238 
Dec. 13th, 1884. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
lished, Erica acquired its modern definite sense, 
designating that matchless group of hardwooded 
flowering under-shrubs in which we find not only the 
beautiful ereice and heath of our forefathers, but the 
nearly 400 species that were quite unknown to them, 
being natives of a region they wot not of, that land of 
flowers, the extreme point of South Africa, familiarly 
called the Cape of Good Hope, and many of which are 
the pride of the modern greenhouse. 
Enriched as our modern gardens are with the 
botanical wealth of every country in the world, it is 
hard to think of the time when the Rhododendron, 
the Euehsia, the Camellia, the Chrysanthemum, were 
not only unknown, but undreamed of, as in truth our 
modern Orchids were, only fifty years ago. How 
grand has been the outward ripple of enterprise to 
discover and concentrate in our own dear little island 
the loveliest, the sweetest, the most marvellous of 
Nature’s vegetable productions 1 When George III. 
ascended the throne, not only had the Rhododendron, 
the Fuchsia, the Camellia, the Chrysanthemum, still 
to arrive, but every one of the heaths excepting the 
original dozen Europeans. The best-known of the 
latter would undoubtedly be the indigenous “ common 
heath ” or “heather,” in Latin, Calluna vulgaris, the 
species of widest distribution, extending as it does 
over the whole of central and northern Europe, to the 
Arctic circle, eastward to the Ural Mountains, and 
westward even to the Azores and Labrador, where it 
stands as the sole American representative of its 
special race, for the Calluna Atlantica so called 
(Seeman’s Journal of Botany , iv., 305,1866) can hardly 
be considered distinct. Mark here that “ vulgaris ” in 
Botany does not mean 1 vulgar,’ or the character and 
behaviour of the ignorant, the selfish, and the dis¬ 
courteous—of such of these in particular, as suffer 
from that grievous mental disease, the idea that 
money by itself suffices to make a man a gentleman. 
In botany “ vulgaris ” means universally diffused, or 
the same as when the Prayer Book calls plain English 
the “ vulgar tongue.” The Calluna is at once known 
by its minute, closely-imbricated leaves, and long erect 
clusters of shining lilac flowers. 
It is this one, the Calluna, which we take to be the 
plant entitled purely and simply to the name of 
“ heather.” Doubtless, in the northern parts of our 
island, “heather,” a modification seemingly of 
Scottish origin, is applied indiscriminately to the 
Calluna and to the two common wild Ericas, einerea 
and Tetralix—the late Mr. Bentham even restricts it 
to the einerea. But standing alone, as a species, it is 
eminently convenient, at all events, to let “ heather ” 
denote the Calluna, and nothing besides, and then we 
have precise and definite appellations, and know what 
we are talking about. “Ling,” it may be added, 
is another name for the Calluna, thus a synonym of 
“heather” ipsissima. Calluna, as a genus, was 
distinguished about the year 1800, by the celebrated 
botanist, Richard Anthony Salisbury, who pointed out 
in the Transactions of the Linnaan Society (vi., 317), 
that the structure of the flowers and seed-capsule is 
essentially different from that of the ericas in general, 
the calyx being coloured and longer than the corolla, 
and the detriscence of the capsule “ septicidal ” 
instead of “ loculicidal.” The name he bestowed 
upon his new genus was eminently felicitous, being 
derived from the old Greek word Kalluno, to adorn or 
embellish, the functions so well played forth by the 
beautiful plant which during the pleasant drive upon 
Cannock Chase so charmed the heart of “Aldershaw” 
—a heart counting very plainly with those enviable 
ones which are rich in the fine secret thac “ makes 
music from the common strings wherewith the earth 
is strung,” and thus grow daily in capacity for 
all pure enjoyments and all lofty and enduring 
satisfactions. 
The Calluna is at home not only upon the mountain 
side and the lonely moorland, but it has great love for 
the steep banks of wooded ravines that lie faeeward 
to the sunshine, fern, and Blackberries not far off, 
and where we may sit down and listen to the “ quiet 
tune ” of running water not in view. 
After the Calluna, our forefathers would be most 
familiar with the einerea, that delicious plant which, 
though attached, like the preceding, to dry moorlands 
and hilly wildernesses, loves quite as well the green 
open spaces of dry woods, where silence is, and we are 
always young, forming a knee-deep jungle, and 
fringing their uncertain paths, hanging also, in 
cataracts of crimson, from the crevices and ledges of 
sunward cliffs. They would be fairly familiar also 
with the Tetralix, or “ crossed-leaved heath,” the 
kind so charitable, like the silver-tassels, to wet moors 
and “ mosses,” cheering them with its bright touch 
of the queenliestof all the colours, blush deepening into 
rose, the texture withal so delicate that the blossoms 
seem a cluster of waxy berries rather than flowers. 
The geographical distribution of these two, though 
both are very plentiful in Britain, is not so wide as 
that of the Calluna. The einerea extends from 
southern Spain to Norway; the Tetralix, in southern 
Europe, is strictly western, but in the northern 
parts it has a more eastward tendency. 
In the early days of botany it is probable that 
the Vagans, the Mediterranea, the Arborea, and 
perhaps others, had been discriminated, and to 
some extent “erica” and “heath” would cover 
these as well. Into this further question we need 
not go. For our own practical every-day purposes 
“heath” means the Erica einerea and the Erica 
Tetralix; and that by “heather” it is eligible to 
denote the Calluna alone. They are heaths of this 
character, if not these identical species, which furnish 
the material for the so-called “Briar-root” pipes, 
esteemed by smokers, “ briar,” in this connection, 
being a corruption of the French bruyere. The 
“ heather-bells ” of Scottish Song are the flowers of 
any of the three species above described, though the 
name is also very elegantly applied, in the shape of 
“ heath-bell,” to the azure flowers of the Campanula 
rotundifolia, the true “ Bluebell of Scotland.” In 
the dictionaries we have likewise “ heath-rose,” but 
with no better definition than “ the name of a 
plant.” 
Pending the discovery of the precise ownership, 
perhaps it may be regarded as the flower seen not 
only upon the heath, but in the forest, on the shore, 
yea, by the dreariest wayside, even amid the 
“ diamonds of the sky,” when the Rose is already in 
the soul.— Leo Grindon, in Manchester City News. 
—e=» <*6+=*-=9—- 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
Royal Horticultural.—The concluding meeting of 
the year, of the Fruit and Floral Committees, was held 
on Tuesday last, when there was a small but interest¬ 
ing display of flowers, and a good attendance of 
Committeemen ; but owing to the unfavourable state of 
the weather, there were very few visitors. Messrs. 
Cannell & Son sent up from Swanley a fine group of 
Chinese Primulas in pots, which included a greater 
variety of colours than we had before seen in any 
similar collection. The plants were nicely bloomed, 
and the colours very pure and bright. Amongst the 
named sorts we particularly noticed Swanley White, 
a pure white fimbriated flower of fine size and 
substance; Emperor, a good red, but not the best; 
The Queen, blush white ; Lilacina, a very pretty lilac- 
coloured flower, with a wire edge of white; Invicta, 
rosy-crimson; Swanley Red, very good indeed; Swanley 
Giant; a large and showy rosy-purple; Queen of 
Whites, Princess Beatrice, white ground, heavily 
shaded with rose; Princess of Wales, peach-coloured; 
and Swanley blue, a fimbriated flower of good sub¬ 
stance, and very bright. As usual, and especially at 
this season, the Messrs. Cannell also contributed some 
splendid cut blossoms of various Zonal Pelargoniums. 
Most conspicuous among these were the single white 
Queen of the Belgians and the double white Le Cygne, 
very pure. The best of the scarlets were Scarlet 
Cloth, Advance, Ajax, and Alcides ; and of crimsons, 
Ida Walter and F. Kauffer; while of the salmon- 
coloured sorts, Lady Chesterfield and Favourite; and 
of the pinks, Mrs. Bowen and Mrs. Robertson were 
conspicuously bright and attractive. 
Messrs. John Laing & Co., Stanstead Park, Forest 
Hill, contributed cut blooms of some more new 
Chrysanthemums, and received First-Class Certifi¬ 
cates for the beautiful little yellow Pompon, Val 
d’Or, noticed in our columns last week; and for 
Fabias de Maderanaz, a decided novelty in the form of 
an Anemone-flowered Japanese variety, white at first, 
but shading off with age to pink. 
Baron Schroeder’s gardener, Mr. Ballantyne, and Mr. 
James, Castle Nursery, Norwood, each received First- 
Class Certificates for Cattleya'bulbosa grandiflora, but 
the varieties differed much in the depth of colour, 
Mr. James’s plant having a decided advantage in this 
respect. Mr. Ballantyne also received a similar award 
for Odontoglossum Andersonianum flaveolum, a 
large, finely shaped, straw-coloured ground flower, 
changing with age to a deeper yellow. Sir Trevor 
Lawrence, Bart., M.P., received a First-Class Certi¬ 
ficate for Calanthe Sandhurstiana, a garden hybrid, 
with rich, deep-rose coloured blossoms. Calanthe 
tincta delicata and Houlletia odoratissima, a hand¬ 
some species with large, shining, deep blood-red 
flowers, also came from the Burford Lodge 
collection. Perhaps the largest piece in the countiy 
of Dendrobium Leechianum was shown in fine bloom 
by Wm. Lee, Esq., Downside, Leatherhead. It is a 
garden hybrid of the same parentage as the better 
known D. Ainsworthii, and the Committee thought it 
so near that variety that they awarded only a 
Cultural Commendation. A cut, seven-branched.spike, 
bearing forty-five flowers, of Odontoglossum Alexandras 
was shown by G. F. Wilson, Esq., F.R.S., Heather- 
bank, Weybridge ; and a good specimen, with fifteen 
flowers, of a fine type of Cypripedium insigne 
violaceum punetatum, shown by Mr. Heims, gardener 
to F. A. Philbrick, Esq., Q.C., Oldfield, Bickley, was 
also distinguished by the award of a First-Class 
Certificate. 
Messrs. James Veitch & Sons exhibited two more of 
their hybrid greenhouse Rhododendrons, one of which, 
named Conqueror, was certificated. It bears fine 
large trusses of crimson flowers, but the latter are not 
so fine in shape or so bright in colour as some of their 
other seedlings that we have seen. Chrysanthemum 
Maid of Athens was shown by the same firm, as a good 
late flowering white Japanese variety. Mr. Turner, 
Slough, and Messrs. Hooper & Co., Twickenham, 
each contributed some beautiful winter-flowering 
Carnations, and the former received a First-Class 
Certificate for a rich deep claret-coloured variety 
named Grand Monarch. From Messrs. William Paul 
& Son, Waltham Cross, came specimens of Abies 
Douglassii, and A. Douglassii glauca, the last-named 
being a well-marked variation from the type. 
Mr. Allan, gardener to Lord Sutfield, Gunton Hall, 
Norfolk, rendered good service to Violet growers by 
exhibiting not only a box of blooms, but a round 
basket of flowering-plants of Comte de Brazza’s 
double white Neapolitan Violet, the flowers of which 
were large, very pure, and deliciously scented. It is a 
grand variety. 
The Fruit Committee had not much placed before 
them for consideration. Mr. Roberts of Gunnersbury, 
had a couple of strong robust young plants of the 
Negro Largo Fig, in full leaf, and bearing excellent 
crops of fruit coming to maturity. Mr. Hudson, 
gardener to H. J. Atkinson, Esq., Gunnersbury House, 
Acton, contributed two nice fruits each of Queen and 
Lord Carington Pines, and a handsomely developed 
fruit of the Smooth Cayenne, weighing about 6 lbs., 
which was conspicuous for the absence of any trace 
of a crown. Messrs. James Veitch and Sons, showed 
a well-grown sample of Henderson’s White Plume 
Celery, a dwarf yet robust-growing variety; and from 
Chiswick, Mr. Barron sent up samples of other Celeries, 
including Williams’ White Queen, Clayworth’s Prize 
Pink, Harrison & Son’s New Early Rose, and Watkins 
& Simpson’s Covent Garden Red. 
The usual business of the Committees being con¬ 
cluded, a formal meeting of both bodies took place, 
to discuss the proposed amalgamation of the two 
sections of the Floral Committee, and in the end tie 
following resolution was agreed to unanimously 
“ That the Council be respectfully informed that the 
Floral Committee has endeavoured loyally to conform 
to regulations adopted by the Council for the present 
year, the chief feature of which is the division of tl e 
Committee into two sections. The Committee had no 
opportunity of expressing an opinion in advance of 
the change, but now that a year has elapsed, feels 
bound to say that the change has proved unfavourable 
to the despatch of business. The Committee in its 
divided state cannot command the variety of know* 
ledge and fulness of judgment that are requisite to 
its deliberations, and the several members, being 
restricted in their critical consideration of subjects 
submitted, feel less interest than formerly in the 
business that calls them together. Moreover, the 
restriction limits their compensation for the time and 
