Sept. 27tli, 1884. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
51 
Cjf t (fekithig MorA 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1884. 
The Royal Hobticultubal Society’s Com¬ 
mittees. —We are in good company in taking 
occasion to regret that the various committees 
which sit in connection with the Royal Horticul¬ 
tural Society at South Kensington and perform 
its most useful and popular functions, should not 
have been called together twice during the present 
month, especially as a large fruit show was being 
held on the date the usual fortnightly meeting 
would have taken place had the committees been 
convened, and that in itself would have attracted 
the members in great force. So often have com¬ 
plaints been made by those who have novelties 
or other interesting garden products, that a 
month is too long an interval (in the present case 
the interval is of five weeks’ duration) to elapse 
between these meetings, that we are surprised to 
find in the early autumn month of September 
only one meeting is held. We notice that 
whilst in the beginning of the year it is only 
January and February, the dullest of winter 
months as a rule, have only one meeting allotted 
them; in the autumn—that is, the present season 
—no less than four months are so treated. We 
hope the Council of the Royal Horticultural 
Society have not got to think these committee 
meetings a bore. If so, then it is time to ask for 
what other reason or to perform what other work 
need the Society exist ? We should have imagined 
that gentlemen having some kindly regard for 
horticulture would have thought that its interests, 
as well as those of the Royal Horticultural Society, 
would have been best served by promoting an ex¬ 
pansion of the operations of the committees rather 
than by restricting them. If it is thought the 
present work for the committees is too onerous 
for its members, though we hear no complaints, 
that may be remedied by extending the numbers 
of those bodies, and calling up only one-half of 
each committee for each meeting. 
-- 
Boedee Cassations. —The month of August, 
especially the earlier portion of it, is usually held 
to be the best time to propagate border or Clove 
Carnations by layering. Still it sometimes 
happens that the work cannot be always done 
at that time, or it may be, as this year, that the 
weather is so hot and the soil so hard that it is 
difficult to perform the work just then satisfac¬ 
torily, and often it is deferred to a more convenient 
season. Early layering means early rooting 
and the production of strong, sturdy young 
plants, but the best has often to be made of a 
difficulty, and therefore if layering cannot be 
done in August it may be done during September 
with fairly successful results. It does materially 
help quick rooting on the part of layers if a free 
addition of old pit-soil, fine and gritty, be added 
to the border-earth in which the shoots are 
layered; indeed, when old stools are being dealt 
with, half a bushel of this kind of soil may well 
be used with the best results. We have seen 
mounds of layers, some thirty or more in number, 
from one stool, all layered by using additional 
soil, and all presently forming good-rooted layers. 
It speaks well for the propagating powers of some 
capital seedling Cloves, that in the second year 
they have each given thirty good layers at once. 
Thus a fine stock is created with little trouble 
and in a short time. It may not always be known 
that, even if layering is done so late that rooting 
is not possible the same season, and if the layers 
be taken off below the cut in the shoot and be 
dibbled out in a frame, all will make roots, 
and form good blooming plants ere the spring is 
well advanced. A hand-light placed over the 
layered plant will prove equally serviceable in 
promoting winter-rooting. Done when it may, 
layering will always give an ample stock of 
border Carnations. 
-- 
Addebs in the Wild Gabden. —As many 
gardens now include a wild part, or as popularly 
so-called—a Wild Garden, it cannot be too widely 
made known that such places afford good cover 
for snakes. Equally important is it, that every¬ 
one having such a garden, or the charge of one, 
should know what to do, if anyone is bitten and 
there is no doctor near. Mr. G. E. Wilson, 
Heatherbank, Weybridge, called attention to the 
subject in the columns of The Field of Saturday 
last, and we here reproduce his letter for the 
benefit of our readers :—“ Adder bites seem to 
have been more common than usual this year and 
the poison more powerful, probably owing to the 
great heat. My attention was painfully drawn 
to the subject through my son, when out with a 
well-known naturalist near our river at Wisby, 
being bitten in the hand. Within half-an-hour 
he could not walk, and could hardly speak. 
Ammonia externally and brandy internally were 
applied, but not for some little time; so the 
poison got fully into his system. He was very 
ill, suffered greatly for some days, and did not 
recover his strength for many weeks. If a strong 
young man in the fullest health (he had just 
returned from a Highland fishing-run) could be 
made so ill, such a bite must, I think, have been 
fatal to a weaker subject. The adder was a very 
large one. This accident brought me communi¬ 
cations from friends all over the country ; from 
them I gather that, if bitten at a distance from 
medical aid, the proper course is to tie a ligature 
above the wound, then cut off the skin (it is apt 
to close over the puncture), and, if the lips are 
uncracked, suck the place ; then rub ammonia 
over it and take brandy from time to time; and, 
as the remedies should be applied at once, it is 
desirable to have them near when in places 
frequented by adders. The patient should on no 
account be allowed to go to sleep. The popular 
country remedy is adder’s fat, but this I conceive 
can have no action different from olive or other 
sweet oil. Quite lately a navvy employed on the 
new Guildford railway was bitten. I am informed 
that he was taken to the hospital, but died in a 
few days.” 
The Blue Gum Teee.— If it be true that in 
Australia the prevailing tint of leaf colour is the 
beautiful shade of green peculiar to the Euca¬ 
lyptus globulus, andthat other tints would be there 
welcomed as a contrast, it is no less true that in 
English gardens not half enough use is made of 
the plant for the same purpose. We have in our 
eye a group of plants, some six or eight in 
number, each clothed with foliage to the ground 
and about 15 ft. high, backed up with tall deep 
green-leaved trees and shrubs, which has quite 
an unique effect. In a gentle breeze, the motion 
of the leaves add a charm to the group that is 
indescribable; the eye is irresistibly drawn to 
them, and one longs to see more of such charming 
contrasts. It is true that the plant is not hardy, 
at least near London, but neither are many other 
subjects that have had more favour shown to 
them than the Blue Gum tree, and that should 
be no bar to their extended cultivation. The 
plant is a striking one, whether in a small or 
large state, but it is the large ones, such as we 
have described above, that give the grandest 
effects. The best way of obtaining such plants 
is to sow the seeds the summer previous to 
planting them out, so as to get good strong plants 
about a foot high by the autumn; and these, 
if planted in good soil, will grow away at a 
wondrous rate. 
-- +£-1 - 
Potato Shows. —We referred last week to the 
very popular International Potato Show. There 
is one feature of the present year’s schedule of 
prizes which merits on the part of new or hitherto 
unsuccessful exhibitors careful attention. It is 
in the section of four classes specially arranged 
for the benefit of all who have not hitherto taken 
a first prize at these exhibitions. Thus small or 
inexperienced growers have some classes in which 
they will not have to fight on unequal terms with 
older exhibitors. As evidence of the exceeding 
popularity of the Potato as a show subject it is 
worthy of notice that on the week following that 
in which the International Potato Show is held 
there will be a three days’ exhibition of Potatos 
at South Kensington, in connection with the 
Ilational Health Exhibition; and that the 
prizes, which are good, are in classes arranged 
in diverse fashion from that usually found. 
Thus we find one class for fifty kinds, but it 
would seem as if the number of exhibitors in 
this class was not expected to be large, as the 
sums given as prizes are curiously enough less 
than are those offered for eight kinds of vege¬ 
tables only. Then we find classes for garden 
kinds, twelve dishes, which we presume mean 
only early or short-topped sorts, and also for field 
varieties, the which should include, of course, 
only coarse growers. Then we have other classes 
for American kinds with pedigrees, rather an 
onerous condition in that case, and also of Eng¬ 
lish-raised sorts with pedigrees, which should 
bring out some of the larger raisers. Finally, we 
find a class for twelve kinds suitable for late use, 
which will include, of course, some of the field 
sorts, as all strong-growing kinds make the best 
keepers. 
Anemones. —Incredulous readers will scarcely 
believe the statement that anemones are already 
in bloom, yet such is the case, beautiful flowers, if 
not yet quite so big as those which look so glorious 
in March and April, yet not less charming. How 
comes it that these spring flowers are blooming 
thus early in the autumn and so much out of 
season. They had bloomed beautifully during 
the spring and early summer, and after the seed 
was gathered the roots soon went to rest, and, 
thanks to heat, such rest too ! There can be no 
doubt at all but that these tuberous-rooted kinds 
like a good baking in the sun heat. It thoroughly 
ripens or matures the tubers, and the moment 
autumn rains fall the impulse to grow is marvel¬ 
lous, for leaves appear in a few days and in a 
week or two the once barren soil is rich in 
greenery. Then come the earliest blooms, and 
henceforth, if the winter be propitious, there is 
no lack of beautiful flowers until, perhaps, the 
end of the following May. The surface of the 
beds have just been stirred with a pointed hoe, 
kept free from weeds, and then dressed with a 
mulching of very short manure. The nutriment 
from this the rains have washed down to the 
tubers, and the growth resulting is luxuriant. 
The beds are bare for, perchance, a couple of 
months—say during July and August—but soon 
the leaves begin to appeal’, and for the rest of the 
time there is foliage and bloom. So easily is it 
to obtain anemones from seed that it is marvel¬ 
lous not to find them in every garden. Seed 
sown either as soon as ripe or early in the spring 
