580 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
May 11, 1895. 
that size, shape and colour are often placed 
before quality in the public estimation ; but 
even here, good cultivation is absolutely 
necessary. In private establishments it 
often happens that the gardener is called 
upon to grow Tomatos under very adverse 
conditions, and he cannot be blamed for 
many of the failures that result. Tomatos, 
to do well, must have a house to themselves 
however small, with a suitable exposure. 
Then even here, as in the larger cultures, 
technical instruction, and a wide diffusion 
of the elementary principles underlying the 
growth of plants would greatly aid the 
growers to place upon the market an article 
of such quality as would break the bad: of 
foreign produce. True, there are side issues 
to be considered, such as railway rates and 
other matters, but the growers must com¬ 
bine to send their produce in quantity to 
reduce carriage expenses, and to keep up 
the supply regularly, not intermittently, so 
as to secure the confidence and custom, 
and meet the demands of the best markets. 
» » > 
Coventry Chrysanthemum Show. —The first exhibi¬ 
tion of the recently-formed Coventry Chrysanthe¬ 
mum Society is fixed to be held on November 6th 
and yth. 
Mr. Alexander Crichton, gardener to Mrs. Croall, 
Southfield, Liberton, Midlothian, has been engaged 
as gardener and bailiff to Miss Cox, Clement Park, 
Dundee. 
Mr. Alexander Urquhart, late gardener to Mrs. Fox 
Tarratt, Ellary, Argyleshire, succeeds Mr. Crichton, 
as gardener to Mrs. Croall, Southfield, Liberton. 
Viola and Pansy Conference. —A conference of 
Viola and Pansy growers will be held on the 29th 
inst. in connection with the show of these flowers to 
be held in the Botanical Gardens, Edgbaston, 
Birmingham, on that date. 
Horticultural Implement Exhibition at Manchester.— 
A special exhibition of horticultural implements 
and appliances will be held for a week in connection 
with the Great Whitsuntide Exhibition, which opens 
in the Botanical Gardens, at Old Trafford, on May 
31st. 
Gardening as an occupation for deaf mutes. —The 
directors of the New York Institution for the 
Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb have in contem¬ 
plation the education of the inmates in horticulture. 
The experiment will be watched with great interest. 
The Royal National Tulip Society will hold an 
exhibition in the Inner Temple Gardens, in connec¬ 
tion with the great Temple Shov of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, on Tuesday, May 21st. 
Mr. George McLean, who was for upwards of 
twenty years gardener to the Earl of Lichfield at 
Shugborough Hall, Stafford, has taken the Wollaton 
Hall Gardens, near Nottingham. 
The People’s Palace —The Winter Garden at the 
People's Palace in the Mile End Road, E., has 
recently been enriched by a collection of some 300 
Palms, Camellias, Azaleas, etc., the gift of Messrs. 
B. S. Williams & Son, of Holloway. 
Hybrid Cypripediums. —The list of hybrid Cypri- 
pediums compiled by Mr. Chapman, gardener to 
R. I. Measures, Esq., Cambridge Lodge, Flodden 
Road, Camberwell, S.E., which was noticed in our 
issue for December 15th last, has been reprinted and 
can now be obtained from the author for 2s. 
Torquay Horticultural Society.—At a meeting held 
in Torquay on the 2nd inst. it was decided to wind 
up the local horticultural society, and to give any 
balance that may be left after settling all accounts to 
the Torquay Gardeners’ Relief Fund. 
Mr. Isaac Sprague, the American botanist andartist, 
died at Wellesley Hills, Mass., recently, aged eighty- 
three. He had a wide reputation as an illustrator 
of botanical works and was a collaborator with Prof. 
Goodale, the late Prof. Asa Gray and other well- 
known scientists. He drew the plates for Gray's 
“ Manual of the Botany of the Northern United 
States,” and Goodale’s “ Wild Flowers of America.” 
The Flower Season at the Scilly Isles is now over 
and a local report states that although prices at the 
beginning of the season ruled high, the returns to the 
islands will fall considerably below the average. 
The early Narcissus crop, the Soleil d'Or, was a 
failure throughout the islands, and the total quantity 
sent for the year will be about 100 tons short of last 
year. 
Gift of a Park to Liverpool—At a recent meeting 
of the Liverpool City Council a letter was read from 
the local solicitor stating that he had been instructed 
to offer to the city a plot of land covering 108 acres, 
which had been laid out as a recreation ground. He 
was not at liberty to mention the name of the donor. 
There were some buildings on the land, the rents 
from which would nearly pay for the maintenance, 
leaving only a small charge on the city. It was 
decided to accept the gift. 
Primula obconica.—According to the English 
Mechanic, Dr. Richl, of the Vienna University, has 
been experimenting with the poison of the Primula 
obconica, one of the most beautiful of the Primrose 
family. Experiments were made, and it was found 
that the tiny hairs on the leaf and stalks irritated 
the skin, and gave rise to swellings and inflamma¬ 
tion. Dr. Richl succeeded in extracting the poison, 
and, by means of injections with it, claims to have 
healed more than one obstinate skin disease ! His 
experiments are not yet completed, but they are 
stated to promise good results. 
A New Carnation and Picotes Society.—We under 
stand that an effort is being made to establish a new 
Society in the West of England under the title of 
the West Gloucestershire and District Carnation, 
Picotee, and Pansy Society, which will be under the 
presidency of Mr. Alfred Deedes, J.P., C.C., of 
Frenchay Manor, and the first exhibition of which 
is to be held at Fishponds on July 27th. The com¬ 
mittee, we learn, has already received promises of 
extensive exhibits, and there are included in the 
schedule an unusual number of amateur classes. 
The subscription has been fixed at five shillings, 
which entitles the subscriber to two admissions to 
the exhibitions. Mr. J. Loveder, of Fishponds, is 
the treasurer, and Mr. L. Brimble, Oldbury Court 
Road, Fishponds, the hon. secretary. 
A large Dendrobium Wardianum. —On the occasion 
of the funeral of the late Mr. W. S. Kimball, of 
Rochester, N.Y., the Jchurch was richly decorated 
with Orchids from his famous collection, and amongst 
them was a notable specimen of Dendrobium 
Wardianum. The plant had a spread of nearly four 
feet across without any tying apart or sticks of any 
kind. The stout canes were flowered to the very 
base of the pot which is an 8-in. These canes all 
measured over three feet in length, and were arching 
over in a natural graceful way ; the effect was magnifi¬ 
cent. The flowers on this splendid specimen are 
larger and broader than we usually see them, it 
being an extra good variety, probably the so-called 
giganteum. 
A Handy Water Spreader.—Mr. W. E. Tidy, of 
the Brockhampton Nursery, Havant, has favoured 
us with a sample of a strong, neatly made spreader 
that he has devised and is now putting on the 
market. It is made of brass, and is of the form of 
a round spoon, the size of a penny, with, in place of 
the usual handle, three strips of brass, one to pass 
inside the spout of the water-can, and the other two 
clasping the outside. Where there is much ” damp¬ 
ing down ” to do, or watering in the case of other 
than pot stuff, every grower knows the value of a 
spreader, and many are the home-made contrivances 
that have been made for this purpose; but Mr. 
Tidy's certainly beats all that we have seen or used. 
It is cheap, and will fit any sized can, and as it can 
be carried in the vest pocket is not likely to be 
either easily lost or mislaid. Mr. Tidy should find 
a big sale for his very' simple and useful con¬ 
trivance. 
Rhododendron Falconeri. —Mr. Leo. Grindon men¬ 
tions in the Manchester City News the interesting fact 
that a plant of this Sikkim species which has been in 
the botanical gardens at Old Trafford for over 
twenty years is now flowering there for the first 
time. ” The warmth of the two last summers probably 
* ripened the wood,' as the gardeners express it. 
Unprecedented as a curiosity and not likely to be 
seen again, the Council of the Horticultural Society 
liberally allow any person to view it up till May nth 
simply on presentation of address card at the gate. 
The particular species is that one which com¬ 
memorates, in the specific appellation, the celebrated 
Dr. Hugh Falconer, originally a surgeon in the 
service of the East India Company, afterwards 
director of tne Calcutta Botanic Garden, and so 
noted for the services he rendered not only to 
botany, but to sub-tropical palaeontology. It is one 
of the score of wonderful forms of Rhododendron 
discovered by Dr. Hooker, in the Sikkim Himalaya, 
and brought to this country in or about 1850. There 
need be no difficulty in finding the plant. It stands 
just inside the greenhouse door, upon the left, 
a show in itself of roseate bloom, the undersurfaces 
of the great leathery leaves covered with brown 
wool.” 
Open Spaces. —At the monthly meeting of the 
Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, 83, 
Lancaster Gate, W., it was agreed to open to the 
public towards the end of May the disused burial 
grounds of St. Peter’s, Walworth, and St. Mary’s, 
Woolwich, lately laid out by the Association. It 
was announced that seats had been placed on the 
Main Drainage Embankment, E., and by the river 
at Chiswick, W. It was decided to grant additional 
seats for Hackney Churchyard, and to offer some for 
Hammersmith Churchyard, St. Peter's Church¬ 
yard, Cornhill, and a garden in Stockwell Road. 
Attention was drawn to cases of building operations 
on disused burial grounds in apparent contravention 
to the Disused Burial Grounds Act, 1884 ; and it 
was decided to take steps to ensure a full inquiry 
into each case, in order to secure a due observance 
of the law. The completion of the tree-planting in 
Whitechapel Road, and the laying out of Allhallows’ 
Churchyard, London Wall, were announced, and it 
was agreed to endeavour to obtain, as public open 
spaces, a vacant site in Mile End Road, the Brixton 
Oval, the Copperas, Bromley, E., Walcott and St. 
Mary’s Squares, S.E., a plot of land in Hornsey, an 
enclosure in Upper Street, Islington, and one of the 
Jewish disused burial grounds. Letters were read 
respecting a site to be laid out by the Association in 
Canning Town and vacant sites in Deptford and 
Walworth ; It was decided to prepare plans for the 
laying out of Bromley Churchyard, E., and St. 
Stephen’s school ground, Bow, E. 
■ - 
BOUVARDIA CULTURE. 
This splendid subject when once grown well very 
soon gets the good opinion of master and servant, 
salesman and buyer. As a cut flower of a beautiful, 
light, waxy appearance, and in many shades of 
colour it is equal to most others things, and excelled 
by very few. It may be had in bloom from August 
to March without anything more than a very 
moderately heated greenhouse, providing it has 
plenty of light. 
As the present time suggests itself as suitable for 
commencing their culture a few lines on the subject 
will not be out of place. By a great many gardeners 
and amateurs Bouvardias are thought to be difficult 
things to manage, but for myself I never found 
this to be the case. In the first place I can liken 
them to nothing better than a Fuschia in the cutting 
stage as both these subjects decidedly prefer either 
a tight case or box or covered with glass in which to 
make their start, and the way I treat mine is as 
follows : My cuttings were taken a month ago, and are 
now ready for 60-sized pots. They are in three boxes 
9 in. deep and 12 in. by 18 in. These are filled with 
a good compost of loam and sand and a very little 
leaf soil to within 2J in. of the top of the box. The 
cuttings are then prepared and dibbled in. Out of 
3 boxes with at least one hundred in a box I have 
not seen one miss. I may say that the said boxes are 
placed on hot water pipes, and seem to like that 
position immensely. As a test, should anyone 
require to know when they are rooted, leave the 
covering off some morning for an hour or so in full 
sunshine; if they are not rooted they will soon 
show it, and must be covered again. 
After the first shift into 6o’s they should be kept 
in the place they were struck in, and when from 
6 in. to 8 in. in height the point should be taken out to 
encourage a branching habit. When, after being 
stopped, they have made good headway they will be 
ready for 5 in. pots, the size I flower mine in, and 
which is quite large enough for all purposes. When 
