August 19, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
805 
learn, as " R. D.” points out that there are now 
about fifty kinds in cultivation. 
Cross-fertilization, while it undoubtedly adds to 
the size and brilliancy of the flowers, seems also to 
repress certain other qualities, such as perfume and 
hardiness, which are quite as great desiderata to 
those who love nature not too largely diluted. The 
preference for large, bright, showy blossoms finds 
much support in some gardens, and horticultural 
societies also encourage it, so that, should the rage 
continue, our sweet scented floral beauties are likely 
to be replaced by those of a more gaudy, not to say 
meretricious, character. 
As I am indebted to " R. D.” for the trial of two 
varieties of this description, I trust that he will use 
his influence to prevent such a catastrophe, because 
nurserymen and litterateurs have it in their power to 
recommend only those sweet things which are a dis¬ 
tinct advance all round upon the original species. 
Sweet Peas are not only ornamental garden 
watering pot, will accomplish such elegant results as 
it should not be in the province of anyone to dispute. 
—C. B. G„ Acton, W. 
--5-- 
THE ROYAL BOTANIC 
SOCIETY. 
A more melancholy document—even in these days 
of universal financial catastrophe and depression— 
has seldom been submitted than the annual report 
of the Royal Botanic Society, read by its Secretary, 
Mr. Sowerby.at the Museum in the Gardens, Regent’s 
Park, on Thursday afternoon. It is not that the 
pounds, shillings, and pence involved are so very 
important, or that anybody in particular is greatly 
the poorer for the absurdly unsatisfactory character 
of the society’s report. We call it “ melancholy," 
because it illustrates in a special and unique manner 
the hopeless failure, the miserable muddle, the 
ridiculous fiasco which the managers of a great 
body of managers, " Here is a beautiful garden, in 
the heart of a beautiful park, with lovely lawns, large 
conservatories and glasshouses, and air as good as 
can possibly be got inside the twelve miles circle. 
It is rich already with the rarest specimens of the 
floral and sylvan world ; this very year new plants 
both of economic and scientific interest and value, 
have been added to the collections, including the 
Mangrove (Rhizphora), which has only this year 
been successfully grown ; also the remarkable ant 
habitation plants (Myrmecodia), presented by the 
president of the Linnean Society. There are 
croquet and tennis grass plots, and the place is in 
the middle of Regent’s Park, the very centre of a 
swarming and intelligent population, next door to 
the Zoological Gardens, and eight minutes from an 
underground station. Can you make it pay ? ” 
What would the intelligent and gifted body of 
managers reply? "Make it pay'" they would 
exclaim. “ Why, give us but a free hand with such 
Typical Varieties of Caladiums. 
objects, but as a commercial commodity are in great 
demand. I know a garden where it is no exaggera¬ 
tion to say that if the rows were placed end to end, 
the distance covered would exceed a mile. The 
varieties grown are .all, I believe, sweet-scented, 
being the odoriferous progeny of the famed Sicilian 
species, Lathyrus odoratus. This year I have used 
L. Napoleonis and L. cmruleus as pot plants, as well 
as in the open border. The former is a bright, rich 
rose, and the latter a soft sky blue, but both, unfor¬ 
tunately, lack that essential quality already depre¬ 
cated. 
As pot culture is, perhaps, not generally under¬ 
stood, I may here remark that, properly carried out, 
the result is such as to give unique effects, if not to 
create quite a furore amongst the other occupants 
of a large conservatory, to which they should be 
transferred when at their best. 
Pots 8 ins. or io ins. in diameter should be used, 
with the usual concomitants of fibrous loam and 
rotten manure. The seeds may either be sown now 
or in the spring, four seeds per pot, according to re¬ 
quirements. When the seedlings are sufficiently 
advanced, stout, twiggy Pea-sticks must be firmly 
placed in position to enable the plants to assume 
their scandent habit. A little tying here and there, 
the coolest of treatment, and a liberal use of the 
London institution may make of their property and 
of its prospects when they will not or do not take 
the trouble to understand the London in the midst 
of which they live. We will first borrow a few 
figures from the balance sheet which Mr. Sowerby 
had to read to the disconsolate Royal Botanists. 
From March to July there had been 17,915 visitors 
to the gardens. The statement of accounts showed 
receipts:—General subscriptions, £2,785; exhibi¬ 
tions and evening fete, £1,909 ; loan from bankers, 
£1,000 ; balance in hand, £104. The payments 
included in liabilities of 1891 and previous years, 
£1,162; garden labour, £2,430 ; meeting, exhibitions 
and fetes, £1,324- The liabilities amounted to 
£17,781. Mr. E. Ledger was, very naturally, of 
opinion that the position of the Society was " any¬ 
thing but satisfactory.” "The present," he said, 
" was the worst balance sheet that they had ever 
had, and now the lease had only eight years to 
run." Nearly £18,000 of debt —cash in hand a little 
over £100, and only 18,000 visitors in the whole five 
summer months, not a third of the number that 
many a place of popular resort often collects in a 
single day ! Consider meanwhile what a property, 
what a position, what superb advantages, and 
supreme attractions such a society possesses! 
Suppose we said to a really intelligent and gifted 
a spot, and we will very quickly establish a Kew 
Gardens in the centre of the Metropolis ; we will 
have • all the world and his wife ’ coming constantly 
thither; we will transform it into a paradise of 
pleasure in the summer weather, and a winter 
retreat of warmth and wonderful sights and lessons 
in the cold season. Only give us such a chance, 
and we will pay a dividend of 20 per cent, in less 
than no time, and make millions of Londoners 
happy, and instructed beside." 
So would intelligent and gifted managers, who 
know London and its social needs, reply ; and why 
have we then, from such a society—with such mag¬ 
nificent advantages—these wretched results ? Simply 
for the reason that the management of the place has 
stagnated in the hands of persons who, like those 
similarly situated in many a spot which might be 
named, have no understanding of their time, of 
public needs, of possible developments. These 
Royal Botanic Gardens have the making in them of 
one of the most attractive places of relaxation and 
instruction combined throughout the whole 
metropolis. The handsome and spacious area rented 
by the Society might become a perfect Garden of 
Armida : for though the London air will not permit 
delicate flowers, like Roses, to bloom successfully 
even in the park, much has been done, and very 
