September 24, 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
49 
AMATEURS & THE R.H.S. 
Mr. H. A. Needs puts the saddle on the right horse 
in your last issue. His letter is very much to the 
point just at this moment. There is a deepening 
interest in horticulture all round, particularly among 
bona 'fide amateurs. Why should the R.H.S. not 
endeavour to foster and encourage it in a proper 
manner ? If they had competitions (confined to 
amateurs) for a few things at some of their meetings 
the want of interest so often manifested would be, to 
some extent, removed. Such competitions need not 
cost much—a few medals or a few pounds in cash. 
This naturally opens up the question of how 
the additional income to meet such expenditure is to 
be got. If one studies the constitution of the R H.S. 
it becomes very evident where a great improvement 
could be made. The half-guinea associateship is 
confined " to bona fide gardeners, or employees in a 
nursery, market garden, or seed establishment.” 
Why is the poor bona fide amateur left out in the 
cold ? I know hundreds of men who are not able to 
subscribe a guinea (Mr. Needs is not one of them), 
but who would gladly subscribe half-a-guinea (or 
why not five shillings ?) to become associates with 
the right to exhibit and compete and visit Chiswick, 
etc. These men, however, would require to get some 
inducement offered them in the way of prizes at the 
shows, and I certainly think the revenue from their 
subscriptions would do far more than provide a fund 
for prize-money. 
The bona fide amateur is the man who does not em¬ 
ploy regularly a professional gardener. I say 
regularly because business men have often to employ 
a gardener in the spring months, and probably a day 
a week for the rest of the year to keep things in 
order, but they do the most of the gardening them¬ 
selves for all tha,t. People who employ professional 
service regularly should be kept in a class by them¬ 
selves and the trade in another class. In like 
manner people who employ regularly professional 
gardeners should not be admissable as associates of 
the R.H.S. if a new departure, such as I have 
indicated, was made. These people are quite able, 
if they are willing, to pay one, two, or four guineas. 
Mr. Needs says, “ deal liberally with the trade by all 
means, for they richly deserve it, as it goes without 
saying that they make the show.” Yes, but who 
makes the trade ? 
If the R.H.S. does not soon move in the direction 
of making themselves and their shows more popular 
I think the best thing that could be done would be 
for the National Amateur Gardeners’ Association, 
which has already done much gcod work, to get up 
one or two shows on a larger scale than they have 
ever yet attempted. This is an age of forward 
movements, and the R.H.S. cannot afford to lag 
behind the times, or it will very soon find itself once 
more stranded I have only the best interests of the 
R.H.S. at heart, but there is toomuch formalism and 
red tapism about its officials and council. — IV. C. 
-- 
ON AN ILLINOIS PRAIRIE. 
I open the door and step out into a wide expanse of 
level prairie land which now suggests nothing so 
much as a se?. of ” nodding Daffodils ”; Golden Rod 
is everywhere, making a solid mass of yellow for 
several acres, relieved with but little greenery, while 
the background of grand old Willows look down in 
tacit tolerance of the intrusion of the palefaces on 
the land where erst the Indian hunted and fought 
and whose bones may now moulder under our feet. 
All over the side walks run Morning Glories, white, 
pink, and striped ; Asters, white, yellow, and purple, 
are showing flower, and many distinctively American 
wild flowers peer up among the grass. All the year 
there have been masses of flower on the prairie, 
beginning with such quantities of fine Violets as I 
have never seen elsewhere, with occasionally a white 
or striped one, till one was lost in admiration of their 
abundance and beauty. Somehow I think flowers 
have a personality, some more than others, perhaps, 
and out here they seem exclusively patriotic, and 
excite no feelings of nostalgia in one's mind. 
Could one see, ah, the Daisies or Bluebells of " our 
ain countree,” things might be otherwise, but except 
for Violets and wild Roses, few British wild flowers 
are seen here. But they have a beauty all their own, 
these aggressive Americans, whether it is the dainty 
white so-called “ Sweet Clover,” perfuming the air 
all round, or the gigantic Sunflowers crowding the 
others to one side. 
To see a plain, unbroken for miles by a tree or a 
house, alive with nodding, dancing flowers may well 
suggest endless fancies to a day-dreamer. Here 
Titania and Oberon may in sooth have transferred 
their citizenship, and hold their nightly revels on the 
green sward, undisturbed by a human foot. One can 
almost hear the fairy music as the wind blows over 
the prairie, breaking it into billowy waves of'colour, 
while the dense growth of wild Strawberries under¬ 
foot is in evidence of provision for fairy banquets. 
And the blue Illinois sky, surely blue as any 
vaunted Italian sky, flecked with fleecy clouds by 
day, and with strange sunset glories and Northern 
Lights by night, spreads a fitting canopy over all. 
You can hardly credit that you are so near this rest¬ 
less Chicago, for ever on the people’s tongues, that 
you can almost hear the cable cars ; such a Sabbath 
calm overhangs everything that were Miles Standish 
and his quaint contemporaries to appear yonder it 
would seem but the fitting picture for such a setting. 
—C. Macquarie, Chicago. 
-- 
MINIATURE VIOLAS. 
Violas are now so popular that it would be invidious 
on my part to point out in these pages any special 
feature of their usefulness. It is not, however, con¬ 
cerning the ordinary type that I intend to offer a few 
remarks, but to a new and distinct race that is fast 
gaining ground with the public. As a mark of 
distinction I have suggested the term “ Miniature,” 
and in the spring catalogues of next year they will be 
offered as ” Miniature Violas.” 
Miniature Violas: i, Violetta; 2, Mrs. Joseph 
Oliver; 3, Sister Frances; 4, Sister Sarah. 
These flowers have been raised principally by Dr. 
Stuart, of Chirnside, and myself, and may be said to 
hold a position to the ordinary type similar to that 
between the Pompon and show Dahlia. The flowers 
are much smaller than the ordinary Violas, while the 
plants are of a distinct procumbent habit. The 
flowers which are borne on long footstalks are sweetly 
scented as Violets, or as it has already been remarked 
by a contemporary, “ They are in perfume truly 
summer Violets.” 
As some of Dr. Stuart’s seedlings are on trial at 
Chiswick, visitors to the Royal Horticultural 
Society’s Gardens will have an opportunity of seeing 
them, but it must be borne in mind that all those 
sent by Dr. Stuart for trial are not of the “ Miniature 
type." Sylvia, for instance, is a large-flowered variety, 
and others, although partaking somewhat after the 
original Violetta, are not admissible in the miniature 
class, owing to size of flower and the sub-erect habit 
of the plants. The distinguishing features of the 
miniature Violas are the dwarf procumbent habit of 
the plant—flowers small with a peculiar yellow blotch 
on the base of the lip are borne on long footstalks 
and deliciously fragrant. The flowers are also free 
from any ray or marking, a feature which ought to be 
enforced in all Violas ; and I may here remark that if 
this important character had been strictly enforced 
the public would have been saved from so much 
rubbish that has been introduced of recent years. 
Habit and floriferousness are perhaps the most 
important features in a bedding Viola, and when we 
can combine with these colour and fragrance their 
usefulness is greatly enhanced and in every way 
adapted for the garden. This new type of Viola is 
not brought before the public without a recommenda¬ 
tion or trial. Flowers were submitted to our great 
Viola specialist, Mr. Wm. Dean, last year, and after 
seeing them again this year Mr. Dean has given them 
a character which at once places them in the front 
rank either as bedding or decorative plants. I have 
much pleasure in sending you a box of flowers, and 
will be pleased to hear if you can endorse what has 
already been said in their favour. —George Steel, 
Hcatliwslaw, Cornhill-on-Tweed. 
[We are already confirmed admirers of the minia¬ 
ture race of Violas raised from Violetta, although we 
are equally convinced that they will not drive the 
finer types of the large-flowering race from the 
garden. The latter, however, want thinning out con 
siderably, and the races of rayless Violas, whether 
large or small, will effectually accomplish the desirable 
change. The smallest flowered variety sent by our 
correspondent was Mrs. Joseph Oliver, but judging 
from the flowers alone, Sister Frances come more 
near our ideal, and its odour is delicious. The 
yellow blotch on the lip is greatly reduced in 
dimensions, while in Sister Sarah it is enlarged— 
Violetta holding an intermediate position. Maggie 
Steel and Mrs. Geo. Finlay show more yellow all 
over the flower, but we prefer the first-named. 
Ophir is a beautiful clear yellow, deepening to gold 
upon the lip with a narrow white margin, but we 
should like to see the whole flower intensified. 
Summer Cloud and Mrs. Stephens are beautifully 
chaste and refined flowers, the former being white 
with the upper petals clouded with bluish-lilac from 
the margin inwards. Mrs. Stephens we consider an 
improvement upon it, the upper petals being clouded 
all over and the three lower ones faintly so. A 
beautiful creamy flower is White Lady, but it is not 
happily named. Picotee is also sweet; its blue edge 
is better defined than when grown in the south. A 
beautiful soft lilac flower with a golden blotch on the 
lip, and named Jeannie Turnbull, should prove an 
excellent dwarf bedder. Our correspondent was 
using the pollen of the Violet and considers there is a 
trace of the blood of the Violet in the progeny, but it 
seems to us more like Violetta crossed with Viola 
cornuta Perfection. The flowers measure iiin. to 
if in. across, and seedlings with more intensified 
colours might be obtained from it. 
Some of the larger flowered types accompanied 
the above, including Venus, a seedling from Ardwell 
Gem, with larger, rounder flowers, a shade or two 
darker in colour, but more of the Pansy blood in it. 
The habit, however, is said to be good. We were 
rather disappointed with Border Maid, of the same 
strain as Blue Cloud and Skylark, but having smaller 
flowers and a yellow ground instead of white- 
Although having the same relation to those varieties 
as Goldfinch does to Duchess of Fife, it is by no 
means so refined a flower. We rather like the warm 
purple of Maud on account of its distinctness, but 
the violet shading in the centre requires washing 
out. 
Being in a position to give an illustration of the 
original type from which the race of pretty miniature 
Violas has been derived, and also three of the 
varieties raised by Mr. G. Steel, we may here give 
the characters by which they may be recognised. 
No. 1 is Violetta, the original type with pure white 
flowers excepting a yellow blotch on the lip, extend¬ 
ing downwards from the eye. Mrs. Joseph Oliver 
(No. 2) is much smaller than the type, and the yellow 
blotch hardly extends beyond the eye. Sister 
Frances (No. 3) is a lovely flower of the same colour 
as the last-named, but larger with a yellow brow at 
the base of the two lateral petals, and is deliciously 
fragrant. Sister Sarah (No. 4) has a bright yellow 
lip margined with white. The principal veins are 
generally tinted with yellow towards the base, but 
indistinctly, and violet rays never occur in those 
four. —Ed.J 
