132 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Nov. 1st, 1884. 
The Cost of Orchids. —In the columns of an 
evening newspaper one hardly expects to find a 
well-informed writer discoursing on Orchids, yet 
in The livening Standard of Tuesday last was a 
pleasantly-written column of Orchid lore, from 
which we extract the following remarks on the 
cost of these interesting plants:—‘‘The question 
of cost is important for those whom we would 
fain address, and it makes the third great super¬ 
stition attached to our theme. Professional 
hints and sensational paragraphs in the news¬ 
papers have encouraged the most ludicrous mis¬ 
apprehensions on this point. At a great sale 
last year, when, as was reported through the 
universe, something eccentric was bought for 
two hundred and thirty-five guineas—what it 
was escapes us — we personally bought six 
healthy, well-grown pots of Dendrobium nobile 
for six shillings, besides other species almost as 
cheap. Four of these half-dozen gave us several 
scores of the loveliest blooms in the spring. He 
who would buy flowers of the rarest class ready 
made, thoroughly ‘ established,’ that is for 
several years, and big in proportion, must pay 
Mr. Bull and other nurserymen a very long 
price, but one not unreasonable under the 
circumstances. Such an Orchid formed part of 
the spoil, may be, obtained by an expedition that 
cost thousands, and it has to pay its quota of 
expeditions as costly which returned not the 
plant nor one sixpence. It has been housed and 
tended with a science beyond price, at great 
charge, and the result is such as the tropics 
could not show. For that we must expect to 
pay. If Boses could be brought to such artificial 
perfection grand specimens would bring a price 
as high. But if Mr. Bull asks—and gets—two 
hundred guin eas for an Odontoglossum vexillarium, 
he is quite satisfied with a few shillings for a 
hundred sorts as lovely, or more so, to him who 
seeks beauty and interest alone. The matter of 
expense may rest there, but not for want of 
similar illustrations. One, indeed, we cannot 
refrain from quoting. At the end of a sale we 
observed the sweeper brushing chips and frag¬ 
ments into a heap. A tiny morsel of Oncidium 
caught our eye, dry and withered. We gave him 
sixpence for it, hung it on a bit of cork, and 
waited. That is two years since, and at this 
moment a long spike with thirty blooms perhaps, 
enlarging hour by hour, give us that keen delight 
which none but orchidacians can feel, watching 
the expansion of a flower unnamed, assured that 
it will be beautiful and quaint, but assured of 
nothing else. 
The Chrysanthemum Shows. —From Wed¬ 
nesday next, when the Chrysanthemum Show 
season opens at Ealing until November 26th, 
when it closes at Liverpool, exhibitors will have 
a busy time of it, as may be seen from the 
following list of fixtures : — 5th, Ealing ; 6th and 
7th, Southampton; 7th, Cheshunt; 7th and 8th, 
Havant; 10th and 11th, Stoke Newington ; 11th, 
Putney; 11th and 12th, Brighton, Croydon, 
Kingston-on-Thames, Lambeth; 12th, National, 
at the Westminster Aquarium ; 12th and 13th, 
Bath, Colchester ; 13th, Walton-on-Thames ; 
13th and 14th, Brixton Hill, Bichmond, Ted- 
dington, Tunbridge Wells ; 14th, Beading ; 14th 
and 15th, Crystal Palace, Canterbury, Hudders¬ 
field ; 18th, Borough of Hanley ; 18th and 19th, 
Lincoln, Winchester, Woodford ; 19th, Wim¬ 
bledon; 19th and 20th, Birmingham, North¬ 
ampton ; 20th, Dublin, Taunton; 20th and 21st, 
Hull; 25th, Manchester; and 25th and 26th, 
Basingstoke and Liverpool. 
Messrs. Messenger & Co., Horticultural Builders, 
of Loughborough, have just completed a novel con¬ 
servatory for the Mayor of Bradford. It is 40 ft. long 
by 25 ft. wide, and heated by the same firms’ Patent 
Elastic-jointed Pipes, which are now so much in use, 
owing to the ease with which the joints are made or 
taken apart. 
S art) mi ng ||Ustel (an n. 
Mr. Turner states that, with rare exceptions, the 
Dahlias at Slough were cut down by the frost on the 
morning of October 9th, but those of the Dahlia 
Juarezi section entirly escaped. 
Mr. T.allack has left Prideaux Place, Padstow, and 
has been succeeded by Mr. E. Brown. 
Mr. W. Sutton, formerly gardener at Eshald House, 
Leeds, has been engaged as gardener to C. J. Leaf, 
Esq., Pain’s Hill, Cobham. 
Owing to the break up of Mr. W. Leach’s establish¬ 
ment at Oakley, Eallowfield, near Manchester, Mr. 
William Swan, who for nearly twelve years has had 
charge of the choice and well-grown collection of Or¬ 
chids there, is seeking another engagement. The ser¬ 
vices of such an enthusiast should not long go begging. 
The annual display of Chrysanthemums made by 
Mr. Turner, of Slough—always a great treat to 
admirers and growers of the queen of winter flowers—- 
will be opened to-day, Saturday, and be continued to 
the end of the month. 
Messrs. John Laing & Co., of Forest Hill, were 
intrusted with the floral decorations on the occasion 
of the recent marriage of the Marquis of Stafford, 
M.P., and Lady Millieent St. Clair Erskine, and were 
highly complimented on the tastefulness of their 
arrangements. The boudoir decorated for the 
Princess of Wales was very prettily done. 
The opening meeting of the Manchester Horti¬ 
cultural Improvement Society (Session 1884-5) will be 
held in the Committee Room of the Old Town Hall, 
King Street, on Thursday evening, November 6th, 
when Professor Ward, of the Victoria University, will 
read a paper on the subject of “Boots.” The chair 
will be taken at seven o’clock. 
Mr. George Copeland, Western Hill Nursery, near 
Durham, and Mr. John A. Freemantle, Barsledon, 
Hants, market gardener, have been adjudicated bank¬ 
rupts. 
In the published fist of awards to the exhibitors at 
the Health Exhibition, we note that Messrs. James 
Carter & Co., of High Holborn, have received a gold 
medal; Messrs. John Warner & Sons, Cripplegate, 
take one gold, three silver, and three bronze medals ; 
and a gold medal has also been awarded to the Native 
Guano Company, Aylesbury. 
A recent calculation shows that Paris has 172,000 
acres in parks, or one acre to every 13 inhabitants ; 
in Vienna the proportion is one acre to 100 persons; 
in Chicago, one to 200; in Philadelphia, one to 300; 
in Brooklyn, one to 639 ; and in New York, one to 
1,363. New York, however, proposes to buy 3,808 
acres for additional parks at an estimated cost of 
2,000 dots, per acre, or in the aggregate an expenditure 
of 7,616,000 dols. 
“A lyttle Boke of ye Narcissus or Daffodyl Flowre, 
and hys Roots, with hys historie and Culture, etc., 
with a Compleat list of all ye kinds grown in Englishe 
Gardines,” will shortly be published by “ Peter Barre 
and hys sonne at their shoppe in King Street, by ye 
Convent Garden, nigh ye Strand.” It contains, A 
May-day Idyl, a.d. 1610, Mr. Burbidge’s Daffodil 
Congress' paper, chapters on Double Daffodils and 
Narcissi, Hybridization of Narcissi, The Poetry of the 
Daffodil, Cultural Water, and an illustrated descriptive 
Catalogue of all the Wild Species, Hybrids, and Seed¬ 
lings grown in English Gardens. 
“ Regel’s Gartenflora.” — In the September 
number of this Magazine we notice the following:— 
Fritillaria imperialis var. inodora purpurea (t. 1164). 
A fine variety with dull crimson-purple flowers with 
longitudinal stripes of a slightly darker shade.— 
Orthocarpus purpurascens (t. 1166). A dwarf Scro- 
phulariaeeous plant, with pale green pinnatifid leaves 
with very narrow segments ; and terminal ovoid 
spikes with bright purple flowers. It is a native of 
California, and the plate was prepared from plants 
grown in 1883, by Messrs. Haage and Schmidt.— 
Saxifraga aquatica (t. 1167). A new erect plant, with 
numerous trilobed leaves which are again deeply 
toothed ; and terminal branched racemes of numerous 
white flowers. It grows in the Pyrenees at an altitude 
of about 7000 ft. The lithographed plate of this is 
uncoloured. 
JAPANESE LILIES. 
It is seldom that these are potted in time, as almost 
as soon as the tops die down the bulbs begin to root 
afresh, and it is impossible then to handle them 
without doing some injury, which, being so, the best 
way is to see to them at once. In turning them out 
the right mode of procedure is to work away the old 
ball and then pull out the stalks, which leave the 
crowns freely, taking with them the mass of fibres 
formed at the base, which, if left, would be in the 
way of the young shoots, and, in all likelihood, lead to 
decay of the scales, as the stem-roots are generally 
found matted among them. Unless the bulbs are 
very thick and crowded it is not advisable to separate 
them, but, instead of that, to give them larger pots, 
which should be well drained and have some rough 
soil over the crocks, when the Lilies may be placed 
carefully on it, and then have a handful or so of sharp 
silver sand scattered amongst them. This will keep 
them clean and healthy by preventing water from 
lodging about them, and the sand will also act as a 
deterrent to worms, which are often a great trouble to 
Lilies in pots. 
For filling up around the bulbs a mixture of equal 
parts of peat and loam is the most suitable, and both 
should be fresh and fibry, in which state they are 
more open and porous. The best place for Lilies 
after potting is a cold frame, where they ought to be 
kept somewhat close to prevent the soil drying, as 
water should not be given if it can be avoided till the 
bulbs start into growth. When they do this and the 
shoots have reached some length the pots may be 
filled up by degrees, and, after danger from frost is 
over, stood out in some open, sheltered spot, where 
the plants will do better than they will if kept under 
glass, as their growth will be more sturdy and strong. 
With the pots full of roots liquid manure should be 
administered once or twice a week, and continued 
till the plants have done blooming, when they must 
again be placed out in the open and kept drier to assist 
them in ripening.— Alglm, 
TOWN AND SUBURBAN 
PLANTING. 
In continuation of the descriptive list of trees and 
shrubs suitable for this purpose at p. 103, I will now 
name a few of the most effective flowering-trees, then 
some of the best weeping trees, and conclude with a 
selection of beautiful flowering - shrubs. Amongst 
flowering-trees for town and suburban planting the 
Almond (Amygdalus communis), and the Flowering 
Peach (A.persica flore pleno),and others, are deserving 
of the first consideration, as nothing can surpass their 
beauty in the early spring, and they grow to perfecticn 
in and around London. The double-flowered Cherries 
may be noted as fit companions for the above. Cerasus 
Watereri is a very superior variety of flowering cherry 
which deserves to be largely planted. In Cotoneaster 
frigida we have a very ornamental London tree, more 
especially in autumn when it is covered with clusters 
of scarlet fruit, and it may be seen in many situations 
about town. The Laburnum is well known to be one 
of the ornaments of early summer ; it grows freely 
almost everywhere, and nowhere can it be more appro¬ 
priately planted than in London and the suburbs. 
The varieties best known are the Common Laburnum, 
the Scotch, and Waterer’s variety, which is looked 
upon as the finest of all the Laburnums. 
For general planting out of town, the most majestic 
of all flowering-shrubs are the Magnolias in variety ; 
M. grandiflora is the one best known and most often 
seen, because it is frequently trained against the walls 
of residences. The varieties M. exoniensis and ferru- 
ginea are more hardy than the type, the latter having 
the preference. Some of the deciduous varieties are 
very fine, and three of the best which should be planted 
everywhere are M. Soulangeana, M. Lenne, and M. 
conspicua. The blossoms of the first are tinted with 
rosy-purple, in the second they are purple, and the 
last named are white. The genus Pyrus affords an 
interesting group of plants to select from. The well- 
known Mountain Ash (Pyrus aucuparia) is one of the 
most conspicuous of berry-bearing trees in autumn, 
and the yellow-fruited variety, P. aucuparia fructu- 
luteo should be largely planted if only for the contrast 
in colour. Pyrus Malus baccata is a most desirable 
