688 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
July 1, 1898. 
stituted objects of pride in many gardens ? 
These are rapidly disappearing, and the 
longiflorums and other popular forcing 
varieties do not seem to have re¬ 
placed them in gardens to anv great 
extent. 
Have we now become so depsndent upon 
Lily importations that we have no en¬ 
couragement to grow roots at home, or 
are we unable to do so with any success 
because of the potenc}?' of diseases ? Here 
is a question that merits full consideration. 
Possibly Mr. G. F. Wilson and others who 
have been great Lily growers in the past 
can throw some light on the problem. 
^ew Chrysanthemums. —Mr. C. Harman 
Payne gave last week in the columns 
of our contemporary, The Garden , a list of 
103 new, or at least newly named, varieties 
of American Chrysanthemums, a few of 
which we know, but of the bulk little or 
nothing has previously been heard on this 
side of the Atlantic. Now it has been said, 
still with only partial truth, that the pro¬ 
duction of the best seedlings has been 
transferred from France to America. Stiil, 
we have France as well as our home raisers 
in the held, and America has not yet given 
a beat or an equal to Viviand Morel. But 
there is the almost appaling fact presented 
to Chrysanthemum growers that from 200 
to 300 seedlings, furnished with names too, 
are being put into commerce yearly, and if 
in the abundance there should also be 
bewilderment, who can wonder ? 
Of course, no one is compelhd to pur¬ 
chase all or any until they know something 
more about them than what they can make 
out of raisers’ descriptions, unless it be the 
unfortunate “ up to date” nurseryman who 
makes the Chrysanthemum a specialty, 
and who knowing the amateur’s desire 
always to possess the best, has to purchase 
largely of the so-called novelties m order 
liimsell to sort the sheep from the goats, 
for true it is they do not find that guide to 
the very best which is so much desired in 
the awards made by foreign certificating 
bodies. If anything should tend to make 
Certificating Committees pause it is this 
terribly exuberant production of new flowers 
which should at least compel them to set 
up such high standards of merit that the 
poor grower, failing to find any reliable 
guide elsewhere, should at least be able to 
trust to committees’ awards, and thus 
ensure securing the best without having to 
buy so much rubbish as well. 
We ask in this case the exercise of 
immense self-denial on the part of commit¬ 
tees. W e should like to see new flowers 
receiving only a tentative Award of Merit 
the first year, and a higher award, say a 
First-class Certificate, if found worthy the 
second year. But the standard of merit 
must be raised very high, that is absolutely 
essential. Last year, out of a mj’riad of 
excellent novelties, there was not one that 
took an exceptionally high place. We 
don't want to encourage a deluge of 
common-places, we want only exceptional 
merit. 
I^he Potato Crop.— Whilst our Potato 
crop, like all other vegetation, has been 
materially affected by the drought, there is 
no doubt but that on the whole it looks 
very well, and should there be no appre¬ 
ciable addition to the showers which have 
fallen within the last few days, there should 
all the same be a very good crop of tubers, 
if relatively rather small. Really the 
showers which have fallen are in danger of 
doing more harm than good to Potatos. 
A thorough ground rain, that saturated the 
soil some nine to ten inches deep, would 
serve roots and tubers alike, with the result 
that growth would be even and general. 
Mere surface showers, however, do but help 
to induce eye or bud growth on the part of 
the tubers, with the undesirable result that 
protuberation follows, and the crop is 
appreciably injured in the production of 
both old and young tubers, neither of which 
are at all satisfactory 7 . 
Of course any remedy for this unfortu¬ 
nate product is quite beyond the power of 
the grower. Nature is master of the situa¬ 
tion, and the Potatos have no other course 
for it but to follow its lead. However, we 
will not anticipate too much of harm in 
that way yet. There is time for a great 
deal to happen, but the weather of the 
next week or two will determine much for 
for good or ill to our Potato crops. It is 
hardly possible that under an} 7 conditions 
we shall entirely escape the usual attacks 
of disease. They always come, but are 
harmful or otherwise just as the weather is 
cold and wet, or warm and dry. 
If we listen to the prophets, we shall be 
assured that such an abnorma lv hot, dry 
summer will be succeeded by a cold, wet 
autumn to furnish that compensation which 
Nature almost always provides. However, 
that compensation may not be provi¬ 
ded until the winter. Let us hope it may 
be so. A cold, cheerless, wet autumn would 
prove to be as great a misfortune as a hot, 
dry summer, possibly greater, for it would 
disastrously affect very many things, and 
carry the harm done over into future years. 
Especially do we hope our Potatos may 
escape any greater harm than has so far 
come to them. 
|(!he Horticultural Examinations.— 
We have been surprised to observe how 
very little of beating the big drum there has 
been this y ear over the Examinations in 
Horticulture promoted by the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society. Last year the feyv 
examinations conducted in the county of 
Surrey led to much felicitation. This year, 
with the whole kingdom as the examining 
area, the quietude observed has been really 
remarkable. Now these examinations are 
of the greatest value and usefulness to 
horticulture or they are yvorth nothing. It 
is our belief that they can be made capable 
of serving a most important purpose, and 
therefore yve looked for the results of the 
recent experiment yvith great interest. 
For the moment a bare list of honours 
only has been published by the Society, and 
yve suppose yve must yvait for details until 
months hence, when all interest in the 
subject has passed ayvay. So far we have 
learned nothing as to the locale of any of 
the candidates or of their vocation. All yve 
can learn from the lists, published in another 
column, is that out of seventy-six candi¬ 
dates in the higher grade, sixty-two received 
awards of merit ; and of 128 in the second 
grade sixty only received awards. In the 
first group six obtained first-class certifi¬ 
cates, having 200 marks and over. Twenty 
had second-class certificates, having from 
150 to 200 marks ; and thirty-six had third- 
class certificates, yvith marks varying from 
100 to 150. In the loyver grade, first-class 
honours, with the same ratio of marks, are 
given to six candidates, second-class honours 
to sixteen, and third-class honours to thirty- 
eight. The proportion of good passes is 
very low, considering the nature of the 
questions set. 
\ ery much interest yvould attach to the 
publication of the occupation, age, and 
residence of each candidate. Some few are 
females, and these, doubtless, are school 
teachers, to whom certificates of this kind 
may be of \ 7 alue in their y r ocations. Still, 
we had hoped that, instead of merely a 
couple of hundred of candidates, a very 
moderate proportion only of whom we fear 
w re young gardeners, "there yvould have 
been at least a thousand. Perhaps the 
result is as good as can be expected for the 
first > 7 ear, but if these examinations are 
ey r er to become instrumental in giving to 
gardening a higher status, they must not 
only be shared in by large numbers of 
persons, but the proportion of marks 
awarded must also be raised to a much 
higher average. 
-- 
The Royal Wedding.—We understand that all de¬ 
partments in Messrs. Sutton & Son's establishment 
at Reading will be closed on the 6th inst.-, in celebra¬ 
tion of the Royal Wedding. The Messrs. Sutton 
also intend to make the event memorable in their 
house by presenting all their employes on the 5th inst. 
with an extra week's pay. 
The Royal Wedding Bouquets.—We hear that 
Messrs. Wills & Segar have received the Royal com¬ 
mand to supply the wedding bouquets on the occasion 
of the marriage of H.R H. the Duke of York and 
H.S.H. Princess Mary of Teck. The same firm 
will also decorate the Royal table for the wedding 
breakfast at Buckingham Palace. 
The Newcastle Summer Flower Show will be held 
on July 20th, 21st, and 22nd, in conjunction with the 
great show of the Northumberland Agricultural 
Society, an 1 with the attractions doubled, yve have no 
doubt it will be a success. 
Mr. Angus McL'Od, for seven years previous to last 
November gardener to the Marquis of Headfort, at 
Headfort House, Kells, co. Meath, has been engaged 
as gardener and farm manager to G. G. McEntagart, 
Esq., Higbfield Manor, Rathfarnham, co. Dublin. 
Mrv John Charles Bowring, Forest Farm, Windsor, 
died on the 20th ult.,aged 72. The deceased gentleman, 
who had been ill for a long time, was the son of Sir 
John Bowring, sometime H.M.’s Plenipotentiary in 
China. He was for many years an ardent amateur 
cultivator of Orchids, and Cattleya Bowringiana 
will worthily perpetuate his memcry among Orchid 
lovers. 
Orchids in America. —An American exchange of 
June 8th reports that one of Messrs. Pitcher & 
Manda’s Orchid collectors, from whom nothing had 
been heard for about five months, and x\bo had 
almost been given up as lost, recently turned up 
with seventy-seven cases of a new species of 
Cattleya, said to bloom in December. 
The Royal Agricultmal Society’s Show at Chester was 
an unqualified success despite the severity of the 
depression from uhich agriculture is unfortunately 
undergoing with other industries. The number of 
visitors who paid at the gates for admission on” the 
six days the show-yard was open was 116,374, tnd 
the amount taken in cash, £9,353 16s. 6d. 
Circumventing the Post Office.—One of the pet 
grumbles of Mr. Henniker Heaton has always been 
the high charge of 2d. for registering letters in 
addition to the id. for postage. But no remon¬ 
strances have induced the authorities to reduce the 
charge He has just heard, however, of a method 
of getting letters conveyed with special care for the 
payment of 2d. only. A clerical correspondent of 
his has observed that if you do not stamp your 
letter at all, the Post Office will take the greatest 
care to deliver it at its destination in order that the 
necessary 2d. for the unstamped letter may be 
exacted. By enclosing two stamps you reimburse 
your correspondent ; you save yourself a penny for 
postage, and you may be sure the Post Office will 
not lose sight of your letter. 
Mr James Littlejohn, a well known American Rose 
grower, died at Chatham, New Jersey, on June 6th, 
in his 76th year. Mr. Littlejohn commenced business 
as a florist in Chatham in 1S72, and was a very suc¬ 
cessful Rose grower. He was born in 1818, near the 
town of Crieff, in Scotland. At the age of 16 he 
entered the gardening business as an apprentice, at 
Blair Drummond, in Perthshire, and afterwards 
worked as journeyman at Hampton Court, Kew 
Gardens, and other places, until 1848, when he went 
to America. 
Early Apricots in Levonshire.—" Devoniensis ” 
writes:—“The first proofs of an abnormal season 
were given by flowers and vegetables showing 
a phenomenal precocity. Then came bush fruit and 
