August 16, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
793 
which it may he propagated. This latter, however, is not 
the fault of Miss Mary Donaldson, for it flowers freely, 
and may be readily propagated. The flowers are 
scarlet, fragrant as the Old Clove, and have broad 
nearly entire petals. Other popular kinds here are 
Old Clove, Mary Morris, Red Braes, Picotee, the first- 
named especially being grown in quantity. 
Dahlias. 
As I write the sky is heavily overcast with leaden 
clouds, and an east wind comes over from “London’s 
rich and famous town,” with an icy feel about it. 
"What remarkable changes of temperature in a few 
days ! On Monday, the 4th, a tropical heat, and the 
sun shining so brilliantly out from an unclouded sky, 
that the slightest shade was a luxury. On the 8th, 
dulness in the extreme, and unusual coldness for the 
season of the year. Is it to be wondered at that 
Dahlias come on slowly—with halting steps and slow 
progress ?—and yet there must be some substantial 
advance, for Mr. Thomas Anstiss took to the meeting 
of the Oxford Carnation Union, two stands of twelve 
Dahlia blooms grown at Brill, in Bucks, that I thought 
remarkably good for the 
season of the year. 
But whether the weather 
be sunny or cloudy, cold or 
warm, so long as it is drying 
the plants need attention. 
A sprinkling overhead every 
evening is of the greatest 
advantage, and a good water¬ 
ing at the roots occasion¬ 
ally is necessary. Moisture 
is essential to the well¬ 
being of the Dahlia ; it is 
a strong-growing succulent 
plant that soon feels and 
shows the effect of drought, 
and when it does, good-bye 
to any chance of first-rate 
flowers. Waterings over¬ 
head and moisture at the 
roots tend to keep under 
the black-fly, which in some 
seasons proves a great pest ; 
one of the best remedies is 
to keep the plants growing 
freely, so that they may, as 
the florists say, grow out 
of it. A good mulching 
about the roots with partly 
decomposed manure is very 
useful indeed — a juicy 
manure as the old growers 
term it—so that some liquid 
should be carried down to 
the roots when water is 
applied. 
Not much thinning of 
the shoots and disbudding is 
necessary for a week or so, 
and when the grower sets 
about it, he should do it 
sparingly at first, and es¬ 
pecially taking care to leave 
a number of buds on the 
varieties that have a ten¬ 
dency to coarseness. The 
number of marks ; and later, Beatrice, a fine white, was 
one of the very best in the section, I am very well 
content with the results. The trial generally made 
very clear that after all there is a distinction in growth 
and effectiveness between border and purely exhibition 
Carnations ; and in any future trial it will be well if 
the exhibition sorts are kept separate from those classed 
specially as hardy border varieties.-— A lex. Dean. 
Picotee, Mrs. Walford. 
This variety belongs to the yellow-ground section. 
The flowers are large, very double, and clear bright 
yellow, with a wedge-shaped portion on the upper and 
median half of each petal ; and this is striped with red 
and purple, and sometimes more or less distinctly 
maiked with white. Some flowers of it were shown by 
Mr. C. Turner, Slough, at the Drill Hall on the 12th 
inst., when an Award of Merit was accorded it. 
-•*=£<«- 
DEATH OP MR. J. JAMES. 
It is with feelings of extreme regret that we learn of 
the all too early death of our old and esteemed friend, 
Thf. Late Mr. Joseph James. 
side shoots should be tied out to stakes of a smaller size 
than that which supports the main stem, when they 
are long enough. It admits of air and sunshine finding 
their way among the branches. 
The Dahlia shows are close at hand, and at exhi¬ 
bitions held after the middle of August there are classes 
for Dahlias. One always sees some fine blooms at 
Trowbridge about the 20th, and I have seen very good 
flowers at Taunton during the second week of the 
present month.— R. D. 
Carnation, Horace. 
Not having any desire to figure in borrowed plumes, 
permit me to correct the list of awards made by the 
Floral Committee at Chiswick, as relates to Carnations, 
published in The Gardening "World last week. I 
refer specially to the deep scarlet variety named Horace, 
which is credited to Dean, but really should be to 
F. Dan, such being the name on the plant label. It is 
a wonderfully free-flowering robust kind, flowers rather 
rough, and splitting a good deal ; not up to my 
standard for border quality, but all the same it made at 
Chiswick a wonderful head of bloom. As out of six 
varieties only sent, we obtained three awards of full 
Mr. Joseph James, formerly well known as gardener at 
Redlees, Isleworth, and more recently of Woodside, 
Farnham Royal, Bucks. The sad event took place on 
the afternoon of Friday, August 8th, after a consider¬ 
able, but not specially painful illness—the deceased 
having suffered chiefly from heart-disease, that organ, 
because of some undue strain put upon it in early life, 
having become exhausted, and unable to perform its 
required functions. Mr. James was a man of fine 
physique, leading a quiet existence for many years, and 
bore the aspect of rude health, though at times 
suffering from gout, and the effects of the complaint 
from which he finally expired. He passed away at 
peace with all the world, leaving behind a wide circle 
of old gardening friends to mourn his loss, at the com¬ 
paratively early age of sixty-five years. 
Mr. James’ gardening career, although eventually 
successful, was not begun in the ordinary way. He had 
no early training as a gardener, but was intuitively 
animated with a love of flowers, and whilst a youth 
cultivated them to the best of his ability in his father’s 
garden at Little Missenden, Bucks, where he was born. 
He was about twenty years of age when he left home 
for North Hyde, Middlesex, where he became gardener 
to a Mr. Bariff, who had also a passionate attachment 
to florists’ flowers, and with whom James remained for 
several years working in harmonious accord with his 
employer, and growing and exhibiting successfully 
until the death of his father, when he returned to 
Missenden, and took up for four years his late father’s 
occupation, as head woodman on the local estate. 
Whilst at North Hyde he had become acquainted 
with Mr. Farnell Watson, of Isleworth, who, like 
Mr. Bariff, the late Mr. Beck, and some others of that 
day, was a devoted florist. Mr. Watson sought out 
the gardener-woodman, and induced him to become 
his gardener at Redlees. The gardens at that time 
were not very extensive, but, like many similar places, 
expanded with years. Here Mr. Watson and his 
gardener laboured for many years in the kindliest and 
most pleasant way in the cultivation of Auriculas, 
Polyanthuses, Pansies, Carnations, &c., with, later, 
Azaleas, Pelargoniums, Cinerarias, herbaceous Calceo¬ 
larias, &c., until finally the Redlees exhibits became 
almost invincible, and were ever first-class. It was 
Mr. James’ capacity to do well whatever he undertook, 
and when later in life years told on Mr. Watson, and 
other pleasures or occupa¬ 
tions distracted his attention 
from the garden, still the 
gardener kept up his suc¬ 
cessful career as a cultivator 
and exhibitor to the last. 
Mr. James’s term of service 
at Redlees extended to thirty 
years—a long period—and 
on Mr. Watson’s lamented 
death that service, which 
had been more like brotherly 
association, received fitting 
recognition. 
During the long connection 
at Redlees, Mr. James 
became one of the best 
known, most constant and a 
successful exhibitorof florists’ 
flowers, hardy Ferns, &c., at 
the various metropolitan and 
suburban shows, and his 
productions were rarely ex¬ 
celled. Those who can recall 
the Grand International 
Horticultural Exhibition of 
1866, a show so gloriously 
fine that we now sigh 
vainly for a worthy suc¬ 
cessor — will not fail to 
remember the splendid group 
of herbaceous Calceolarias 
which Mr. James sent up 
from Redlees, and which 
commanded great admira¬ 
tion. From that day Mr. 
James called his strain the 
International, and till now 
it stands, without excep¬ 
tion, the finest of Calceolaria 
strains in the kingdom. 
Those who saw the plants 
staged at the late Temple 
Show, or better still, have 
seen the hundreds all in 
their glory at Farnham 
Royal, will freely admit that it still remains a 
wonderful advance in this particularly beautiful florists’ 
flower. 
When in 1882 Mr. James removed from Redlees to 
Farnham Royal, where he proposed — as has too 
untimely happened—to end his days, he erected some 
capital span-roofed houses, the very best of their kind, 
for the cultivation of the seed-bearing plants to which 
he most devoted his attention — Cyclamen, Chinese 
Primulas, Cinerarias, and Calceolarias ; and here, grow¬ 
ing these things in great quantities, he seemed to have 
found that success in creating superior quality which 
marked his earlier labours. Here, too, he became a 
much-respected and esteemed neighbour. Naturally 
good-hearted, and devoid of animus towards any living 
thing, he was so well known that rich and poor regarded 
him with great respect. Failing health had of late 
prevented him from attending the meetings of the 
Floral Committee, of which he was for many years a 
member, as also of the National Auricula Society. It 
is worthy of remark that the late John Woodbridge, of 
Syon, was a schoolfellow with Mr. James at Amersham, 
and the warmest feeling of friendship existed between 
the two until death intervened and severed the tie. 
