October 8> 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
85 
golden yellow flowers is almost certain to become 
popular on account of its dwarf and stiffly branched 
habit of growth even when grown in the bush form. 
Here the disbudded plants are 2 ft. high, with dark 
foliage and fine looking buds. It is well known that 
Etoile de Lyon is a tall growing sort, but a fine batch 
of it here is only 18 in. high, and a late batch is 
even dwarfer. The stems are straight with rich dark 
green, thick and leathery leaves down to the surface 
of the pot. The foliage of W. Tricker was also in 
the same fine condition, a fact which Mr. Davis 
attributes to an excess of carbon. The golden 
bronze flowers of Madame Zephyr Lionnet are of 
good size, graceful, and highly suitable for cut flower 
purposes. 
KEW GARDENS. 
Writing on the subject of the earlier opening of the 
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in connection with 
which movement the new 
First Commissioner is to 
receive a deputation next 
month, the editor of 
Nature Notes in the cur¬ 
rent number says:— 
•' It is important that 
thehollowness of the scare 
that the scientific work of 
the Gardens would be in 
the least interfered with 
should be clearly demon¬ 
strated ; and nothing is 
more easy. To those parts 
of the Gardens where 
experiments in culture are 
carried on, the public are 
(very properly) at no time 
admitted, nor do they ever 
visit the forcing pits or 
other places of the kind. 
The Herbarium, where 
the systematic botanist 
pursues his work, is a 
building entirely apart 
from the gardens; the 
Jodrell Laboratory, for 
scientific work of an ex¬ 
perimental kind,is equally 
inaccessible to the public. 
If the Gardens were open 
every day from sunrise to 
sunset, the scientific work 
would go on, as it does 
now, unhindered and un¬ 
checked. 
"With regard to the 
houses in the Gardens the 
case is different; they, of 
course, must be closed at 
times, in order that the 
necessary watering,clean¬ 
ing, and like operations 
may be carried on. But, 
so far as we are aware, it 
is not proposed that these 
should be open earlier 
than they are at present, 
so that this objection also 
falls to the ground. 
"There remain only the 
Gardens proper to be con¬ 
sidered. It cannot be seri¬ 
ously contended that the 
work in them would be interfered with by the ad¬ 
mission of the public, any more than is the case in 
the various parks. The Kew ' bedding ’ is not so 
extensive as that, for example, in Battersea Park, 
which is open all day and every day without let or 
hindrance; and we have never heard that there, or 
elsewhere, the people cause any inconvenience to the 
numerous gardeners engaged. It might, perhaps, be 
opportune at this juncture to reprint the little pam¬ 
phlet issued in 1879 by the Defence Association, in 
which the question is dealt with at greater length 
than is possible here. But should this be done, we 
trust that one needlessly offensive passage—that in 
which it is stated that * the real reason of the ex¬ 
clusion of the public is that the scientific staff find it 
agreeable to have for themselves and their friends 
the exclusive command of these noble Gardens during 
the best part of the day,’ will be expunged, and that 
no insinuation of this kind will be countenanced by 
those who have the matter in hand. 
there seems no reason why they might not be lifted 
on the approach of frost, put in a tub, and housed 
in a greenhouse for the winter. The rampant 
shoots could of course be cut back, and the old 
stems tied to a stake so that they would occupy but 
little space. The accompanying illustration of a 
flower and a leaf will give a good idea of the form of 
each. It was awarded a First-class Certificate. 
-- 
RUNNER BEANS AT 
CHISWICK. 
A large number of varieties of Runner Beans has 
been grown on trial this year in the gardens of the 
Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick, offering a 
favourable opportunity of making a selection of the 
most generally useful and profitable sorts to grow. 
Judging from their names they have come from all 
parts of the world, and some of them are entirely un 
suitable for our climate, for they refuse not only to 
fruit, but even to grow 
with anydegree of satisfac¬ 
tion. There are varieties 
with beautiful and useful 
pods, others ornamental 
to say the least of them, 
while others are ungainly 
or even positively ugly. 
Many of them can at least 
claim to be characteristic 
and distinct if that is 
any recommendation; al¬ 
though from a utilitarian 
point of view it is difficult 
to see it. There is evi¬ 
dently a striving after 
fruits ofTitanic dimension, 
if we are to judge from 
such names as Gigantic, 
Elephant, Mammoth,Lax- 
ton’s Titan, Giant Scarlet, 
New Giant Titan, Mont 
d'Or, and other appella¬ 
tions. An idea of delicate 
eating is implied by such 
names as Broad Skinless 
Pods, Yellow Podded, 
White Seeded Sugar, 
FlageoletWax,Hungarian 
Butter, Bulgarian Butter, 
Speckled Butter, and 
several others. 
Altogether 86 varieties 
have been grown, makinga 
proper and conclusive ex¬ 
amination of them no light 
matter. The amount of 
variability amongst them 
is astonishing, while on the 
other hand many of the 
best and more useful are 
difficult to distinguish by 
the pods alone. A number 
of them received three 
marks at the hands of the 
committees who inspected 
the collection. Amongst 
these the white-flowered 
Jubilee produces large 
pods and crops heavily. 
The more characteristic 
pod is straight, but occa¬ 
sionally it is curved, and 
even on the surface is 
slightly rough. Equally well cropped was Flageolet 
Wax,with long, narrow, smooth,curved pods of a pale 
waxy yellow. The stems are of moderate growth, 
and flowering has pretty well ceased by the beginning 
of September. More dwarf even is Sutton's Tender 
and True, with long, narrow, smooth and light green 
pods of handsome form, and produced in great quan¬ 
tity. It seems that ample encouragement should be 
given to dwarf growing sorts like this, as the taller 
growing ones climb to the top of the stakes and then 
down again, burying half of the foliage, flowers and 
young fruit, so that the return they make is not pro¬ 
portionate to the amount of foliage and the space 
they occupy. Another wax-podded variety receiving 
the same award as the above is Mont d'Or, with 
smooth, cylindrical, and fleshy pods getting slightly 
undulated on the surface as they get old. It is also 
wonderfully dwarf. Hungarian Butter produces cy¬ 
lindrical, smooth, green pods, 6 in. to 10 in. long and 
in great quantity. 
" While we are on the subject of Kew, there is 
another matter which may be mentioned—the ab¬ 
sence of an authorised guide to the beautiful Gardens. 
There was an excellent one at one time, but this has 
been out of print, we believe, for five or six years. 
The subject has more than once been brought before 
Parliament, and Mr. Plunket last May announced 
that the book was almost ready, and would probably 
appear during the summer. The satisfactoriness of 
this assurance was somewhat marred by the reminder 
that ' a precisely similar answer ’ was given ' four¬ 
teen months ago.' Perhaps Mr. Shaw-Lefevre may 
be able to expedite its appearance.’’ 
TACSONIA SMYTHIANA. 
Some flowers of this fine hybrid Tacsonia made 
their appearance at the Drill Hall on Tuesday last. 
They were shown by the raiser, Mr. Wm. Smythe, 
The Gardens, Basing Park, Alton, Hants, who 
4 
Tacsconia^Smythiana. 
originally obtained it by crossing T. manicata with 
T. exoniensis, the latter itself a hybrid. The leaves 
are deeply three-lobed, serrate, smooth and half 
leathery in texture. The tube of the flower is 3^ in. 
to 4 in. long, cylindrical, and slightly widened at the 
throat. The sepals and petals measure 2 J in. to 3 in. 
across. Three of the outer sepals are mostly green 
on the back, but the other two have only a green 
midrib ; the inner face of all is deep salmon red. 
The petals are broader and of a richness approach¬ 
ing to scarlet, rounded and blunt at the top. Some 
flowers were shown at the previous meeting, and some 
more were shown at the last meeting. These latter 
were in fine condition, and had been taken from a 
plant grown against a wall in the open air. Should 
it be hardy enough to withstand the winter in the 
southern counties of England, it will be a decided 
acquisition to horticulture, and cannot fail to gain in 
popularity at no distant date. As it is, plants may 
be flowered upon an open wall during summer, and 
