548 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
May 2nd, 1885. 
chief drawback to be found in such discussions 
is that the parties thereto are often absolute 
strangers to each other personally, and so remain. 
A conference may therefore possess valuable 
social elements, which, in many ways, can hardly 
be too highly esteemed. 
No doubt it will be asked what sort of topics, 
in relation to the Potato, can be discussed, and 
we may reply, that between the subject of Potato 
species of an edible kind, or suited for human 
food, and the final, and by no means uninteresting 
subject of cooking Potatos, and serving them 
up for human consumption, there is a vast field 
open, over which the inquirer could range with 
usefulness to himself and his audience. Assum¬ 
ing that allied Potato species become the subject 
of a paper, there would follow production of kinds 
from garden varieties, cultivation as a profitable 
market crop, and for garden and exhibition pur¬ 
poses ; culture in relation to disease, with special 
reference to the experiments concerning the 
protective moulding system now being tried at 
Chiswick; fungoid and other Potato diseases; 
storing and preservation; cooking and serving 
up, and various other topics, all full of interest, 
if they are treated as worthy of interesting 
discussion. 
The fact' that a large display of tubers will be 
made at South Kensington at the time of the 
proposed conference will materially assist to 
accentuate interest in the proceedings on the 
part of cultivators, both professional and amateur. 
Even more may that interest be excited by the 
prospect of a grand Potato season, for such at 
least is the present promise. We cannot be sure 
that such promise may be borne out, for none 
can tell what, in the way of weather and disease, 
the summer may bring forth. We see a grand 
fruit season in prospect, and if we get the one 
we may be almost certain of a good Potato year 
also, especially that the promise in both cases 
was never greater than now. We may well hope, 
therefore, that when the conference does meet 
in October next it will have universally to testify 
that the Potato crop has been one of the finest 
on record. 
Spie.ua japonica. —Although there seems to 
be good reason for believing that plants of Spiraea 
japonica may be grown and prepared for market 
work in this country as well as in Holland, it 
discounts all efforts in that direction when we 
find that really first-class roots or clumps can 
be purchased abroad at 10s. per 100, a rate of 
production which it seems impossible to hope 
that home - growers can cope with. It is this 
element of cheapness in production which gives 
foreign growers such an advantage over home- 
growers in many things, but it is not to be 
assumed that in these matters we are altogether 
losers. Most certainly many of our market- 
growers and nurserymen will tell us that it is 
the primary comparative cheapness of many of 
the things they grow for public sale in our home 
markets which enables them to do business at 
all; indeed, but for the ease with which many of 
these things can be obtained, trade here in many 
of them would be next to nothing, and labour in 
many ways would suffer. 
With regard to Spiraeas, their greatest enemies 
here are found in late frosts and keen easterly 
winds, which so commonly prevail just when the 
roots in the open air are making their first 
growth. To ensure absolute immunity for the 
plants from these evils, it is desirable that when 
divided in the winter whilst at rest, they should 
be at once planted up thickly, in low broad 
frames, in which they can remain until the month 
of May, being well hardened by free exposure on 
fine days. The roots will then have thrown out 
masses of rootlets, and, being lifted, will carry 
with each some soil attached. When planted out 
at about a foot apart in good soil, they will 
during that summer develop into really strong 
plants, and in the winter the crowns will be 
found large and plump. It is so important to 
save the first growth from injury by frost and 
wind in the spring, that no trouble should be 
spared to ensure that end. Clumps in 32-sized 
pots may be divided into three or four smaller 
ones, as they extend rapidly, and the crowns 
come all the stouter for having ample space and 
root room. 
The Paris International Horticultural 
Congress. —The following is a free translation of 
the questions, eighteen in number, which it 
is proposed to discuss at the Congress to be 
opened at the head-quarters of the National 
Horticultural Society of France, 84, Hue de 
Crenelle, on May 21st, at 2 p.m.:— 
1. The charges of railway companies for the car¬ 
riage of vegetables. 
2. Rules for naming garden plants, hybrids, and 
the necessity for retaining the names of the parents. 
3. What is the influence of the electric light on 
vegetation ? 
4. Does moonlight exercise any appreciable influ¬ 
ence on vegetation ? If so, of what nature ? 
5. What influence has age in seeds on the products ? 
6. Can one tell, on seeing a seed of a discious 
plant, the sex of the plant which will come from it ? 
7. Are there any signs by which seeds which will 
produce plants with double flowers can be told ? 
8. Is it possible to tell seeds which will produce 
variegated plants ? 
9. How can it be explained that the ovary of an 
Orchid which has not been properly fertilized may 
swell to the size of one which has, and yet not contain 
seeds ? 
10. Are the changes which cultivation brings to the 
flower of a plant accompanied by morphological 
changes in the whole of that plant ? 
11. Has the temperature of the water used in water¬ 
ing a plant any influence on it, and, if so, what is it ? 
12. Can a cause for variegation be determined, and 
a means of causing it laid down ? 
13. How has it been possible to obtain plants (such 
as Mr. Bleu’s Caladiums) in which there is no trace 
of chlorophyl in the leaves, and yet they grow well ? 
14. The use of bottom-heat in stoves and the degree 
which it may not pass without becoming injurious. 
15. What foundation is there to the theory of Yan 
Mons, according to which, in obtaining varieties of 
fruits from seeds, it is necessary to get those of bad 
quality before getting those of good ? 
1C. What is the general opinion respecting Mr 
Louis Vilmorin’s idea that a plant never gives a 
variety with variegated flowers until after it has pro¬ 
duced one with perfectly white flowers ? 
17. What is the best way of seeding Orchids? 
18. Is charcoal useful for mixing with the soil for 
Orchids ? 
We should add that the Congress w ill be con¬ 
tinued from the 21st to the 23rd of May; that 
ladies will be admitted and allowed to take part 
in the discussions ; and that the French language 
w’ill be the official one for the occasion. 
— g_■ 1 C «0 > G v ' ^ — 
The Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution.— 
The report and list of subscribers for 1885 of the 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution has just come 
to hand, and I find on running through the list of 
pensioners as they appear, that from 1880 to the last 
election no less than sixty-one aged persons have been 
placed on the funds of the Society. Of this number, 
thirty-two are males and twenty-nine females, now 
receiving £20 and £10 per annum each respectively. 
Is there any other society within the reach of 
gardeners’ opportunities and means doing half so much 
for the aged and infirm amongst us ? If not, what a 
great inducement such facts should offer for everyone 
to take into consideration the desirability of making 
themselves eligible for such a comforting relief, should 
it be needed, by forwarding a guinea annually to Mr. 
Culter, or a ten guinea subscription paid down at 
once.— W. Swan, Fallowfield, Manchester. 
(Sarirming llUsaUang, 
The offices of the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent 
Institution are temporarily removed from 14, Tavis¬ 
tock Row, W T .C., to 20, Spring Gardens, Charing 
Cross, in consequence of the former premises being 
required for the extension of Covent Garden Market. 
The Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland post¬ 
poned its Spring Show from-the 16th to the 22nd inst., 
in the expectation of being favoured with a visit from 
their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of 
Wales, but suffered a great disappointment for so 
doing. The show was a good one, but it rained hard 
all day, and the attendance was perhaps the smallest 
ever witnessed at any previous show. 
Messes. Protheroe A Morris and Mr. J. C. Stevens 
both announce sales of flowering Orchids for the day 
after the Orchid Conference, Thursday, May 14th. 
The lease of Wills’s Nursery, Fulham Palace Road, 
S.W., will be put up for sale at The Mart, Tokenhouse 
Yard, E.C., on May 7th. 
At an early date, Mr. Stevens will sell the collection 
of Orchids formed by A. D. Berrington, Esq., of 
Pant-y-Goitre. 
The first annual exhibition of the recently-formed 
Highgate, Finchley, and Hornsey Chrysanthemum 
Society is announced to be held on November 5th and 
6th, in the Northfield Hall, Highgate. 
An Aster and Zinnia Show will be held at Maid¬ 
stone on September 2nd, under the auspices of the 
local Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society. 
Mr. G. J. Close, lately gardener at Briarley, Aig- 
burth, Liverpool, has succeeded Mr. Mortimer as 
gardener at Purley Park, near Reading, 
Messrs. James Dickson & Sons, Chester, who bought 
Mr. Pickstone’s stock of bulbs of the grand “ Sir 
Watkin ” Daffodil, have sent us a very fine bunch of 
flowers, some of which are larger than any we had 
seen before. The delicious fragrance of this variety 
is by no means its least conspicuous merit. 
We learn that the floral decorations on the 
occasion of the recent visit of the Prince and 
Princess of Wales to Limerick Station were sup¬ 
plied from Summerville, the seat of J. F. G. 
Bannatyne, Esq., and arranged by that gentle¬ 
man’s gardener. On the raised dais on which their 
Royal Highnesses received the deputations were two 
groups of Marguerites, blue, white, and yellow; the 
crimson carpeting showing them off to the greatest 
advantage. Other available places were filled with 
groups of Spirteas, Drachmas, Palms, Ac., giving a very 
charming effect, and adding much to the appearance 
of the scene. On the landings, and in various nooks 
and corners leading to the luncheon-room, were placed 
specimen Crotons, Palms, Dracaenas, Pandanus 
Veitchii, Azaleas, Ac. The luncheon table was taste¬ 
fully decorated with Orchids and Ferns from the same 
establishment. The Princess also graciously received 
from the hands of Miss May Bannatyne, a young 
lady of four years, a splendid bouquet, most tastefully 
made up by Mrs. Bannatyne, and which consisted of 
Eucharis, Gardenias, Carnation Miss Joliffe, and 
many choice Orchids, prominent among the latter 
being spikes of Odontoglossum Alexandra and Ada 
aurantica. The bouquet was edged with real Limerick 
lace and tied with the Danish colours. The Princess 
also received a bouquet from Lady Emiy, and a very 
pretty basket of flowers from Miss Inin, daughter of 
the resident magistrate. 
Window Gardening. — At the Bathmines Town 
Hall, Dublin, on the evening of the 13th ult., a 
lecture on “ The Difficulties of Window Gardening ” 
was delivered by Mr. F. W. Burbidge, F.L.S., in 
connection with the Bathmines Sanitary Association. 
Mr. Lombard, J.P., presided. The lecturer, having 
first spoken of the advantages and the pleasures to 
be derived from a cultivation of flowers and plants, 
referred at some length to the difficulties attending 
the culture of window plants. Having disposed of 
these, he proceeded to detail the proper methods of 
growing such plants. They should obtain the proper 
kind of soil, and a sufficient amount of light and air, 
and constant moisture also should be allowed to the 
plant. The Rev. Canon Bagot, in moving a vote 
of thanks to the lecturer, spoke of the extent to which 
window gardening had been carried on in London. 
If there was to be a flower show in connection with 
this Association he hoped that there would be prizes 
given for the window gardening of children. It would 
inculcate in them habits of thrift and industry, above 
all things necessary in this country. He would be 
willing to contribute towards providing prizes. The 
motion was seconded by Mr. Hogg, and passed with 
acclamation. 
