176 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
November 19, 1892. 
tances, it'[is but fair to them that there 
should be some limitation put on the quan¬ 
tities to be staged, or otherwise the weight 
of stuff they may have to bring will become 
an intolerable burthen even if it does not 
prevent many from showing at all. 
It is but fair to Mr. Gibson to remark 
that his large quantities were most artistic¬ 
ally placed, and his exhibit was perhaps 
one of the best ever seen at the Royal 
Aquarium. Nowhere in the world are 
there to be seen such superb vegetables as 
are found in Great Britain ; and could we 
have some autumn a really great National 
Show, bringing together all the best 
growers, such a display would be made as 
would not readily be forgotten. 
JThk Chrysanthemum Shows. —The pre¬ 
sent week practically winds up the 
Chrysanthemum exhibition campaign in 
the south, and another week will see it 
concluded all over the kingdom. It is a 
short season and a busy one. Happily it 
does not last longer, as to such an un¬ 
wonted extent are we flooded with shows 
that satiety would soon ensue were the 
show season to be too long drawn out. So 
far it may be conceded that the flowers 
generally have been exceptionally fine, 
especially in the ever developing Japanese 
section. Blooms have been little less than 
marvellous, although many unduly large 
and coarse might very well have been 
dispensed with. 
However, that is a small matter compared 
with the undoubted advance that has been 
evidenced, and in new ones especially the 
increase in sorts has been beyond all pre¬ 
cedent. Already old sorts are rarely seen, 
and in but another year we shall see even 
more of the old favourites displaced. 
Whilst Japanese blooms have been so fine 
in most instances, the incurved blooms 
have been less refined and finished than 
usual. It is assumed that the sharp frost 
in the middle of September is to some 
extent responsible for this defect, and it is 
equally probable that the cold wet autumn 
has much to answer for. Still we have seen 
within the past few days, and this week 
especially, many fine incurved flowers that 
seemed to be as fine as they well could be. 
We should like to see some of the 
smaller shows about London amalgamating 
with some of their neighbours, and thus 
becoming at once stronger a'nd more 
attractive. A weak show does little good 
for the Chrysanthemum, while a strong 
one is very helpful in stimulating growers 
and gratifying the public. Not a few of 
these little shows are the product of local 
jealousies. Unhappily, Chrysanthemum 
growers are not all very high-souled per¬ 
sons, and are apt to place their little dis- 
affections above higher considerations. 
Then the small shows, if not vigorously 
managed, last but for a few years, then 
become financially encumbered, and later 
die out, whilst one strong show might have 
long endured. 
Whe Size of Show-boards for Japanese 
Chrysanthemums. —It was a most 
remarkable and striking comment on the re¬ 
cent discussion respecting the enlargement 
of Japanese Chrysanthemum show-boards 
that at the National Chrysanthemum 
Society’s show at the Royal Aquarium, 
a gentleman who took such a prominent 
part in the discussion, Mr. W. Herbert 
Fowler, of Taunton, should have been first 
with both forty-eight and twenty-four 
Japanese blooms. 
In the paper read before the N.C.S. at 
the meeting held last month, Mr. Fowler 
said : “ I think that for forty-eight, or even 
thirty-six, distinct Japs., the present boards 
would perhaps carry the blooms without 
doing them an)? great injustice.” How far 
he was right his wins at the Aquarium 
show have told us, and it was a remark¬ 
able fact that in both the classes referred 
to hardly one bloom could be said to touch 
another, even on these old boards, and yet 
the flowers were of the most perfect and 
beautiful description. Clearly there are 
judges who after all think that mere size is 
not everything, and that comparative per¬ 
fection in Japanese blooms may be found 
in flowers of even and moderate dimen¬ 
sions. 
Nothing can detract so much from the 
merits of a stand as showing some blooms 
of exceeding dimensions and some of 
moderate size. Evenness of size should 
always be regarded as an important feature, 
as it is with most other exhibits. Mr. 
Fowler’s suggestion in his paper that 
enlarged boxes may be needful for smaller 
classes is doubtless right, because it is 
based on the assumption that those who 
have big blooms will be sure to use them, 
and whilst they may put up a dozen such 
they cannot manage twenty-four or thirty- 
six blooms that are distinct and equally big. 
In any case Mr. Fowler’s success on the 
old boards seems to put a new face on the 
discussion. 
5 The Fog Season.— We have recently had 
J to witness very ample evidence of the 
existence of the fog season. It has set in 
somewhat early this year, but happily the 
fog has not been cold, and it has so far 
not been of the intensely nauseous and 
injurious kind which we had to endure just 
prior to last Christmas. As will be seen 
from a statement in another column the 
Scientific Committee of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society has been discussing the 
fog problem recently, and so far to no great 
purpose. It is easier to discuss and 
denounce fog than to get rid of it. Even 
did we universally forego the use of open 
fires or furnaces of any kind, and employ 
only smokeless fuel, we should still have 
fogs, as is so evident even at sea and on the 
coast where there are no smoke creators. 
If we could stop the development of low 
atmospheric pressures fog would not trouble 
us. It is only when the upper strata of air 
becomes so cold and vapours cannot ascend 
that they gather on the immediate surface 
of the earth. Let a brisk air arise, how¬ 
ever, and they vanish like ghosts before 
the dawn of day. Fogs in and about 
populous places are in relation to plant 
life injurious in three diverse phases. They 
exclude light, a potent factor in health 
for everything more or less; they are 
necessarily productive of exceeding damp¬ 
ness, which is as harmful to plants as to 
the human beings who have to inhale 
the fogs ; and perhaps worst of all they are 
burthened with pestiferous vapours or 
ingredients which are poisonous to vege¬ 
tation and to humanity. 
We can only hope to get rid of this 
latter feature by the stopping of all 
ordinary coal combustion, and that is far 
too large an order at present. As to 
filtering the fog, that is more readily 
recommended than practised. The best 
thing of all would be to blow it away. 
That, too, is at present, we greatly fear, 
quite impracticable. 
-- 
History of English Gardening. —Mr. Quaritch will 
publish, early next year, an elaborately illustrated 
work dealing with the early history of gardening in, 
this country. The authors are the Hon. Alicia M. 
T. Amherst and Mr. Percy E. Newberry. 
Seedlings. —The Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, 
Bart., M.P., has just published, through Messrs. 
Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., Limited, the 
first of two volurrles of a valuable work to scientists, 
entitled “ A Contribution to our Knowledge of 
Seedlings.” 
The Annual Dinner of the National Chrysanthemum 
Soc : ety will take place on Wednesday, the 30th inst. 
at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet Street, Sir Edwin 
Saunders, president of the society, in the chair. 
The Birmingham Chrysanthemum Show for 1893 
is announced to take place on November 15th and 
16th. 
West Wickham Common, having been secured as an 
open space, was declared open for public use and 
enjoyment on Saturday last, by the Lord Mayor. 
The common is beautifully situated near to Bromley, 
in Kent, consists of twenty-five acres, commands ex¬ 
tensive views, and possesses many features of rural 
interest, including a number of ancient and pic¬ 
turesque Oaks, some of which are believed to be 
1,000 years old, and are known to have figured in 
historic pictures by well-known artists. 
Mr. Peter Blair is, we understand, going to continue 
as gardener to the Duke of Sutherland, at Trentham, 
instead of leaving to become proprietor of the Tren¬ 
tham Hotel, as announced in these columns some 
time ago. We are very glad to hear this, because 
Mr. Blair has for some years most ably managed the 
garden department of this princely establishment, 
under somewhat trying circumstances ; and as it is 
known that the new Duke and Duchess take a great 
interest in Horticulture we may not unreasonably 
hope that the glories of Trentham may ere long be 
revived. It would be a great loss to British Horti¬ 
culture if such a grand place as Trentham were to 
become a thing of the past. 
The latest information from the Scilly Islands is 
that the flower traffic has already commenced in 
earnest, and that extensive consignments of Margue¬ 
rites and Chrysanthemums are being despatched. 
As we have previously stated the numerous crops of 
Narcissi are looking remarkably healthy, and there 
is but little doubt there will be blooms in the mar¬ 
ket by, if not before, Christmas. 
Sutton’s Cyclamen at Gloucester and Cheltenham 
Shows. —Messrs. Sutton & Sons, of Reading, were 
awarded six First-class Certificates for various sorts 
of their choice strains of Cyclamen at the Gloucester 
Show, whilst at the Cheltenham Show they received 
nine First-class Certificates. These flowers are just 
now coming into perfection, and there is now at their 
Florists’ Flower Seed Nurseries one of the finest 
shows of these popularTIowers to be seen anywhere. 
Laportea moroides. —The Nettle Trees are not 
very popular in gardens, notwithstanding the bold 
character of the foliage and the peculiar and striking 
appearance of the fruit. The leaves are more or less 
covered with coarse hairs, that sting more severely 
than the common stinging Nettle, while the pain 
lasts longer. Gardeners have therefore to exercise 
great care when repotting, or moving the plants 
about, to avoid being stung. The leaves of Laportea 
moroides are heart-shaped and of large size. The 
peculiar fruits are more abundantly produced from 
plants several years old than from young ones. They 
are produced in heavy pendent clusters, from near the 
top of the stems and below the crown of leaves. 
The fruits closely resemble those of a Mulberry, as 
implied by the specific name, and vary from a pale 
to a deep vinous purple according to their stage of 
ripening. Besides their general likeness to the fruits 
of the Mulberry, they are in fact closely allied, as 
both belong to the same family. The plant requires 
a stove temperature. 
Asparagus plumosus gracillima— The ordinary 
form of Asparagus plumosus and its variety, A. p. 
nanus, are now extensively grown for decorative 
purposes, and as the stock is generally raised from 
seed, particularly of the last-named form, there 
are always more or less distinct varieties turning up 
amongst the seedlings. One of these is so 
characterised by the slender appearance of its 
branches that it has been named A. p. gracillima, 
The ultimate and slender shoots, popularly but 
erroneously termed leaves, are very much shorter 
than those of A. p. nanus, making the clusters, or 
fascicles appear less plumose, and not so crowded. 
The plant, as a whole, is therefore very light and 
gEaceful. We noted the variety in the nursery of 
Messrs. Pitcher & Manda, Hextable, Swanley 
