228 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
Dec. 13th, 1884. 
Fumigating. —The mere mention of fumigating 
gives one an unpleasant sensation, but it is, 
nevertheless, one of those disagreeable duties that 
cannot well be shirked, and to keep plants in a 
healthy state, operations should be commenced 
on the first appearance of aphides or any other 
kind of insects that can be destroyed by fumi¬ 
gation, as a little delay will not only prove 
damaging to the plants, but it will be found far 
more difficult to eradicate insect life when once 
they get established. It is, moreover, an 
operation which requires the greatest care to 
thoroughly eradicate the pests without damaging 
the plants. Of course a great deal will depend 
upon the article used, yet still more will depend 
upon how it is used, and for this reason we should 
not like to recommend any one preparation as 
being better than another. We have used many 
different kinds of tobacco paper, &c., and have 
found but little difference in their efficiency when 
properly used. Previous to smoking, the house 
should be brought to as low a temperature as is 
consistent with safety, and the drier the plants 
are, the less likely they will be to get damaged. 
After the fumigating-pots are lighted, great care 
must be taken that no flame escapes, for this 
reason, potfe with perforated lids will be found 
best, but where these are not used, a little damp 
moss should be at hand, to put on in case they 
burn up too rapidly. The best time for fumi¬ 
gating is in the evening, though it may sometimes 
be done in the morning, but never on any account 
if the sun is likely to come on the house before 
the operation is finished. 
Flower Foems and Flobal Philosophies, 
is the title given to a series of three lectures 
in connection with Owens College, Manchester, 
by Prof. Williamson. On the occasion of 
the first lecture, Prof. Williamson said, it 
struck him that, seeing there were hundreds 
of greenhouses and conservatories in Man¬ 
chester, that there were probably thousands of 
gardens and tens of thousands of people who 
professed to be lovers of flowers, there might, as 
an exceptional thing, be some two or three dozen 
who might care to know what flowers were. He 
was thoroughly convinced that a large number of 
people did not care to have the knowledge, 
because, as a fact, the number who desired to be 
informed was exceedingly small. The result 
showed his prediction to be true. What he 
aimed at doing in this course of lectures was to 
give his audiences some conception of the remark¬ 
able forms of flowers that we met with in gardens 
and conservatories, and why they were what we 
saw them to be. There was nothing in nature 
that was the result of mere accident. There 
was a cause for all phenomena, and in the 
majority of these phenomena there was a law 
underlying the conditions regulating the results 
and producing a definiteness in many cases 
capable of being represented mathematically and 
numerically. He then went into his subject in 
detail, his remarks being illustrated by a number 
of diagrams. 
Sevebe Weatheb. —Mr. C. Warden writes :— 
“I wish to supplement Mr. Boothby’s note at 
p. 212 of your last issue, by recording a similar 
experience. Up to the morning of November 30th 
many flowers were flourishing out-of-doors here, 
in South Wilts, including Zonal Pelargoniums, 
in sheltered positions, Lobelia cardinalis, Schizos- 
tylis coccinea, and also Chrysanthemums, but 
after the morning named we had 14 degs. of 
frost, which seemed to wind up everything in the 
way of flowers out-doors. But in our case, 
instead of the snow following the frost, it pre¬ 
ceded it by a day, and the whole gave way to a 
general thaw at noon on Sunday. To the rapid 
thaw which followed this frost, I attribute a great 
deal of the injury done to plant life.” 
(Sarfrmnrg lilisalkng* 
St. Michael’s Pines are now arriving in large 
numbers and in excellent condition. At three of the 
Pudding Lane sales last week over 30,000 fruits came 
under the hammer, and were sold cheap. The well- 
swelled fruits average from 5 lbs. to 6 lbs. each, and 
are very fresh and perfect. 
Dr. Augustus Voelcker, F.E.S., the well-known 
analytical chemist to the Eoyal Agricultural Society 
of England, died at Kensington, on the 5th inst., aged 
sixty-two years. 
Mr. Stephen Brown, seedsman, of Weston-super- 
Mare, and formerly of Sudbury, Suffolk, fell downstairs 
on Saturday week, and received such injuries that he 
died on the evening of the 2nd inst. 
Messrs. Keegan Paul, Trench & Co. have brought 
out an English edition of M. de Candolle’s very useful 
book, The Origin of Cultivated Plants. 
Mr. Henry Frettingham, of Beeston, Notts, an 
enthusiastic trade grower of Eoses, and for some years 
a very successful exhibitor, died on November 30th, 
aged sixty-six years. 
The second Shepperton and District Flower Show 
is announced to be held on July 2nd next, in Lieut.- 
Colonel Harfield’s grounds at Sunbury House. 
The Council of the Eoyal Caledonian Horticultural 
Society have decided to hold their Shows next year 
on the following dates:—April 8th and 9th, July 8th 
and 9th, and September 9th and 10th; and the 
Chrysanthemum Show in the last week in November. 
The schedule of prizes for the Spring Show is now 
ready. 
The Preston and Fulwood Horticultural Society will 
hold its next Spring Show on March 18th and 19th, in 
the New Public Hall, Preston. We note in the 
schedule issued that a friend of the Society will give 
a gold medal value £3 3s., in addition to the money 
prizes offered, for the best twenty-four Hyacinths. 
Messrs. Watt & Anderson, of Edinburgh, who have 
a list of the rare plants cultivated by the late Mr. 
Anderson Henry, are offering the collection for sale by 
private treaty. 
At the next meeting of the Manchester Horticul¬ 
tural Improvement Society, to be held on December 
18th, a paper will be read by Mr. E. D. Astley on 
“ Leaves : their Forms and Functions.” 
The late Mr. J. S. Bockett’s fine collection of 
Orchids will be sold at Messrs. Protheroe & Morris’s 
Eooms, Cheapside, on Tuesday and Wednesday next. 
This collection has long been known to contain many 
fine varieties of Odontoglossum Alexandra, among the 
2,500 specimens of this Orchid grown at Stamford 
Hill. Eight hundred and twenty lots are enumerated 
in the catalogue, and, besides the fine crispums, are 
many other gems, such as the original Odontoglossum 
mulus. 
At the sixty-eight annual meeting of the Proprietors 
of the Glasgow Eoyal Botanic Institution, held on 
Monday, it was stated that during the year the 
revenue from ordinary sources amounted to £2,175 
19s. 5 d., and the expenditure to £2,691 10s. 6 d., there 
being a deficiency of £515 11s. Id., which deficiency, 
however, has been more than met by funds on hand 
at the close of the previous year, interest and new 
shares sold. 
The St. Peter’s, Hammersmith, and District 
Gardeners’, Amateurs’, and Cottagers’ Improvement 
Society has just been formed. It is proposed to hold 
monthly meetings for reading papers and discussing 
subjects of gardening interest. It is also proposed to 
hold a Chrysanthemum Show next year. Mr. H. J. 
Farron, 62, Black Lion Lane, Plammersmith, is the 
Honorary Secretary. 
At the last monthly meeting of the Scottish Horti¬ 
cultural Association, Messrs. E. B. Laird & Sons sent 
from their Winter Garden a collection of blooms of 
new Continental and English varieties of Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, including a number of single kinds, the most 
distinct of which appeared to be Miss Cannell, Miss 
Ellen Terry, Mrs. Killock, and Gus Harris. Some 
discussion followed as to the merits of these single 
blooms for cut-flower decoration, but the general 
concourse of opinion was decidedly unfavourable. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES 
FROM SOMERSET. 
Nothing could better illustrate the usefulness of 
public competition than the results of the recent 
Chrysanthemum Shows at Taunton and Yeovil. 
About three years ago, when a local lover of the 
queen of autumn flowers wished to arrange for an 
exhibition, he sought the assistance of sundry 
nurserymen with a view of ascertaining the names 
of the principal growers in the district. The replies 
received clearly showed that very few were known, 
even to those whose special business it was to make 
themselves acquainted with such particulars. The 
Shows recently held, however, have been the means 
of bringing lovers of the “ mums ” into personal com¬ 
munication, and already the results have been highly 
beneficial. Although it is but little over a year since 
the first Show was held at Taunton, the improvement 
in selection of sorts and in special culture has been 
most marked, and many of the plants and trays of 
bloom recently seen in the Castle Hall would have 
been a credit to any grower in England. 
At Yeovil the effort at organization is of still more 
recent date, but the Chrysanthemum Society now 
started there bids fair to do good work in the future. 
Already we hear of arrangements having been made 
for a series of meetings to be held during the winter, 
when papers on Chrysanthemum culture are to be 
read by gentlemen well known as growers and 
successful exhibitors. Moreover, the members, 
anxious to learn what they can from more experienced 
men, have been visiting several of the principal local 
growers. Some of them recently made a tour in the 
neighbourhood of Crewkerne, and obtained permis¬ 
sion to see the plants grown by Mr. W. B. Sparks 
and Mr. H. Parsons, of Misterton ; Mr. W. H. 
Hoskins, North Perrott ; Major Sparks and Dr. 
Wills, of Crewkerne. The principal collection 
visited on this occasion was that of the last-named 
gentleman, who has been a grower for nearly twenty 
years past. It consisted of about two hundred and 
fifty plants in some one hundred and twenty of the 
best varieties of incurved, Japanese, and pompons, 
all admirably grown, carrying splendid heads of 
bloom, and with foliage that spoke volumes for the 
constant care of the gardener, Frederick Coombs. 
They were skilfully arranged in a noble conservatory 
recently erected, and presented a most charming 
effect. 
There have been other visits, too, over the Dorset 
border to Compton, where Mr. J. Bowles, gardener 
to Major Goodden, has a very fair collection of plants. 
During the past week a call was made on Mr. W. 
Case, gardener to Mrs. Bagehot, of Herd’s Hill, 
Langport, who grew Chrysanthemums extensively 
many years ago, when they were not so fashionable 
as they are now, and who still strives to keep up 
with the times in culture and selection. 
But the principal excursion was on Saturday last, 
December 6th, when a large party of the Yeovil 
growers paid a visit to Mr. Lionel Patton, of Hillmore 
House, near Taunton, who, probably, has one of the 
finest private collections in the West of England. 
Although many of the plants are past their prime they 
still present a perfect picture of floral loveliness that 
does credit to the cultural skill and tasteful arrange¬ 
ment of the gardener, Mr. Simmons. Three large and 
admirably-built houses are occupied by about 700 plants, 
including 200 varieties. When it is added that 
amongst these are the best and newest sorts, that they 
are all healthy and well grown, and that the plants 
are so arranged as to show off the colours to the best 
advantage, it will readily be understood that the sight 
is one to delight the eyes of every lover of the 
beautiful, whether florist or not. The trained plants 
are staged in the orchard-house, and many of them are 
5 ft. to 6 ft. in diameter, and literally covered with 
blooms. For instance Fair Maid of Guernsey had 400 
fully developed flowers upon it. Close by was a 
Princess of Wales, with over 100 grand incurved 
blooms, a delicate purplish-blush upon white. Chang 
was another noble plant, laden with flowers. And so 
one might go on, with splendid specimens of Baron 
Beust, Delicata, Madame C. Audiguier, Hero of Stoke 
Newington, and many other leading varieties. The 
Melon-house, about 60 ft. long, is lined on each side 
several plants deep, while the end opposite the 
