152 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
November 5, 1892. 
to Messrs. F. Sander & Co. for a group of Orchids. 
A raceme of Angraecum caudatum carried seven 
fully expanded flowers. A fine piece of the new 
Cymbidium hybridum Winnianum carried five 
racemes of bloom; and Cattleya labiata Sanderae 
was also very pretty and delicate. Some flowers of 
Lselia elegans excellens were shown by T. Statter, 
Esq. (gardener, Mr. Robert Johnson), Stand Hall, 
Manchester. A small group of Orchids was also 
exhibited by Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., Clapton, 
including fine pieces of Vanda ccerulea and Cattleya 
labiata vera. Spathoglottis Veillardii rubra was 
shown by Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., M.P. Messrs. 
Charlesworth Shuttleworth & Co., Clapham, ex¬ 
hibited a fine piece of Miltonia Bluntii Lubbersii in 
bloom. Cypripedium Arthurianum pulchellum, 
Cattleya leucoglossa, and Dendrobium Stratius, all 
hybrids, were shown by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons. 
Some prizes were offered for Chrysanthemums, 
but the competition was very poor. The first prize 
for a collection was awarded to L. J. Baker, Esq. 
(gardener, Mr. T. Osman), Ottershaw Park, Chert- 
sey. Mr. G. Wythes, Syon House, was second. The 
first prize for 12 new Chrysanthemums was awarded 
to Mr. J. Douglas. 
At a meeting of the Fruit Committee a Bronze 
Banksian Medal was awarded to Mr. T. H. Crasp, 
Canford Manor Gardens, Wimborne, for a collection 
of Apples, all of which were highly coloured. Two 
baskets of highly-finished bunches of Gros Colman 
and Alicante Grapes were shown by Mr. W. Iceton, 
Putney Park Lane, Roehampton, for which he re¬ 
received a Cultural Commendation. A similar award 
was made to Mr. R. Milner, Penrice Castle Gardens, 
Swansea, for some very large Onions. A small col¬ 
lection of Turnips, and a much larger collection of 
Savoys, was brought up from the Society's gardens 
at Chiswick. 
-- 5 -- 
CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOWS. 
Kent County. 
The Kent County Chrysanthemum Society is one of 
the most prosperous around the great metropolis. 
It holds its shows in a commodious structure, the 
Skating Rink at Blackheath, it brings together 
annually an admirable show, and lacks nothing on 
the score of local support. The show held on Tues¬ 
day and Wednesday was hardly up to the usual 
standard, the competition all round being slacker, 
owing to the scarcity of open blooms in so many 
collections. For the season, however, it was 
distinctly good, and the honorary secretary, Mr. H. 
J. Jones, and his committee are to be congratulated 
on doing so well under very trying circumstances. 
The leading exhibitors were Mr. Whittle, gardener 
to C. H. Goschen, Esq., Ballards, Croydon ; and Mr. 
Leadbetter, gardener to A. C. Hubbuck, Esq., 
Chislehurst, both of whom were fortunate in being 
able to stage such grand blooms as they brought 
forward. Mr. Whittle was 1st for 36 Japanese and 
incurved varieties, being very strong with the former 
but not so good with the latter as the 2nd prize 
winner, Mr. Leadbetter. For 24 Japanese, Mr. 
Whittle also came in 1st, showing splendid examples, 
among others, of Col. W. B. Smith, Jeane Delaux, 
Mdlle. Marie Hoste, Gloire de Rocher, Avalanche, 
Miss A. Hartshorne, Louis Boehmer, and Irving 
Clarke. Mr. McKenzie, Linton Park, Maidstone, 
came in a good 2nd. Mr. Whittle, among other 
awards, also took the 1st prize for 6 blooms of 
Viviand Morel, with large and well coloured blooms, 
among which was one of great beauty, which was 
proclaimed the best "Jap." in the show. 
In a competition with 6 Japanese, any variety, Mr. 
Rowbottom, gardener to H. R. Williams, Esq., 
Hornsey, secured all three prizes with very fine 
stands of Sunflower, W. Tricker and Puritan ; and 
he also had the best 6 incurves in fine examples of 
Madame Darrier. In a fine bloom of this variety 
was found the best incurved flower in the exhibition 
Mr. McKenzie, Linton, had the best 12 Japanese; 
Mr. Leadbetter, the best 12 incurves ; and Mr. J. B. 
Wheadon, Bickley, the best 12 blooms of varieties of 
the Rundle family. The best examples of Avalanche 
came from Mr. J. Hewett, Hillside House, Hythe; 
and Mr. Dobson, gardener to F. P. Preston, Esq., 
had the best group of Chrysanthemums ; and Mr. 
Lyne, Foxbury, Chislehurst, had the best group of 
stove and greenhouse plants, including a beautifully 
bloomed specimen of hybrid Rhododendron. Mr. 
H. J. Jones contributed a fine group ; and welcome 
contributions of fine foliaged plants came from 
Messrs. E. D. Shuttleworth & Co. Interesting 
collections of fruit and some admirable bouquets, 
added much to the general attractions of the 
exhibition. 
-- 
“AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.” 
On Monday evening, Oct. 24th, Professor W. Hill- 
house (from Mason's College) gave a most interesting 
lecture before a large meeting of the members of the 
Birmingham and Midland Counties Gardeners’ 
Mutual Improvement Association. The chair was 
taken by the president, Sir Thomas Martineau. The 
accomplished botanist and lecturer, in introducing 
his subject, “Among the Mountains,” said it was 
not so much his purpose to describe and expatiate 
upon mountain scenery as to attempt to demon¬ 
strate the near and strong resemblance, if not always 
exact identity, between species of alpine plants ex¬ 
tending over especially the mountainous ranges in 
various parts of Europe and North America ; a fact 
he felt justified in assuming which went far to prove 
the theory entertained by geologists of, probably 
myriads of years past, the undivided connection 
of continents at the present time separated by 
oceans now hundreds of miles in width. Formerly 
the geologist was almost alone in propounding 
such a speculation, until the sister-science, botany, 
asserted her claims to attention in this respect. 
As illustrative of the power of alpine plants to 
preserve their characters over long periods of time, 
the Professor incidentally enumerated a few genera 
and their species, such as Draba confusa, or incana, 
Potentilla, Ranunculus, Gentiana, Rosa, and in 
particular the alpine species of Saxifraga. Reference 
was also made to the wonderful faculty of the seeds 
of some kinds of plants to preserve their vitality 
for ages at certain depths in the earth whilst in a 
dormant state, and when turned up and exposed to 
increased heat and light, presented a species pre¬ 
viously unknown to the district. Regarding the 
operations necessary to effect the evolution of the 
“ tropical ” and " glacial ” period, he would leave it 
to the astronomer to elucidate. In reply to one of 
the members present as to when we might expect the 
next glacial period, the Professor said he would not 
attempt to speculate. He would, however, venture 
to assure the querist, by way of consolation, that the 
present houses in Birmingham would have long 
ceased to exist ere the return of that period. After 
recommending the gardeners present to make the 
science of botany an especial study, he concluded an 
eloquent and most interesting verbal lecture, which 
secured the rapt attention of all present. 
The President, in moving a hearty vote of thanks 
to Professor Hillhouse for his interesting and 
instructive lecture, remarked that to himself it had 
proved additionally pleasurable, inasmuch as he had 
had the honour of accompanying the accomplished 
lecturer on a lengthened visit to Switzerland, and did 
not fail to notice the earnest research of the Professor 
amongst the mountain flora. He also paid, in com¬ 
plimentary terms, a high tribute to the intelligence 
and ability of the gardeners with whom it had been 
his pleasure to come into personal contact. 
Mr. John Pope, in seconding the vote of thanks, 
expressed the great pleasure with which he had 
listened to the eloquent and suggestive remarks of 
the lecturer, and which was rendered the more so by 
the fact that only recently he himself had visited 
and admired the grand scenery and interesting flora 
of the Swiss Alps. He must confess, however, that 
it had not occurred to him to contemplate the 
subject in the theoretical and speculative deductions 
so cleverly advanced by the Professor. 
The vote was carried with acclamation, and 
the proceedings were concluded by a vote 
of thanks, moved by Professor Hillhouse, to 
Sir Thomas Martineau for his genial conduct in 
the chair, as well as for the great interest he had 
ever evinced in the welfare of the association. Mr. 
W. Latham, Curator of the Birmingham Botanical 
Gardens, in seconding the proposition, alluded in 
felicitous terms to the disinterested motives which 
had ever actuated the chairman in contributing 
liberally towards the well-being of the association. 
At the close of the lecture considerable interest was 
shown by the members present in several speci¬ 
mens of a newly designed flower vase, patented by 
the inventor, Mr. W. Charles Laight, of Redditch, 
and who by the way is the inventor of two or three 
other useful commodities. The vases vary in size 
from three to five inches in diameter, and the two 
larger sizes are embellished with an elegantly 
designed floral band about two inches wide, 
surrounding the upper portion of the vase in a rich 
cream coloured ground and afford a pleasing con¬ 
trast with the rich brown glazed surface of the vase, 
the inside of which is not glazed. The smaller sizes 
are not thus ornamented nor glazed, buthave a pretty 
inter-embossed band imprinted upon them; pro¬ 
vision in these latter is made for the attachment of 
three small brass chains for suspension. The chief 
feature, however, of the invention, consists in the 
novel and decidedly useful permanent attachment of 
the saucer to the vase ; provision has been made, in 
addition to the usual hole at the bottom of the vase, 
for the egress of the water into the saucer ; the utility 
of the saucer fixture is self-evident, and especially is 
it a boon in the suspending vases, besides adding to 
the virtues of the whole. Altogether the invention 
might readily command itself to public attention.— 
W. G. 
-- 
FRUIT NOTE. 
Apple Red Ribbed Greening. 
Apparently' this is only a local Apple confined to 
the south-west of England. It was exhibited at the 
National Apple Congress at Chiswick in 1883 by an 
exhibitor from Exeter, and we recently received a 
fruit of it to name from the neighbourhood of Glou¬ 
cester. It was described at the Congress as a large 
conical Apple, angular, green, and flushed with 
bronze. The specimen we recently had was bluntly 
five-angled, greenish-yellow on the shaded side, 
thinly suffused with red and splashed or striped with 
red ; but on the sunny side it was more heavily suf¬ 
fused with red, splashed and blotched with bright 
red. The closed eye was set in a shallow basin. The 
flesh towards the end of last month was yellow, soft, 
sweet, somewhat brisk, but pleasant eating. This 
unusual quality might have been due to differences of 
soil and exposure so that the fruit got thoroughly 
ripened upon the tree. The more highly coloured 
condition of the fruit would give indication of better 
ripening. 
-- 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS, 
Dendrobium ciliatum. 
Comparatively seldom do we see this species in 
cultivation, and more rarely is it honoured with a 
coloured illustration. There is, however, a full-sized 
figure of it in the Orchid Album, pi. 454. It may be 
described as one of the miniature species, with 
pseudo-bulbs varying from 4 in. to 18 in. in length, 
but according to our knowledge of it more often 
about 6 in. It is, however, greatly a question of cul¬ 
ture. The flowers are produced in drooping racemes 
from near the top of the young and still leafy stems, 
and generally measure about an inch in diameter. 
The sepals and petals are of a pale yellowish-green. 
The three-lobed lip is of a more decided yellow, 
beautifully lined along the siJes with brown ; the ter¬ 
minal lobe is triangular, and heavily fringed with 
long, brown, clubbed hairs, which give the whole 
flower an interesting appearance. Just as the 
pseudo-bulbs vary considerably in length and get 
strong under good cultivation, so the raceme of 
flowers varies in an equal ratio, bearing from six to 
eighteen flowers. For those who grow and have a 
liking for Dendrobiums, few more interesting little 
species than this could be added to a collection. 
Neither the size nor the colour of the flowers war¬ 
rant us, however, in describing it as a showy species. 
Pleurothallis teratifolia. 
The species of Pleurothallis already known to 
science are very numerous, and still they come. 
Relatively very few of them are in cultivation, but 
many of them are certainly curious, and some 
interesting or even pretty. That under notice is 
both curious and interesting, and has been flowering 
for the past six weeks with Messrs. Charlesworth, 
Shuttleworth & Co., Heaton, Bradford, and Park 
Road, Clapham. It was introduced by the firm 
from Pernambuco, Brazil, in company with Cattleya 
labiata. One of the striking features of the species 
is the terete, terminal leaf. It is not alone, however, 
in this respect, but we seldom if ever see any in 
