July 29, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
753 
aphides, caterpillars, etc., and the growth is clean, 
stout, and well ripened. The national flower was 
the subject discussed at the meeting of the Wake¬ 
field Society on the 15th inst., and Mr. Skinner, the 
essayist, gave a most instructive and interesting 
paper. There was more than an average attendance 
of members, including nurserymen, gardeners, and 
amateurs, whose contributions of flowers made quite 
a respectable show. A lively discussion followed 
the reading of the paper, and at the conclusion of 
the business of the evening the blooms were sold 
and over a sovereign was realised, which is to form 
the nucleus of a subscription to the Royal Gar¬ 
deners' Orphan Fund. 
White Slaves wanted in Ireland,—If there is any 
poor unfortunate English gardener, married, but 
" without incumbrance,” who would like to serve a 
compatriot in Ireland, for the bare means of subsis- 
tance—himself as garden slave, and his wife to rub 
the skin off her fingers in the laundry—let him apply 
to us for the name and address of the person who 
sent the following recently to a London nursery man. 
• ■ M rs .-sends details of cottage laundry, 
and wages (22s. per week, with coal) she proposes 
giving for man and wife. She would be very glad to 
get clean English people, being English herself; 
there is a great want of labourers, laundresses, and 
domestic servants, all the best having gone to 
America. Laundry, cottage, and a little furniture, 
including bedstead (no bedclothes or chairs), small 
chest drawers, kitchen cupboard and table, small close- 
range, &c., free. Small wash-room, good ironing- 
room, boiler, stove for irons, mangle, airer, drying 
ground in large field. Wages for man, 12s. per week ; 
for woman, if really good laundress, 10s. per week, 
but to find own soap, soda, starch, and blue, and 
guarantee to use no washing powders. Coal and 
coke for laundry provided. Small garden could be 
made by energetic man at side of cottage. No pigs, 
poultry, or dogs to be kept but by arrangement 
(poultry in wire, or dogs in kennels) as the cottage 
must be kept clean, neat and tidy, and its surround¬ 
ings of paths, &c., so that the laundry can be seen 
at any time by friends. Besides ironing room, 
cottage consists of one good-sized bedroom, kitchen, 
and small bedroom or lavatory for man, and would 
only hold comfortably man and wife without incum¬ 
brance, or with one young daughter over eight. As 
stated before, the woman must be a very good laun¬ 
dress, and strong, and both must have good characters 
for being sober, honest, trustworthy, and clean, also 
industrious.” We print the letter verbatim et 
literatim, and would only add that if there are many 
more of the same sort of employers in old Ireland, 
one cannot be surprised at “all the best” of her 
humble sons and daughters having gone to America. 
-- 
AMERICAN JOTTINGS. 
Visitors to Boston.— Notable visitors to Boston 
during the first week in July were Messrs. Vilmorin, 
of Paris, and Nicholson, of Kew Gardens, England, 
both on their way to Chicago. They visited, as 
does everybody nowadays, the Arnold Arboretum, 
and spent a few hours among the trees and shrubs. 
Ligustrum Ibota.— One of the most beautiful 
shrubs now in bloom at the Arnold Arboretum is 
the comparatively recently introduced Ligustrum 
Ibota. It is impossible to exaggerate the beauty and 
symmetry of one of these plants in bloom. For 
decorative cut flower work the long slender branches 
are particularly adapted, and there is no reason why 
it would not make a profitable forcing shrub. 
Mr. W. Goldring, of England, and more recently 
of India, brother of the Messrs. Goldring, of Albany, 
N.Y., honoured Buffalo with a very short visit on 
Saturday, July 1st, in company with his brother 
" Sam.” Mr. Goldring has just returned from India, 
where he has been laying out some grand places for 
some of the native princes. Mr. Goldring is one of 
England’s foremost landscape gardeners, as well as 
being a horticultural author of wide renown. It 
was gratifying indeed to hear such unstinted praise 
of our beautiful park and matchless resident streets 
from such a travelled man. 
Roman Hyacinths from Bermuda. —A few Ber¬ 
muda grown Roman Hyacinths have arrived in New 
York. It is not yet known how well they will compare 
with the French stock when forced.— American 
Florist. 
Horticultural Congress at Chicago. —The 
date for the World's Horticultural Congress at 
Chicago has been fixed, beginning August 16th, 1893, 
and continuing four days. Horticulturists through¬ 
out the world are cordially invited to so arrange 
their visit to the World’s Columbian Exposition that 
they may be present on the above date. The Society 
of American Florists and the American Seed Trade 
Association and the American Pomological Society 
will hold their annual meeting during the same 
months. 
Columbus Sighting Land. —Mr. Charles A. 
Krombach, of Brooklyn, has on exhibition a floral 
model of “ Columbus Sighting Land.” The caravel, 
Santa Maria, is formed of Echeveria, Alternanthera, 
and Ivy plants. The vessel measures about 8 ft. long 
by 3 ft. deep, with masts, bowsprit, and sails com¬ 
plete ; the colours of Spain and America are. waving 
from the mastheads. Columbus in blue, white, red, 
and yellow immortelles, stands on the prow of the 
caravel holding to his eye a miniature telescope. 
The ocean is represented by a patch of Ageratum. 
Retarding Bulbs. —Mr. Benj. Durfee, of Wash¬ 
ington, has given considerable study to the cold 
storage system as applied to retarding or extending 
the flowering period of certain kinds of plants and 
bulbs ; special attention has been given to Lily of 
the Valley for one or two seasons, mainly to deter¬ 
mine the most suitable temperature for keeping it 
dormant beyond its natural flowering period. Several 
large patches have been kept at different tempera¬ 
tures and the results tested in the greenhouse. One 
small batch has been kept at a temperature of 5 0 F., 
and other larger lots from that to 40° F. Mr. Durfee 
is of the opinion that a very low degree of cold is 
entirely unnecessary and even hurtful if continued 
for a long period. The larger part of the stock 
seldom gets below 24 0 F., and he thinks 32 0 F., or a 
little higher, is quite a safe figure ; but a great deal 
depends upon the condition of the roots when put in. 
Several other things have been worked upon with 
more or less success. Roman Hyacinths put thickly 
in boxes as late in the season as possible for them to 
make a fair quantity of roots and transferred gradu¬ 
ally to a temperature of 24 0 F., have been brought in 
flower successfully several weeks after the regular 
supply has run out. The only trouble is that the 
number of jpeople who appreciate these flowers out 
of season is not sufficient to make the work pay.— 
Florist's Exchange. 
--I-- 
TOMATOS: WHAT ARE 
THEY ? 
When, some time since, the subject of the position of 
the Tomato on show tables was discussed, it was 
little imagined that the point would ever be the 
subject of an important decision in a law court. 
The report you furnished last week of the very 
interesting case tried in New York, in which the 
Tomato figured as the hero, shows that in legal 
estimation there at least it is regarded as an ordinary 
vegetable, and probably did a similar case crop up 
in one of our law courts, it would result in a similar 
verdict. That is at any rate the recognised legal 
and also technical position of the Tomato at present. 
What it may be twenty years hence it is difficult 
to say, for so rapid are the changes in public taste, 
and the Tomato as it is now is pretty good evidence 
of such rapid change, we may see it then elevated 
to the status of a dessert fruit. Nothing seems 
more probable, for there can be no doubt but that 
the popular taste for Tomatos is fast tending in that 
direction, whilst it may be materially aided if the 
fruit be so far improved in relation to flavour, that 
it shall be in that respect made much more palatable 
and attractive than it is at present. 
The Tomato has very much in its favour. It is 
very easily grown, the fruits are very handsome, of 
a beautiful colour, soft, juicy, and refreshing, and 
especially acceptable, because so soft and easy of 
digestion, to the aged. It is one of the oddities of 
the classification to which garden products are sub¬ 
jected that whilst a Cucumber is a vegetable, and 
yet it is invariably eaten when raw, its allied 
species the Melon is classed as a fruit because it is 
sweet, and like the Cucumber is not a cooking pro¬ 
duct. The Tomato certainly seems to be as fit to 
class with the Melon as with the Cucumber. Except 
as to its acknowledged position on the show table it 
matters little what the Tomato is classed with. It 
has become a wonderful article of commerce, and a 
most popular product, and for that we are glad.— 
A. D. 
SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Annual MLeting and Excursion. 
The annual meeting of this Society will be held in 
the Society’s rooms, 5, St. Andrew’s Square, Edin¬ 
burgh, on Monday, August 7th, at 11.30 a.m., to 
elect new members and office-bearers for 1893-41 
to receive reports of the auditors and treasurer ; and 
report by the judges on the nineteen essays re¬ 
ceived in competition. At two p.m. the 
members will leave the Prince’s Street Station of the 
Ca'edonian Railway for the annual excursion. 
Special saloon carriages will be provided for the 
members, and will be at their service throughout the 
excursion. Travelling via Carlisle and the L. &N.W 
Railway, Willesden Junction, London, will be 
reached about 10.38 p.m , and thence via Clapham 
Junction and L. & S.W.R. the party will arrive at 
Windsor the same night. 
The headquarters of the Society during the stay at 
Windsor will be the White Hart Hotel. Starting 
from the White Hart at 8.3 a.m. on Tuesday, August 
8th, the party will visit Windsor Castle, the Royal 
Gardens, and the Prince Consort’s Shaw P'arm. 
Then after they will drive through Windsor 
Great Park and Forest, when the following, among 
other objects, will be seen :—The Flemish Farm, 
the Prince Consort’s Oak, William the Conqueror’s 
Oak, Queen Adelaide’s Oak, the Queen’s Jubilee 
Oak, the Prince Consort’s workshop, the statue of 
the Prince Consort, Virginia Water, the Cedar 
drive, Belvedere Fort, the Obelisk, the Rhododen¬ 
dron drive, and Oak Plantation of 200 years’ growth, 
and thence by the Long Walk to Windsor, arriving 
there at about 7.30 p.m. 
The annual dinner will be held at 8 p.m., at the 
White Hart Hotel. 
On Wednesday, the 9th of August, the members 
will leave Windsor in carriages at 10 a.m., to visit 
the Woodlands on the estates of the Duke of West¬ 
minster, at Cliveden, and Lady Fortescue, at Drop- 
more, and to the famed Burnham Beeches. The 
party will then return to head-quarters to proceed 
by special train at 7 p.m., from Windsor to 
Southampton. 
The head-quarters of the Society during the visit 
to the New Forest will be at the South-Western 
Railway Hotel, Southampton. 
On Thursday, August 10th, the excursionists will 
cross Southampton Water by steamer to Hythe, and 
thence drive through the southern part of the New 
Forest via Beaulieu to Lyndnurst, where lunch will be 
served in the Verderers’ Hall, in the Queen’s House. 
Afterwards the features of interest around Lyndhurst 
will be inspected, and the drive continued to Mark 
Ash, Rhinefield, and Boldrewood, returning to 
Southampton about 7 30 p.m. 
On Friday, August nth, the drive will be resumed 
to the northern parts of the New Forest via Lynd¬ 
hurst and Rufus’ Stone to Fritham, walking through 
Bentley's Plantations, Sloden Old Wood, and Island 
Thorns, Younger Plantations, driving thence to' 
Stoney Cross, where lunch will be served. Resuming 
the drive through the Forest, Southampton will be 
reached in time for the 7.25 p.m. train for London. 
On Saturday, August 12th, the members will go by 
train from Victoria at 8.45 p.m. to Kew Gardens, re¬ 
turning at 12 44 p.m. to Earl’s Court Station, to visit 
the Forestry Exhibition on the special invitation of 
the Directors. This will close the programme of 
this excursion, and those desiring to return to 
Scotland the same night can catch the 8.50 p.m. or 
10 p.m. train from Euston Station for Edinburgh and 
the North. 
-- 4 —- 
COREOPSIS GRANDIFLORA. 
It would be extremely useful to the readers of The 
Gardening World who are interested in hardy 
flowers if those who have tried this plant would give 
their experience with it during this summer. I was 
very much pleased with some flowers I saw exhibited 
last year, and was very anxious to obtain some plants 
of what I thought to be one of the most beautiful 
hardy plants I had ever seen. I was cautioned by 
several growers of herbaceous plants not to expect 
too much, and I may say that I have not had a bloom 
any better than the ordinary C. lanceolata. I have 
seen it growing in the gardens of two friends, both of 
whom have got quite a distinct plant to mine, and with 
rather better flowers, but nothing like what I had 
hoped for.— C. U. S. 
