756 
July 29, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
EULOPHIELLA ELISABETHS. 
I find in your number of to-day (July 22nd) a new 
proof of the manifest partiality with which you treat 
me. When you only published extracts from my 
last letter, thus taking away from it all its bearing, 
you impressed with entire complaisance the asser¬ 
tions of M. Hamelin, contrary to the truth. 
I can no longer discuss to advantage with a person 
who disguises the facts knowingly. I published in 
the Journal des Orchides the true history of the 
introduction of Eulophiella Elisabethae, and it will 
be reproduced in the next number of the Lindenia in 
English; the persons whom that question may 
interest can refer back to it, and see by the letters 
that I published that one cannot have any confidence 
in the assertions of M. Hamelin. Besides, I have in 
my possession the entire bundle of papers of that 
affair, as well as the declarations prepared by two 
licensed horticulturists of Brussels who were 
requested to assist at the unpacking of the plants 
sent by M. Hamelin, verifying the deplorable state 
in which they found them on their arrival. 
I give the most formal contradiction to the singular 
history attributed to M. Van Mol. 
You have already allowed to be disseminated in a 
preceding number that I indicated the Congo as the 
place from whence the plant came at the Exhibition 
at Ghent. That also is inexact. It has been 
indicated as coming from Eastern Africa (Afrique 
Vrientale). I send you enclosed herewith the same 
card which was used at Ghent, so that you can verify 
the fact. It is evident that at a time when foreign 
collectors are intent upon the traces of ours, I am 
not going to indicate the precise locality of origin. 
We have been introducers of plants for fifty years ; 
then we had for contemporaries the honourable firms 
of Veitch, Backhouse, Bull, and Low. We have 
never been put to the necessity of making rectifica¬ 
tions ; but during late years the new proceedings 
which rule the day oblige us to make contradictions 
at every moment. It is true that in every one of 
these discussions—as in that relating to Cattleya 
labiata for example—the good way is not to our 
adversaries. 
Outside of these rectifications that I have the duty 
to make, historical and documentary, I can add that 
the engraving of Eulophiella Elisabethae published 
in one of your preceding numbers is a copy of the 
plate in the Lindenia, and for this we ought to receive 
thanks. 
I trust that you will insert in its entirety In your 
next number this response to the letter of M. 
Hamelin that you have published.— L. Linden. 
[We publish M. Linden's letter as close to the 
text as we have been able to translate it. As regards 
our correspondent's charge of “ manifest partiality ” 
we utterly disclaim anything of the kind. All that 
we suppressed from M. Linden’s letter published in 
our number for July 8th were some statements with 
reference to business transactions, which do not 
affect the point at issue, and which we regarded 
then, as now, of no public interest. We may add 
also that we have nowhere stated that M. Linden 
indicated the Congo as the place from whence the 
Eulophiella came.—E d.J 
-- 
OUR FRUIT CROPS. 
The Apple crop is a heavy one in most places for 
some miles round Preston, the trees as a rule having 
escaped the attacks of insects. Pears are also a 
good crop, except on walls. We have two trees of 
Marie Louise, from 30 to 40 ft. high, nicely furnished, 
and one of Dunmore quite as large with a good crop 
on, which is a very rare occurrence. 
Plums have been much blighted in places, 
especially the Damson, and the unusually heavy 
set of fruit has been much reduced, but we have 
still a good crop left, Morrello Cherries are a 
heavy set, but the trees have suffered from 
drought ; the few showers we got from March 
to July were from the south, and not being sufficiently 
heavy plants on north borders under walls, fared 
worse than those in other parts of the garden. The 
fruit will not be so fine as usual, as it is ripening pre¬ 
maturely. Other Cherries were good. Gooseberries, 
which have only been a light crop once in a decade, 
is unusually heavy. I hear that in some parts the 
caterpillar has stripped the trees of leaves, and in 
the gardens they have been nearly destroyed by red 
spider. This is not the red spider which infests our 
hot-houses and fortunately it takes possession of the 
upper side of the leaves, so it will be more readily 
destroyed, though I despair of an insecticide in a 
liquid form to have anv effect on this any more than 
other mites unless made sufficiently strong to kill the 
plants. I cut off a few shoots and experimented 
with some of them, and with the aid of a pocket 
lens I could see what effect they had. For a time 
their progress was arrested and they remained still, 
but after the stuff had dried they were as lively as 
ever. Sulphur, we know, is an enemy to iihabitants 
of our glass-houses, but it would be expensive to 
apply it to some scores of large Gooseberry trees. 
I question if sulphur dusted on plants actually 
kills the red spider, but it makes matters unpleasant 
and locomotion well nigh impossible, and it becomes 
exhausted and starves. Holding these views, I was 
led to think that a substance of a dusty nature would 
have some effect on the Gooseberry red spider, so 
mixed a little new slacked lime and soot, and applied 
it to a shoot, and it was peculiarily interesting to see 
the spider tumbling and tossing in its efforts to 
travel. I felt at once that it was my victim, and I 
lost no time in dusting the whole of the trees 
(reserving a few for immediate picking), and in 
two days no one could see an insect. The 
mixture must be applied in calm weather, as it is 
soon blown off the leaves, and these must be per¬ 
fectly dry, because the moisture soon converts the 
lime into a paste and gives the insect a firm footing. 
Strawberries were a good crop on old and young 
plants, but old plants suffered from the drought. 
The most serviceable one this year is Latest of All, 
planted on an east border. The plant is a strong 
grower with us, and we are gathering nice fruit, and 
will do so a few days longer.— R., Preston. 
-►*-- 
FROZEN CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
Home and Colonial. 
■An interchange of prize Chrysanthemum blooms' 
between the National Chrysanthemum Society and 
the Antipodean Societies in affiliation with it appears 
likely in the future, if the process does not prove too 
expensive. It will be remembered that in October 
last some blooms of seedlings raised by Mr. John 
Earland, Wellington, New Zealand, were sent over 
to the National Chrysanthemum Society by the 
raiser, each bloom frozen in ice, and a great amount 
of interest was aroused by reason of the novelty and 
success of the experiment. By way of reciprocating 
Mr. Earland's action, the National Chrysanthemum 
Society last November sent out to the Wellington 
Society a dozen blooms each of Japanese and 
incurved Chrysanthemums, the former from the 
superb collection shown by Mr. W. H. Fowler, J.P., 
Mayor of Taunton, with which he won the hand¬ 
some Holmes Memorial Cup at the exhibition of the 
Royal Aquarium in November last; and a dozen 
exhibition blooms of incurved varieties, contributed 
by Mr. Mease, the well-known grower and exhibitor, 
Downside, Leatherhead. The flowers were duly 
frozen in ice and despatched, but arrived too late for 
the exhibition of the Wellington Society, so a special 
show was arranged, at which the English blooms 
were exhibited. Mr. J. J. Kerslake, of Wellington, 
writing to Mr. C. Harman Payne, Foreign Corres¬ 
ponding Secretary, states : “ A large number of per¬ 
sons paid for admission ; the English incurved were 
admired on account of their perfect form; no 
flowers were ever exhibited in this city so perfect. 
The Japanese were also much admired; finer blooms 
of W. W. Coles, Mrs. C. H. Wheeler, and 
Avalanche have never been seen here. Mrs. Fogg 
and Ralph Brocklebank were also much admired, 
they being new to us, and will prove great acquisi¬ 
tions to the show boards. With one or two excep¬ 
tions the flowers retained their perfect colours; 
Avalanche was a little discoloured, all the yellow or 
gold colour had gone out of Edwin Molyneux and 
Mrs. Wheeler—not a bit to be seen, they were just a 
dull red. Stanstead White, Mrs. Fogg, Lord Brooke, 
Sarah Owen, Etoile de Lyon, and Mons. Bernard 
were just as perfect in colour as when cut. Alto¬ 
gether the exhibit proved very interesting, both to 
growers and non-growers, and no doubt the sending- 
out of these flowers from England will be the cause 
of many taking a greater interest in the Chrysanthe¬ 
mum, as it will operate to establish a system of 
exchange and comparison of some of the finest 
flowers grown here with those of the Mother 
Country.” From Wellington the English blooms 
were sent to Christchurch, and applications were 
received from several colonial societies for permis¬ 
sion to see them. 
On Friday last a special meeting of the General 
and Floral Committees of the National Chrysanthe¬ 
mum Society was held at the Royal Aquarium to 
examine some blooms of Japanese Chrysanthemums, 
grown and exhibited by Mr. R. Forsyth, of Sydney, 
who almost invariably takes the Silver Cup with 
Japanese blooms annually offered by the New South 
Wales Horticultural Society. There were four blooms, 
three incurved and one reflexed Japs. Each had 
been frozen in a solid block of ice, then wrapped in 
paper, and packed in cases with sawdust, two blocks 
in each case. They were very good blooms indeed, 
but unnamed, though to all appearance well-known 
varieties. The Silver Medal of the Society was 
awarded to Mr. Forsyth for his exhibit. The Chry¬ 
santhemum season appears to have been a bad one 
generally in the colonies. Mr. Levick, writing from 
Sydney, states : "Our season this year has been a 
disastrous one, rainy and misty nearly the whole 
time the blooms were out, so that they damped 
terribly. A few fine ones were, however, shown.” — 
R. D. 
-**-- 
TINTED LILACS. 
At one of the meetings last spring of the National 
Horticultural Society of France, bunches of Lilacs 
invested with unknown colours in the genus provoked 
the general astonishment of the bystanders. The 
colours were the most varied. There was azure 
blue, golden yellow, chrome yellow, gooseberry rose, 
and salmon red. The colour of the stems prepared 
was not quite the same as that of the flowers. Stems 
tinted with rose gave carmine flowers. The colour 
was obtained by means of rosin. 
Stems tinted with orange by means of analine dye, 
designated in commerce under the name of Orange 
II., gave thyrses of golden yellow and sulphur 
yellow ; stems coloured with dark violet by means 
of the violet of Methylanaline gave salmon red 
flowers; the stems- coloured with clear blue by 
means of methylene blue, gave flowers of a light 
azure blue. 
The flowers so treated were fresh and very beauti¬ 
ful, but they did not preserve their turgescence 
for a longer period of time than those flowers of 
Lilac forced in the ordinary way. The Revue 
Horticole, which gives an account of that exhibition, 
says that the effect produced is very pretty, and it 
remarks that "the thyrses were entirely uniform in 
colour, and all the flowers uniformly tinted, from 
the tube to the lamina inclusively, but that neither 
the pedicels nor the calyxes any more than the 
young buds and leaves had lost their natural green 
colour. 1 ’ The colouration has been obtained by the 
immersion of the cut stems in the liquid coloured 
as we have just indicated. There is evidently in 
that way numerous and curious experiments to 
make.— E. Miler, in Bulletin d'Arboriculture de Floricul¬ 
ture, etc. 
-- 
CARPENTERIA CALIFORNIA. 
Many of the Californian plants, whether herbaceous 
or woody, can be grown with tolerable success in 
this country, but on the whole, it depends very much 
upon the nature of the plant, the locality from 
whence it comes, and the elevation at which it 
thrives in its native home. With Californian annuals 
we have no difficulty at all; Lilies are a little more 
troublesome, but evergreen Coniferae generally thrive 
satisfactorily. The shrub under notice comes from 
the Sierra Nevada, and has not proved so resistent to 
the severity of our climate as we could have desired, 
considering the beauty of the plant, both as to 
flowers and foliage. It may pass through several 
winters uninjured in the environs of London, but a 
severe frost of no great duration will sometimes 
seriously cripple the foliage. Had the shrub been 
deciduous, there is little doubt but that 
it would have been hardy, and would have 
quickly taken a permanent position in every 
garden where shrubs could be planted. It should be 
extensively planted in favoured localities on the 
south and west coasts, where semi-hardy subjects of 
many kinds have already given great satisfaction, as 
in the Isle of Wight, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and 
many other spots favoured with a mild and equable 
winter. As may be seen by our illustration, the 
flowers resemble a single Rose of large size, and 
pure white, with a bold mass of yellow stamens in 
the centre. It flowers freely when only 2 ft. to 3 ft. 
high. 
