February 8, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
357 
higher. The results of the experiments have simply- 
been nil, with the exception of verifying that the 
temperature of the water makes no appreciable 
difference either in stove or greenhouse culture. M. 
Dybowsky explains the results by saying that water 
put in contact with soil rapidly takes the same tem¬ 
perature as the latter, and by the time it reaches the 
roots of the plants it is in equilibrium with the soil at 
the bottom of the pot. 
A Large Dragon Tree.—Many' have heard of the 
huge specimen of Draesena Draco at Orotava, in the 
island of Teneriffe, and which was recently destroyed 
by a storm, owing, no doubt, to its being hollow with 
age. Considering that it was 60 ft. high, had a 
diameter of 15 ft., and that it grows at a very slow 
rate, it was computed to be 2,000 years old or more. 
Its slow rate of growth cannot readily be computed 
from specimens in this country, because it is seldom 
grown, although originally introduced in 1640, and the 
specimens we have noted in botanic gardens are of no 
great age. There is a tree in the Royal Garden of 
Ajuda, near Lisbon, and belonging to the palace of the 
late King of Portugal. It is over three centuries old, 
yet the stem from the ground to the base of the leaves 
does not exceed 6 ft. in height. The head is perfectly 
regular, and has a circumference of over 119 ft. This 
enormous head explains the thickness the stem attains 
compared with other species ; and some idea of the slow¬ 
ness of its growth may be gathered from this tree with 
a stem of only 6 ft. after 300 years. 
Pithecoctenium clematideum.—The genus consists 
of some twenty species, natives of tropical America 
from Brazil to Mexico. That under notice is a native 
of Cordoba, in South America, and, like all the rest of 
them, requires a stove temperature for its welfare in 
this country. Very few of the species, however, are in 
cultivation. A coloured species of that under notice is 
given in the Bulletin della II. Societa Toscana di Orti- 
cultura, t. 2, 1890. The specific name comparing it 
to a Clematis refers to its climbing habit. It is a 
member of the Bignonia family, and bears a strong 
resemblance to a Bignonia of the section Tecoma. The 
leaves are compound, and consist of three ovate- 
acuminate leaflets, or the terminal one may be aborted 
or replaced by a tendril, by which it is able to mount 
trees or other objects where it grows. The flowers are 
borne on racemes terminating the shoots, and are 
funnel-shaped, with a longish tube, white, with a deep 
yellow or orange throat and a five-lobed limb. It 
has flowered with Barrone Sen. Vincenzo Ricasoli, 
Casabianca, Monte Argentario. 
The Arts Club, Manchester.—A dinner was given 
recently at the Arts Club, Manchester, to celebrate the 
reconstruction and enlargement of the building, Mr. 
Samuel Barlow, the first president (elected 1879) pre¬ 
siding. There was a fine floral display, Mr. Barlow 
contributing a wonderful collection of flowers, grown in 
the open air at his residence on the Little Orme, 
Llandudno. In proposing the toast of the evening, 
“The Arts Club and Mr. Nodal, its Chairman,” Mr. 
Barlow said the club was, while professing to provide 
social conveniences, comfort and companionship, estab¬ 
lished with the object of lending all that its sanction 
was worth to the interest of science and art. It was a 
living proclamation to all whom it may concern that 
neither the love nor the practice of art was dead in 
Manchester. They must all be grateful to their'chair- 
man, Mr. Nodal, who had piloted them through the 
various changes that had just been completed. For 
more than thirty years Mr. Nodal had been closely 
connected with the intellectual life of the city. In 
1858 he was associated with the founders of the 
Manchester Working Men’s College, and acted as 
secretary until its removal and absorption in Owens 
College in Quay-street. His journalistic career began 
in 1864, and he had been engaged on the daily press of 
the city for seven years. Three or four and twenty 
years ago he founded and edited the Free Lance and 
Sphinx, and for the past eighteen years he had edited 
the most readable paper in all England for Manchester 
men, the Manchester City News. He was also president 
of the Manchester Literary Club for seven years. 
During his honourable and serviceable journalistic 
career he had dealt impartial justice to friend and 
opponent, and his devotion to the Arts Club had made 
him part and parcel of the less mercenary and more 
intellectual history of the literary, journalistic, and 
artistic life of the city of Manchester. On behalf of 
the members of the Arts Club, Mr. Barlow then 
presented to Mr. Nodal a silver salver and a purse con¬ 
taining two hundred guineas, and to Mrs. Nodal, 
through her husband, a diamond brooch. 
THE PINK* 
You have been pleased to invite me to prepare a paper 
to be read before this association upon the Pink, a 
variety of florists’ flower surpassed by none for its 
general artistic beauty, its exquisite refinement in lacing 
or marking, and equalled by few in its delightful 
fragrance and simplicity of cultivation ; and which, 
to my mind, places it pre-eminent amongst the many 
wonderful varieties of hardy florists’ flowers the Great 
Creator has blessed us with. I cannot but feel that 
there will be present, on this occasion, several 
gentlemen who possess a more extensive experience in 
the cultivation of the Pink than I possess, and who 
would have been able to have prepared a paper more 
interesting and instructive in its character than any¬ 
thing it would be possible for me to produce. 
The Pink, if we are to rely upon the old 
botanical works left for our guidance, is truly a 
British plant. Win. Worthington, M.D., F.R.S., in 
his Botanical Arrangement of British Plants, published 
in 1787, quotes it as the Carnation, or Clove Pink 
(Dianthus caryophyllus), and states it to be plentiful 
at that time, in its wild state on the old walls of 
Rochester, Deal, Sandown, and other castles. W. 
Curtis, in the volume of the Botanical Magazine, or 
Flower Garden Displayed, published also in the year 
1787, confirms Worthington’s remark, and adds that 
there are two varieties of colour to be found in the 
Petals of Laced Pinks :—1, John Dorkinuton ; 
2, George Hodgkinson ; 3, Boiard ; 4, Mrs. 
Thurstan ; 5, James Thurstan. 
wild state, viz., pale and deep red. The British Flora, 
by Sir William Jackson Hooker, published in 1838, 
also confirms Worthington. 
Hogg says, in his little work of 1839, that “the 
Carnation, as well as the Pink, are said to have been 
introduced first into England from Italy, and have 
derived their names from their colour ” ; and that they 
both belong to the “same class and genus.” I think, 
however, we must not give Hogg credit for what he 
had only “heard,” but conclude from what the older 
authorities tell us, that the Pink is really a “ British ” 
plant. James Maddock, in his treatise on the culti¬ 
vation of florists’ flowers, first published in 1792, 
describes the properties of a fine double Pink, and says 
the flowers should be 2J ins. in diameter, petals broad 
and substantial, and have fine fringed or serrated 
edges, fiee from large, coarse, deep notches or inden¬ 
tures, and that it would be considered a very desirable 
object to obtain them perfectly rose-leaved—that is, 
without any fringe at all. I am happy to say this 
desirable object has now for some years been obtained 
by cultivation. The above illustrations of petals of 
the present day Pinks, will convey an idea of what the 
petals of a really good Pink should be. 
The cultivation of the Pink received considerable 
impetus on the formation of the Glasgow Rose, Pink 
*A paper read at the January meeting of the North of Scotland 
Horticultural Association, Aberdeen, 
and Pansy Society in 1880, and during the eight 
annual exhibitions of the society the entries increased 
rapidly year by year. Pinks have also been well shown 
for years past in Aberdeen, Paisley, Hawick, Penicuick, 
Helensburgh, &c., and would no doubt be more largely 
grown and appreciated if there were more flower shows 
held in July, when the flower is at its best. Perhaps 
the day is not far distant when a Scottish National 
Pink Show may be annually held at some centre, where 
growers from the various districts would be gathered 
together to exchange greetings, compare notes, and see 
the new introductions of their favourite flower. 
Pinks succeed well in ordinary garden soil previously 
enriched by decomposed manure, and their general 
treatment differs very little from that of the Picotee. 
However, to grow them expressly for exhibition it is 
as well to prepare a bed early in September, the soil 
being a good loam, about 18 ins. or 2 ft. deep, enriched 
with a good coating of old cow manure. Place the 
plants 1 ft. apart, and little further attention will be 
required till spriug, when, where there are several 
flower-stems, the weakest must be taken away, leaving 
one or two of the strongest to produce flower pods ; 
and to have large, fine flowers, not more than three or 
four flower pods should be allowed on each. In tying 
up the stems tie under the joint, as if tied over the 
joint they are liable to bend over when growing, and 
get broken. If green-fly infest the young buds brush 
off with a stiff feather, or dust with ordinary scotch 
snuff in the mornings when the foliage is damp. Some 
varieties of Pinks in opening are liable to burst the 
calyx of the flower pod, and in order to prevent this 
slip a small india-rubber band round the calyx, or a 
tying of thin Raffia will do as well. 
Open and partly open flowers must be shaded from 
the sun and dirty weather, so as to preserve their 
fresh and clean appearance, and caps made of stiff 
cardboard, painted and attached to a stick, may be 
used ; and so may squares of glass, bowls, &c., inserted 
into the slit of a stick. Pinks are propagated by 
pipings or cuttings, and by layering. The best time 
for taking off cuttings is when the plants are in full 
bloom, as afterwards the shoots get hard and do not 
root so freely. As piping Pinks is, however, much less 
certain than layering, I would strongly recommend 
amateurs to adopt the latter, as they are as easy to 
handle as Carnations and Picotees, and the layering 
can be deferred till the plants are out of bloom. — J. G. 
Paul, Bridge of Weir. 
-» >X< -- 
THE LONDON ROAD NURSERY, 
READING. 
Whenever I find myself in Reading 1 always embrace 
the opportunity of visiting the nurseries of Messrs. 
Sutton & Sons, where at all seasons of the year I see 
something of interest. Just now there is a magnificent 
display of winter florists’ flowers, respecting which I 
send you a few notes. The Chinese Primulas are a 
special feature just now, here being seen house after 
house of splendidly grown and well-flowered plants all 
in 4|-in. pots, and arranged in batches of each sort. 
A few which particularly took my fancy, because most 
conspicuous, were the Giant Crimson, a Primula of fine 
form and substance ; Giant White and Giant White 
Fern Leaf, both good ; Giant Lilac, a grand and most 
distinct one, but not yet offered ; Pearl, one of the best 
of whites, and a grand one for general use ; Advance, 
a pleasing crimson, and very compact grower ; Reading 
Pink, distinct and charming ; Ruby King, so well 
known, and a lovely colour ; Reading Scarlet, a very 
early sort, flowering freely, a most beautiful bright and 
telling flower ; and a fine strain of the old Sinensis rubra, 
which still holds its own. These may all be styled 
plain-leaved varieties. Among the Fern-leaved sorts I 
noticed a pure white flower in the way of Alba mag- 
nifica ; a scarlet, one of the brightest ; a blue, and as 
far as blues go, one of the best; Purity, a fine white 
flower produced from a dark stem, and very effective ; 
Snowdrift, well named, being very early and a con¬ 
tinuous bloomer. Rosy Queen, a good standard sort, 
well known. Gipsy Queen is a fine thing, with very 
distinct metallic foliage, and which is sure to become 
popular. Among the Fern-leaf doubles the Double 
Blue, Double White, Double Rose, are all good and 
distinct, and worth growing in the most limited 
collection. Double plain leaf, rubra, crimson, carna¬ 
tion flaked, white, scarlet, and blue are all good and 
distinct; the dark crimson is not yet offered, but will 
be universally used when in commerce. There is a 
moss-curled Fern-leaved variety not yet in commerce 
that attracted my attention, and which is well worth 
