April 19, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
517 
Mr. R. SYDENHAM, 
TENBY STREET, 
birmingha m. 
Of the Firm of Sydenham Brothers, Wholesale Jewellers. 
HIS UNIQUE 
SEED LIST 
Sent Post Free on application. 
The Business be'ng worked upon an 
unique and co-operative principle, Mr. 
SYDENHAM can offer 
BETTER VALUE in QUALITY & PRICE 
than any firm in the trade. 
MY ORIGINAL GUARANTEE 
(Such as never offered by the Trade). 
ALL BULBS which fail under fair and 
proper treatment, WILL BE REPLACED 
AT HALF-PRICE. All Seeds from which 
a fair proportion fail to germinate under 
fair and proper treatment WILL BE 
REPLACED FREE. 
'THE BEST MUSHROOM SPAWN\ 
“ s) a 4’ ei m o iv s n .fa f §4 an v k i 
.» - p er bus. Cii cular, with testimonials, Post Free. 
N DlCKSOMSy^“:;; t „ , ; n 1 *CHESTER.^ 
PITCHER & MANDA, 
The United States Nurseries, 
HEXTABLE, SWANLEY, KENT, 
The ORIGINAL INTRODUCERS of the famous Chrysan¬ 
themum MRS. ALPHEUS HARDY, have the best collection of 
New AMERICAN & CONTINENTAL raised 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
For new Catalogue apply to — 
A. a . MANDA 
(MANAGER), 
The United States Nurseries, 
HEXTABLE, SWANLEY, KENT. 
WILLIAMS’ 
GOLD MEDAL STRAINS OF 
CALCEOLARIA | p® ^ 
AND l 
CINERARIA 1 1,11,1 
Post Free, in Sealed Packets bearing our Trade Marie. 
B. S, WILLIAMS & SON, 
Paradise lit. rallies, UPPER HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. 
SUTTON’S 
FLORIST’S FLOWERS. 
THE BEST STRAINS IN EXISTENCE. 
SUTTON’S SUPERB PRIMULA ... 3/C per pkt. 
SUTTON’S SUPERB CINERARIA .. 5/- & 2/6 „ 
SUTTON’S PERFECTION CALCEO¬ 
LARIA ... . ... 5/- & 3/6 ,, 
SUTTON’S PRIZE GLOXINIA ... 5/- & 2/6 ,, 
SUTTON'S PRIZE BEGONIA ... 5/- & 2/6 ,, 
FREE BY POST. 
Sutton’s Seeds 
GENUINE ONLY FROM SUTTON S SONS,READING. 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Tuesday, April 22nd.—Royal Horticultural Society: Meeting of 
Committees at 12 o'clock. Meeting of tlie trade, at 117, 
Victoria Street, at 1.30 p.m. National Auricula Show. Sale 
of Established Orchids at Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Wednesday, April 23rd.—Royal Botanic Society's Second 
Spring Show. Meeting of the Ancient Society of York 
Florists. Sale of Japanese Lilies, &c., at Protheroe & 
Morris’s Rooms. 
Friday, April 25th. —Sale of Imported Orchids at Protheroe & 
Morris’s Rooms. 
For Indexto Contents & Advertisements, see p. 526. 
r ‘ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.” —Bacon. 
SATURDAY , APRIL 19, 1890. 
CURRENT TOPICS. 
he National Auricula Society.— The 
“ soft period of spring,” that is, as it 
should be, hut it is the reverse, has once more 
brought into bloom the pretty Auricula under 
glass, and at the Westminster Drill Hall, on 
Tuesday next, the Southern Section of the 
National Auricula Society will hold the 
annual exhibition of its favourite flower. 
Auriculas are not striking show dowers ; even 
if staged by thousands they would in the 
mass create no special effect. It is, perhaps, 
one of the peculiar charms of this favourite 
spring dower that its beauties cannot he seen 
in a hasty glance, hut requires keen appreci¬ 
ation to enable them to be done full justice 
to. If but one dower on a plant he expanded 
at its best it is a picture in itself, not a 
picture to satisfy the uncultured taste, but to 
delight and charm the connoisseur in true 
doricultural beauty. The Auricula is, when 
of the best, probably one of the most perfect 
of dorists’ dowers ever produced. It is a 
dower of parts, every part being in its way 
absolutely indispensable to the production of 
the -whole, and if any one part be dedcient 
the whole suffers. 
Those vlio would visit Auricula exhibitions 
should drst strive to understand tire nature of 
dorists’ requirements as to what constitutes a per¬ 
fect dower. The golden cup or tube, the tlmrm 
eye, the purity and density of the paste, the 
richness of colour found in the ground or body, 
and the light edging, whether white, grey, or 
green, all tend to make up what is little less 
than a wonder in dowers, and presents a study 
to lovers of the beautiful, such as few only can 
comprehend. How lovely are the show seifs 
also; and not least the alpines, for which 
Slough is so famous, with their gold centres 
and deep self or shaded grounds ! If those 
who cannot understand the creed of the 
dorist in relation to the Auricula would but 
lovingly strive to enter the portals of the 
doral temple in a mood of humility and 
teachableness rather than in a sneering frame 
of mind, they -would eventually he all the 
happier. A pure love for doral beauty 
dominates the Auricula florist, and that love 
commands our warmest respect. We hope, in 
spite of climatic drawbacks, to see a pretty 
show, in which all sorts of hardy Primulacea 
beyond Auriculas will play a part. 
||he People and Gardens.— After the reading 
of his admirable paper at the Drill Hall 
on the 10th, a paper, unhappily, because of 
the external noises, only too indifferently 
heard, Mr. ~W. Ingram told a quaint anecdote 
respecting the visits of great bodies of people 
to Belvoir. He said that on one occasion 
some. 8,000 people visited the gardens, and 
there was some alarm lest an incursion of so 
vast a body of visitors should be productive 
of harm. As evidence, however, of the law- 
abiding action of the people, he mentioned 
that owing to a published notice inviting 
visitors to keep ofl' the turf, he, with Lady 
Adeliza Manners, who were seen walking on 
the grass, were warned by some of the 
visitors that they were doing wrong. The 
anecdote contains the text of a splendid 
moral, and that is, trust the people and 
they will respect your property. The kind¬ 
ness of the Duke of Rutland, as thus shown 
at Belvoir, has been amply repaid by the 
high respect shown to common-sense regula¬ 
tions ; and numerous other owners of 
beautiful gardens have found the same 
happy results from trusting the people. 
It is all the same to he deplored that so 
many beautiful parks and gardens are still 
shut up from the people. Those rvho have 
these lovely places may or may not enjoy 
them, hut they hardly realise the intense 
pleasure afforded to myriads not blessed with 
property when beautiful gardens are thrown 
open for their inspection. Let anyone who 
lias doubts as to the wisdom of trustfulness 
in this direction, pay visits to Ivew Gardens, 
the London parks, and other places of a simi¬ 
larly well kept character, on holidays, and they 
will find ample evidence of the respect for 
the beautiful in gardens shown by the toiling 
millions. The more the people are enabled 
to visit beautiful gardens and parks, and see 
all the charms in nature worked by the 
gardener, the more thoroughly will they learn 
to cherish art wherever shown, and respect 
beauty in all its aspects. Socially also, the 
importance of thus throwing open private 
gardens to the public cannot be over estimated. 
'YYegetation in Physic. —That we have 
v advanced in our knowledge of pharmacy 
a long way beyond the crude notions of the 
herbalistic quack is certain, although it is not 
always assured that we have gone in the right 
track. That we, as a people, enjoy on the 
whole better health than did our forefathers, 
is true ; but, generally, it is true because we 
have given material effect to our wider 
knowledge of the laws of health, and have 
purified our lives physically in consequence. 
All the same, it is odd to find that with all our 
knowledge of the laws of life and health, of 
sanitation, of diet, and of diseases and their 
causes generally, rve should be still maintaining 
a larger medical staff than ever, have more 
crowded hospitals and infirmaries, find our 
lunatics increasing yearly, and not least, the 
immense army of medicinal quacks increasing 
also; showing that either real or fanciful 
ailments exist in the body physical to an 
inordinate degree. 
If we have got rid of the quack herbalist, we- 
do but seem to have put not one, but a dozen of 
other quacks in his place. The question is, 
therefore, what have we gained in this respect'? 
In olden times our mothers held possession of 
the domestic laboratory, and therein made up 
their compounds, solid and liquid, from herbs, 
flowers, and roots. Remembering that our 
sanitation then was abominable, the pharma¬ 
copoeia of the household was not, on the whole, 
