212 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 7, 1889. 
soon offer for the wider experimenting with 
that wonderful illuminant on plants in the 
direction Sir W. Siemens indicated. 
But the inquiry alluded to above brings 
into special prominence the use, if not the 
value, of artificial light in relation to plant 
culture; because one of the questions relates to 
the possibility of plants suffering in fogs from 
lack of the usual light. Now, on that head 
there can be no doubt whatever that plants do 
suffer considerably, when immersed for several 
days, not only in dense fog, but in almost 
Cimmerian darkness. Here is a specially 
interesting direction in which some good may be 
wrought from the inquiry. It is that some who 
are at once favoured with dense fogs and the 
use of the electric light would test its value 
in maintaining ample light for plants during 
the ordinary hours of daylight, and at the 
same time note how far, in fog, plants of 
similar nature are benefited by being arti¬ 
ficially lighted, as compared with the effects 
of comparative darkness, such as dense fog 
produces on others not so lighted. 
If the artificial lighting of plants during 
the winter months, and especially during foggy 
weather, be productive of good, we ought to see 
it made a valuable trade adjunct. Whilst we 
know so sadly how harmful fog and darkness 
are to plants, tender ones especially, we have 
no information yet as. to how these evils may 
be combated. 
he Fog Inquiry. —We published last week 
the various queries the Scientific Com¬ 
mittee of the Royal Horticultural Society have 
by circular part to a large number of persons 
throughout the country on the subject of Fogs 
and their Influence on Plants. It is very 
evident that the chief interest of this inquiry 
will centre upon the divergence, if any, found 
in the effect produced on vegetation when 
plants are within the smoke area of populous 
places, and where quite outside such areas. 
Fogs we have had with us from Creation, more 
or less in intensity, but at least in earlier times 
purely aqueous vapour only, and not as now 
embodying some terrible sulpliureus and other 
emanations from our thousands of furnaces and 
chimneys, some solid, some gaseous, and all 
villainous. 
It has been so long admitted that fogs are 
abominations to plant life, that it seems rather 
late in the day to institute an inquiry into the 
effects produced by them. Still, farther, it 
seems as if the matter to be determined is 
rather how to abolish fog than to find out what 
are its effects. One of the queries is, “ Are 
the injurious effects of fogs, as far as your 
experience goes, increasing, in London and the 
neighbourhood, in intensity and frequency 1 ” 
There is, indeed, fog in the construction of that 
query. AVhat, it is very evident, was purposed 
to be asked is, Do fogs in and around London 
increase in frequency and in intensity! To 
combine with frequency and intensity, injurious 
effects, is absurd. Now it is not possible for 
anyone to answer that question satisfactorily 
unless accurate account has been kept of fog 
density and duration, as well as frequency, 
during several years at least, and probably no 
one has done that. If it were asked, Has there 
been found during the past ten years, say, any 
special difficulties in the preservation of plants 
arising from fog! the answer must, of course, be 
in the . affirmative, as serious mischief has 
been done around London at least to compara¬ 
tively hardy plants, and there is too much 
reason to fear that such harm will increase. 
Still, we do not see how the inquiry is to help 
in ameliorating the mischief. 
ptHE Weather.. —-The winter, so far very 
^ pleasant, though at times rather misty, 
has been very enjoyable, and we have got so 
approximately near to Christmas that the 
earlier portion of what is reputably the winter 
season has been robbed of its terrors by reason 
of the open weather prevailing. Jack Frost 
has been en evidence , but still only in a genial 
sort of way, doing no harm, but rather doing 
good by assisting to somewhat harden vege¬ 
tation, and preparing it for the severe weather 
which will inevitably follow later. A\ e may 
yet find some sharp frost visiting us before the 
close of the year; blit, as a rule, Christmas 
passes by in a comparatively mild mood; 
indeed, the ideal festive season of artists and 
poets is as rarely realised as is anything in 
nature. Wlrilst we have no desire to see 
severe weather, we may comfort ourselves with 
the reflection that a certain intensity of frost 
is good, although it is distressing in its effects 
when so severe as to hinder work, and produce 
want and suffering. 
-- >x< -- 
Manchester Botanical Gardens.—We understand 
that the subscription started in Manchester a few 
weeks ago to liquidate the debt on these gardens already 
amounts to over 1,680 guineas. 
The Kingston and Surbiton Chrysanthemum 
Society has decided to hold its next annual exhibition 
on November 11th and 12th, 1890, when the sixth 
Champion Challenge Vase will be offered for competition. 
Melon Culture in Houses and Frames is the title of 
a paper to be read this Saturday evening, at the 
meeting of the Preston and Fulwood Horticultural 
Society, by Mr. John Williams, of the Priory Gardens, 
Pen wortham. 
Mr. John S. Tyerman, formerly curator of the 
Liverpool Botanic Garden, died at his residence! 
Penlee, Tregoney, Cornwall, on the 24th ult., aged 
fifty-eight years. Mr. Tyerman was a great lover and 
collector of hardy plants and Ferns, and among the 
latter, a beautiful West African species, Davallia 
Tyermanni, will keep his memory green. He was one 
of the gentlest-mannered and kindest-hearted of men. 
Death of a noted Rosarian.—We regret to learn of 
the death, on the 26th ult., of Mr. Henry Curtis, of 
the Devon Rosery, Torquay, in his seventieth year. 
Mr. Curtis, who was head of the firm of Curtis, 
Sandford & Co., was the grandson of William Curtis, 
author and originator of the Botanical Magazine, the 
first volume of which was published over 100 years ago, 
and has been regularly continued to the present time. 
Gardening Engagements.—Mr. Charles Simpson, 
formerly gardener to J. H. Johnstone, Esq., Bignor 
Park, Pulborough, as gardener to J. Macbraire, Esq., 
Broad Meadows, Hutton, Berwick-on-Tweed. Mr. H. 
Charles, formerly of Whitminster House, Stonehouse, 
as gardener to Colonel H. Davies Evans, High mead, 
Llanybyther. Mr. T. Arnold, as gardener to the Earl 
of Bathurst, Oakley Park, Cirencester. 
Chrysanthemums at the Manchester Botanic 
Gardens.—Mr. Bruce Findlay has provided a grand 
show of Chrysanthemums for the public view in the 
large conservatory at Old Trafford. Two large tents, 
extending the whole length of this fine house, are 
beautifully arranged with well-grown plants, profusely 
flowered, of all the leading and most popular varieties. 
They are legibly named, and this is a great advantage 
to visitors, who can with comfort note any they may 
fancy. 
Gardeners' Orphan Fund.—At the meeting of the 
executive committee, held on the 29th ult., Mr. Barron 
acknowledged the receipt of £12 from the Chiswick 
Gardeners’ Improvement Association ; £4 12s. &d. from 
four collecting boxes ; and £1 12s. collected on two 
cards. It was announced that about £20 would accrue 
to the fund as the result of the concert recently held 
by the Ealing Gardeners’ Improvement Association. 
The other business was only of a routine character. 
Decorations at the Paris Exhibition.—At the 
close of the Universal Exhibition of 1889, the 
French Government accorded to several of the 
exhibitors of the horticultural section, honourable 
distinctions. Amongst those who have been named or 
promoted in the Order of the Legion of Honour, 
Messrs. Leveque anl II. de Vilmorin are named 
Officers of the Legion of Honour; Messrs. Albert 
Truffaut, Moser, Jolibois-Roch, Ed. Andre, and Peeters, 
are named Chevaliers of the Legion of Honour ; Messrs. 
Duval, Alphand, and Clerc are named Chevaliers of 
the Order of Agricultural Merit ; and Mr. L. Linden is 
named Chevalier of the Order of Annam, &e. The 
editor of The Rjvus de l'Horticulture Beige et Etrangere 
says, “We are happy to be able to applaud heartily, 
recompense so well merited ; but in our capacity of 
horticultural journalists, it is particularly agreeable to 
address our particular congratulations to one of us, M. 
Ed. Andre, editor of The Revue Horticole, who laid out 
the Sefton Park, Liverpool, and is the author of The 
Art of Gardens .” 
To Destroy Moss on Trees.—The following simple 
remedy is given by the Revue de VHorticulture 
Beige : —Wash the bark with a solution of one kilo¬ 
gramme of chloride of lime, mixed or diluted in ten 
litres of water. The moss becomes red or yellow, and 
in the course of two days it falls. It is sufficient to 
pass the branches between the fingers to cause that to 
fall which still hangs on. This proceeding has this 
advantage over lime, that it does not whiten the trees, 
which in a garden is anything but picturesque. 
The Hall and Fraser Memorial Fund.—A meeting 
of the committee having in hand the organisation of 
this fund was held at Messrs. Protheroe & Morris’s 
Rooms on the 29th ult., Mr. Harry J. Veitch presiding. 
The hon. secretary, Mr. Fred Horsman, stated that the 
total amount received and promised up to that date 
was about £400 ; and it was unanimously resolved 
that the list should be closed on Thursday next, 
December 12th, by which time it is desirable that all 
promised subscriptions should be sent in. The com¬ 
mittee will meet again on the 13 th to determine r.s to 
how the fund shall be disposed of. The following 
subscriptions have been received during the week: — 
A. B. Stevens, Esq., Tulse Hill, £10 10s. ; P. Gabrieli, 
Esq., £5 5s. ; J. J. Gabrieli, Esq., £5 5s. ; J. H. 
Porteus Oakes, Esq., £1 ; Air. W. Riddell, Edin¬ 
burgh, 5s. 
-o-X-c-- 
BUNCHING PINKS. 
Should the talked of Pink Society take shape, as is 
anticipated, I should very much like to see a class in 
the schedule of the annual exhibition for bunching 
Pinks, by which I mean other than laced varieties, 
such as would be most useful for market-growers or 
those who cultivate hardy border Pinks for furnishing 
cut flowers in quantity. 
We find in the old double white the very best type 
of a bunching Pink. It is pure in colour, very sweetly 
perfumed, wonderfully hardy, bearing division like a 
weed, and of the very best habit. There is a pale pink 
form of this same variety. It is of rich reds, purples, 
and similar telling hues that we want in hardy bunch¬ 
ing Pinks of this variety. A class for six plants in 
pots would be very helpful in bringing these to the 
front. So also would a class for six large bunches, 
distinct, of not less than twenty blooms, or one of 
twelve bunches, distinct, not less than nine flowers in 
a bunch. These would enable a very pretty show to 
be made of border varieties, and the judges should 
award prizes to them purely for quality and excellence 
for bunching purposes. 
I also think the single varieties are well worthy a 
class, not in pots as plants, but in bunches of flowers. 
It is true there is not a great variety of these, but six 
bunches of single Pinks might be asked for, leaving it to 
the exhibitors to put up the best varieties they have. 
There is a wondrous deal of beauty in many of 
these single forms, and all are elegantly laciniated ; 
indeed, they deserve to rank amongst the prettiest 
single flowers we have. It is difficult to say how 
beautiful they may become if their culture and im¬ 
provement be specially encouraged.— A. D. fit is 
certainly not the intention of the promoters of the Pink 
Society to confine their attention to the florists’ laced 
varieties only. Bunching or border Pinks will also 
be well looked after.— Ed.] 
-o- X - o - 
CHINESE SACRED LILIES. 
Seeing these advertised by Messrs. James Carter & Co., 
I procured some, and then the question arose—how 
would it be best to grow them ? This query I addressed 
to a friend at present staying at Brighton, whom I 
knew had been much in China, commercially, and 
whom 1 suspected from his observant habits may have 
seen the “ Sweet Sacred Lilies ” growing naturally. 
As many other of your readers will, no doubt, also be 
tempted to try them, I append my friend's brief reply : 
—“ These “ Lilies ” are like Polyanthus Narcissi. I 
have seen them in Northern China beside shallow 
rivulets, and doing best with their roots in the sand. 
They are very sweet-scented. The Chinese ladies 
decorate their persons with them, and they are used in 
various devotions and incantations. They should grow 
