180 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Nov. 22nd, 1884. 
materially changed in appearance. Dressing can 
do very much for the Auricula. I have seen a 
dresser busy over a faint grey, rubbing the farina 
from the edge, and changing it into a green. In 
the North of England especially, where dressing 
is an art, flowers are materially changed during 
the process. Take the flower of the present 
season—the Chrysanthemum—and see how great 
an improvement is worked in the blooms by 
clever dressing. I have known exhibitors grow 
large and full flowers, and have heard them say, 
‘ I shall be beaten by So-and-so, he understands 
dressing better than I do.’ I am not condemn¬ 
ing the practice, for it is a waste of words to do 
so ; but I do ask why should the Hose be made 
an exception to the other flowers I have named ? 
An exhibitor has a lot of fine Hoses, he knows 
that grand as they are they may not all of them 
last through the journey to the show and exposure 
in a hot tent for several hours, and he applies a 
little gum to the base of the petals. It is done 
in the case of the Pelargonium, and no one 
protests. 
“ Let us be consistent. Either abolish dressing 
altogether, as some say, but which I am sure 
cannot be done ; or leave exhibitors to do as they 
please. If they adopt practices that are of a 
nature to wilfully mislead the jndges, and they 
are found out, they must take the consequences, 
but who shall undertake to say what is lawful 
and what unlawful ? The old Lancashire florists, 
it is said, invariably made a practice of sitting 
down to pipe, glass, and pleasant chat after their 
exhibitions, and before all loyal and compli¬ 
mentary toasts drank this one with unbounded 
enthusiasm, ‘ May we never be found out.’ It is 
when somebody is found out that we hear a good 
deal about the iniquity of dressing flowers, there 
is a great flow of virtuous indignation, and it is 
forgotton. Does anyone suppose that Hoses 
were gummed for the first time at Leek F It 
was perhaps done a little slovenly, and the 
operator was found out. Think you he was the 
only offender? Not he. Nor will he be the last. 
There will be plenty of Hose gumming next year 
as a result of the publication of the fact by the 
Leek Hose Society.” 
G-ardenees’ Hoyal Benevolent Institution. 
-We are requested to state that, in order to 
meet the wishes and convenience of a great many 
collectors for the Pension Augmentation Fund of 
this institution, the time for closing the list has 
been extended to Monday, December loth. We 
understand that at a meeting of the Committee 
of Management, held on Monday night, it was 
decided that the annual meeting and election of 
pensioners should take place on Wednesday, 
January 14th next, and that nine pensioners 
should be added to the list, making a total of 104 
on the books of the Institution. Three of the 
applicants will be put on the list without the 
trouble of an election, in accordance with rule 
six. The Committee also decided that consols 
to the value of £300 should be purchased and 
added to the reserve fund, to which there is also 
good reason to believe will shortly be added the 
£500, less £50 legacy duty, left to the Institution 
by the late Mrs. Dodgson. 
Plants certificated in Ghent.— At the last 
meeting of the Belgian Chambre Syndicate des 
Hortieultuers, held in Ghent, a few days ago, the 
jury, composed of Mr. Charles van Geert, of Antwerp, 
President, Messrs. A. Verschafielt, A. Van Geert, 
senior, Louis De Smet, Pechers, Charles Spae, Fr. 
Desbois, and Lubbers, Secretary, awarded Certificates 
of Merit to M. Louis van Houtte for Batemania valis 
major, and Vriesia fenestralis; and to M. De Smet- 
Davivier for Globa coccinea. Cultural Certificates 
were voted to M. Ad. d’Haene for Maranta Makoyana ; 
to M. Beauearne d’Eename for Vanda Lowii, 
Cypripedium Lowii, Cypripedium Isevigatum, and 
Cypripedium Parishii; and to M. Ed. Pynaert for 
Philodendron Selloum, 
(Saxtmhrg |Histc((ann. 
On Tuesday and Wednesday next Chrysanthemum 
Shows will be held at Liverpool and Basingstoke, and 
on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at York. 
Professor Oliver, of the Herbarium, Kew, has 
been awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society. 
At a meeting of the Nottingham Horticultural and 
Botanical Society, held on the 12th inst, Mr. A. H. 
Pearson, of Chillwell, read a paper on “ Hardy Fruit 
for the Midland Counties.” 
Mr. George Povey, late of Weybridge, has been 
engaged as gardener to W. Graham, Escp, Manor 
House, Crayford, Kent. 
Messrs. Ireland & Thomson have just acquired 
by purchase the extensive ranges of hot-houses and 
offices, and a portion of the nursery ground, lately 
belonging to the Lawson Nursery and Seed Company, 
Edinburgh, and have also secured on a lease about 
thirty acres of land adjoining, belonging to the same 
Company. It is, we understand, the intention of 
Messrs. Ireland & Thomson to still carry on their 
Royal Exotic and Craigleith Nurseries. 
Mr. Wilson, formerly gardener at Castle Hill, 
South Molton, Devon, who went out to Australia 
last February, has returned to London, after visiting 
Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne, and failing to find 
any adequate scope for his abilities. Mr. Wilson is 
seeking another engagement in England. 
“ The Garden Annual ” for 1885, which has 
recently been published, seems to be an improvement 
on its predecessors. When we note that there are 
3,385 names in the trade-list, and that the number of 
gentlemen’s seats, with the names of the gardeners 
thereat, in Great Britain and the Channel Islands, 
exceeds 7,260, and consider the number of changes 
which take place every week, the errors are few 
indeed. 
The tubers on the root of the Liliputian Potato, 
several times shown this autumn by Messrs. James 
Carter & Co., were counted the other day and found to 
number 353 in all. 
Messrs. Nutting & Sons, seed merchants, who, for 
the last thirty years, have carried on their business at 
60, Barbican, are now, in consequence of the expiration 
of their lease, removing to Southwark Street, having 
purchased the premises lately occupied by the Lawson 
Nursery and Seed Company. 
Mr. H. J. Oldboyd, after carrying on the business 
of a nurseryman and seedsman for nearly forty years 
in Shrewsbury, has at length resolved to retire, and 
on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday the whole of his 
valuable nursery stock was sold by auction by Messrs. 
Lythall, Mansell, & Walters. 
The Lawson Nursery and Seed Company, Edinburgh, 
has been re-organized, and the business will, we hear, 
be conducted in future under the style and title of 
Peter Lawson & Son, with Mr. David Syme at the 
head of the firm. 
We much regret to hear that, after the publication 
of the next number, The Florist and Pomologist will 
cease to exist. This once popular monthly has been 
in existence for thirty-six years, having been started 
in January, 1848, as The Florist and Garden Miscellany, 
by that well-known florist, Mr. Edward Beck, of Isle- 
worth, and under whose editorship it soon became 
recognized as “ an honest authority in florists’ flowers.” 
In 1851 Mr. Charles Turner succeeded Mr. Beck as 
editor, and continued to direct its affairs until the end 
of 1860, when Dr. Hogg and the late Mr. John Spencer, 
of Bowood, took a share in its management. In 1867, 
when it became the property of Dr. Hogg, Mr. William 
Paul, and Mr. Thomas Moore, of Chelsea, the title was 
changed to its present form, and Mr. Moore became its 
editor, and a few years later its sole proprietor. 
At the annual meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society of Ireland, held on the 14th inst., it was reported 
that the financial results of the exhibitions of 1884 
have been exceptionally small and unsatisfactory. All 
liabilities have been cleared off, but, in order to 
do this, it was found necessary to draw upon the 
reserve balance to the large amount of £155 7s. 2d. 
It is intended to hold most of the exhibitions 
of the coming year in the Rotunda grounds, 
the central position of which makes them equally 
convenient and accessible to exhibitors and visitors 
from all parts and sides of the metropolis. 
THE APPLE CONGRESS REPORT. 
We have been furnished with a copy of the Report 
of the Committee which carried out with such singular 
success,thegreat Apple gathering last year at theRoyal 
Horticultural Society’s Gardens, Chiswick, to promote 
which the Council of the Society seems to have 
simply granted the use of the gardens and nothing 
else. This great Congress was but another evidence 
of the absolute uselessness of a great Society, when 
anything of value in horticultural work is to be 
performed, and how much better such work can be 
and is done by private enterprise. The Report which 
is a somewhat voluminous one of 250 pages, comes 
rather late it is true, and the reason for the delay 
that has taken place is not stated, but still it is a ease 
in which the old adage of better late than never holds 
good, and the thanks of all fruitists are due to 
Mr. Barron, the compiler and editor, and also the 
energetic and active Secretary to the Congress Com¬ 
mittee, for his exertions to press the Report to a 
successful issue at last. 
The Report is in all respects simple in character, 
and is almost entirely a pure record of facts. It is in 
no way disfigured by personal references or toadying 
allusions to this or that personage. Mr. Barron has 
faithfully and fully’ set forth all the information which 
came in his way in regard to Apples, and that will 
be found of exceeding interest and value. The book is 
prefaced by a short report of the circumstances which 
led to the organization of the Committee, and the 
ultimate carrying out of the Congress, and is followed 
by a list of the names and addresses of the 231 persons 
who so cheerfully sent examples, contributing as they 
did the enormous number of 10,150 dishes of fruits. 
The body of the Report gives the kingdom, including 
Ireland and Jersey, as divided into twelve sections, 
the most important of which is the Southern section 
or group of seven counties, Middlesex, Berks, Kent, 
Hants, Surrey, Sussex and Wilts, this section giving 
no less than 3,500 dishes, or more than one-third of 
the whole. Kent, as becomes the county famous as 
the garden of England, heads the list of dishes with 
913, whilst Middlesex also, a great Apple-producing 
district, follows with 908 dishes ; Surrey, Sussex and 
Berks falling next in order. 
The next most prolific group is the South-Midland, 
which includes the counties of Bedford, Bucks, Herts, 
Hunts, and Oxford, giving 1,560 dishes, of which 
number Herts gives 716, and ranks next to Middlesex 
in productiveness, whilst Bucks, with 458, comes 
between Sussex and Berks, as also does Oxford 
Curiously enough, the great Western district, com¬ 
prising as it does eight counties so well-known to fame 
for the growth of Apples, gave a somewhat less number 
of dishes than did the five South-Midland counties 
just noticed, but then it is probable that great trade 
growers are not so common in that district as in some 
others. However, it does but become painfully evident 
that the farther we get north the more rapidly do the 
number of exhibits lessen, showing that after all it is 
in the sunny south that Apples must ever be the most 
abundant. 
In all these groups Mr. Barron has, with exceeding 
care, given alphabetically the names of each exhibitor, 
the number of dishes each one sent, and remarks, 
concisely revised, made by the sender upon his 
exhibits. The reporter has made special mention of 
particularly good kinds in each collection. Lastly, 
there has been made by the exhibitors in each group 
an election or selection of best kinds, both of Dessert 
and Kitchen, for the district represented, though it 
would seem that in this matter doctors of Apples, 
as well as of other things, materially differ. Thus 
we find that Kentish exhibitors, to the number of 
14, being asked to select the best 12 Dessert and 
12 Kitchen kinds for their districts, gave, in the 
former, 63 kinds, and in the latter, 59 kinds. 
Again, 12 Middlesex growers, in reply to the same 
queries returned 43 sorts in one case and 46 
in the other, so that the selection of the best 
24 sorts remains as open as ever. One or two 
things however are noteworthy. In the first place 
the most popular dessert kind in the three chief 
Apple-sending counties is Cox’s Orange Pippin, and of 
others which come into the highest places are Ribston, 
King, and Kerry Pippins, and Scarlet Nonpariel. That 
beautiful early Apple, Mr. Gladstone, gets six marks in 
Kent, because it is there better known, but in Middle* 
