton Gate," and 
declared the entrance open. 
Scilly Islands Flower Trade.—This has been of an 
unprecedentedly brisk character this year. Last 
month some 240 tons of flowers in 18,000 packages 
were despatched to markets north of Bristol, whereas 
in the corresponding month last year ody eight tons 
were marketed. The severe frost and long-continued 
low temperature that marked the February of 1895 
were accountable in a great measure for this. A new 
express service has been recently put on by the 
Great Western and London & North Western Rail¬ 
ways, via the Severn Tunnel route, and thus consign¬ 
ments leaving the islands in the forenoon of one day 
are in the Manchester and Liverpool markets by 
6 a.m., and in Aberdeen by 6 p.m. the following day. 
Sevenoaks Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Mutual 
Improvement Society. —The members of this society 
were favoured on March 3rd by apaperon “Tomato 
Growing for Market," by Mr. L. Weaver, of Erith. 
Mr. S. Ryder occupied the chair. In a very practical 
paper the essayist dealt with all the points in the 
cultivation of the Tomato, assuring his hearers that 
the chief thing for a market grower to aim at is to 
get the crops in either very early or very late, as in 
mid-season the prices received were not at all 
remunerative. For the early crop he advised sowing 
the seed in November ; for the second, January was 
the best time; and for the main crop, March. In 
the discussion that followed, Messrs. Latter, 
Westcott, Waghorn, Ryder, Owen, Fox, and 
Huntley took an active part. On Tuesday last, 
March 17th, Mr. S. Cooke contributed a paper on 
“Judging.” 
Milled Carrot Seed. —Messrs. Pennell & Sons, 
Gowts Bridge, Lincoln, send us some samples of 
Carrot seed before milling, and some that has been 
subjected to that operation. The numerous bristles 
upon ordinary Carrot seed make the latter stick 
together in such a way that it is necessary to mix it 
with ashes, sand, or fine dry soil in order to make it 
fit for drilling in a field, and even then the sowings 
were very unequal and much labour and seed wasted. 
By a new process Messrs. Pennell & Sons have been 
able, by milling, to get rid of the bristles upon even 
new English seed, so that it may now be sown with 
the same freedom as Parsley or Celery. Hitherto, 
growers of Carrots upon a large scale had often to 
put up with old English or French seed, the stocks 
of which were often anything but satisfactory. By 
milling or rubbing off the beard from the seed the 
latter may be made up into small packets in half the 
time required by the ordinary seed. 
Scottish Horticultural Association. —The "Tran¬ 
sactions " of this association, together with the nine¬ 
teenth annual report, show it to be of a flourishing 
character. The membership roll numbers 493, and 
during the past year one life member and forty-six 
ordinary members were proposed and elected. The 
meetings for the reading and discussion of papers 
are held monthly; and in connection with the 
association a series of twelve lectures was delivered 
in the lecture room of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Edinburgh. The lectures were well attended and 
thirty-two young gardeners qualified themselves for 
the final examination. Abstracts of the president’s 
inaugural address, and of the eleven papers read 
during the past session, are printed in the "Tran¬ 
sactions,’’ so that the instruction they contain is at 
the service of the members at all times and not 
merely temporary. This is an example that might 
well be followed by various other societies, to their 
own and other gardeners’ advantage. Some of the 
readers were Messrs. John Mackinnon, D. L. 
Macintosh, M. Temple, J. H. Goodacre, M. Chap¬ 
man, J. Graham, Wm. Sharp, Chas. Comfort, James 
Day, Malcolm Dunn, and the president, R. W. E. 
Murray. Being condensed the papers are both 
instructive and interesting reading. 
Dictionary of Gardening.—A complete set of Nicholson’s 
Dictionary of Gardening, in eight volumes, in first class 
condition, as good as new, is offered for 50s. cash. — B., 
“ Gardening World ” Office,!, Clement’s Inn. Strand,London. 
POTATOS. 
It is seldom such interest is caused in the culture of 
the good old tubers—Potatos—as 3 our articles in 
The Gardening World are doing. It is now holding 
the position which its popularity and usefulness 
demands. In our early days of exhibiting collections 
of vegetables, Potatos, however good, held a very 
secondary position, and many censors would pass 
them over as units among the Peas, Cauliflowers, 
Cucumbers, &c., considered a much higher game. 
They are now seen in every collection of cottage or 
gentlemen’s gardens alike ; and, when of first-rate 
quality, hold their own, and so they ought. Inferior 
produce, however.fine the sort may be, should get 
little favour at any exhibition. I once was judging 
at a town in the Midlands of England, where immense 
numbers of Potatos were in competition. One of 
the exhibitors told me that his dish of Schoolmaster 
was the choicest in his whole collection, and if he 
was compelled to grow only one Potato that would 
be the one of his choice ; that is nearly twenty years 
ago, and as a productive sort of fine quality, lasting 
well throughout the season, it has been alwaysagreat 
favourite. While there are many sorts which have 
been greatly lauded for their good points, School¬ 
master is largely grown while the others are forgotten. 
We have it of good quality still. Another excel¬ 
lent sort for garden purposes is Snowdrop; it resists 
disease better than any others. The excellent old 
Forty fold and Dalmahoy suffered worse with disease 
in our heavy, low-lying soil than any others. The 
Regent holds a high position at the agricultural 
shows in this county (Stirling), but I never can under¬ 
stand why the judges year after year give them the 
first prize in preference to all other sorts.— M. Temple, 
Canon, N.B. 
-- 
SUTTON’S CINERARIAS. 
Though the Cinerarias at the Portland Road 
Nurseries of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading, have 
been flowering more or less since Christmas, they are 
now making their presence felt. No attempt is ever 
made to hurry them here, as that is contrary to their 
well-being. As soon as the seedlings have been 
transferred from the seed pans and established in 
thumb pots, they are grown as cool almost as if they 
were hardy plants. The result is that the plants 
come along slowly and endure for a long period. For 
greenhouse and conservatory decoration, this is just 
the plan that should be adopted in every garden. 
The improvements that have taken place in this 
class of plants during the past decade, have been 
well sustained at Reading, and carried to the highest 
standard of excellence. That standard may be 
measured by large flowers of good substance, with 
broad, blunt, overlapping ray-florets, more or less 
recurved at the tips, and by colours so rich and 
varied as to leave nothing to be desired. Amongst 
the self-coloured varieties the shades of blue are 
numerous and of peculiar tints that no other class of 
plants exhibit. The same degree of variation runs 
through other colours. The white, however, is pure 
with exception of the violet centre which sets it off 
beautifully. 
It may be a matter of opinion as to whether the 
seifs or bi-coloured flowers are the most beautiful, 
but we consider that the one set is necessary to set 
off and emphasise the beauty of the other. Very 
handsome are those with crimson-magenta flowers 
with a white zone and black disc ; also peuce or dull 
magenta with a white zone ; and blue with a white 
ring of varying width and a violet eye. In a word, 
we notice a whole series of self-colgured flowers each 
of which has a counter-part ia another variety that 
differs by having a white zone formed by the base of 
the rays, and that this circular white tiand contrasts 
again with the centre which is itself variable. 
Ten years ago and even less, the prevalent idea 
about double Cinerarias was that they could only be 
reproduced with any degree of certainty by division 
of the old plants. Messrs. Sutton & Sons have 
shown that this is all fallacy, and that double sorts 
in a great variety of colours can be raised from seeds 
as easily as the single ones. The seeds are sold in 
mixture so that great variety is obtainable from a 
packet. Besides the ease with which plants can be 
raised from seeds, the method recommends itself for 
the healthy and ample character of the foliage 
obtainable. Cinerarias, increased by division, have 
very poor foliage as a rule, and are weak in consti¬ 
tution. All the unnecessary trouble can be avoided 
by raising them from seeds. We have seen the 
strain doing well in private gardens as well as at 
Reading. 
