December 16, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
241 
The London Parks.—Major J. J. Sexby, the head 
of the London County Council’s parks department, 
entered the architect’s department of the now de¬ 
funct Metropolitan Board of Works in 1869. With 
the exception of Finsbury and Southwark parks, he 
has made the plans for all the parks and open spaces 
under the Council, and has probably more experience 
in this work than any man in England. Mr. Sexby 
is a major in the volunteers, and has been for thirty 
years a citizen soldier, having been decorated for 
long .service. He is a professional Associate of the 
Surveyors' Institution, a Fellow of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, and has been for many years 
on the committee of management of the Gardeners' 
Benevolent Institution. His interest in public parks 
is not merely administrative and professional, but 
also literary and historical. The chief clerk of the 
department is Mr. C. W. Nairn, who is responsible 
to Major Sexby for the general management. The 
principal surveyor is Mr. G. F. Barnes. There is a 
professional staff, consisting of two surveyors, two 
draughtsmen, one specially skilled in landscape 
work, and two clerks of works. These with five 
assistants and two district superintendents, form 
what may be called the headquarters’ staff. The 
outdoor regular staff consists of fourteen park superin¬ 
tendents, nine foremen, eleven inspectors, twenty 
sergeants, 174 constables, thirty-seven propagators 
and assistant gardeners or gangers, 302 labourers, 
two blacksmiths, seven carpenters, twenty-six 
women as lavatory attendants, and in charge of 
children’s gymnasiums, for the protection of children 
of tender years ; eight male lavatory attendants, and 
fifteen caretakers, making a total of 641 persons on 
the permanent staff, to which must be added some 
200 engaged in jobbing and repairing work. The 
magnitude of the operations of the department as a 
whole will be gathered from the fact that the ex¬ 
penditure last year on maintenance account alone 
was £'62,gg2, and on capital ;fiii,3i8. 
- ^ - 
NATIONAL ROSE 
SOCIETY. 
Report of the Committee for the Year 1893. 
The past season, owing to the continued drought 
and heat, proved one of the most disastrous for 
Roses and Rose shows that has been experienced 
for many years, so that notwithstanding the loyal 
support of the exhibiting members at the three 
exhibitions held by the Society, the blooms staged 
were, as a rule, much below the average in number, 
size, and quality. The competition at the show of 
Tea Roses held at the Drill Hall, Westminster, was 
good, also in several of the leading classes at 
Worksop; but at the Crystal Palace there were 
fewer Roses than at any similar exhibition for nine 
years. In connection with the Worksop Show, 
some of the stands exhibited at which were excep¬ 
tionally fine, it should be stated that the success of 
the exhibition was greatly due to the admirable 
manner in which all the arrangements connected 
with it were carried out by the Committee of the 
Worksop Rose and Horticultural Society, especial 
credit being due to Mr. H. V. Machin, vice-presi¬ 
dent, Mr. G. J. Whall, hon. treasurer, and Mr. G. 
Baxter, hon. secretary. 
The new catalogue of exhibition and garden Roses 
was issued to members early in May last, and 
appears to have been much appreciated. Several 
foreign trade growers have already followed the 
Society’s lead in introducing into their own 
catalogues a separate section for hybrid Teas upon 
similar lines to that adopted in the Society’s 
catalogue. 
It is with much regret the Committee announce 
the loss the Society has sustained during the year 
through the death of one of its vice-presidents—the 
Rev. J. M. Fuller—whose valuable services as 
chairman at their meetings will be greatly missed. 
They have also to deplore the death of Monsieur 
J. B. Guillot, a recently elected honorary member, 
and so well known to rosarians generally as the 
raiser of many of the choicest Teas and other Roses 
in cultivation. 
Notwithstanding the great depression in trade 
which has prevailed throughout the country during 
the past year, the number of members as well as the 
number of aflSliated societies has been well main¬ 
tained ; in fact, in no previous year, with the excep¬ 
tion of 1892, have the present numbers been 
exceeded. 
Financial Statement. 
The Committee congratulate the members upon the 
present satisfactory financial position of the Society. 
The amount in hand at the beginning of the year 
was /31 i6s. yd., and now at its close there remains 
/8i 19s. 3d. to carry forward to the next account, 
the total expenditure having been £6gg 3s. 3d., while 
the aggregate receipts, including last year’s balance, 
were /781 2s. 6d. It should here be stated that a 
special fund was raised early in the year among the 
exhibitors to defray the cost of printing and binding 
the new catalogue, so that no part of the cost of its 
publication has fallen on the ordinary funds of the 
Society. Although more than the usual number of 
changes have taken place in the personnd of the non¬ 
exhibiting members the amount received in subscrip¬ 
tions was nevertheless in excess of that of any 
previous year. 
NATIONAL ROSE SOCIETY. 
Balance Sheet, Year Ending 30TH Nov., 1893. 
Receipts. 
1892. 
Dec. I. Balance at Bankers .. 
Subscriptions .. 
Affiliation Fees and for Medals 
from Affiliated Societies ,. 
Advertisements.. 
From Royal Horticultural 
Society (two years) 
From Crystal Palace .. 
,, Worksop .. 
Special Prizes .. 
Sale of Catalogues 
New Catalogue Fund .. 
Expenditure. 
Printing, Stationery, and 
Advertising .. 
Postage, Telegrams, and 
Sundry Expenses .. 
Secretary's Travel ling Expenses 
to Arrange Shows .. 
Expenses Drill Hall Show .. 
,, Crystal Palace Show 
,, Worksop Show 
Medals .. 
,, for Provincial Societies 
Prizes Drill Hall Show 
,, Crystal Palace Show .. 
,, Worksop Show.. 
Assistant Secretary and 
Accountant .. 
Printing New Catalogue 
Nov. 30. Balance at Bankers 
—T. B. Haywood, Hon. Treasurer. 
£ 
s. 
d. 
31 
16 
7 
376 14 
6 
96 19 
6 
21 
7 
8 
20 
0 
0 
105 
0 
0 
64 
0 
0 
9 
0 
0 
4 
12 
3 
51 
12 
0 
£781 
2 
6 
£ 
S. 
d. 
55 
0 
10 
39 
3 
I 
5 
16 
6 
I 
17 
0 
10 
3 
0 
6 
8 
0 
10 
7 
4 
80 
4 
0 
41 
10 
0 
263 
3 
0 
118 
15 
0 
20 
0 
0 
46 
15 
6 
81 
19 
3 
£7Sx 
2 
6 
Arrangements for 1894. 
In order to meet the requirements of exhibitors in 
all parts of the country, it has been decided by the 
Committee to hold next year a Southern Show, a 
Metropolitan Show, and a Northern Show. The 
early exhibition of Tea Roses at the Drill Hall, 
Westminster, will therefore be discontinued, and a 
Southern Show be held instead of it at Windsor, 
in connection with the Windsor, Eton, and District 
Horticultural and Rose Society, on Wednesday, - 
June 27th. The Metropolitan Show will take place 
at the Crystal Palace on Saturday, July 7th, while 
the Northern Show will be held at Halifax on 
Thursday, July 19th, in conjunction with the 
Salterhebble and District Rose Society. 
Members’ Privileges. 
Members subscribing £1 will be entitled to two 
private view tickets and four transferable tickets, 
the latter admitting at the same time as the general 
public, while subscribers of los. are entitled to one 
private view ticket and to two transferable tickets. 
Each of these tickets is available for any one of the 
Society’s exhibitions. Members joining the Society 
for the first time next year will also receive a copy 
of the Society’s new descriptive catalogue of ex¬ 
hibition and garden Roses. Members alone are 
allowed to compete at the Society’s exhibitions. 
There are two classes of helpers to whom the 
Committee feel especially grateful. In the first 
place to those local secretaries who have either 
secured for the Society new members, or, where this 
has not been possible, have done all in their power 
to keep within its ranks those they had previously 
obtained; and secondly, to all those who, by the 
gift of special prizes, or by contributing to the prize¬ 
winners’ fund for the new catalogue, have enabled 
the Committee to maintain the high standard of 
prizes offered in the schedules. Among the local 
Secretaries, two are worthy of special mention—Mr. 
C. J. Grahame. late local Secretary for Croydon, who 
again secured for the Society a large number of 
new subscribers; and Mr. C. F. Hoare, who has for 
many years rendered the Society such good service 
as local Secretary for Beckenham, and to whose zeal 
and energy the Society is indebted for the largest 
number of subscribers ever obtained by any 
individual member of it. 
--*•- 
NATIONAL CHRYSANTHEMUM 
SOCIETY. 
A meeting of the General Committee of this 
Society was held on Monday evening at Anderton's 
Hotel, Fleet Street, Mr. R. Ballantine presiding, 
when votes of thanks were unanimously accorded to 
Messrs. E. D. Shuttleworth & Co. for their kindness 
in supplying the plants for the decoration of the 
dining hall, on the occasion of the recent annual din¬ 
ner ; to Mr. T. Bevan, Mr. G. Langdon and Mr. W. 
Davey for invaluable services rendered in the 
decoration of the tables, and to Mr. R. Dean for 
the admirable manner in which he carried out the 
whole of the arrangements for the dinner. It was 
announced by the Chairman that the Royal 
Aquarium Co. had agreed to give the Society the 
sum of /300 towards the Prize Fund for the next 
year, this being an advance of £2^ on the amount 
given this year, and the Committee unanimously 
resolved that the Society’s shows should be held 
next year at the Royal Aquarium on the following 
dates:—October loth, iith, and 12th ; November 
6th, 7th, and 8th ; and December 4th, 5th, and 6th. 
The other routine business consisted of the election 
of thirteen new members. The way was then clear 
for the reading of Mr. C. E. Shea’s promised paper 
on ■■ Judging Chrysanthemums,”’ which in the un¬ 
avoidable absence of Mr. Shea, was read by the 
honorary secretary, Mr. R. Dean. 
On Judging Chrysanthemums. 
Mr. Shea commenced his paper by alluding to the 
losses in cast, credit and reputation that constantly 
occurred to exhibitors through the present haphazard 
system of judging, the science of which no one would 
be hardly bold enough to affirm stood level to-day 
with the science of cultivation. At Chrysanthemum 
shows, he had often after the judging was completed 
asked experts to judge the judges, by ” pointing '' the 
prize stands,"with the result that the unofficial judges 
differed immeasurably inter se in their estimates of 
the ■'pointing ” value of the stands, and oftentimes, 
in close competitions, he had seen the verdict of the 
official judges entirely upset. He asked to what 
then must we ascribe this remarkable latitude of 
opinion and result, when exactness and definite 
certainty are most to be desired, and gave as an 
answer the old adage, ” As many men as many 
minds.” There were competent and experienced 
growers who knew everything about the Chrysan¬ 
themum, yet for want of some well defined and 
recognised standard of merit could not agree in the 
judgment of a flower. Notwithstanding that there 
was a pretty general concensus of opinion that the 
attributes of a perfect bloom were diameter, depth, 
solidity, finish, freshness, and colour, and some 
would add breadth of petal, it was a fact that indi¬ 
vidual judges were influenced by no canon of judging 
which lays down for them the relative proportion 
and importance which these same attributes should 
bear in the final valuation of the blooms. Each 
judge has his own particular whim as to what should 
be considered the strongest point in a flower, but he 
argued with much force that the quantum of influence 
which the attributes he had named shall, inter se, be 
allowed to exercise should not be left to individual 
caprice of any judge, but should be regulated by dis¬ 
tinct and established "canons of judging,” so that 
the exhibitor might be in a position to cultivate 
his plants with a distinct standard of excellence in 
view. He considered that the science of judging 
should be as exact as the science of cultivation, and 
briefly stated the principle or system which he 
advocated was *^hat each of the attributes of excel¬ 
lence summed up in the words diameter, depth, 
solidity, finish, freshness, colour, and perhaps, also, 
breadth of petal, should have a definite number of 
points and marks (shillings and pence) allotted to 
them, and that judges should be required to estimate 
the value of blooms on that basis. This led up to a 
consideration of the question as to what relative 
value of points and marks should be accorded to the 
several attributes named, and that he admitted was 
