244 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 21, 1889. 
there always seems to be plenty, because so 
many are engaged in their production. With 
the passing of Christmas, the flower season will 
be flat indeed—for a month, at least; then the 
demand will increase, and a fairly active time 
for a few months will follow, although so 
enormous is the production now that it would 
seem as if only moderate prices can rule hence¬ 
forth. 
We shall not find berries so very plentiful on 
the Holly —the most favoured of our Christmas 
decorative material—this season ; but with a 
year’s rest, and the growth so well matured, a 
fine crop of berries is almost assured next year. 
There is very much of sham after all in our 
Christmas festivities, for we are heartily glad 
when, all being over, the decorations are taken 
away, and the year has once more started 
towards spring and activity. 
H^he R. H. S. Programme for 1890. —The 
issue of the programme, so far as arranged, 
of the Royal Horticultural Society for the 
coming year is so far satisfactory, that it 
shows whatever features in the society’s 
management may still be open to criticism, in¬ 
activity will not be one of them. The list of 
papers to be read at the meetings during the 
year indicates not only great variety of subjects 
but a desire also to secure, as far as possible, 
diversity in readers as well as in ideas. Out of 
the published list, so far as presented, of some 
thirty-two names, nearly all are different from 
those of the readers of papers during the 
passing year. Still more noteworthy is it that 
the amateur element is strong, whilst the pro¬ 
fessional press element is happily weak. 
Exception will, of course, always be made to 
such distinguished leaders as Dr. Masters and 
Mr. Shirley Hibberd, who are ever welcome 
and always worth listening to ; and we should 
be delighted to hear of a paper from Mr. 
William Robinson bn “ Natural Gardening,” as 
that is a theme he has so much at heart. 
Three conferences, all happily to be held at 
Chiswick, marks the year’s proceedings. Daf¬ 
fodils, presenting endless material apparently, 
and greatly helped in interest because of the 
large collection growing at Chiswick; Car¬ 
nations, Ferns, Mosses, &c., full of promise for 
a beautiful show and delightful gathering ; and 
Dahlias and Grapes, presenting singularly 
attractive themes to rvide circles of florists and 
fruitists. This, with the show in the Temple 
Gardens in May, and the ordinary meetings, 
make up a heavy year’s work, which we heartily 
hail as indicative of real life and earnest horti¬ 
cultural activity. The alteration of the hour 
at which the committees meet, from 11 a.m. to 
12 o’clock noon, is a graceful concession to the 
wishes of those most interested, and other 
needful reforms will doubtless come in time. 
7ff he Carnations at Chiswick. —Apropos of 
^ the admirable letter from the patriarch 
of Oxford, Mr. Dodwell, which we published 
last week, comes the interesting information 
that the proposed outdoor trial of (Carnations 
in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Garden 
at Chiswick next year bids fair to be an 
undoubted success. We may leave it to 
Mr. Barron, in all confidence, to see that the 
very best possible is done in the matter of 
cultivation of the plants committed to his 
care, and there can be no doubt but that in 
planting them in triangles, and again in double 
rows, with ample moving space between each 
pair of rows, that both plants and visitors 
will find ample room. 
We learn that one firm alone has sent in 
100 varieties in trebles—that is a big order!— 
but if they be all good, from whence they 
came will matter little. The Carnation and 
Picotee Society having wisely agreed to hold 
their next annual show at Chiswick, and as 
the R. H. S. outline of meetings for next 
year shows the dates to be July the 22nd 
and 23rd, the exhibitors will probably find 
formidable rivals to their show blooms in the 
outdoor-grown flowers. We hope for earnest 
effort on both sides ambitiously to create 
the finest display, assured that both will be 
in their respective ways very beautiful. The 
outdoor trial, possibly incomplete the first 
year, none the less bids fair to present the 
most thorough and practical one of its kind 
yet seen in this country. 
It is too much, we fear, to ask of the 
Carnation and Picotee Society that on the 
prospective auspicious occasion some effort be 
made to give effect to Mr. Wardill’s so happily 
expressed wish that a more artistic form of 
display should be introduced in some trial 
classes. Twelve varieties, six blooms of each, 
set up on stems not less than 10 ins. long, 
something after the single Dahlia plan, would 
be well worth trying. 
Chrysanthemums Yet.— So far from getting 
clear of Chrysanthemums for the season, it 
would seem by the discussions taking place, not 
only in our own columns, but in those of our 
horticultural contemporaries, that real interest 
in them—and especially in methods of growing 
and exhibiting—is but just being aroused. 
That a singularly unanimous and determined 
set is just now being made against the ordinary 
methods of producing big show flowers, and 
also the present way of exhibiting them, there 
can be no doubt. 
It is, indeed, significant when a grower of 
such undoubted ability as Mr. Ivipling, joins, to 
some extent, in the movement; and we have 
seen severally reproduced the strong and essen¬ 
tially authoritative remarks of Mr. Harman 
Payne, than whom no one more merits respect 
in connection with the Chrysanthemum, and 
who pronounces, in vigorous language, against 
the present method of staging Chrysanthemum 
flowers at shows as barbarous. So great is the 
respect attached to these opinions that we find 
Mr. Dodwell, in his interesting letter of last 
week on Carnations, quoting the whole of Mr. 
Payne’s emphatic condemnation. 
It is to be hoped that committees of Chry¬ 
santhemum societies will take note of the 
prevailing criticisms as thus noticed, because 
they indicate a growing feeling in favour not 
only of methods of exhibiting Chrysanthemum 
flowers more tastefully and elegantly than now 
prevails, but also a not less strong feeling in 
favour of more natural growth, and the jiro- 
duction of a greater abundance of bloom. We 
are just now beginning to find out that merely 
big flowers may be useful to win prizes, but 
they are far from being useful for ordinary 
purposes. To grow flowers for competition is 
not the primary duty of gardeners, and if show 
committees can encourage methods which shall 
lead to greater consideration for continuity of 
bloom as well as of abuudanee, great gain will 
result. 
Chrysanthemums for Quality versus Size.— 
As is mentioned by Mr. Kipling in his 
paper of last week, we did recently suggest 
that a class for cut blooms of Japanese 
Chrysanthemums—twelve for size and twelve 
to be for quality — should be instituted. 
Mr. Kipling thinks that it would be difficult 
to find judges agreeing as to what is quality 
and what is not. But our esteemed corre¬ 
spondent has overlooked the fact that special 
attention would attach to this competition, 
because it would first place on the exhibitors 
themselves the responsibility of determining 
what, in their estimation, constituted quality 
in selecting their dozen of blooms for that 
section, and if the judges were not qualified 
to estimate quality, the selections of the 
growers would help to educate them. The 
simple rule should be to put up flowers 
which are of the greatest beauty and refine¬ 
ment, without taking any note of mere size. 
Then there is the public judgment, which 
would materially assist in the solution of the 
difficulty. Really it would afford a capital 
opportunity to discover whether the multitude 
preferred merely big blooms to beautiful ones. 
U Jit and Kitty.”—T his is the title of the 
k new novel which that popular writer _ 
the author of “ Lorna Doone,” member of the 
R. H. S. Fruit Committee, and cultivator of 
Pears at Teddington —Mr. R. D. Blackmore, 
has just published. Of all places in the 
world lacking elements of romance is Sunburv- 
on-Thames, and yet in this very unpromising 
region has Mr. Blackmore laid the scene of 
the story, which he tells with such striking 
force and ability. Here we are introduced 
to a regular market gardener, whose nephew 
Kit is the hero of the tale, and, of course, 
fruit-growing and gardening find some in¬ 
structive references as the book proceeds 
Ar . Blackmore seems to find pleasant recreation 
from his literary pursuits in gardening, and he 
is to be highly commended for his taste. 
-■» ! -<.- 
The Scour-na-Lapich Potato. — We learn from 
the Inverness Northern Chronicle that at the recent 
Northern Counties Fat Stock Show a sample of a new 
Potato bearing the above name, shown by Mr. J. B. 
Crant, attracted much attention, and when sold by 
auction realised the highest price. We understand 
that it was raised from seed in 1887 by Mr. Alexander 
Mackintosh, Erchless Gardens, Beauly, who holds 
almost the entire stock. 
A Horticultural Pocket Book and Diary.—From 
Messrs. John Weeks & Co., King’s Road, Chelsea, we 
have received a strongly made and useful gardener’s 
pocket book and diary for 1890, which contains some 
instructive and helpful tables of various kinds, besides 
those specially applicable to hot-water heating and 
greenhouse construction. 
Gardening Engagements.— Mr. J. Corbett, fore¬ 
man at Hoar Cross Hall, Burton-on-Trent, as 
gardener to C. E. Shea, Esq., The Elms, Foot’s Cray, 
Kent. Mr. Joseph Forsey, of Rangemore Gardens, 
Burton-on-Trent, as gardener to Richard Ratcliff, Esq., 
Stamford Hall, Loughborough. Mr. W. Stevens, as 
gardener to L. F. Yernon Harcourt, Esq., Fairholme, 
Oatlands Park, Weybridge. Mr. S. Nash, late of 
Spring Hill, Accrington, as gardener to John Bullough, 
Esq., The Biddings, Oswaldtwistle, near Accrington. 
Royal Botanical Society of Manchester.—The ex¬ 
hibitions of this society will be held next year on the 
following dates :—Spring shows at the Town Hall, 
March 18th, and April 29th ; National Horticultural 
Exhibition at The Gardens, Old Trafford, May 23rd to 
28th ; Rose Show at The Gardens, July 19th ; Autumn 
Fruit and Flower Show at The Gardens, September 12th 
and 13th. Chrysanthemum shows at the Town Hall 
in November. It will be seen from the above that the 
great show of the season will close on the Wednesday 
in Whit week, instead of on the Friday as heretofore. 
The Shropshire Horticultural Society.—The annual 
meeting of this, the most prosperous of similar societies 
in the Midlands, was held on the 13th inst., when the 
statement of accounts showed the total income of the 
year to be £2,429 6s. 6 d., and the expenses £2,192 7s. id., 
leaving a balance of £236 19s. 2 d., a much smaller 
sum than usual, but accounted for by bad weather, and 
the visit of Her Majesty to North Wales, a district 
from which the society usually draws a considerable 
number of visitors to its annual summer exhibition. 
The committee of management have decided to hold a 
third show next year in November, at which Chry¬ 
santhemums and fruit will he the principal attractions. 
The Hall and Fraser Memorial Fund.—The sub¬ 
scription list in aid of the fund for relieving the widows 
and families of the late Messrs. Hall and Fraser, was 
practically closed on the 12th, and we are pleased to 
announce that the total amounts to a little over £450. 
The final list includes the following:—G. N. Stevens, 
Esq., Springfield, Tulse Hill, 20 guineas ; Messrs. 
Hurst & Son, 3 guineas ; Mr. A. Methven, Geneva, 
1 guinea; Mr. A. Brodie, Dornoch, N.B., 2s. fid. ; 
Mr. Hugh Gower, 5s. ; J. F., 10s. 6(7. ; Mr. D. Kemp, 
Stoke Park Gardens, 5s. ; collected by Mr. J. Salter, 
8s. ; Mr. Bickerstaffe, 5s. ; Mr. J. Cameron, 10s. fid. 
— Goodhart, Esq., 1 guinea ; F. P. Lean, Esq., 5 
guineas. 
Publication Received. —The Horticultural Direc¬ 
tory and Year Book for 1S90 (171, Fleet Street, E.C.) 
