August is, 1894. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
807 
trinsic circumstances in the country to prevent our 
growing trees as a profitable crop for timber as well 
as our neighbours. On the contrary, Great Britain 
is specially well adapted for tree-growing. As arbori¬ 
culturists we are unrivalled, but the growing of trees 
for effect and in plantations is a very different 
matter from their cultivation on scientific principles 
for the purpose of yielding profitable crops. This is 
sylviculture. The guiding lines of the two methods 
of culture are by no means the same, and it is the 
sylvicultural aspect of the science of forestry which 
has hithertoo been neglected in this country. There 
were two aspects from which forests were of import¬ 
ance to a country—firstly, as a source of timber, and 
fuel; secondly, on account of their hygienic and 
climatic influences. With regard to the latter, it was 
a popular notion that trees exercised considerable 
influence upon atmospheric conditions. Although 
many points were still far from clear, the evidence 
went to show that the direct influence of tree-growth 
upon climate was no mere superstition, for it was 
proved that forests improved the soil drainage, and 
and thereby modified miasmatic conditions, whilst, like 
all green plants, trees exercised, through the process of 
carbon assimilation, a purifying effect upon the air. 
By opposing obstacles to air-currents, forests prevent 
the dissemination of dust particles with their con¬ 
tingent germs, they reduce the extremes of temperature 
of the air, they increase the relative humidity of the 
air and the precipitation in rainfall, and they protect 
and control the waterflow from the soil. 
Forests as a source of fuel have not the direct 
importance to this country that they had in States 
less favoured, but their economic importance to us 
as a source of timber needed no comment. With an 
acreage of wooded land amounting to only four per 
cent, of their total area. Great Britain and Ireland 
possessed a smaller proportion so covered than any 
other European country. It was not surprising, 
then, that we are not able to furnish ourselves with 
an adequate supply of timber. But although there 
was so little land under wood, there were thousands 
of acres unfitted for any other crop, and though it 
was desirable to have them planted, how to have 
that accomplished and how to secure that the wood¬ 
lands already existing should be tended so as to 
produce a maximum result giving a profitable re¬ 
turn were the problems they wished to see solved. 
Forestry was handicapped as compared with agri¬ 
culture by the fact that the crop could not be reaped 
within the year, and the wood grower in Britain 
had, he thought, just cause for complaint when he 
found his produce not only handicapped by pre¬ 
ferential transport rates to foreign timber, but that 
it was also disparaged by exclusion from or admis¬ 
sion only under conditions to competition with 
foreign timber by the terms of building specifications, 
and the Government itself had not been guiltless in 
the matter. He unhesitatingly said that the State 
ought to treat the forest areas now in its possession 
in a reasonable and scientific manner instead of 
leaving them as objects for the finger of scientific 
scorn. They might be made in part, at least, models 
of the best forestry practice. Th ere were tracts 
which, without damage to the natural beauty, and 
and without depriving in any sensible degree the 
people of their privileges of recreation, might be and 
should be dealt with as forests cultivated on 
scientific principles. He would go further, and say 
that the area of state ownership should be increased 
to the extent of the establishment of forest stations 
of an acreage sufficient to allow of a satisfactory 
rotation in other parts of the country as centres of 
instruction. 
The true solution of the forestry question in 
Britain was to be found in the diffusion of accurate 
knowledge of forest science. The landowner had to 
be convinced that through scientific forestry a sound 
and profitable investment for his capital was to be 
found in woodlands. The factor or land agent must 
be instructed in the scientific principles of tree¬ 
growing for profit to enable him to secure a steady 
income to the landowner from his invested capital, 
and the working forester had to be taught methods 
of cultivation based upon science by which his faith 
in traditional practice, when it was, as was often the 
case, unscientific, might be dispelled. It was 
through education alone that they could arrive at 
improved forestry. What had been done in supply¬ 
ing the want in the way of teaching was nothing to 
what was required if forestry was to be 
adequately taught in Britain. Dr. Nisbet, 
who had had the last say on the question, boldly 
stated the requirements at six forestry chairs in 
the universities and four schools of practical sylvi¬ 
culture in the vicinity of forests. He did not think 
Dr. Nisbet put the needs one whit too high, and he 
should be even disposed to add to them. It appeared 
to him that whilst they must obtain from the 
Government the institution of sylvicultural areas for 
practical instruction, their best chance of success in 
acquiring the necessary endowment for the rest of 
the teaching lay in the line of combination between 
the Board of Agriculture and the county councils, 
with, it might be, aid from private benefactors. 
-- 
MANCHESTER BOTANICAL GARDENS. 
Forty years ago the taste for botanical and horti¬ 
cultural studies was, relatively to the population, 
much more generally spread in Manchester than it 
is at the present time. This we take to be a position 
beyond dispute, and were our neighbourhood 
singular in this respect it might be matter of extreme 
surprise ; but inasmuch as the diminished interest 
in these studies is a condition of things prevailing 
not in Manchester only, but throughout the whole 
country—north, south, east, and west—the causes 
operating must clearly be more than local. For 
this widespread state of things (says a correspondent 
of the Manchester Courier) there is, in fact, a general 
cause. 
What, then, are the causes operating ? Why are 
our botanical and horticultural institutions so 
neglected—those of London, Glasgow, Belfast, and 
other places equally with those of Manchester ? As 
regards the Royal Horticultural Society, with which 
the name of Dr. Bindley, one of the most distin¬ 
guished of English botanists, and father of the 
present Lord Justice Bindley, was for a very long 
period associated, as its secretary, quite recently 
this society was absolutely turned out of its gardens 
at South Kensington through a want of pecuniary 
support, and now holds it exhibitions in the Drill 
Hall, at Westminster, while for its great annual 
flower show the same renowned institution gets the 
loan of the gardens belonging to one of the Inns of 
Court. Take, again, the Royal Botanical Society of 
London, with its charming gardens in Regent’s Park 
(with which the name of one of our greatest English 
gardeners—the late Mr. Robert Marnock—will 
always remain in brilliant connection), we have 
before us the last annual report of this famous 
society, and from it we gather that their gardens are 
at this moment burdened with a debt of fully 
;^i7,ooo, with five years of their lease to run, while 
the property belongs to the Crown. The Botanical 
Gardens of Glasgow, again, of which the late Sir 
William J. Hooker (father of the present Sir J. D. 
Hooker, so long associated with Kew) was practi¬ 
cally the founder. This institution had a few years 
ago contracted debts amounting to £50,000, which 
sum was advanced by the Corporation of the City, 
and inasmuch as the society was unable to pay its 
debts, its dissolution became necessary, and the 
extensive gardens are now the property of the 
citizens of Glasgow. The Botanical Gardens of 
Belfast, rendered famous by the learning and skill 
of the late Mr. Fergusson, became similarly 
impecunious, and the institution has now, we 
believe, ceased to exist. What, then, we ask again, 
are the special causes operating to this disastrous 
issue—disastrous, at least, from the point of view of 
those interested in botany ? 
Explanation of the Decadence. 
Undoubtedly the explanation of this general deca¬ 
dence of our numerous botancial and horticultural 
institutions, in this country, is the growing prefer¬ 
ence, everywhere, for the more violent pleasures, for 
the sensational, for fierce excitements. Nothing is 
now in vogue but the highly-spiced and seasoned. 
Not botany and horticulture alone, but nearly all the 
calmer and more intellectual forms of enjoyment are 
found to be " slow ” and “ tiresome.” Of this we in 
Manchester here have only too abundant proof; 
witness the way in which of late years have fared 
those other excellent institutions of our city the 
Concert Hall, representing music; the Royal Institu¬ 
tion, representing art; the Portico, representing 
literature ; and, lastly, the Natural History Society’s 
Museum (formerly located in Peter Street), repre¬ 
senting science. As one of the chief witnesses in an 
important case tried at the last Manchester Assizes 
very pertinently observed ; “There seems to be a 
vast wave of frivolity passing over the country ! ” 
The question is, when will this wave have passed ? 
This we take for certain, that until there shall be 
some reaction at least from the present universal 
craze for the more violent pleasures, we can hope 
for no extended patronage of institutions of the 
admirable character we have named, either in this 
city or elsewhere. And perhaps botany and horti¬ 
culture will have to wait for the desired reaction 
longest of all. This we fear. 
In the meantime, we were favoured on the 
occasion of our last visit to the Old Trafford Gardens 
with a very complete demonstration of the truth of 
the position above assumed, for which on our way 
thither we found it absolutely difficult to get along, 
through the road being encumbered with hundreds 
of vehicles of every possible description, and 
pedestrians of every possible character, all crowding 
—crowding in their thousands—to what place ? Alas, 
not to the beautiful gardens of the Botanical Society, 
but to the Old Trafford cricket ground hard by, 
while the gardens themselves were entirely deserted ! 
Thus, on a lovely July day—on a day of high mid¬ 
summer perfect as to weather—it was reserved for 
us to wander solitary, not only through the wide 
range of glass houses of all sizes, many of them 
filled with plants and objects of the highest interest, 
but through and over some twenty acres of 
beautiful lawn, shrubbery, and woodland, where 
the trees, familiar to us as saplings, now spread aloft 
their ample arms, offering a leafy arcade and 
grateful shade from the fervid sun of July— 
absolutely solitary! Could demonstration have 
been more complete of the truth of the position re¬ 
assumed in the outset ? The day was not a holiday; 
had it been so the illustration would have been im¬ 
perfect. The crowds through which we pushed our 
way were not of the labouring or artisan class, but 
of the more cultured and leisured portions of our 
population. 
Condition of the Garden. 
Wandering, as we have stated, through the Old 
Trafford Gardens, unhindered by the crowds we 
have been wont to meet there in former years, we 
had ample opportunity of minute observation. Con¬ 
sidering the smoke and sulphur-laden character 
of our Manchester atmosphere, and the near 
proximity of the gardens to the industrial centres, 
we found the foliage of the forest trees surprisingly 
green and fresh, while the broader-leaved shrubs, 
washed by recent rains, literally glistened in the 
sunlight. Cut down by the fatal frosts of May last, 
the plant-world was driven to new efforts and has 
recuperated wonderfully, inasmuch that hundreds of 
subjects which had been utterly denuded of their 
foliage have completely clothed themselves anew. 
The Old Trafford Gardens, by the way, afford an 
excellent field for testing the capacity of various 
trees and shrubs for enduring the hardships of our 
Manchester climate, deteriorated as it is by the 
influence of our manufactures, and we were 
pleased to observe that the opportunity of trying 
and experimenting with new plant subjects was being 
availed of. 
With respect to the flower garden proper, it is no 
light matter in our northern summer, and in a 
vitiated atmosphere, to hit upon plant subjects that 
shall ensure a succession of bloom; but in the 
present case this difficulty has been admirably met. 
At no time, these forty years past, have we found 
the parterres at Old Trafford so tastefully arranged 
or so resplendent with gay blossoms. And the im¬ 
mense capacity for improvement in nature is proved 
by the fact that the present brilliant display is largely 
derived not from the use of “ novelties,” but of 
improved varieties of “ old things,” such as the 
time-honoured Carnation, Snapdragon, Pentste- 
mon. Phlox, and Salvia, the last-named, as repre¬ 
sented by Salvia argentea, being especially effective 
as a foliage plant in bedding designs, and we would 
recommend its wider use. 
{To be continued.) 
- ^ - 
Silene Schafta. —This Siberian species is one of 
the gems of the rock garden, and should be planted 
where there is plenty of room for its roots to descend, 
in order to flower well. It forms a cushion of foliage, 
from which the flower stems arise only a few inches, 
bearing large, rich rose blossoms with a long, club- 
shaped and red calyx tube. It may be propagated by 
cuttings of the young shoots or by division. 
