240 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 16, 1893. 
mittee, 5’ielding to the pressure of com- 
pethors, appointed a third person to super¬ 
vise their selected judges awards was one 
of the most unwise acts that we have ever 
heard of. But how much are committees 
to blame if their selected judges go wrong ? 
They have the selecting of their censors, 
and long before the show date ; they have 
ample time for deliberation, and should 
employ that time to the securing of capable 
men. When so selected, whether their 
awards be right or wrong, it is the bounden 
duty of the committees to stand by them, 
because being made by judges of their own 
selection, they are practically the awards 
of the committee. 
There is another aspect of this judging 
business which badly needs reform. 
Committees have a sort of craze to obtain 
certain men who have got rightly or 
wrongly special reputations. These men 
are written to and they accept, and not un¬ 
commonly their names are published. 
Then because these men have waited until 
the last moment to see which engagement 
may prove to be most convenient, no in¬ 
timation is given to the Committees that 
they cannot attend one or more shows 
until the last moment, when a note of 
apology is sent with the name of some 
friend who can act as a substitute, and 
there being no time for the Secretaries to call 
their Committees together, there is no 
course open but to accept the friend, who 
may have but slender qualifications for the 
office, and carry no confidence. 
It is needless to point out that there is 
no sense of honour in such a practice, and 
it ought to be rigorously discouraged. If 
Committees would be more content to 
secure the attendance of less high but not 
less capable game, they would not be 
placed in such false positions. No high- 
minded man would accept an engagement, 
knowing that he could not attend the show 
in question, and we can but hope that this 
sort of thing will not again be heard of. 
Committees would do well to bear in mind 
that mistakes in judging are not the special 
privilege of comparatively unknown or 
untried men. 
HE Open Season.— But the other day, 
when a couple of shai'p frosts pre¬ 
vailed, there were not wanting weather- 
wise persons who at once saw a prognostic 
of a very severe winter. Nothing is easier 
than to be at fault concerning the weather 
that is to be. A brilliantly fine day is fol¬ 
lowed by a miserable wet one, a very sharp 
frost by a day of remarkable mildness. We 
have been having mildness since the frost, 
which if we chose to be in the prophetic 
vein we might declare to be indicative of a 
soft open winter, and certainly the weather 
so far would abundantly justify that as¬ 
sumption. What we do recognise is that 
the winter so far has been one of excep¬ 
tional excellence for all kinds of out-door 
or garden operations ; indeed, with trifling 
exceptions there has been no stoppage of 
work, no interference with planting. 
The nurseryman, for the lifting and 
planting of hardy trees and plants of every 
description, has found a halcyon time, and 
if he has not also found trade to be brisk, 
though we earnestly hope he has, at least 
that has not been the fault of the winter 
so far. We are not sure whether a soft 
wettish winter is not only more needed to 
succeed a long dry summer, but that it is 
more due than a hard one. The heat may 
have been prolonged during the summer, 
but it was seldom exceptional, whilst the 
drought was prolonged and most excep¬ 
tional. For that reason we hope that the 
winter will be an open one, because only 
in such case can we hope to get back some 
of that ground moisture so largely 
absorbed from the soil in the summer. 
We have to think for the future as well 
as to regard the past, and therefore realise 
that next summer we shall be needing a 
big store of moisture which the present 
winter only can furnish. So far we have 
had no great rainfall. It is always very 
unpleasant and inconvenient when it 
comes, but then it is so essential for vege¬ 
table life. We have great hopes that by 
the spring all things will have been 
equalised. 
-- 
The Birmingham Chrysanthemum Show of 189413 
announced to be held on November 14th and 15th. 
Windsor Rose Show of 1894 is announced to be 
held on Wednesday, June 27th, and in conjunction 
therewith the National Rose Society will hold a 
provincial exhibition, when £100 will be offered 
in prizes. 
New Plants Certificated in Ghent.—At the meeting 
of the Belgian Chamber of Horticulture on the 3rd 
inst., Certificates of Merit were awarded to Mr. 
Jules Hye for Cypripedium fascinatum (Spicerianum 
X hirsutissimum), and Laelia Gouldiana; and to 
Messrs. Wallem & Sons for Dracaena Sanderiana. 
Mr. James Burr, the well-known landscape gar¬ 
dener, who before going out to America to lay out a 
large estate, had done good work in the metropolis 
for the Metropolitan Public Boulevards Association, 
and previously had been gardener at Syston, Kim- 
bolton, Biddulph Grange, near Congleton, and 
Lockinge Park, Wantage, died at Washington, 
U.S.A., on the nth ult., from fever contracted while 
on a visit to the Chicago Exhibition. 
Scottish Horticultural Association.—This Associa¬ 
tion made a new departure on the evening of the 
5th inst., when, instead of holding the usual monthly 
meeting, the members and their friends attended a 
concert, which took place in the Waverley Hall. 
The object, it seems, was to endeavour to enlist the 
interest of younger members of the community who 
have horticultural tastes in the work of the Associa¬ 
tion, and thus increase its membership. There was 
a pretty large attendance. Councillor Mackenzie, the 
president, who discharged the duties of the chair, 
being supported by the other officials of the Associa¬ 
tion. In a few opening remarks, the President 
glanced at the labours of the Association, which, he 
said, had been in existence for some fifteen or sixteen 
years. A very enjoyable programme was afterwards 
carried through, the items including pianoforte and 
violin solos, songs, recitations, &c. 
Another Gale in Scotland.—An Edinburgh cor¬ 
respondent writes: The prophetic warning of 
another storm was fulfilled within the stated space 
of time, and on the evening of Thursday, the 7th 
inst., the gale swept over Scotland, doing great 
damage on the west coast, while inland property 
and forests have been badly effected. In Edin¬ 
burgh it caused considerable damage. The average 
velocity of the wind was 43J miles per hour, but 
during squalls it was estimated to be close upon 
70 miles. The last gale to compare with this one 
in Scotland occurred on November i6th, 1888, 
when the wind blew at an average velocity of 51 
miles per hour. On the summit of Ben Nevis on 
Sunday the extraordinary velocity of a south¬ 
easterly gale is stated to have been close upon 100 
miles per hour. 
Finger-and-Toe in Turnips.—At the meeting of the 
Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, held last 
week, Mr. Whitehead reported with reference to the 
inquiry which was proceeding into finger-and-toe in 
Turnips, that it was proposed that Dr. Voelcker 
should make a selection from the different returns, 
and obtain samples in representative cases, where 
side by side, or at least on the same farm, soils 
occur which were affected by finger-and-toe simul¬ 
taneously with others which were not affected. This 
would be with a view of ascertaining if there was 
anything in the chemical constituents of the soil 
which would account for the difference in them. 
This investigation would go on side by side with 
Mr. Carruthers' experiments on the direct effect of 
certain chemicals and manure upon the growth of 
seedlings in affected soils, and would necessarily 
take some considerable time. 
Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society.—The 
annual meeting of this Society was held on the 7th 
inst., in Dowell’s Rooms, Edinburgh, the president, 
Mr. R. Lindsay, being in the chair. The treasurer, 
Mr. Fraser, stated that the total receipts for the 
year amounted to /i,549, and the expenditure to 
£1,578. On the 30th November the funds of the 
Society amounted to ;fi,i83 6s. pd., as compared 
with /1.264 03 . 8d. at the corresponding date last 
year, and the income for the year was £28 17s. qd. 
short of the expenditure. The report was adopted, 
and the appointment of officials afterwards pro¬ 
ceeded with. Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael was 
appointed a vice-president ; and Mr. D. Mitchell, 
Comely Bank, Mr. C. Buchanan, Penicuik, and Mr. 
Jas. Morrison, Archerfield, were selected to fill 
vacancies in the Council. Mr. M. Dunn, Dal¬ 
keith, moved the re-election of Mr. Fraser as trea¬ 
surer and Mr. Stewart as secretary, and mentioned 
that the expenses during the last twelve months had 
been of an extraordinary nature, and were not likely 
to soon occur again. Mr. A. McLeod, Superinten¬ 
dent of Parks, Edinburgh, seconded the motion, and 
it was agreed to unanimously. 
The Cocoa-nut in Ceylon.—If we take the popu¬ 
lation of Ceylon at 3,000,000, and allow five persons 
to a family, we get 600,000 families. It is safe to 
say that each family will use at least one nut per 
day. This, for one year, will give 219,000,000. To 
this can be safely added 25.000,000 for drinking 
purposes. ' It may be taken that there are— 
Used in manufactures .270.000,000 
Used in households.219,000,000 
Used for drinking.25.000,000 
514,000,000 
or, to be within the mark, say 500,000,000 nuts are 
yielded annually by the bearing Cocoa-nut trees in 
Ceylon. Allowing twenty nuts per tree, we get 
25,000,000 trees; but to those have to be added the 
trees not yet in bearing, and those set apart for 
toddy drawing. What their number is it would be 
rather difficult to ascertain, but for the former 
7,000,000 trees, ard for the latter 4,000,000, would be 
within the mark. This would give a grand total 
of 36,000,000 trees, which at seventy trees to the 
acre would give, say, 514,000 acres. These figures 
are rather under than over the correct number, and 
over 40,000,000 trees is about the number growing 
in Ceylon .—Society of Arts Journal. 
Bermuda Lilies.—The action of the Bermuda 
growers of Lily bulbs in sending flowers to the 
American market, has had a marked bad effect on 
the sale of bulbs this year to the American growers, 
with the result that large quantities of bulbs have 
been returned to Bermuda, and the Colonist, a 
bi-weekly papet, published at Hamilton, has been 
lecturing them on the folly of their ways. Says 
the Colonial writer:—"The florists in the United 
States are not unreasonably exacting as to the ex¬ 
portation of Easter Lily flowers from Bermuda. 
They are perfectly willing that the growers of 
Easter Lilies here should sell flowers to bona fide 
tourists for exportation to the United States. This 
they regard as a part of the trade in flowers which 
in all probability would never reach the American 
dealers ; and besides, flowers purchased in Bermuda 
by a tourist might find their way to some place 
where the Easter Lily had been unknown, and so 
benefit the trade in the United States. They do 
strongly object, however, to the Bemuda grower 
selling them his Lily bulbs, and later on sending 
large quantities of Lily flowers to the United States 
to be sold in competition with their hothouse flowers, 
and at a price tar below what would be remunerative 
to American florists. The remedy for the evil is a 
practical one, and is in the hands of the Bermuda 
growers. The formation among them of a union 
based upon principles of justice and right as be¬ 
tween its members and those with whom they do 
business is the first important step for those con¬ 
cerned to take. Such a union would enable the 
members not only to control prices, but in a great 
degree, also to check the irregularities that now 
exist." 
The National Chrysanthemum Society's Catalogue.— 
Centenary Edition. Containing i.ooonew varieties. All the 
novelties. A history and complete bibliography of the Chrysan. 
themura, by Mr. C. Harman Payne. Price, is.; post free, 
IS. ijd. Publisher, Gardening World, i, Clement’s Inn, 
Strand, London, W.C. 
