420 
March 3, 1894. • 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
FUORlCUliTURE. 
A Pink Show for the South. 
I SHALL be for one, I hope of many, pleased to 
respond to the request that contributions be made to 
a prize fund for a small show of these flowers at the 
Drill Hall in June. I think June i2th would be the 
best time, or otherwise many of our best blooms 
will be over southward. The prizes offered should 
be small, as it is no one’s business to furnish money 
just that someone may pick it up. The real object 
of the show should be, first to attract all classes of 
growers and all descriptions of Pinks, and thus 
enable the public to see what varieties of this 
delightful hardy flower there are in commerce. 
A special reason for supporting the Pink and help¬ 
ing to popularise it is its hardiness, simplicity of 
character, and ease with which everybody can grow 
it; indeed it is, in its various forms, everybody’s 
flower. Not too much prominence should be given 
the laced florists’ varieties, as so many of these are 
not good hardy garden flowers. They may have 
their places, but it is most obvious that our chief 
need is found in the raising of such hardy robust 
free-blooming and long-blooming sorts that we may 
have deliciously perfumed Pinks in our gardens for 
a long season. After all such a wonderfully full 
and beautiful variety as Ernest Ladhams, that 
last year seemed to be in bloom for several months, 
is worth a host of delicate florists’ forms, pretty as 
they may be. 
Would that we could have a class for Pinks in 
pots to show floriferousness, and adaptability for 
cutting for market purposes.— A. D. 
On Showing Pansies. 
I HAVE many times wondered that no Pansy or other 
society, which encourages the exhibition of these 
flowers, has fixed a standard size for the trays or 
stands on which Pansies are show*. Pansy blooms 
look relatively much larger, and are seen to greater 
advantage, on a small-sized tray than on a large one. 
Judges are sometimes deceived by this difference in 
the size of Pansy trays, and award prizes to blooms 
that, had they been transferred to larger trays, would 
never have been looked at. Some exhibitors hold 
that they are justly entitled to use small-sized trays 
to show their blooms to the best advantage, and get 
them made specially for the purpose, and at shows 
where paper collars or cards are allowed I have often 
known them put show Pansy cards on fancy blooms, 
and have a smaller size for their show flowers. 
On the other hand, there are competitors who 
think such practices a species of fraud, and would 
rather lose the prizes than stoop to what they con¬ 
sider questionable tricks. I think not only Pansy 
societies, but all societies which promote shows 
at which cut flowers are exhibited, in the 
interest not only of fair play, but of morality, 
should have standards fixed for the traj s 
or stands on which the different kinds of flowers 
are shown when at all practicable. If the 
standard for the trays or stands was fixed at the size 
w'hich experience has found most suitable for the 
different kinds of flowers, and those for each class 
according to the number of blooms shown were made 
exactly the same size and form and painted the 
same colour, it would be found a very great con¬ 
venience to those in charge of the staging. They 
would be more easily staged, more easily judged, 
and would very much improve the appearance of 
the show; I think a conference of florists would 
scarcely be necessary to settle this little affair. If 
only some society would take the lead the others 
w’ould very soon follow.—C.A. [Would it not be 
well if such an experienced grower and exhibitor as 
“ C.K.” were to suggest what ’.he dimensions of the 
trays should be, for the guidance of Flower Show 
Committees. —Ed.1 
The Auricula. 
Auriculas are moving gently onwards into activity, 
though the rapid changes of temperature are trying 
to plants grown in cool structures — a hot sunny day 
and consequently a high temperature is followed by 
a night or two of very sharp frost with cold biting 
winds. Happy are they who can confront these 
opposites, and, either by artificial heat or by covering 
up their frames, causing the temperature to be as 
equable as possible about the plants. At the same 
time I cannot conceive that except under peculiarly 
favourable circumstances a grower of Auriculas in a 
cold house or frame can successfully compete with 
one who has the use of artificial heat in an Auricula 
house. By ” peculiarly favourable circumstances,’ 
I do not mean what came to my knowledge a few 
years ago, in the case of a grower of Auriculas, who 
boasted his Auricula house was a thoroughly cold 
one, but who yet produced flowers of fine develop¬ 
ment. On calling upon him on one occasion in an 
unexpected way, 1 found some of the plants had 
been taken from the cold house and were occupying 
a shelf in a warm greenhouse in order to bring them 
on into bloom. 
Auriculas are very susceptible of frost, and if 
their pips become frosted, or if the soil in the pots 
becomes hard frozen for a few days during the 
month of February, harm undoubtedly follows, 
hence the.se are conditions of things to be guarded 
against 'as far as possible. Only a few days ago 
nearly eighteen degrees of frost were registered round 
London, and it came on very unexpectedly indeed. 
That is very trying, indeed, to the plants, especially 
if it catches them when the soil is moist, and it takes 
a lot of covering up cold frames to keep out eighteen 
degrees of frost. 
Though the act of top-dressing Auriculas is not 
nearly so often resorted to as formerly, I think that 
there is efficacy in it as applied to plants that have 
been frozen. It is well in this case not to top dress 
until there is reasonable hope the worst of the frosty 
time has passed away. 1 do it at the end of 
February, and the plants soon respond to it. After 
top-dressing the choicest varieties should have the 
warmest part of the houses so as to be as far from 
harm as possible. Of late years March has proved 
an uncertain month, with sudden alterations of tem¬ 
perature ; and sudden changes of that kind, quicken¬ 
ing the plants at one time and retarding their pro¬ 
gress at another, cannot fail to be aught else but 
harmful.— R. D. 
-- 
PRIMULA OBCONICA. 
This, I sometimes think, will be the Primula of the 
future, despite its bad reputation as a poisonous 
plant, in which connection I may say that I am in 
the habit of handling it almost daily, taking no 
precautions whatever in so doing, and yet never find 
any unpleasant consequences result therefrom. 
Your recent comments upon the original Primula 
sinensis recall very vividly the plants my father 
grew and was immensely proud of when I was 
young. These plants had flowers which were very 
poor in comparison to many forms we have at the 
present time of P. obconica, which seems to be 
passing through a process of evolution at a far more 
rapid rate than P. sinensis did. Not only are the 
flowers of P. obconica much larger than they were 
at first, but quite a diversity of colour is springing 
up among them. Some also show signs of ultimately 
becoming fringed, while others are almost as round 
as examples of the best herbaceous Phlox. Others 
again have a tendency from an enlargement of the 
calyx to produce “Jack in the Greens,’’ after the 
style of some of the Polyanthuses. 
I have one with a distinct ring of purple round 
the eye, and another almost pure white, and though 
it may be a long process I feel quite assured that 
ultimately there will be among these as great a 
variety of colour as there is at the present time 
among the Primula sinensis. As a decorative plant 
this is now put quite in the shade by the new comer 
because of its elegant habit and superior floriferous¬ 
ness, and the flowers standing well up above the 
foliage renders it of far more service in a group 
arranged for effect, while its value for supplying cut 
flowers is much greater than any variety of P. 
sinensis, except, perhaps, it be the old double white, 
which is now grown in such large quantities by 
market men for that purpose.— IF. B. G. 
-- 
BEES AS FLOWER FERTILISERS. 
I have been much amused to read “C. B. G.’s’’ 
earnest appeal on behalf of the bees. The quota¬ 
tions from Sir John Lubbock show first that the 
bee is a very selfish little creature, because, let it 
render ever such service to man in fertilising flowers, 
it declines to visit any that afford no food, and 
second that it is easy to mis-quote Sir John 
because, when he exempts the smaller species as 
being useless in the fertilisation of Snapdragons, he 
really exempts the very insects “ C. B. G.’’ favours, 
as it is only the larger bumble bees that can weigh 
down the Snapdragon lips and enter the flowers 
But there is absolutely no proof that these insects 
ensure fertilisation. 
There is good reason indeed to think that fertili¬ 
sation is accomplished ere the flowers are so fully 
expanded as to admit of these busy bees. I have 
often isolated a Snapdragon plant from all insect 
agency, and have found perfect fertilisation followed, 
and what applies to Snapdragons applies to myriads 
of other flowers. Primroses are not at all depen¬ 
dent on bees for fertilisation. They usually bloom 
long before bees are on the wing. Frost and rain 
will destroy the pollen, but sunshine or merely dry 
weather render it very active. 
The general assumption seems to be that if insects 
visit flowers in search of food they are of necessity 
producing fertility. That is pure assumption. Take 
nearly all the pulse family which self-fertilise ere 
the blooms are fully expanded. It is said of Darwin 
that he held bees were good botanists, because they 
preferred flowers of the same species; but assuming 
that it is so, does not that rather indicate that they 
prefer not to mix their food. That is always a 
characteristic of bees. It is with them an instinct. 
Throughout all Nature we hardly find evidence of 
insect cross-fertilisation. So also in gardens the 
greater portion of varieties in cultivation are the 
product of human agency.— D. 
-- 
GARDENERS AND THEIR 
TESTIMONIALS. 
I HAVE read with considerable interest the recent 
contributions of "Pinkie" and " A Voice from a 
Gravel Pit," and cannot help thinking that the 
reason why there are so many " weeds ” and " dull- 
heads’’in the profession is to be found in the fact 
that the system of apprenticeship is not so rigor¬ 
ously carried out as it should be. If young people 
would only commence learning their business earlier 
they would reap the benefit of it in many ways. 
Every experienced man knows how difficult it is to 
find a good all round worker, and those who do 
find them should be thankful and treat them with 
the consideration that all good men deserve. 
“ A Voice from a Gravel Pit ’’ writes about young 
men studying botany and chemistry as well as the 
theory of horticulture, and I quite agree that know’- 
ledge, however acquired, costs nothing to carry 
about. But does he consider the rate of wages paid 
to under men, “ weeds ” and clever ones alike, 
sufficiently good to induce them to improve their 
qualifications. At the present time they are paid as 
a class less than ordinary labourers, yet many of 
them I know are expected to be as proficient as their 
masters, and some are a good deal more so. I believe 
in paying a man exactly according to his deserts, 
and if this is not done what encouragement is there 
for a young man to make himself a proficient work¬ 
man. No. The good man must be given his due, 
and the “ weed” no more. The specially recom¬ 
mended man if found to be “ a bad egg ” should be 
rejected at once, or offered a lower position, and the 
door thus be kep t open for the advancement of the 
better hand. 
References are certainly as valuable as bank notes 
to rnany men, and justly so, because they gain for a 
man the confidence of a new employer, and enable 
him to take the grip of a new place more quickly 
and more surely than months of toil and worry would 
do for him.— J. G. Pettingcr, Straiuberry Dale Nutsoy, 
Harrogate. 
- •t- - 
ANGRAECUM SESQUIPEDALE. 
Although now getting a common plant ii this 
country, the noblest of all Angraecums never ceases 
to excite wonder and astonishment amongst Orchid 
lovers and the public generally when it comes into 
bloom. The accompanying illustration has been 
prepared from a photograph of a plant which 
flowered in the collection of W. Sanderson, Esq., 
Talbot House, Ferry Road, Edinburgh, and which 
while having only twelve pairs of leaves bore 
eighteen flowers of handsome size, all of which are 
shown in the woodcut. The starry and waxy ivory- 
white flowers must have presented a fine appearance 
when seen upon a plant of such limited size, and 
must reflect credit upon the grower. No informa¬ 
tion as to the length of the whip-like nectary or spur, 
to which the specific name refers, has been given us. 
The name indicates a foot and a half, but those 
which we have seen have never exceeded ii in. or 
12 in. About the middle of January last a specimen 
was flowering in the Calcutta Botanic Garden with 
a spur 13 in. long. It was grown in a grass-thatched 
roof, according to the custom of those warm regions. 
