84 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
October 12, 1889. 
filled, some half-dozen of these crude things 
being jmesented, and the ordinary three prizes 
duly awarded. There ended the labours, 
as well as the responsibilities of the judges. 
One of the competitors, dissatisfied with the 
judgment, as such persons will be, seems to 
have poured his complaints into the ear of a 
local reporter, who, in a special article on the 
show, criticised the judgment. The first of 
the judges referred to took this scribe to task, 
and not only pointed out the reasons which 
led the judges to decide as they did, but 
also treated the whole exhibit of model 
gardens as worthless, because of the bad 
models in the first place, which did not resemble 
proper gardens at all. He also advised that 
the competition should henceforth take the 
form of drawings, or designs of gardens on 
paper. 
The recipient of the third prize, whether be¬ 
lieving that he should have been placed first at 
the show, or aggrieved at this judge’s published 
criticisms, has sworn an affidavit that he is 
entitled to the first prize, and has obtained a 
summons, calling upon the judge in question 
to make good the difference. It need hardly 
be said that the whole thing is utterly 
absurd, and devoid of legality, and the 
wonder is, therefore, that process of court 
should have been granted. 
(Hardeners’ Education. — The winter is 
literally upon us, and with it many dull, 
long evenings for young gardeners, especially 
for those who are isolated from the world—as 
so many hundreds are —in places far distant 
from populous localities, and which therefore 
cannot furnish those opportunities for advance¬ 
ment and study that towns and large villages 
may afford. The first thing needful in con¬ 
nection with any work of advanced education 
for gardeners is to impress upon the younger 
members of the body that youth is short, its 
opportunities are fleeting, and if the chances 
for mental and technical improvement thus 
afforded are lost they never can be regained. 
Young men are too apt to think that in doing 
their duty to their employers, and a hard 
day’s work into the bargain, they have done 
all that is needful, but they forget themselves. 
To study for their professional benefit when 
young is to give them advantages over their 
fellows in after life, and make them first-class 
theoretical, as well as practical gardeners. A 
couple of evenings, of two hours’ duration, 
devoted to good useful study would be pro¬ 
ductive of immense good in after life. “Work 
whilst the chance offers ” should be every 
young gardener’s motto. The duty of head 
gardeners will not be lightened by their young 
men becoming studious. It will rather be 
increased, because then they will perceive that 
by reason of their energy and perseverance, the 
young men have a special claim upon them. 
When young gardeners can come together 
in localities and meet in company, as is the 
case with some of our societies, head gardeners 
may well give active help by undertaking to 
conduct classes in rotation, each taking diverse 
subjects in gardening. In private places, too 
far removed from such united action, where 
young men must study in their rooms, the 
head gardener might well set them certain 
questions on paper needing full reply, which, 
when prepared, might be looked over at 
leisure and criticised by notes, and corrected. 
There is ample room for good work in this 
way if properly set about. 
eating Small Greenhouses. —When look¬ 
ing over the gardens attached to Castle 
Hill House, Englefield Green, where Mr. W. 
Swan is gardener, we were struck with the 
simplicity of method adopted to heat a span- 
roofed Eig house, which was some 46 ft. long 
and 9 ft. wide. Previously a cold house, and 
therefore giving but a comparatively moderate 
picking of fruit, Mr. Swan obtained one of the 
Thames Bank Iron Company’s independent 
boilers, which was stood close beside the door at 
one end, without setting. There is some 90 ft. of 
four-inch piping, fixed top and bottom, on 
a few supports, while the iron sheath which 
forms the expansion box at the farther end 
supports that portion of the pipes. These 
are jointed with only indiarubber rings, and 
the whole was fixed into its place in a very 
short time by the garden men. The cost, 
including cartage, was just about ten guineas. 
The result is that the third crop this year 
is now being gathered, whilst the heating 
power at disposal will enable the trees to start 
fruiting two months earlier in the spring, and 
thus a long season is insured. 
The cost of the boiler and piping will soon 
be paid, because the house is well furnished 
with trees of good kinds. The same would 
be the result were the crop Tomatos or Grapes, 
or plants of any kind; indeed, the simplicity 
of the mode of heating, allied to the fact 
that the whole of the apparatus is not a 
fixture, but removeable, should commend 
such boilers and easily erected piping to 
amateurs, or indeed to anyone wishing 
to heat isolated greenhouses. The time for 
protecting tender plants in hard weather is at 
hand; now is the accepted time for action, 
or otherwise it may soon be too late. Boilers 
and piping such as we have indicated may be 
obtained in almost any part of the kingdom, 
and probably as cheaply as that mentioned. 
-- 
The Inner Temple Chrysanthemum Show will he 
opened on the 16th, when, in consequence of the 
earliness of the season, a good number of the plants 
will be in bloom. 
The Ninth Annual Display of Chrysanthemums 
at Finsbury Park is now open to the public from 
10.30 a.m. until dusk, and will continue daily (in¬ 
cluding Sundays) to the end of the season. This 
collection, both as regards its extent and the high-class 
cultivation which it represents, is always well deserving 
of a visit. 
Cultivated Orchids.—We have received from Mr. 
H. J. Goemans, 23, Gloucester Road, Kew, a printed 
list of cultivated Orchids, which has been compiled by 
the secretary of an Orchid growers’ club established in 
the Netherlands. It gives a lengthy list of names of 
species and synonyms, with the native countries, and 
will be useful to Orchid growers until a better one is 
published. The price by post is Is. 2d. 
Orchid Nomenclature Committee.—It is proposed 
that the first meeting be held in the Lindley Library, 
Royal Horticultural Society, 117, Victoria Street, on 
Tuesday, October 29th, at 2 p.m. Gentlemen having 
suggestions to make for the consideration of the com¬ 
mittee are requested to communicate with Dr. Masters, 
at the above address. 
The Horticultural Society of Amsterdam, of which 
W. Baron Van Golstein is president, and Mr. H. C. 
Zwart is secretary, has formed Fruit, Floral, and 
Scientific Committees, on the English model, for holding 
meetings and awarding Certificates to new, rare, and 
interesting plants. The next meetings fixed for this year 
will be held on the 23rd inst. and December 3rd. 
Instructions to Inventors, is the title of a pamphlet 
by Mr. William Jordan, 120, Chancery Lane, E.C., 
which gives valuable hints as to how to obtain Letters 
Patent, and to register Trade Marks and Designs in 
Great Britain and her colonies, as well as in foreign 
countries. A very useful publication on a subject not 
generally understood by inventors. 
Chrysanthemum, Ada Spaulding, is a new American 
incurved variety, which is claimed to be a pedigree 
seedling (Mrs. Wanamaker x Puritan) in which “the 
colouring is quite novel and distinct. The lower half 
of the flower is a rich deep pink, shaded with bright 
purple-rose. The upper half is of the pearliest white, 
the petals are fully I in. wide, and the flower in size 
surpasses Princess Teck, or Jeanne d’Arc.” »The variety 
is to be sent out next March, and Mr. R. Owen, of 
Maidenhead, has obtained the right to distribute it in 
this country. 
The National Florists’ Societies.—The annual 
meeting of the National Auricula and Primula Society 
(southern section), and the National Carnation and 
Picotee Society (southern section), will be held in the 
room of the Horticultural Club, Hotel Windsor, 
Viotoria Street, on Tuesday, October 22nd, 1889, at 
four p.m. The business of the meeting will be the 
election of officers and committee, receiving the 
secretary’s and treasurer’s reports, the election of 
judges for the ensuing year, and other necessary 
business that may pertain to the annual general 
meeting. 
Gardening Engagements.—Mr. C. J. Goldsmith, 
Kelsey Manor, Beckenham, as gardener to W. B. 
Waterlow, Esq., High Trees, Redhill, Surrey. Mr. G. 
F. Glen, for eight years gardener to Earl Fitzwilliam, 
at Wentworth Woodhouse, Rotherham, as gardener to 
Donald Lamach, Esq., Brambletye, East Grinstead, 
Sussex. Mr. James King, of Rousham, near Aylesbury, 
and formerly of Wray Park, Reigate, as gardener to 
Major Storer, Purley Park, Reading. Mr. Temple, 
late gardener at Nostell Priory, Wakefield, as gardener 
to Sir Mathew WilsoD, Bart., Eshton Hall, Gargram, 
Leeds. As it is intended to let the Castle Gardens, 
Warwick, for market purposes, the gardener, Mr. 
Christie, leaves in a few weeks to take eharge of the 
gardens and grounds at Ragley Hall, Alcester, the 
seat of the Marquis of Hertford. 
Hydrants for Washing Buildings. — On several 
occasions our public buildings, such as the Bank of 
England, Mansion House, Fishmongers’ Hall, Royal 
Exchange, &c., have been cleansed externally by steam 
fire-engines, the force of water ejected from the 
machines effectually washing off the soot and dirt in a 
few hours. 0 wing to the increased pressure of water 
in many of the London water-mains, however, this 
kind of work can also be done by hydrants and hose¬ 
pipes. The latter experiment has been tried with 
success at the Royal Exchange, where a Merryweather 
hydrant, with the necessary adjuncts, has been perma¬ 
nently erected. The apparatus is easily worked by one 
man, and as soon as a cleansing is required, the apparatus 
is at once put in action. As the cost is fractional, 
compared with the excellent effect, it is only necessary 
to relate the fact, for it is undoubtedly a duty we owe 
to the public, to keep our buildings in a cleanly and 
presentable condition. 
-- >X< -- 
OUR SCARCE WILD PLANTS. 
Writing to The Daily News on the subject of the 
rapid extinction of Rare British Plants, Mr. W. W. 
Strickland, Trinity College, Cambridge, says “Many 
causes are no doubt at work to extinguish them. The 
slow change of climate, the collectors of herbaria, the 
dilettante Fern fanciers, townsfolk who root up Snow¬ 
drops and Primroses to plant in pots in back windows, 
and last, but not least, the villa builders who have exter¬ 
minated several rare Surrey species within living 
memory— e.g., a scarce species of Tordylium near 
Isleworth, and a scarce Gentian or Saxifrage which 
grew near Surbiton, besides many other interesting 
kinds. No doubt transplantation of Ferns, Osmunda 
for example, and wild Phanerogams, tends to extin¬ 
guish them in their original habitats. On the other 
hand, it may tend to preserve a scarce species by 
distributing it. A glance at any good book of 
systematic English botany proves this, for it shows 
how many of our wild English plants are really 
“escapes” from gardens. To cite only one or two, 
there is the Stramonium, the Galinsogea parviflora, the 
Canadian Fleabane, Aristolochia or Birthwort, and 
many others ; while genuine native plants, such as 
Hyoscyamus and Digitalis, have no doubt become 
more widely distributed through cultivation than they 
otherwise would have been. Perhaps the Musk Mallow 
(Malva moschata) is about the best instance of this 
that one can give. 
My object in writing this letter is to suggest what 
I have no doubt is the most practicable way of pre¬ 
serving scarce English plants. I suggested it to 
the Yorkshire Naturalist Society, of which I am a 
member ; but the suggestion was not well received. I 
also mentioned it to a botanist of standing, who also 
disapproved of the idea, and gave his reasons; but I 
will deal with the scientific objections further on. To 
preserve our rare species we must disseminate them, 
and to disseminate them we must throw the seed upon 
the right sort of soil, in places where it will not be 
disturbed, and where the climate is not too hot or too 
cold. The Trientalis, if 1 mistake not, will not grow 
south of Seamer Beacon, in Yorkshire ; and, again, 
other plants are too tender to be found north of the 
Humber. There is a means of disseminating rare seeds 
in the proper localities, which is absolutely perfect for 
the purpose and open to the use of everyone, viz., the 
railway system and its cuttings and embankments. 
Lovers of our native scarce plants should while away the 
ennui of a railway journey by taking packets of seed 
