February 22, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
898 
he grasps the true idea of a florist as I understand it, 
following humbly in the wake of those high priests of 
floriculture, past and present, to whom he alludes. 
Not, however, that those cultured ones have poured 
any indignation upon his head, so far as I have 
observed. They say, rather, “Poor ‘Fairplay’! If 
he were only a little more enlightened. If he had been 
but a more diligent student of the canons of high art, 
of the aesthetics of floriculture, and had given his mind 
less to humouring the vitiated tastes of the unthinking 
multitude, he would sing a sweeter song.” What 
heresy will he be promulgating next, I wonder 1 
Witness the grief that it causes him—measure the 
tears which he sheds as he thinks of the recognised 
leaders in floriculture actually “standing up for the 
hard-and-fast floricultural lines of half a century ago, 
apparently deaf and blind to the movement (the down¬ 
ward grade) going on around us.” Good gracious ! 
What else should they do unless they want to be 
drummed out of the regiment ? 
The laws that govern florists’ flowers are as those 
that regulated the Medes and Persians—they alter not; 
but the Rev. F. D. Horner put the matter so admirably 
in The Gardening World, on January 11th, that 
anything I could say on the subject would be super¬ 
fluous. “ Fairplay” intimates that the true florist will 
cease out of the land because of his want of “expan¬ 
siveness.” That is to say, in plain words, that unless 
to set up as a philosopher nor a teacher ; I merely put 
my views forward in contrast to those of “ Fairplay,” 
and leave your readers to judge. So far as I am con¬ 
cerned, I had no intention of reviving the controversy 
as to the classification of yellow-ground Carnations. I 
said my say, and I have nothing to add thereto until 
the proposal takes definite shape. If either of the 
Carnation societies think fit to institute classes for 
yellow grounds, generally, at the next exhibitions, I 
shall ask leave to criticise their arrangements. 
Probably there is no chance of anything being done 
this year. 
But, as a tentative experiment, they might well 
make a separate class for yellow seifs, and leave 
the judges to determine what is yellow and what is 
not. Only, mark you, if self flowers are to be raised 
to the dignity of florists’ flowers—to which, much as I 
admire them, I contend they have no claim—a definite 
and absolute standard must be fixed whereby they may 
be judged. The idea of taking Polly this or Tommy 
that of this year as the standard of next year, and so 
on ad libitum, seems to me absurd as well as unprece¬ 
dented. A self flower has form and colour, and that is 
all, so there need be no dificulty in framing an intelli¬ 
gible law for the judges to administer. 
To bring this rigmarole to a conclusion I would say 
that some of your correspondents seem to have a con¬ 
fused idea as to what is meant by a “florist.” In the 
Isles ; but gardens and meadows on the mainland will 
soon be aglow with myriads of this popular class of 
flowers. We give an illustration of some of the 
smaller, yet beautiful, and withal interesting kinds. 
In the upper left hand corner is Narcissus Macleaii, 
classed as one of the magnicoronate hybrids. It was 
introduced from France as early as 1819, and has long 
been considered a natural hybrid. The perianth is 
white, and the trumpet bright yellow. The two central 
flowers of the figure represent N. odorus, one of the 
most popular of the smaller kinds for pot work on 
account of its bright yellow, sweet-scented flowers, 
from one to four of which are borne on a scape. The 
long segments are wedge shaped at the base, and do 
not overlap like those of its equally well-known variety 
N. o. rugulosus. 
An exceedingly graceful and pretty form is 
Narcissus triandrus calathinus (fig. 3 of the illus¬ 
tration). The whole flower is of a pale sulphur-yellow, 
and is distinguished from the type by the corona being 
nearly as long as the segments, and cup shaped. In 
the lower right hand corner is N. minor, a sub-species 
of the common Daffodil (N. Pseudo-Narcissus). The 
wide, deeply lobed and crenate, yellow corona of this 
form is one of the prominent features of this little 
Daffodil. We are indebted to Messrs. J. Yeitch & 
Sons, Chelsea, for the use of the accompanying 
illustration. 
Small Daffodils :— 1, N. Macleaii ; 2, N. odorus ; 3, N. triandrus calathinus ; 4, N. minor. 
he immediately secedes from his true mission in the 
floricultural world as a purist, a teacher, a leader, and 
at the same time a reverent loving student of nature 
and art, and descends headlong to the lower level of a 
mere nurseryman catering for the whims and “ fancies ” 
of the oipolloi, he will speedily be blotted out of exis¬ 
tence and even remembrance. Not that the florist 
despises the nurseryman. He strives hard, and with 
some success, to benefit his fellow man and fellow 
woman, and himself. He takes the litter from the 
floris- s seed bed and distributes it among the multitude, 
gladdening the eyes and refreshing the noses of the 
toilers and moilers, with what to them are as the 
gems of creation. Your florist proper does not care 
twopence for public sentiment, but neither does he 
bury his head in the sands of protest. He goes on 
working up to the standards which have been placed 
before him, and according to the canons that have been 
laid down for him. The standards do not change from 
year to year, as some appear to think, but the florist 
from year to year approaches nearer and nearer to the 
types of perfection which have been set before him by 
the masters of old. 
And so I rejoice that the editor is reprinting the 
essays^ of the Rev, George Jeans, although I admit, 
with “Fairplay,” that they are somewhat abstruse, and 
require careful and thoughtful study. I desire neither 
ordinary acceptation of the term, he may be one who 
grows or sells, or even manufactures flowers, natural 
or artificial. We want Florist with a capital F when 
we sp>eak of “the high priests of floriculture,” the 
scientific workers who are governed by laws, properties 
and ideas—and “hobbies,” if you like. I am loath to 
ask the Editor for more space vdierein to follow up this 
subject when he has so much more generally interesting 
matter to the fore. As a rule, the horticultural press 
turns up its collective noses at the Florist. He is to 
them “ flat, stale and unprofitable,” and they shunt him 
out of their columns as soon as possible. The Editor 
of The Gardening World shows them a more 
excellent way, and takes compassion upon the despised 
Florist. I almost believe he is a Florist himself—with 
a capital F, if you please. If, therefore, I ask per¬ 
mission on some future occasion to attempt to show 
that the florist is not altogether out of touch with 
public sentiment and the environments of the day, and 
that his work is not w'holly unprofitable even in the 
commercial sense, he may not say me nay. — E. Ranger 
Johnson. _ , 
GROUP OF THE SMALLER 
DAFFODILS. 
Narcissi flowers have been taken to the London 
markets in tons for many weeks past from the Scilly 
PRIMULAS AT FARNHAM 
ROYAL. 
Whilst many of Mr. J. James’ old friends have been 
pleased to find, after a long absence, that he has once 
more been appointed on the Floral Committee of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, they will all the same be 
gratified to learn that, in comparative retirement at 
Farnham Royal, he has by no means been ignoring the 
culture of these beautiful florists’ flowers, which were 
produced with such success at Isleworth. At Woodside, 
Farnham Royal, some 500 feet run of first-rate span- 
houses, situate on a warm southerly aspect, and in pure 
light and air, offers the most favourable conditions for 
the production of plants in numbers ; and therefore we 
found, on a recent visit, some 1,000 or 1,200 Primulas 
in full bloom, 2,700 Cinerarias, in good-sized pots, 
promising to make in six or eight weeks hence one of- 
the finest shows of this beautiful spring flower to be 
found in the kingdom ; several hundreds of that strain 
of herbaceous Calceolarias for which Mr. James has for 
the past thirty years been famous, and hundreds of 
Cyclamens also, blooming later than is the case with 
plants about London, but only so because grown for 
seed production. 
Of these, the strains are of the finest—indeed, one of 
the blood-reds, a superb variety named Faust, is, with- 
