July 25th, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
739 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
(iarkniitg Work 
SATURDAY, JULY 25th, 1885. 
Plants foe the Sick.— A plea that cannot 
easily be resisted has been made through the 
press in aid of that special department of the 
Kyrle Society which concerns itself with the 
providing of plants and flowers for the poor. 
Whilst this plea is in the interests of the poor 
chiefly, it is also for the benefit of those who are 
sick and those who are well, but our sympathy 
chiefly lies with the sick, because good health is 
itself a blessing, which nothing else can ade¬ 
quately replace, and those who are in health can 
in some form or other obtain advantages from 
which the sick are debarred. The plea, therefore, 
put forth in aid of the provision of plants and 
flowers for the sick, especially in hospitals, has 
special force, and goes home to the hearts of all 
who love flowers, and it is hoped specially of those 
who have plants and flowers in plenty. Perhaps 
some readers may join with us in asking why it 
is that, whilst we practically lavish large sums of 
money in the decoration of our parks and public 
gardens (especially in the metropolis) for the grati¬ 
fication of those who can get out to enjoy them, we 
have made no public provision of similar charms 
for the sick. Why, for instance, may not some 
public department take hospitals under its care 
so far for the provision of plants and flowers and 
other elements of sweetness and beauty, instead 
of having these appeals to private generosity. 
Obviously, though many public gardens are 
maintained from the imperial taxes, such a public 
burthen as that now suggested should 'not be 
placed on these, because hospitals should be 
maintained solely by funds raised in the areas 
they cover. Had the great metropolis that 
municipal government which all other cities and 
towns have, the local authorities might then not 
only take charge of the public parks and gardens 
within its radius, but could, from the same source 
which provided these with plants and flowers, 
also furnish the humbler town gardens and 
hospitals with similar elements of pleasure and 
beauty. 
Very much from time to time has been made of 
the giving away of plants lifted from the beds 
and borders in the public parks and gardens in 
the autumn ; but such gifts are valueless, as the 
plants are just then absolutely unfitted for pot- 
culture under such conditions as the poor possess, 
and specially so at the very worst period of the 
year. One good plant established in a 48-sized 
pot given in the spring is worth a score of such 
fresh-lifted bedding plants given in the autumn. 
If generosity of this sort is to be practical, let it 
take a more sensible form, and provide plants in 
pots in the spring, such as the poor can and would 
cultivate with unquestioned delight. But in the 
present case we want provided for the sick poor 
plants that do not require much tender care 
from those who wish to enjoy them. We want 
plants fresh and healthy, full of bloom, and 
calculated to carry bloom for some time. Musks, 
Fuchsias, Petunias, Balsams, Stocks, Migno¬ 
nette, Pelargoniums, Maiden-hair Ferns, India- 
rubber plants, Creeping Jennies, &c., these are 
but a few of the things which might be provided 
in myriads from some municipal garden and be 
distributed over the hospitals and infirmaries of 
the metropolis, or of great towns, for the delecta¬ 
tion of the unfortunate inmates. If done in that 
way the work would be well and regularly per¬ 
formed, but if left to private generosity it will be 
done only intermittently and unsatisfactorily. If 
that course be not adopted, at least the authorities 
can contract with florists to florally decorate 
our sick institutions at moderate charges. Any 
plan seems better than one which necessitates 
constant appeals to the public, whilst the 
additional charge upon the municipal taxes would 
be far too infinitesimal to merit disapproval. 
-H*- 
Nice Points of Inteepeetation. — These 
are often cropping up in schedules of prizes, and 
judges are sometimes put to their wits’ end how 
to interpret ambiguous expressions in a large and 
generous spirit. At a recent show in the country 
there was a class for twenty-four varieties of cut 
Boses, single blooms, the schedule saying no¬ 
thing more. Two exhibitors out of five compet¬ 
ing in this class put up some thing like thirty-six 
and forty flowers each, confining themselves to 
the twenty-four varieties, but having several in 
duplicate. These two stands should have been 
disqualified, but at the request of the Committee 
they were taken into competition, on the under¬ 
standing that the practice of staging more flowers 
than is obviously required by the schedule should 
be discontinued. What are practically evasions 
of the Schedule of prizes are occasionally per- 
mitted by judges, with the result that they 
become precedents, and awkward ones too, when 
another judge is called in in the course of a 
year or two. 
How often one sees in schedules a class for, say, 
twelve bunches of flowers, distinct varieties, 
which could and perhaps should be read twelve 
distinct varieties of hardy flowers in bunches; 
and it is curious to notice how not a few exhi¬ 
bitors will put into a bunch three or four different 
kinds, say of Candytuft, Pinks, Sweet Williams, 
&c.,thus greatly increasing the number of varieties 
actually required. It is hard to disqualify these 
when the practice has been sanctioned by pre¬ 
vious awards; but there is a distinct violation 
of the strict requirements of the schedule, and 
bunches of hardy flowers are much more effective 
and instructive when composed of one variety 
only. Becently, at a country exhibition, there 
was a class for the best collection of Carnations, 
not less than twelve varieties, and the prizes 
were so good, that the first and second should have 
been awarded only to stands of decided excellence. 
One exhibitor only entered, and he put up a 
stand that did not contain a single bloom worthy 
the name of a Carnation; they were mainly 
Cloves, and among them were four or five yellow 
ground seedling Picotees. It was contended 
by the exhibitor that these were Carnations, as 
they had come from seeds of Carnations, which 
was not disputed, but they did not come up to 
the level of the Carnations required by the 
schedule. And the exhibitor was very angry 
because a large sum of money, that should be 
given only to a stand of the best quality, was 
not given to what was little better than rubbish. 
What is really wanted at country shows is a 
well informed, but firm and courteous super¬ 
intendent, whose duty it should be to see that 
all subjects staged be in conformity with the 
requirements of the schedule. This would save 
the judges a great deal of unnecessary delibera¬ 
tion as to whether certain things were eligible 
for competition or not. As a rule, judges are 
much overworked at country exhibitions, having 
a large number of classes to go through, and too 
often, many of them containing exhibits of a 
vexatiously-inferior character. Their work is 
greatly delayed when they are called upon to 
decide on questions that could more fittingly be 
pronounced upon by the framers of schedules. 
But, in all interpretations that judges have to 
put upon schedules, it is best to do it in a broad 
and generous spirit, at the same time indicating 
where a practice is wrong, and suggesting that it 
be righted another season. 
(Sarbmhtg 
Flower Shows for Next Week. — Tuesday: 
Meeting of Fruit and Floral Committees at South 
Kensington.—National Carnation and Picotee Society’s 
Show.—Buckingham Horticultural Society’s Show, 
Wednesday : Aberdeen Horticultural Society’s Show. 
Thursday : Oxfordshire Horticultural Society’s Show. 
Saturday : Pioyal Horticultural Society of Southamp¬ 
ton’s Summer Show (2 days).—Liverpool Horticultural 
Association Show in Sefton Park (2 days), 
The Annual Excursion of the members of the 
Horticultural Club will take place on Thursday next, 
when Slough, Egham, and Virginia Water will bo 
visited, including Baron Schroeder’s garden at The 
Dell. 
Mr. S. Lyon, for the last six years gardener to Lady 
Scott, Sundridge Park, Bromley, is leaving that estab¬ 
lishment, owing to the property being sold, and has 
been engaged by Lord Bridport to succeed Mr. Jones 
as gardener at Cricket St. Thomas, Chard, Somerset. 
Mr. A. Fenton has succeeded the late Mr. Muir as 
gardener to Lord Hopetoun, at Hopetoun House, 
Linlithgow. 
It has been decided to hold the Auricula Conference 
at South Kensington on the 23rd and 24th of April 
next. The programme of the Conference and Exhibi¬ 
tion will be issued shortly. 
The balance sheet of the York Gala and Horticul¬ 
tural Exhibition, held in June last, shows a balance 
in hand, after meeting all liabilities, of £217 3s. Id, 
The income from all sources amounted to £1,794 
18s. Id., and the total expenditure, including £535 for 
prizes, was £1,577 15s. A silver Challenge Vase, 
value 15 guineas, and a first prize of £10, is offered by 
the Chairman of the Hull and East Biding Chrysan¬ 
themum Society for 48 blooms, 24 incurved, at the 
ensuing exhibition on November 19th and 20th, 
Mr. Jennings, gardener to Leopold de Kothschild, 
Esq., Ascott, who exhibited the magnificent collection of 
Souvenir de la Malmaison Carnations at the late Bose 
Show at South Kensington, has, we are pleased to 
hear, been awarded a Silver Banksian Medal by the 
Boyal Horticultural Society. 
At a recent sale of Orchids by Messrs. Protheroe 
& Morris at their rooms in Cheapside, the following 
prices were realized :—Cattleya Beineckiana super- 
bissima, £34 13s. ; C. Arnoldiana, £30 9s.; Laelia 
elegans, a fine imported mass, £26 os. ; Odontoglos- 
sum species in bloom, £19 8s. 6 d. 
Mr. W. C. Bennett, of Condover, Shrewsbury, has 
brought under our notice a machine for washing 
flower-pots which he is bringing out, and which should 
meet with a ready sale amongst those who have much 
of this unpleasant work to do. The machine consists 
of a couple of cylinder-shaped revolving brushes, fixed 
side by side, with a handle and cog-wheel arrange¬ 
ment, which, when put in motion, will wash a pot 
inside and out at the same time. The “ Simpless ” 
Flower-pot Cleanser, for so it is called, has also an 
advantage in that it can be fixed to any tank or tub. 
Pruned Boses produce fine flowers, if, as some¬ 
times happens, they are pruned properly. A good note 
on the subject appears at p. 50 of the Gardeners’ Chron¬ 
icle, of July 11, the summing up of which is that “ un¬ 
pruned Boses do best!” Thirty years ago Mr. Hib- 
berd proposed to leave unpruned all proper garden 
Boses, restricting the pruning to those from which 
a few extra fine flowers were required. In his 
“Amateur’s Bose Book,” published 1863, the pro¬ 
posal was formulated for practical purposes. In the 
fifth edition of the “Bose Book,” published 1874, 
p. 87, will be found the following statement: “ We have 
some gigantic bushes that have never been touched 
by the knife for at least twenty years, and they are 
wonderful for health and splendour ; but, of course, 
they do not produce Boses fit for exhibition.” Mr. 
Hibberd’s proposals in respect of pruning have been 
long and laboriously abused, but everywhere men are 
acting on them very much to their advantage,— 
Gardeners’ Magazine, 
