288 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 6, 1894. 
abundant supplies have kept it well em- 
plo3'ed. 
The public health also has benefited, 
for there can be no doubt a good supply of 
fresh and wholesome vegetables is most 
useful in promoting physical enjoyment. 
A very unusual feature of the season was 
the exceeding plenty of Autumn Giant 
Cauliflowers in the markets and shops. 
These were not so much of foreign produc¬ 
tion as of our own gardens, for in many 
districts the breadths have been unusually 
late, and having escaped harm from what 
few frosts have visited us, have now given 
to our mid-winter meals an unwonted 
accompaniment. Of course, the Brussels 
Sprout is the most popular mid-winter 
vegetable. It is at this season, as a rule, 
at its very best. The lower Sprouts on the 
stems are often coarse and open. Those 
half-wa)^ up the stems, such as have re¬ 
cently been gathered, are very firm, green, 
sweet, and perfect in form, and altogether 
exceptionally nice. 
The Brussels Sprout makes more growth 
vertically than does any other member of 
the Brassica family, but it is in the desired 
direction. Other greens may get broader, 
but few grow taller in the winter. Savoy 
Cabbages, now in such plentj', seem quite 
out of season. They need frost to give to 
them the essential tenderness, but sharp 
frosts will soon work great mischief among 
all the hearting varieties, they are so soft 
and tender. However, up to the present 
time, winter and winter crops have been 
eminently satisfactory. 
f A.RDY Perennials. —The suggestion that 
a border so long as from Bondon to 
Southampton would be needed to find space 
for all the species and varieties of hardy 
plants mentioned in a paper on these sub¬ 
jects, may seem somewhat exaggerated, 
but none the less it is a fact that we have 
such a wonderful wealth of these beautiful 
hardy plants that it is difficult to find room 
for them all; indeed, it is probable that no 
one does, even in our largest nursery 
collections, although these seem to com¬ 
prise everything. No doubt we have many 
plants catalogued that could very well be 
dispensed with, but still there are such vast 
numbers of these that are really hardy and 
beautiful that they become a legion. 
It is somewhat the weakness of our hardy 
border plants that very few, indeed hardly 
any, give us bloom from the middle of 
November to the middle of March. The 
Christmas Rose is the chief exception, and 
there can be no harm, having regard to the 
multitude of summer bloomers, in saying 
that the introducer of one really good mid¬ 
winter flowering plant would merit far more 
of praise than would the creator of a score 
more of warm weather flowers. It is true 
that most plants flower best when gardens 
can be most enjoyed. Still it must ever be 
our aim to make gardens enjoyable all the 
year round, and nothing conduces so much 
to that end as the possession of hardy 
plants that bloom in ungenial seasons. 
We have never found fault with the 
Christmas Rose because it blooms naturally 
in mid-winter, or with the Snowdrop be¬ 
cause it sends up out of the soil its pure 
white blossoms in cold March, and very 
likely we shall accept an addition to them 
with satisfaction. The pushing into the 
foreground of gardening of hardy border 
plants has rendered necessary a wider 
knowledge of them than gardeners have 
generally hitherto possessed. Young men 
may study them, their season, height, 
habit, colours, with exceeding advantage, 
for there can be no doubt whatever but 
that they have come to stay, and for that 
we are thankful. They constitute indeed a 
grand race of garden flowers. 
izE IN Vegetables.— We have been 
much amused at the suggestion made 
by an esteemed correspondent in our 
columns last week that the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society should establish a code of 
rules or conditions on which to base awards 
to exhibits at exhibitions for the sake of 
securing some measure of uniformity in 
judging. Apart from the fact that the 
R.H.S. would be as incapable of securing 
any respect for such conditions, if made, 
as any other society, there is the fact that 
in the making of awards all considerations 
as to quality have to be interpreted by 
fallible men, and we should still see plenty 
of diversity of opinion. 
Of course, did our correspondent’s views 
generally prevail,, there would be such 
strong bias in favour of size in products 
that bigness would become universal. It is 
not so bad as that now, for all experienced 
judges do regard quality as of more im¬ 
portance than mere bulk. Now we do very 
well understand that, so far as relates to 
market products, size will largely rule, not 
because it is the best feature, but rather 
because salesmen and shopkeepers favour 
bigness, as this is a very attractive element 
to them. But when we come to the con¬ 
sideration of products that are from private 
gardens, it is impossible to ignore the 
object for which they are grown, and that 
is of course for supplying the requirements 
of employers’ tables. That being so, what 
is the recognised standard of size usually 
desired for that purpose ? because the 
standard for domestic uses and that for ex¬ 
hibition should be equal in most cases. 
That seems to be an undeniable proposi¬ 
tion. If it be held that the exhibition 
samples generally should not only be larger, 
but be as big as can be obtained, we must 
ask why, and require good reason for that 
condition. 
It is very satisfactory to know that ex¬ 
perienced judges, and clever exhibitors too, 
are now guided by the consideration that 
show samples, and especially when staged 
in collections, should represent true table 
samples, and we certainly fail to see how 
any form of condition can be furnished by 
any public body that shall be found more 
satisfactory, or more likely to be fully 
recognised than this. We could say a good 
deal with respect to the undoubted fact that 
beyond certain normal sizes greater dimen¬ 
sions are almost assuredly obtained at the 
expense of solidity and flavour, the addition 
being chiefly of water. 
-- 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution.— We are 
requested to state that after the annual meeting 
of this Institution at “ Simpson's” on the lyth inst. 
the usual friendly supper will take place at 6 p.m. 
Friends and supporters who intend to be present 
should give timely notice beforehand to the Secre¬ 
tary, Mr. G. J. Ingram, 50, Parliament Street, S.W. 
The Sphincter Hose and Engineering Company, 
Limited. —The business of this Company has been 
incorporated with that of Messrs. F. Reddaway & 
Co., Limited, of Manchester and London. 
The Horticultural Directory.—With the new year 
comes to hand a new edition of The HovticulUt'ral 
Directory and Year Booh, which for thirty-five years 
has been regularly issued from the office of the 
Journal of Horticulture, 171, Fleet Street, E.C. It 
seems to get bulkier every year, and needless to say 
annually more valuable to all connected with Com¬ 
mercial horticulture, notwithstanding its too 
apparent errors. 
New Chrysanthemum Society in Ayrshire —For 
some time past the desire has been expressed among 
a number of local growers that an effort should be 
made to establish a show of the popular winter 
flower in Kilmarnock, with the result that a meeting 
was held on December 26th to further consider the 
proposal. After some discussion it was resolved to 
form a Society and to hold an exhibition next winter. 
The election of ^office-bearers, including a strong 
committee of gardeners and amateur florists, to 
carry out the necessary arrangements was also pro¬ 
ceeded with.— M. 
National Chrysanthemum Society. — We are 
requested to state that owing to severe illness the 
treasurer, Mr. J. R. Starling, is unable to sign the 
cheques for the payment of the prize money awarded 
at the December show, and some delay is therefore 
unavoidable. Mr. Starling’s many friends in the 
Society will, we are sure, join with us in wishing him 
a speedy recovery. 
The Devon and Exeter Gardeners' Mutual Improve¬ 
ment Association.—Spring programme;—loth Janu¬ 
ary, Mr. F. Anning, gardener at Ford House, on 
” Strawberry Culture under Glass ” ; 24th January, 
Mr. T. E. Bartlett, Knightley's Gardens, on 
“Thrift; or. How to become Independent”; 7th 
February, Mr. Albert George on " Experiences in 
lecturing on Horticulyire in the County of Devon ’’ ; 
2ist P'ebruary, Mr. Alfred Tucker, Exeter, on “ Kew 
Gardens and Kew Gardeners " ; 7th March, Mr. G. 
Camp, Culver Gardens, on “ Exotic Ferns and their 
Culture”; 21st March, “Private Hyacinth and 
Spring Bulb Show ” ; 4th April, “ The Papers of 
Last Session.” The meetings are held in the 
Council Chamber of the Guildhall, Exeter, and 
commence at 8 p.m. 
Death of Professor Bentley.—We regret to record 
the death in London last week of Professor Robert 
Bentley, the eminent botanist, aged 70 years. “ Mr. 
Bentley.” says “Men of the Time,” became a 
member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1847. 
He was Dean of the Medical Faculty, Professor of 
Botany at King’s College, Professor of Materia Medica 
and Botany to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great 
Britain, and Editor of the Pharmaceutical Journal. 
He was also the author of a “ Manual of Botany,” 
and co-editor with Dr. Farre and Mr. Warrington 
of Pereira’s “ Manual of Materia Medica and 
Therapeutics,’’ but he will behest remembered by 
many of our readers as a member of the Council of 
the Royal Botanic Society for many years, and a 
regular attendant at its shows and weekly meetings. 
Reclaiming Land from the Sea.—The bulletin 
d'Arhoriculture de Floriculture, etc., says that the Dutch 
have some idea of reclaiming from the sea what it 
has taken away from them. A society is constituted 
to drain the Zuiderzee, whose bed for three parts 
presents a soil as fertile as that of the neighbouring 
provinces. In the centre they will preserve a large 
lake, and they reckon to render habitable annually a 
space of about 6,000 hectares, or nearly 15,000 
acres. The most considerable enterprise of its kind 
in Belgium, although on a very much reduced scale, 
has been the drying of the lake of Lean, situated 
near Duras, between the towns of Lean and Saint 
Trond. That lake was changed into superb arable 
soil, and thus became without the employment of 
any manure a source of considerable revenue. 
White Jasmine Fruiting.—The common Jasmine 
(Jasminum officinalis) is the most universally cul¬ 
tivated of any of the species, and finds a home 
throughout central and southern Europe where it has 
become thoroughly acclimatised, especially in the 
south of Europe, which is not, however, its native 
country, for it comes from Persia, Northern India 
and the intervening country. Although it grows 
very freely and flowers abundantly in Britain it 
seldom fruits. The last summer had been more 
favourable to it than usual, and fruits have matured 
at Bonchurch, in the Isle of Wight. The plant pro¬ 
ducing the fruits was grown on a south aspect wall, 
and as is well known to those who have visited this 
part of the island, the place is well sheltered from 
the north by the Bonchnrch Downs which are of 
considerable elevation. The berries are two-lobed 
and in that respect bear some resemblance to those 
of several of the Honeysuckles which bear twin 
berries joined together. Their rarity in this country 
invests them with some novelty and curiosity. 
Entertainment of Rothesay Florists.—The annual 
social meeting of the employees of Messrs. Dobbie & 
Co., of Rothesay, took place on the 29th ult. Mr. 
Robert Fyfe presided, supported by Rev. J. K. 
Hewison, Rev. D. Guthrie, Messrs. Wm. 
Cuthbertson, A. M. Burnie, &c., and there was a 
large attendance, numbering over 120. After tea, 
the chairman made an interesting speech in reference 
to the past year’s operations of the firm, which seem 
to have been of a most gratifying character, and 
incidentally mentioned that requiring more facilities 
for the extension of the business than can easily be 
