210 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 2, 1898, 
great age, its historic character, and the pilgrimages 
of which it was the object. 
Manure for House Plants.—People as a rule object 
to the use of liquid manure and strongly smelling 
stimulants generally for plants in dwelling rooms. 
The following formula given by the Revue de I'Horti- 
culture Beige should be less objectionable than natural 
and raw strong smelling materials :—Plants flowering 
in rooms require to be watered during the period of 
their development with a manure containing 40 per 
cent, of superphosphate of lime, 30 per cent, nitrate 
of soda, and 30 per cent, of chloride of calcium. 
The plants are treated at every second watering with 
that nutritive solution. 
Beauty of Exmouth Chrysanthemum.— Mr. W. 
J. Godfrey, writing from Exmouth says :—This 
variety has not, this season, been seen in such 
fine form as shown last year. The cause is not far 
to seek. Beauty of Exmouth is a " wet season ’’ 
variety, and the past hot weather ripened the wood 
too much. Many growers have overdone this 
variety by giving it the same treatment accorded to 
the majority of the exhibition kinds. The best 
blooms are produced from strong cuttings struck in 
March, the plants topped in May, and giving at 
least lo-inch pots for the final potting. The object 
is to reduce the number of the florets. The plants 
should be well fed after the buds are taken. Every 
effort should be made to get what is avoided in Mrs. 
Harman Payne and many others, namely, coarseness 
Royal Gardeners’ Orphan Fund.— At a meeting of 
the Executive Committee held on the 24th ult., the 
following special contributions were announced as 
having been recei%'ed since the previous meeting :— 
Proceeds of concert at Kingston, per Mr. W. Furze 
and Mr. A. Dean, £21 13s. 6d.; Opening of Ketton 
Hall Gardens, per Mr. Divers, £2 6s. 5d.; Reading 
and District Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement 
Society, £^ 15s. ; Mr. G. W. Cummins, collected 
from visitors to the Grange Gardens Chrysanthe¬ 
mum Show, £i 14s.; Midland Counties Carnation 
and Picotee Society, per Mr. R. Sydenham, £^ ', 
Collected at Twickenham Flower Show, per Mr. W. 
Bates, £i i6s.; Miss Holmes, Hackney, £6 14s. ; 
Mr. W. G. Head, Crystal Palace, £2 os. 6d.; 
Money box collections : Mr. A. D. Christie, Ragley, 
Alcester, 8s. gd. ; Mr. Divers, Ketton, ns. 3d. ; Mr. 
G. T. Call, Charteris, ns. ; Romford Chrysanthe¬ 
mum Show, 5s.; Miss McRonald, Chichester, 10s. 6d. 
The committee appointed Mr. D. Sheahan, nursery¬ 
man, Hartfield Road, Wimbledom, as local secre¬ 
tary for that district; and elected Mr. C. E. Osman, 
132, Commercial Street, E., as a member of the 
committee in the place of the late Mr. Hugh Low. 
After considering ways and means, it was resolved 
that an election for five children should take place 
at the annual meeting in February next. 
Death of Mr. H. G. Quilter.—We regret to record 
the death at Felixtowe on the 24th ult., at an 
advanced age, of Mr. H. G. Quilter, formerly of the 
Aston Lower Grounds, Birmingham. Of late years, 
Mr. Quilter’s name has been an unknown quantity 
in the horticultural world, but some 25 years ago, 
and for several years later, he was well known as the 
proprietor of the Lower Grounds at Aston, near 
Birmingham, where the Royal Horticultural Society 
held one or two of its great provincial exhibitions. 
Early in the seventies, the Aston Lower Grounds 
deserx-edly ranked high amongst public gardening 
establishments for its spring bedding, which Mr. 
Quilter, aided by the advice of such friends as Mr. 
Peter Barr, and the late* Mr. John Fleming, carried 
out to great perfection, and which annually attracted 
thousands of the toilers in "the Black Country ” to 
the Lower Grounds. A few years later, the business 
was turned over to a Limited Company, and as too 
often happens, a disastrous failure followed, which 
drove Mr. Quilter away from the place he had made 
so famous. He subsequently took an Hotel at 
Felixtowe, and being a most capable and energetic 
man of business, soon raised himself again into a 
position of affluence, and did much during his 
declining years to increase the prosperity of the 
little Suffolk coast town where he ended his days. 
Plants Certificated in Ghent.—At the last meeting 
of the Belgian Chamber of Horticulture Certificates 
of Merit were awarded to Mr. E. Van Coppenolle, 
for Chamaerops humilis argenteo plumosa ; to 
Messrs. E. Vervaet & Co., for Cypripedium Dauthieri 
Vervaetianum; to Mr. M. Schmitz, for Cattleya 
labiata autumnalis; to Mr. Leon Poelman, for 
Vriesia aurora leodiense; to Mr. Jules Hye, for 
Cattleya exoniensis ; to Mr. A. Van Imschoot, for 
Odontoglossum Insleayi splendens; to Mr. L. 
Desmet, for Cypripedium Chamberlainianum ; to Mr. 
E. B^dinghaus, for Echinocactus Grusoni and Aloe 
Greeni; to Mr. F. Desbois, for Carex japonica var.; 
and to Mr. Jules Hye, for Cypripedium miniatum 
(Spicerianum x Faireanum) and Cattleya labiata 
autumnalis var. Hyeanum. 
-- 
WEEPING TREES. 
A JUDICIOUS use of Weeping trees, when planting for 
effect, will impart a picturesque and ornamental 
appearance to any garden, which cannot well be 
attained without them, for they impart an air of 
beauty and finish which no amount of skill and 
taste expended in the grouping of upright growing 
trees will produce. Although the choice at com¬ 
mand is somewhat more extensive than it was fifty 
years ago, it is still rather limited, and with all our 
progress in the arts of cross breeding and, hybridi¬ 
sing, do not know of a'single instance of a weeping 
tree being produced directly by human agency. 
The origin or production of weeping trees seems 
beyond the ken of man, like a good many other 
things. 
Among weeping trees there is a wide difference in 
habit. Some, such as the Weeping Holly, Ash, and 
Beech, derive their habit from the persistency with 
which their str ng robust shoots point downwards ; 
others, notably '.'le Willow and the Birch, from the 
tenuity of their growth. There is a Weeping Birch 
found in nurse, ies which I never admired very 
much, but which possesses the character common to 
the Weeping Holly, Ash, etc., and, as compared with 
some specimens occasionally noticed when passing 
woodland plantations, is a poor thing indeed. I know 
one which I regard, next to a specimen or two of 
Salix babylonica that I have seen, as the most beauti¬ 
ful weeping tree I have ever met with. Some 
weeping trees readily make with very little labour 
the most delightful natural harbours imaginable, 
and notably the Weeping Ash, Beech, and American 
Weeping Willow. A few uprights, reaching 6ft. or 
so above the ground line with lathes nailed on the 
top to train the branches over, is all that is required, 
and a harbour made in this way is the most inexpen¬ 
sive thing of the kind attainable.— IV. B. G. 
- • i — - 
HORTICULTURAL LECTURING. 
May I ask the indulgence once more to be allowed 
to trespass on your valuable space in order to reply 
to some of the observations made by your esteemed 
correspondent "A. D.’’ on p. 193, as there are one 
or two points to which I should like to call his 
attention before this subject is closed. In the first place 
I, too, was immensely amused that he should claim 
to be the only person privileged to use those initials. 
Are there no other individuals in the Kingdom that 
may be permitted to attach them to their writings, 
or is he alone in that proud position in arrogat¬ 
ing to himself those two .■^oli'-'iry letters? Me- 
thinks there are others whu ma c .am to apply them 
as well as "A. D.’’ in Surrey. Now your corres¬ 
pondent attributes this want of knowledge of mine 
to living for the present in that somnolent county of 
which he claims paternity. " Well, such is fame ! ’’ 
I have no desire to lampoon either of the persons 
he names, as I did not know that they were 
County Council lecturers, till he now informs me 
they are such. I may tell him that I have heard 
one of them, and if the others are no better, then it 
is my opinion that the remuneration " Con ’’ speaks 
of would be ample. But this, no doubt, is on ac¬ 
count of their living in sleepy Sussex, which is the 
native county of " A. D. ’ as he informs us on p. 
164. Your correspondent writes as though he were 
not a gardener, nor had ever belonged to that humble 
profession. Whence then, may I ask, did he gain that 
practical knowledge which for the la^t thirty years 
The Carnation, its History, Properties, and Management, 
with a descriptive list of the best varieties in cultivation. By 
E. S. Dodwell. Third edition, with supplementary chapter on 
the Yellow Ground. London: Gardening World Office, i, 
Clement’s Inn, Strand. W.C is. 6d. post free, is. yd.—Advt.] 
he has so liberally imparted to others ? He writes 
of the County Council having tried to obtain 
“gardeners” to lecture, with ill success, for such 
humble individuals are not able to comprehend the 
manifold intricacies attached to such work, or are 
unable to leave home at any hour of the day and re¬ 
turn at all hours of the night they choose. Well, 
personally I do not think I could discharge my duty 
to my employer or to myself either, if I were to 
leave home in the afternoon, travel long distances, 
and return at midnight or in the early hours of the 
morning. Neither have I any desire to do such a 
thing. My object in writing is not to disparage any 
one, but to point out that in the majority of instances 
competent lecturers are not engaged. If this were 
not so, how is it that they have so soon fallen into 
disrepute. I know of one lecturer who was engaged 
for the season—paid his guineas. Yes! to address the 
bare walls ! for after his first lecture he was simply 
left alone, because like others he knew little or 
nothing of what he was talking about. I mighty 
with your permission, add that my sole object in 
taking this matter up is with a view to obtain better 
and more practical men to explain to others that 
which it has taken themselves years of hard per¬ 
severing study to acquire. For unless practical and 
competent lecturers are engaged, the thing will fall 
into disrepute, and gardeners will be despised, for 
after all it is we who will have to suffer owing to 
aspersions being cast upon us and the fraternity to 
which we belong, for being incapable of teaching 
others. Let not " A. D.” think that I wish to 
despise his talent; far be it from me to do so, for 
now that I have identified him I must say that I 
have read his articles with pleasure, and listened to 
his speeches with delight.—H. C. Prinsep. 
- ^ - 
AYR CHRYSANTHEMUM 
SHOW. 
The Ayrshire Horticultural Society, since their en¬ 
deavour to institute a Chrysanthemum Show in the 
county some five years ago, have up to the present 
time made considerable headway, and there is every 
reason to believe that they are now in a position to 
congratulate themselves on their venture. The show 
of November 22nd, which as usual took place in the 
Town Hall, included probably the most meritorious 
exhibits in the cut bloom department which the 
Society have yet brought together. The visible 
improvement in this section resulted, no doubt, to 
some extent from the stimulus which has been in 
operation amongst local growers, since the special 
prize of a Silver Cup, named the "Land of Burns 
Chrysanthemum Cup,” and £2, was offered about 
twelve months ago for the best eighteen blooms of 
Chrysanthemums, not more than two blooms of any 
one variety—to be held for three years by the 
winner. The coveted trophy was secured by Mr. 
McLean, gardener, Bourtreehill, Irvine, with massive 
and well-finished examples of Etoile de Lyon, 
Marie Clos, Sunflower, Val de Andorre, Mons. 
Bernard, Avalanche, Viviand Morel, E. Molyneux, 
and Mr. W. Coles. In the absence of R. M. Pollock, 
Esq., of Middleton, hon. president, through illness, the 
secretary called upon ex-Bailie Hill to present the 
Cup to Mr. McLean, which ceremony was performed 
in the Hall shortly after the opening of the Show. 
In the contest for the prize for six incurved and 
six Japanese blooms, Mr. Kerr, Bellfield, Kilmarnock, 
proved the victor whh superior specimens of 
Puritan, Etoile de Lyon, Sunflower, Viviand Morel, 
and Avalanche. Among the incurved sorts. Lord 
Alcester, Queen of England, Empress of India, and 
Jean d’Arc were especially noticeable. Included in 
smaller stands of Japanese and incurved varieties 
many good flowers were also noted. 
The display of pot specimens, which were admitted 
by a well-known florist and keen flower show critic 
at previous exhibitions to have been at least equal 
to any that had been staged this side of the border 
hitherto, were again a strong feauture. We notice 
that Mr. Thomson, Airlie House, Ayr, who had to 
fall back a step last year, has recaptured his lost 
position. In the leading competition for three speci¬ 
mens it would have been difficult indeed to have 
excelled his examples of H. Cannell, Elaine, and La 
Triumphante. In the competition for two pots 
of Chrysanthemums, Mr. Gauly, Ayr, also staged 
grand plants of Chevalier Domage (Jap. reflexedj 
and La Triumphante full of bloom. In the class for 
two pompons Mr. Thomson again secured first 
