696 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
July 5, 1890. 
_-t— v ilJIV7 £ 
The Exhibition of the National Pink Society. 
I think those of us who are supporters of the National 
Pink Society have much reason to be satisfied with its 
first exhibition at the Royal Aquarium, on the 27th ult., 
and we may regard it as another important step in the 
direction of popularising the Pink about London and 
the southern counties. It is true we were largely 
indebted to two of the leading trade growers of Pinks, 
Messrs. C. Turner, of Slough, and F. Hooper, of Bath, 
but then we had the gratification of seeing the finest 
laced Pinks presented to view in the best possible 
condition, and thus the public were made aware at the 
outset what beautiful and fragrant flowers they were, 
and how well worthy they are of cultivation. It was 
perhaps a little unfortunate that the flowers were staged 
in St. Stephen’s Hall, because it seems to be so far 
removed from the main building, that it is to 1 e feared 
that many visitors do not find their way there ; but the 
Pink fanciers had the satisfaction of seeing their flowers 
staged where the light could fall upon them, and enable 
them to be seen to the best advantage. The. arrange-, 
ments as to staging and judging were excellent—what a 
contrast to the terrible muddle and confusion which 
occurred at the last exhibition of the National Auricula 
Society at the Drill Hall ! 
Your report of the Pink show will give the names of 
the leading varieties shown on this occasion. Pinks 
are shown much fuller of petals than Carnations and 
Picotees, and a reference to the rules of the National 
Pink Society will show 7 that no flower staged in any 
one of the classes should contain less than twenty 
petals. For years past it has been customary to stage 
large and very full flowers in the south cf England, 
but the northern growers have been led to speak of 
them somewhat contemptuously as mops, and yet such 
fine blooms as Boiard, Empress of India, and others, 
though so full of petals, were yet finely laced through¬ 
out, and it must be admitted were highly attractive. 
As a matter of course, a good deal can be done in the 
way of dressing a Pink ; at the same time I regard it as 
one of the most difficult flowers to perform on. I hope 
that another season the committee of the National Pink 
Society will resolutely set their faces against the 
practice of stuffing the calyx with cotton-wool, as was 
done in the case of some of the flowers staged at the 
Royal Aquarium on the 27th of June. By the use of 
cotton-wool a flower can be made to look almost double 
the size it would be without it. 
I am pleased to note that seedling raising is being 
vigorously prosecuted. When at Oxford a few days 
ago, I called upon Mr. E. S. Dodwell, and was very 
pleased to see he had a bed of seedling Pinks of great 
promise. Messrs. Turner and Hooper have promising 
seedlings also, and Mr. Joseph Lakin as .-well as Mr. 
Hooper are looking after the border varieties. 
Mr. Turner set us all a good example in the way of 
setting up bunches of Pinks. Messrs. Cheal & Son’s 
flower supports can be used for this purpose with great 
advantage. The bunches from Slough were so dis¬ 
played that the full individuality of each bloom was 
demonstrated. There is nothing like a good lead at 
the commencement.— E. D. o'Asfma e-roDisrlt 
We append a list of the awards :— 
Laced Pinks. —Twenty-four in not less than twelve 
varieties : First, Mr. C. Turner, with large, fresh, and 
beautifully-laced examples of Boiard, Emerald, Hebe, 
Harry Hooper, and Eurydice, reds; and Minerva, 
Modesty, Empress of India, Excelsior, The Rector (new), 
Rosy Gem, and Bertram, purples. Second, Mr. F. 
Hooper, Bath, w 7 ith Ne Plus Ultra, red, and Mrs. Dark, 
reddish purple, Reliance, Prince Frederick William, and 
G. White, purple, and Mrs. Barlow, light purple, with 
several others named in Mr. Turner’s collection. 
Twelve blooms, not less than six varieties : First, Mr. 
Turner, with Device, red, and Boiard, Modesty, The 
Rector, Minerva, and Empress of India, purple. 
Second, Mr. F. Hooper, with, among others, John 
Dorrington, purple, James Douglas, purple, and a grand 
bloom of Bertram. Six, distinct: First, Mr. Turner ; 
second, Mr. F. Hooper ; third, Mr. J. Lakin, Temple 
Cowley, Oxford. Six blooms, not less than three 
varieties : First, Mr. Turner ; second, Mr. Hooper ; 
third, Mr. Lakin. The latter had in his box a fine 
bloom of Mrs. Carter, purple; and Mr. Hooper, a good 
flower of Fred. Hooper, pale purple. Single classes : 
In this section it was curious to note the non-appear¬ 
ance of any of the old black and white varieties, only 
reds and purples being staged. Mr. Turner secured all 
the prizes awarded with Bertram, Minerva, and The 
Rector, purples, and three blooms of Boiard, red. The 
premier purple was a grand bloom of Empress of India, 
with petals as large and smooth as a Carnation ; and 
the premier red, Boiard, both shown by Mr. Turner. 
Border Pinks. —Twelve bunches in not less than 
six varieties : First, Mr. F. Hooper, with Her Majesty 
(a grand white), Sissy, Oliver, C'hafmer, Nora, and a 
Seedling. Second, Mr. R. Dean, with old-fashioned 
double and single fringed varieties. Six bunches, 
distinct: First, Mr. F. Hooper, with Ada, Beauty, 
Flirt, Her Majesty, Charles Lockyer, and a pale purple 
self seedling. Mr. Turner, with Anna Boleyn, secured 
the first award for the best bunch of any border Pink ; 
Mr. Hooper came in second with Her Majesty. For 
the best bunch of white Pinks Mr. Hooper was first 
with Her Majesty, and Mr. Lakin second with Mrs. 
Lakin. 
Special Prizes.— Mr. E. R. Johnson’s special prizes 
for three blooms of any florists’ laced Pink seedling not 
in commerce brought out only two varieties—The Rector 
(Turner), a heavy laced purple of fine quality ; and 
Ranger Johnson (Hooper), a heavy laced red, large and 
full, but marred by splashings of pale red. The awards 
went in the order named. Mr. Thurstan’s special 
prize (twelve rectified show Tulip bulbs) for six dis¬ 
similar laced varieties was won by Mr. Turner, and we 
may hope now to see Tulips again grown at Slough. 
In the non-competitive class, Mr. E. R. Johnson 
showed a capital stand of twenty-four laced varieties, 
grown within a mile and a half of the exhibition, and 
Laced Pink, James Thurstan. 
staged pour encourager tes~ attires. Mr. Turner sfagea 
also a fine stand of eighteen bunches of laced and border 
varieties, which secured a special award. Mr. Hooper 
also brought up a splendid lot of blooms of Her 
Majesty, and Messrs. Sutton & Sons a very fine lot of 
seedling border varieties—large plants dug up from the 
open ground, and illustrating what may be expected 
from a packet of good seed. Mr. W. Wardill, Luton, 
had also a few promising seedlings of border varieties. 
First Class Certificates were awarded to Mr. Turner 
for The Rector, a fine purple laced variety ; to Mr. 
Hooper for Her Majesty, white ; and to Mr. Lakin for 
Mrs. Lakin, a good smooth-petalled white, which has 
the merit of seldom splitting its pod. 
The National Pink Society. 
The Northern Section of this society, of which Mr. S. 
Barlow is the president and treasurer, and Mr. T. W. 
Bentley, Stakehill, Castleton, near Manchester, the 
honorary secretary, will hold an exhibition in the 
Royal Botanical Gardens, Manchester, on Saturday the 
19th inst., w 7 hen prizes will be offered in eight classes. 
Mr. Barlow urges the desirability of all lovers of the 
Pink making an earnest effort to bring under public 
notice its beauty and capability as an exhibition 
flower, and to restore this lovely, interesting and 
sweetest of sweet-scented flowers to the place it held in 
the florists’ love, and the admiration of the public 
forty years ago. The show will be held in connection 
with the annual great Rose Show at the Botanical 
Gardens, and if lovers of the Pink will do their best, a 
display will be made worthy of the occasion. 
Border Pink, Mrs. Lakin. 
Some blooms of this, fine Pink were shown by Mr. 
Joseph Lakin, of Temple Cowley, Oxford, at the recent 
exhibition of the Royal Oxfordshire Horticultural 
Society, in St. John’s College Gardens. It is a seedling 
from a laced variety, Modesty, and, like its parent, has 
a finely formed petal, smooth and stout, and pure 
white, without a taint of green in the centre. It was 
awarded a First Glass Certificate of Merit by the judges. 
It does not split its pod, which is an excellent qualifi¬ 
cation in a Pink.— E. 1). 
Pink, Souvenir de Sale. 
A new double-flowered border Pink was shown under 
this name by Messrs. Ryder & Son, Sale, Manchester, 
at the midsummer show at the Royal Aquarium on the 
27th June. The flowers are of a delicate or soft mauve- 
pink and the petals are shallowly dentate at the 
margin. A First Class Certificate was awarded it. 
Laced Pink, James Thurstan. 
This is a remarkably fine variety, and the blooms, 
when well grown, approach perfection as nearly as can 
possibly be imagined. It measures 21 ins. in diameter, 
contains, upon an average, forty and upwards of 
perfect petals, and seldom more than one or two 
defective ones, each tier being beautifully imbricated, 
and consequently only a little “ dnssing ” is necessary 
for exhibition purposes. The petals are exceedingly 
well shaped and quite smooth on the edges, the sub¬ 
stance and white of the petals being unusually good 
and pure, the lacing consisting of a heavy “wire edge” 
band of bright maroon, with a slight margin of white 
on the extreme outside edges. 
It was raised in 1881 from a cross between Turner’s 
Boiard and Thurstan’s Mrs. Thurstan, the latter being 
the seed bearer. Its general habit is strong and 
healthy. When Mr. Thurstan removed from Wolver¬ 
hampton to Cardiff about four years ago, he possessed 
a fair stock of this variety, with numerous other first- 
class seedlings, all of which he entirely lost, excepting 
one small plant each of James Thurstan and John 
Dorrington ; and had it not been that he had en¬ 
trusted George Hodgkinson, Mrs. Thurstan, and several 
of his other seedlings to the care of his friend, Mr. 
Samuel Barlow, Stakehill, these varieties might now 
have been extinct. 
-->EE<*- 
RAIN WITH A VENGEANCE. 
The fifth rain of this month began at eight a.m. Had 
we not enough afflictions without this perpetual rain ‘ 
One is almost tempted to think that the end is 
approaching. The very “ floodgates of heaven ” seem 
opened, and nature is dissolving. Such a body of rain 
is falling that the view of all above is obscured by the 
amazing fall of rain-drops. Think of the countless 
numbers of leaves in this forest, and that every leaf 
drops ten to twenty times per minute, and that from 
the soaking ground rises a grey cloud of minute rain 
in vapour, and that the air is full of floating globules 
of water and flying shreds of leaves ! And add to all 
this the intense fall of rain as the blast comes bearing 
down the top, and whips drowning showers on us, and 
sways the countless branches, and rushes wailing 
through the glades with such force as though it would 
wrench the groaning trees out of the earth. The 
moaning and groaning of the forest is far from com¬ 
forting, and the creaking and fall of mighty trees is far 
from assuring ; but it is a positive terror when the 
thunder rumbles above, and its sounds reverberate 
through the aisles and crooked corridors of the forest, 
and the blazing lightning darts spitefully hither and 
thither its forky tongues and sheets of flame, and 
explodes over our heads with overwhelming and 
deafening shocks. It would be a vast relief for our 
sick and wounded to be free of such sounds. A 
European battle has no such variety. And throughout 
the day this has continued unceasingly. It is now 
about the tenth hour of the day. It is scarcely possible 
daylight will ever appear again, at least so I judge 
from the human faces steeped in misery. Their owners 
appear stupefied by terror, woe, sickness, loss of friends, 
hunger, rain and thunder, and general wretchedness. 
They may be seen crouching under Plantain-leaf sheds, 
native shields, cotton shelters, straw mats, earthen and 
copper pots above their heads, eveu saddles, tent 
canvas covers, blankets, each body wreathed in blue 
vapour, self-absorbed with speechless anguish. The 
poor asses, with their ears drawn back, inverted eyes, 
and curving backs, captive fowls with drooping crests, 
represent abject discomfort. Alas ! the glory of this 
earth is quite extinguished .—From Stanley’s “Li 
Darkest Africa. ” 
