May 2, 1896. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
557 
The floral display in front of Rose Cottage at the 
principal entrance of Wakefield Public Park has been 
very fine for some time past. The Hyacinths were 
the leading feature, but elsewhere in the park other 
spring flowers have been a source of attraction. 
Trees and shrubs are in a forward state, and very 
attractive. 
The land of bulbs.—Travellers in Holland during 
the month of April get enthusiastic over the effect of 
the bulb fields on either side of the line of route. 
Hyacinths, Tulips, and Daffodils in all their varied 
hues of red, white and blue appear like carpets of 
those colours spread out for miles together, owing to 
the general flatness of the country. 
Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland.—At a 
council meeting of this society on the 20th ult., Sir 
Percy R. Grace, Bart, presiding, the report of the 
judges at the recent show was submitted and the 
prizes awarded were ordered to be paid. Other 
accounts to be paid brought the amount up to 
£132 ios. iod. The Society’s Bronze Medal was 
awarded to Sir Frederick Shaw, Bart., for St. Brigid 
Anemones. Mr. J. H. Cumming exhibited a collec¬ 
tion of named varieties of Wallflower, and Acacia 
verticillata magnifica. Surgeon General Beaumont 
showed seedling Carnations, raised by himself, 
including choice white, yellow, and red varieties. 
Paxtonian Dinner at Wakefield.—The members of 
the Wakefield Paxton Society met at the Woolpacks 
Hotel to celebrate their 19th annual dinner on the 
12th ult. The attendance was limited to So, 
including Major Taylor (the President), and the 
Mayor of Wakefield (Councillor W. H. Milnes). 
There were numerous delegates from other societies. 
The Mayor, in responding to a toast, said that he 
had attended every dinner of the society, and in 
allusion to the'progress of education said that this 
idea was a feature in the starting of the society, and 
that the latter had a very beneficial effect on the 
working classes and the rising generation of Wake¬ 
field and district. The public park at Wakefield was 
the outcome of a suggestion from the committee of 
the Paxton Society. 
Strawberry Royal Sovereign. —Under the same 
treatment this has proved as early as Vicomtesse 
Hericart de Thury, when subjected to forcing in the 
gardens of E. H. Watts, Esq., Devonhurst, Chiswick. 
The fruit-stalks are very much longer, and the 
berries larger than those of the old favourite. 
More important, perhaps, than either, is the fact that 
the flavour is much more decided—a quality in 
which forced Strawberries are generally deficient. 
The fruits are handsomely coloured with an agree¬ 
able acidity, while those of Vicomtesse Hericart de 
Thury are relatively watery, and like a weak 
solution of sugar and water. The aroma of Royal 
Sovereign is also stronger. Though the plants are 
small, they aie able to bear twelve fruits of fine size. 
Mr. Gibson, the gardener, has a very high opinion 
of it. 
Ancient Society of York Florists.—The spring show 
of this society was held in the York Guildhall on the 
22nd ult. The entries were well up to the average. 
The leading feature of the show was the splendid 
collection of Auriculas exhibited by the Rev. F. D. 
Horner, of Burton-in-Lonsdale. This fine lot in¬ 
cluded some of the plants with which he took the 
first prize in London on the previous day. A 
Certificate of Merit was awarded to a new black 
variety named Midnight, in this collection. Mr. W. 
Todd, of York, was the principal winner of prizes 
for Hyacinths, which were well represented. Mr. 
Councillor Staines showed a collection of Tulips, 
which were commended. Mr. T. Hingston was 
similarly honoured for a collection of Auriculas. 
Messrs. Backhouse & Son were accorded a Certificate 
of Merit for a collection of hardy flowers. The Rev. 
F. D. Horner took'the leading awards for twelve and 
six Auriculas. Mr. J. M. Fieldhouse had the best 
white-edged and gray-edged varieties. Mr. W. Todd 
had the best self Auricula, the best six Alpine 
varieties, the best six and the best three early Tulips, 
and was premier for twelve Hyacinths, double or 
single. Other first prize-takers were Mr. T. Smith, 
Mr. E. Crummack, Mr. T. Carbutt, Mr. W. Douglass, 
Mr. J. Reed, Mr. J. Wragge, Mr. J. Vear, Mr. G. T. 
Theakstone, and Mr. J. Nicholson. 
Burnham Beeches.—Whi’e commenting upon 
Burnham Beeches and the patriarchal tree, said to 
be over 700 years old, and locally known as the 
“ Elephant," some of our last year’s visitors from 
America, writing to the American Florist, seem to 
have confounded this interesting London play¬ 
ground with the historical “ Birnam Wood," which 
went to Dunsinane, as immortalised by Shakespeare. 
Birnam Wood is close by Dunkeld in Perthshire, 
Scotland. The names are somewhat similar, and 
when improperly pronounced liable to be misleading. 
Saturday Half-holiday at Chiswick — We are pleased 
to be able to chronicle a step in the right direction 
that has recently been taken by the council of the 
Royal Horticultural Society. All those employed in 
the gardens at Chiswick are in future to have a half¬ 
day's holiday once a fortnight. By splitting the 
men up into two batches, one of which remains on 
duty whilst the other is on leave, the difficulty of 
putting things straight in readiness for Sunday is 
surmounted. Needless to say this new departure is, 
very popular amongst the gardeners, and we do not 
doubt that the arrangement will work as smoothly 
and well as it has done in the London parks and at 
Kew, although in the latter establishment one half¬ 
day a month only is given. Chiswick has thus gone 
one better than Kew in this matter 
The Daffodil in art.—In our report of Mr. M. J. 
Caparn’s lecture on "The Daffodil in Art," at the 
Daffodil Conference at Regent's Park on the 14th 
ult., there is an ambiguous sentence on p. 546, in the 
fifteenth line from the top of the middle column, 
which reads : "It may be argued that in Parkinson’s 
time there were no good Daffodils, &c.” This does 
not clearly express the author’s statements, and he 
writes as follows :— “ That we know in Parkinson's 
time there were good Daffodils, and good interest to 
take care of them, but no good art to represent them ; 
that later on we had the art but not the Daffodils ; 
and now that we had both art and Daffodils, our 
Daffodils would be preserved.” Mr. Caparn ex¬ 
hibited 130 pictures at the Daffodil Conference, 
representing every group and species of the Narcissus 
and which were awarded the Silver Medal of the 
Royal Botanic Society. 
Artificial rockeries for Leeds —Some of the inhabi¬ 
tants of Leeds are agitating for artificial flower 
gardens to beautify the space in front of the Leeds 
General Post Office. The flowers and shrubs 
desired are, however, to be real. If permanently 
planted they would be liable to die ; so to provide 
against this, the plan is to replace the plants from 
time to time with fresh ones as the old go out of 
bloom. For this purpose square trollies, set on low 
wheels, and furnished with holes in the bottom to 
allow rain and other superfluous moisture to drain 
away, are meant to act as artificial rockeries. These 
trollies are to run upon metal rails. The cart 
intended for removing plants on the trollies with 
their occupants should also have metal rails upon 
them, so that the trollies could be run upon them 
bodily if it is desired to remove them. The wheels 
of the cart should be grooved so as to run upon a 
metal rail to the foot of each rockery. These arti¬ 
ficial rockeries are intended to be situated in sunk 
enclosures so that when the hidden gate is closed, 
only the flowers and shrubs on the top may be seen. 
Story of a mountain flower. — Professor Hillhouse 
gave an interesting lecture entitled “ The Story of a 
Mountain Flower,” at the Royal Victoria Hall on 
the 14th ult. A certain Saxifrage is found on Ben 
Lawers, and nowhere else in the British Isles. It 
turns up, elsewhere, however, on the Alps, the 
Scandinavian Alps, the Himalayas, the plains of 
Siberia, and on the Rocky Mountains. The pro¬ 
fessor considered this plant and others he dealt with 
as the remnants of an Arctic Flora which was spread 
over the plains of this country and elsewhere when 
the climate was much colder than it is now. The 
Arctic plants retreated up the hills and mountains 
where we now find them stranded and unable to 
migrate further, as the southern edge of the glaciers 
retreated further and further northward. Now, the 
plant mentioned by the professor is none other than 
Saxifraga cernua, which seldom flowers iu this 
country, and which Sir Joseph Hooker in the 
Students' Flora of the British Islands, believes to be 
nothing more than an alpine form of S. granulata, 
which grows on our meadows and river banks. The 
question is whether S. cernua is not the oldest type_ 
seeing how widely it is distributed over the earth’s 
surface, and that S. granulata has become evolved 
from it in order to be able to exist on lowland 
plains, while S. cernua may have become degenerated 
from its pristine form. 
-- 
STANTON HOUSE, CROYDON. 
Spring flowers have been very much in evidence for 
some weeks past in the hothouses of Mrs. Hall, 
Stanton House, Park Hill Road, Croydon. The 
Indian Az fleas vary in height up to 4 ft., and have 
flowered splendidly. Soft-wooded subjects receive 
as much attention as the Azaleas, judging by the 
well-grown Cinerarias reaching to a width of 2J ft. 
and varying greatly in the colour of the flowers. 
The Hyacinths are now getting over, but they 
flowered grandly, producing large spikes of bloom. 
The Tulips are very fine, though only grown in 
32-sized pots. They must have had something else 
besides attention and water. Some of the Clivias 
grown here are of large size, bearing in some cases 
as many as ten umbels of bloom, and ten or twelve 
flowers on each umbel. Many other flowers which 
are in season at the present time, are also in grand 
condition. Mr. Sparshott looks well after his charge 
and may well be proud of the plants under his care. 
-- 
FREESIAS. 
Having just removed a batch of these from the 
conservatory that have done so well and flowered so 
satisfactorily, I thought a few notes anent the culture 
of the charming sweet-scented flowers received might 
be acceptable to some readers of The Gardening 
World. They were originally raised from seed, 
this being, I think, their fourth season. Last year 
they did not flower so well, and when I potted them 
up in August the bulbs were smaller than one is 
accustomed to obtain from a nursery, so that I was 
somewhat doubtful about their producing a satis¬ 
factory show of bloom They were potted in 48’s ; 
the soil was composed of fibrous loam, leaf mould, 
and sand ; the drainage was good and they were not 
potted too firm. The smallest of the bulbs were put 
in pans, and they are now throwing a nice lot of 
bloom that will come in very handy for cutting. 
After potting they were stood on a hard bottom, 
and covered with ashes to keep them uniformly 
moist and encourage root action, in the same way 
as we are wont to treat Hyacinths. I know some do 
not advocate plunging them, but then a 48-size pot 
standing under the broiling August sunshine, 
necessitates the use of the water-can, and they are 
likely to get too much, so that the soil is sodden and 
sour ere root action commences. 
So soon as they started into growth they were 
removed from under the ashes into a two-light box 
facing north, which minimised the tropical glare of 
the sun that we experienced in September. When 
the weather became colder they were removed to a 
brick pit furnished with a flow and return pipe, 
with just sufficient heat to keep out frost, air being 
given whenever possible. As they advanced in 
growth each pot was furnished with four neat deal 
stakes around which two strands of raffia were run— 
to prevent them getting cracked stems through not 
being kept upright—and well supplied with water, 
after which a dose of manure water which greatly 
benefits them. From the pit they were removed to 
shelves in a late vinery where they got plenty of 
light, and when nicely coming into flower were 
transferred to the conservatory and massed on tubs 
containing tall Palms, where they lasted in condition 
for several weeks. 
The Freesia is a native of South Africa, but the 
most satisfactory results, it is reported, are produced 
from bulbs obtained from Guernsey. In the Bermudas 
they cannot secure such a satisfactory boom as the 
cultivators of the Easter Lily— Lilium Harrisii— 
have done. 
When their flowering is over they should get the 
protection of a cold frame, and receive water until 
the foliage turns yellow,when they should be laid on 
their sides in the full sun to ripen them off. Some 
growers advocate knocking them out and laying the 
bulbs on a greenhouse shelf to ripen, but I do not 
consider that really necessary, as they will ripen off 
more gradually if left in the pots till starting time 
arrives for their next season’s campaign. Cool- 
grown Freesias are more satisfactory than forced 
ones.— George Potts, April 19 th. 
