244 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Dee. 20th, 1884. 
unless they are of exceptionable excellence. 
Market growers sow their seed thinly in shallow 
pans or pots in August and September, and stand 
these on shelves near the glass in gentle heat. 
As soon as the little plants are large enough to 
handle, they are dibbled out into other pans or 
pots, and from these, during the following spring, 
are shifted into single pots, getting a final shift 
into 48’s in the summer. Hence the plants simply 
need good soil, gentle warmth, plenty of light, 
near the glass, attention in shifting on, and occa¬ 
sional fumigation to keep down aphis. In all 
private gardens where Cyclamens are desired, a 
small span house should be set apart for their 
culture, as a quantity of plants should be raised 
from seed annually, and they always thrive better 
alone than in company with other things. 
-H*- 
Special Prizes foe Amaryllis — An amateur, 
anxious to encourage the cultivation of this fine 
race of plants, offers prizes to be competed for 
at the Eoyal Botanic Society’s First Spring 
Show, on Wednesday, March 25th, 1885, in the 
following classes, all of which are open:—(a) 
For the best seedling, (b) For the best six 
Amaryllis named. Preference will be given to 
the collection that contains the best proportions 
of light and dark varieties, (e) For the best dark 
and light varieties respectively selected among 
the plants exhibited in Class B. Fine form and 
substance are the points especially aimed at. 
Colour will not be regarded unless two flowers 
should, in other points, be considered equal in 
merit; the better coloured of the two would then 
receive the higher prize. These prizes will be 
awarded only on condition that the exhibits are 
considered to be of sufficient merit; and it is to 
be hoped that the competition will be a better 
one than we have had yet for similar prizes 
offered at South Kensington. 
Mushrooms in December. —These are, or 
should be, plentiful enough in most gardens 
where there is convenience for growing them, 
but it is not a common occurrence to find them 
this month in the open fields, as Mr. Driver has 
done at Minchinhampton. Our correspondent 
states that he gathered a nice dish last week, and 
they proved to be of good quality. Mushrooms 
have been very plentiful in the neighbourhood 
of Minchinhampton this autumn, owing to the 
mild, open weather. We have a note, too, of a 
fine dish of Mushrooms having been gathered 
last week near Penrith, one of which measured 
9 ins. in circumference. 
Experiments in Turnip Singling. —Mr. A. 
Stephen Wilson, of North Kinmundy, Aberdeen¬ 
shire, has been conducting some experiments with 
a view to ascertaining the results of singling 
Turnips at different distances apart, and as the 
subject is one that many gardeners, as well as 
farmers, will be interested in, we give the results 
as follows At the time of singling the intervals 
ranged between 5 ins. and 8 ins.; and at the time of 
pulling between 6 - 2 ins. and 9 7 ins. In the yellow 
Turnips seven of the eight tests give the greater 
weights at the lesser intervals, the weights on the 
remaining test being equal. The two largest 
intervals at singling, namely, 7h ins. and 8 ins., 
give the lowest weights. The smallest interval of 
5J ins. give the greatest weight of nearly 30 tons 
per acre. The lowest weight is 22 tons from 
7\ ins. In the Swedes four of the tests give the 
best results from the narrow intervals, and four 
from the wider. The heaviest pair of drills, 
yielding 35 tons and 33 tons per acre, are from 
intervals of 6 ins. and 7 ins., and the lightest pair, 
yielding 29 tons and 32 tons, are from intervals of 
6 ins. and 8 ins. All the greater weights are from 
the 5-in. and 6-in. intervals. 
(Stwtrcmng lltisalkng* 
We understand that the Council of the Eoyal 
Horticultural Society have agreed to the request 
made by the Floral Committee at its last meeting, 
that the two sections of the committee should be 
consolidated next year, a decision which we are sure 
will give general satisfaction. 
Arrangements are being made for holding a great 
International Horticultural Exhibition in Paris in 
May next, under the auspices of the National Horti¬ 
cultural Society of France, at which it is expected 
that prizes to the value of £4,000 will be offered for 
competition. M. L6on Say, Senateur and late 
Minister of the Exchequer, has been elected President 
of the Society, in the place of the late M. Alphonse 
Lavallee. 
It is stated that after paying all expenses, the 
Executive Committee of the late Forestry Exhibition 
in Edinburgh find themselves in the satisfactory 
position of having a balance in hand of over £300. 
Messrs. Thomas Methven & Sons have received a 
Eoyal Warrant, appointing them nurserymen, seeds¬ 
men, and florists to Her Majesty the Queen at Edin¬ 
burgh. 
At a meeting of the Eoyal Botanic Society, held on 
Saturday last, Mr. J. P. Gassiot, Vice-President, in the 
chair, fine plants of Olea fragrans, Sweet Olive of 
China, in flower, and of Erythroxylon Coca, the 
Coca of Peru, were on the table from the Society’s 
conservatory. Professor Bentley made special refer¬ 
ence to the Coca, which, although much esteemed in 
Peru, had only lately been acknowledged in the 
medical profession of Europe, especially with respect 
to diseases of the eye. 
Mr. A. Finlayson, solicitor, Aberdeen, has received 
a letter from Major-General Ponsonby, intimating 
that Her Majesty the Queen will give a prize of the 
value of £10 to be competed for at the exhibition 
of the Eoyal Horticultural Society at Aberdeen next 
year. 
The annual general meeting of the Edinburgh 
market gardeners was held in Edinburgh on Tuesday 
last—Mr. John Blackie, Leith, in the chair. The 
treasurer reported that they had a deposit receipt 
for £88, and a balance in hand of £18 17s. 9 d. The 
income of the past year amounted to £60 8s. 6 d., and 
the expenditure to £41 10s. 9 d. Bailie Lowe, Mussel¬ 
burgh, -was appointed treasurer, in place of Mr. John 
Douglas, who retired after seven years’ service. 
At the first annual dinner of the Kingston and 
Surbiton Chrysanthemum Society, held on the 11th 
inst., it was stated as evidence of the progress made 
during the last eight years, that while the amount 
taken at the doors at the first Kingston Show was only 
£13, the sum taken at the last Show was £132, £30 
of which was paid in sixpences in one hour during the 
evening. 
At the annual general meeting of the National Eose 
Society, held last week, Mr. Edward Morley, Addis- 
combe, Croydon, the Honorary Secretary of the 
Society, was presented, on behalf of the members, 
with a handsome regulator clock and a gold half¬ 
chronometer watch. 
The Wilts Horticultural Society, the formation of 
which we noticed in our last, will hold its first exhibi¬ 
tion on August 20th next, in Salisbury. 
At a meeting of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, 
held on the 11th inst., the following office-bearers were 
elected for the ensuing year :—President: Professor 
Dickson; Vice-Presidents: Bobert Gray, Dr. William 
Craig, W. B. Boyd, of Faldonside, Dr. T. A. G. Balfour ; 
Councillors: Charles Jennir, Alexander Buchan, Dr. 
Hugh Cleghorn, the Eev. John Macmurtrie, Kobert 
Lindsay, Patrick Geddes, Symington Grieve, Andrew 
Taylor, William Sanderson, and the Eev. J. M. 
Bobertson; Honorary Secretary : Professor Douglas 
Maclagan, M.D., F.E.S.E.; Honorary Curator : Pro¬ 
fessor Dickson; Foreign Secretary, Andrew P. Aitken ; 
Treasurer : Patrick Neill Fraser; Assistant-Secretary : 
John M. Maefarlane, D.Sc. On the recommenda¬ 
tion of the Council, the Society awarded Mr. A. 
Taylor cordial thanks for his valuable honorary 
services as assistant-secretary during the past five 
years, and also voted an honorarium to him. 
STANDARD ROSES. 
With reference to the average longevity of Standard 
Eoses raised in a recent article, I should like to in¬ 
vite the experience of old rosarians as to the varied 
effects of scion or bud upon the stock, whether 
it is not always found that the most robust grower 
gives the greatest age. It is all very well to say that 
stocks are often badly lifted, their roots grossly 
maltreated, and that, so badly furnished with these 
essential elements of life they soon die ; most likely 
the number of stocks rejected by reason of defective 
roots is after all, but small, because the men who 
make a livelihood by obtaining stocks in vast quantities 
for the trade growers of Eoses, know that their 
bundles will be rigidly scrutinized and all defective 
ones rejected. That such is the case, shows that, 
after all, but few badly-rooted stocks are planted by 
trade rosarians, and further, if these so far root well, 
that they throw wood and carry fine young growth 
from the bud the first year, it is evident that no 
fault can be found with the stocks. 
I think it will be found on inspection, that whilst 
a head composed of a kind that is of weakly growth, 
always affects for the worse the growth or swelling of 
the stock, the more free-growing and robust the kind 
worked on the stock, the more responsive is the stock 
and the longer does it exist. Probably budders would 
act wisely in selecting always the most robust stocks 
for weakly growing Eoses, and the more weakly stocks 
for free-growing Eoses, for in each one would act 
beneficially upon the other, the stock upon the weakly 
Eose, and in the other the robust-growing Bose upon 
the weakly stock. Now, the majority of Standard 
stocks are budded with hybrid perpetuals, and though 
these, as a rule, are fairly robust, yet, by reason 
that exists of the need for keeping heads within 
compass, it is found needful to prune hard and often. 
Hence the development is checked constantly, and 
because the head is not allowed to become large and 
freely developed, the stock also is not excited to 
effort, and indeed with the roots is apt to remain 
somewhat stagnant; that in Standard Eoses, as in 
many plants, means presently such a hardening of the 
woody cells of the stems that the free action of sap 
suffers, and presently the stocks present the appear¬ 
ance of plants in a state of suspended animation. 
On the other hand, a stock worked with some free- 
growing kind, Gloire de Dijon for example, that will 
in spite of all pruning, develop a big head, also 
creates with it a fine stock stem, the root action also 
is stimulated, and in time the Eose plant becomes a 
tree. As evidence of the longevity and expansive 
power of Briar stocks, I may mention that here 
some worked with Teas, the heads of which are inside 
a large house, and have ample room for growth, have 
created very fine sturdy stems, and there is no prospect 
of either dying for many years to come. Something 
may be due to the fact that the heads are under glass, 
and of course protected from severe weather, but most 
is I am sure due to the capacity of the heads to make 
almost unrestricted growth. We cannot dispense with 
hard pruning of Standard Bose-heads as a rule, but 
because of the necessity we must be prepared to pay 
the penalty in much Eose mortality.— A. 
— c— ■ . » .- -<> Z ‘ ~~B — 
RIYINA HUMILIS. 
I have grown this ornamental berried plant success¬ 
fully for a number of years, and still continue to do so 
on account of the distinct and striking colour of its 
berries ; and for general usefulness no plant that I am 
acquainted with will repay the cultivator better for his 
trouble. Bivinas are best raised annually from seeds, 
which should be sown early in March. A rich soil suits 
them well, and they should be grown on into 5-in. ox 
6-in. pots in a warm pit or stove. The young growths 
should be pinched two or three times during the 
summer, and the plants must be kept well syringed tc 
keep them free from black thrip, the Bivina’s mortal 
enemy. 
When well grown the specimens are very attractive, 
the long pendulous racemes of red berries being sc 
light and graceful in appearance, they are well adapter 
for table or drawing-room decoration, for which pur¬ 
pose I find them very useful. When once grown you 
will be sure to retain them, as they seed so freely.— 
IK. Driver, Longfords, Minchinhampton. 
