128 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
October 28, 1893. 
hibited in the best stands generally, say 
of fifty varieties, taken every year and 
kept for comparison. 
Such a record would serve to show us 
how fleeting is the popularity of many that 
have been in their day high class and 
beautiful exhibition sorts, and yet have 
been pushed out of existence purely from 
Ho intrinsic demerits, but simply because, 
for filling stands, other new varieties give 
more size, and therefore have displaced 
them. We have been looking over the 
best selections made at the Chrysanthemum 
Conference held at Chiswick in 1889, and 
from the selections made by eighty-seven 
voters for the best twenty-four incurved, 
every variety still holds a high place. But 
when we turn to the Japanese we find of the 
best twenty-four show flowers selected by 
eighty-five growers, that very few indeed 
are in the front rank to-day, and not one 
can be said to be of the best class. F'our 
only will be found, perhaps, frequently in 
stands, Edwin hlolyneux. Sunflower, 
Avalanche, and Elaine. All the rest 
pretty well have been displaced, and that 
only in four years. 
At our present rate of progress it w’ould 
seem as if one third of the finest twenty- 
four varieties were displaced every year. 
\\'hat a sermon on the mutability of flower 
popularity does this fact present. Some of 
our readers may, perhaps, make records 
for themselves and from out of them an 
election of the finest twenty-four Japs, of 
the shoAV season of 1893 would prove very 
interesting. How long this is to go on 
none can tell, for the capacity of the 
Japanere Chrysanthemum to produce 
variety seems to be infinite. 
Whe United Horticultural Provident 
AND Benefit Society.— The old say¬ 
ing, “ God helps those who help them¬ 
selves,” is peculiarl}' applicable to the 
members of this excellent Society. It is 
but another way of saying that when men 
help themselves for their good they are 
exhibiting that virtue which is God-like, 
and it is as it were God within them help¬ 
ing them. It is because of this nobility of 
action on the part of the members ot this 
Provident and Benefit Society that we so 
cordially endorse the appeal made in our 
columns last week by hlr. Cummins on its 
behalf. 
Gardeners might well be more clannish 
than they are in relation to benefit societies. 
Possibly the somewhat meretricious attrac¬ 
tions that surround certain other benefit 
societies have for them more interest, but 
when we see almost every other trade or 
occupation having its trade union, which 
is more or less a benefit societ}^ ive may 
well marvel that gardeners should not to 
some extent more thoroughly combine for 
their social and physical welfare. So far 
there has not been either effort or desire 
made or shown to introduce into gardening 
the common aspects of the trade union, 
and we may well hope and believe that 
there never will be. But the existence of 
the Provident and Benefit Society shows 
that in the best direction combination 
among gardeners is now almost ancient 
history, and it is a form of combination 
also that commands at once the warm 
S5'mpathy and cordial help of their em¬ 
ployers. 
]\Ir. Cummins’ suggestion that gardeners’ 
associations, which so far have been estab¬ 
lished solely for purposes of intellectual 
improvement, should be invited to exhibit 
some interest in efforts to promote the 
social and physical welfare of gardeners, 
should receive the warmest acceptance. 
That the Society whose interests Mr. 
Cummins champions is a first-class one. 
that it presents to young gardeners a 
capital investment, that it is thoroughly 
safe financially, and that it is very 
economically and efficiently managed, is 
all matter that admits of no contention. 
If gardeners remotely resident think they 
prefer some body with the management of 
which they may be associated, we may tell 
them that no society in existence enables 
every mem.ber to be officially associated. 
The Gardeners’ Benefit Society at least 
has to conduct its operations under the 
fierce light that the Press sheds upon its 
doings, and that is more than can be said 
for every similar organisation. 
Mutumn Flowers. —The gulf between 
summer and autumn flowers referred to 
by a correspondent last week as havingbeen 
bridged over by the introduction of the 
October blooming Chrysanthemum, was 
never less in existence than now. Here we 
are almost at the end of October, and at 
the moment of writing tender flowers, and 
especially Dahlias, are blooming luxuriantly, 
whilst even autumn-blooming Chrysanthe¬ 
mums are past their best. What a glorious 
time we are, or shall we say, have been 
having, for a change for the worst may come 
at any moment, in spite of some occasional 
heavy rains and misty skies. Not a few of 
the days of the passing month have been 
warm and delightful, and, in spite of the 
now very rapid fall of the leaf, have made 
gardens singularly enjoyable. 
Hardy flowers still play a striking part 
in garden decoration, where, as is not so 
widely the case as should be, they are well 
represented and cultivated. Some select 
perennial Asters, some Sunflowers, some of 
the giant Daisies, white Anemones, and 
similar things have been, and still are, 
blooming profusely, so that rarely has there 
been seen such a wealth of bloom in gar¬ 
dens as the present autumn has afforded. 
So long and late is the season of flowers 
out-doors this year that there will be hardly 
any break, one indeed but of a very few 
weeks, ere the Christmas Roses will be in 
bloom. Then very quickly we shall be into 
the thick of the spring flowers again. 
If there be any gulf at all to be bridged 
over, certainly it is not under glass, for there 
flowers are, or at least r^ay be, always with 
us, and in rich profusion. It is out-doors 
that the gulf is found, and its width is very 
much dependent on the season. This year 
it will be a very narrow gulf, and the more 
we can furnish hardy flowers that will still 
further reduce the gap the better. We do 
not despair of the absolute bridging of the 
breach at some later date. Then we shall 
have not merely perennial flowers, but a 
perennial season of flowers, one never be¬ 
ginning, because never-ending. 
"Horticultural Lecturing. —We have so 
often expressed our cordial sympathy 
with what is being done by County 
Council Technical Education Committees 
with respect to the efforts being made to 
encourage a wider diffusion of knowledge 
concerning Horticulture, that we cannot 
be charged in any way with a desire to de¬ 
preciate those aims in publishing, as we 
did last week, a somewhat sharp, though 
doubtless correct, complaint from “ One of 
the Craft” in relation to the subject of 
garden lecturing. With every desire to 
see what is done well done, and the public 
money well spent, we can but depreciate 
as fully as our correspondent does the 
employment of mere boyish or immature 
instructors, because it is so evident that 
only hard training in the school of 
practical experience can enable instructors 
to have that complete knowledge of what 
they profess to teach. 
We do not, of course, adopt the axiom 
that “he who would breed fat oxen must 
himself be fat,” but we do hold that he who 
would instruct his fellows in gardening— 
and the qualification applies to gardening 
with particular force—must have the 
fullest practical knowledge of what he is 
talking about. We expressed similar ideas 
recently when commenting upon the 
lectures of lady instructors, and we repeat 
them here. But then whilst it is so im¬ 
portant" that lecturers should above all 
things have practical knowledge, it by no 
means follow's that all gardeners make 
good lecturers. A very wide knowledge of 
horticultural practice, obtained from keen 
observation in nurseries, in seed farms and 
trial grounds, at exhibitions and meetings, 
and in public and private gardens is of the 
utmost value when with it is allied so much 
of practical knowledge that what is gained 
from observation can be utilised and ap¬ 
plied to the fullest. Beyond this, lecturers 
should have good powers of expression— 
lucid and intelligent—and be ready and 
able to answer questions of all sorts, wise 
and foolish. 
-- 
La Societe Royale d’Agriculture et de Botanique de 
Gand.—At a meeting of this Society, held on the i6th 
inst., Mr. H. J. "Veitch, of the Royal Exotic Nursery, 
Chelsea, was unanimously elected a mimbre d'honneur 
in recognition of his services to botany and to horti¬ 
culture. 
The Chrysanthemum Show Season opens on Tues¬ 
day next at Portsmouth and will be followed during 
the week by exhibitions at Exmouth, Ryde, 
Lewisham, Battersea, Barnstaple, Watford and 
Romford on Wednesday; Steyning, Forest Gate, 
Ascot, Highgate and Cornwall on Thursday ; and 
at the Crystal Palace and Grimsby on Friday. 
Horticultural Exhibition at Lyons.— An inter¬ 
national and colonial exhibition is to be held at 
Lyons next year, and it is proposed to hold a horti¬ 
cultural exhibition in connection therewith. It will 
be divided into sections to represent all branches of 
horticulture, arboriculture, market gardening, &c.; 
special shows lasting a week in each case, will be 
held monthly from April to October. 
Chrysanthemum Show at the World's Fair.—A 
project is on foot to have a mammoth Chrysanthe¬ 
mum Show at the World’s Fair, beginning November 
7th. Mr. Robert Craig and President W. R. Smith 
are said to be working the matter up. They have 
asked the management to appropriate $10,000 for 
premiums, and the chances of their acceding to this 
request seem favourable. 
Ornithocephalus grandiflorus is one of those small- 
flowered Orchids which do not find much favour 
with growers generally, and consequently is not often 
seen. One striking exception, says the Orchid Album, 
is to be found in Sir Trevor Lawrence’s collection, 
where Mr, White devotes much care and attention 
to these kinds. The plant was first found by Gardner 
in Southern Brazil nearly sixty years ago. It is best 
grown in a small shallow basket or pan, so that it 
can be suspended near the roof glass. These must 
be thoroughly drained, using for soil peat and 
chopped sphagnum Moss. 
Field Mushrooms.— The Westmoreland County 
Council has passed a resolution in the following 
terms :—That, having regard to the great amount of 
annoyance and indirect damage caused to farmers by 
the trespass of persons in search of Mushrooms and 
other spontaneous growths of the land, the Board of 
Agriculture be moved to bring in a Bill for the 
alteration of the law, so that whoever, without the 
consent of the occupier of the land, takes such spon¬ 
taneous growths, may be made liable to conviction, 
as in case of stealing cultivated roots; and that a 
copy of this resolution be sent to the County Coun¬ 
cils and the Central Chamber of Agriculture. 
English Filberts in America —A correspondent of 
an American paper says “ Northern New Jersey may 
not be a fruit-growers’ paradise, and yet we do 
manage to raise some good things among our rocks 
and sand banks. My 150 trees of English Filberts 
