338 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 28, 1893. 
may be compared with it The skin of the latter 
when grown under glass is of a uniform clear yellow 
and very attractive from its clean appearance. It is 
also known as Croft-en-Reich, and has been cultiva¬ 
ted from time immemorial in Galloway. Another 
yellow Apple is Grange's Pearmain, keeping up to 
February. It is brisk, tender and sweet, and may 
therefore be used for dessert purposes as well. A 
third variety of this colour, and always so whether 
grown under glass or out of doors, is Golden Noble 
so useful for cooking purposes as the flesh then be¬ 
comes perfectly soft and of a clear amber colour. 
The Cooking Apples are notable for their want of 
colour as a rule, or in other words they are green 
and in most cases of relatively large size. Amongst 
this class may be place Duke of Beaufort, more or 
less striped with red in the earlier stages with a firm, 
acid flesh. Even larger is Gloria Mundi, green 
skinned, angular, and said to keep till Christmas, 
but is still in good condition. The flesh is tender 
and juicy. A better keeper is Alfriston, of a dull 
green, angular, and lasting till April. The flesh is 
crisp, sugary and briskly flavoured, making it one of 
the best of the culinary class. A smaller Apple but 
a brisker one is Hanwell Souring keeping till March, 
and then more acid perhaps than any other of its 
class. 
More highly coloured than most of the above is 
Betty Geeson, which is of a clear yellow suffused with 
red on the exposed side. The white flesh is sweet, 
and briskly acid, and the variety keeps till May 
when properly treated. Wadhurst Pippin is also 
beautifully coloured, with a juicy, crisp and briskly 
flavoured flesh, keeping sound for another month or 
more. The almost uniform deep red colour of Mere 
de Menage marks it out as one of the most highly 
coloured of kitchen Apples. It is still in good condi¬ 
tion, and the flesh is firm, juicy and agreeably acid. 
Not so highly, but more beautifully coloured, is 
Gascoigne’s Seedling, with a yellow skin more or less 
suffused even now with a rosy red. It is ahandsome 
Apple, and is likely to come more decidedly into 
favour with growers. Many other good late Apples 
might be added. 
-- 
TUBEROUS BEGONIAS. 
The tuberous-rooted Begonia was the subject of a 
paper read by Mr. James Weeks, gardener to E. A. 
Sanders, Esq , Stoke House, Exeter, at the last 
meeting of the Exeter Gardeners’ Association. 
After referring to the origin of the race and to the 
mode of treatment required in raising the plants from 
seed, Mr. Weeks dealt with the subject of propa¬ 
gation by cuttings, and the best time to take them, 
which he said was by shoots from the tuber 2 in. or 
3 in. long, taken as early in the year as 
possible. The cuttings should never be cut off, but 
always broken cut either from the tuber or as near 
the base of the stem as possible. It-is a good plan to 
have a little water and some fine silver sand to dip 
the ends in as you take them off. I find by doing 
this you keep them from taking up too much 
moisture from the soil in the pots. They should be 
inserted around the edges of a 3 in. or 4 in. pot, in 
good, free, sandy soil. They should never be put 
Into stroDg bottom heat, but placed on a spent 
Cucumber or Melon bed. A little surface heat by 
night is all they require, but they should be covered 
with hand-lights to keep them from flagging and to 
shade them during the day. Another way of in¬ 
creasing the stock is by cutting up the tubers. Let 
them be first started into growth, and then cut out 
the eyes, just as you would a Dahlia. Shake some 
fine silver sand over the cuts to heal the wounds, and 
pot up singly, or place them in shallow boxes or 
pans. All the single varieties will do well by this 
mode of cultivation, especially the bedding varieties ; 
but I do not like the practice for some of the hybrid 
doubles, which seem to be of a more delicate constitu¬ 
tion, especially those imported from abroad, and re¬ 
quire great care and attention for the first year. 
Outdoor Cultivation. 
Those intended for outdoor work during the summer 
should be placed in shallow boxes of leaf mould the 
first or second week in April and placed in a warm 
greenhouse until they are 2 in. or 3 in. long Then 
remove to cold frames to harden until the first 
week in June, which will be quite soon enough to 
put them out, unless it be in very sheltered situations, 
for there is-nothing so injurious to them as the late 
May frost. The beds should be well drained and 
properly prepared with a liberal supply of leaf mould 
and silver sand, and so placed that they may be out of 
the cold east and west winds. Sun does not hurt 
them if they are liberally supplied with water. They 
should never be put into the beds so as to crowd 
each other before the summer is half over, but 
planted far enough apart to allow some dwarf creep¬ 
ing plants, such as Blue Lobelia, Harrison’s Musk, 
or such-like, to be placed between them. I do not 
see why the amateur or the cottager should not be 
able to grow the Begonia to perfection if he has 
plenty of fresh and pure air ; but I think it is time 
and money wasted to attempt to grow them in 
thickly-populated places, for nothing will retardjheir 
growth so much as the sooty and smoky atmosphere 
of large towns or cities. In the autumn, as soon as 
the plants begin to show signs of decay, much water 
should not be given them, so as to let them gradually 
dry off. It is better to place them outdoors in a 
sunny place for two or three weeks to harden, taking 
care to turn the pots over on their sides if the 
weather is at all wet. Do not cut or break off the 
growth but let it drop off. Always make sure that 
your tubers are perfectly dry before putting away. 
Those in the beds should not be allowed to remain 
after they have been cut by the first night’s frost, but 
should be taken up and spread out to dry in an early 
vinery or Peach-house, and, when thoroughly dry, 
should be packed in boxes and covered with sand, 
each tuber packed carefully on its side, so that no 
moisture can remain in its hollow crown. 
-- 
UP THE HUDSON RIVER 
IN WINTER. 
As the train in which we are travelling towards 
Massachusetts rushes along the banks of the Hudson, 
one is entranced by the lovely views,for the frozen river 
and the mountain slopes rising up on either side pre¬ 
sent a scene of indescribable grandeur. At the 
various towns which we pass through, the river is 
alive with pleasure-seekers, for here is skating in 
galore, sleighing to the heart’s content, and the ice 
boats with all sails set flying before the wind,' make 
an insDirating picture. The thermometer stands at 
zero, yet all look happy, and to enhance the beauty of 
the picture the sun shines in great brilliancy on the 
glittering snow, and reflects itself on the huge 
icicles and frozen streams, on the rocks and 
mountains on the river bank. My destination was 
a place among the Berkshire Hills, and there as 
everywhere the Frost King reigned supreme. 
In the district a number of English gardeners are 
located and they seem to take quite naturally to the 
frozen-out condition of things, and where they have 
glass, stoking keeps them busy, as on many nights 
the temperature has been down to from 4° to 8° below 
zero. For all that it was a treat to get into some of 
the beautiful greenhouses around Lenox and Pitts¬ 
field, they were like oases in the desert. Entering a 
large house in Mr. John White's establishment, I 
was pleased to find it partly filled with Poincettias, 
with bracts 15 to 18 inches in diameter. The effect 
was quite dazzling. This Englishman has been very 
successful here and is now carrying on a very large 
trade. Leaving Mr. White's I trudged away in 
search of the Meadow Farm, where another clever 
young Englishmen, Mr. A. P. Meredith, is located. 
Time permits me only to note a few of the many 
good things to be seen in Mr. Meredith's houses. A 
very fine piece of Nephrolepis Pluma in a compara¬ 
tively small pot I greatly admired. The beautiful 
plant had a spread of 9 feet. In the Orchid houses 
I noticed a splendid piece of Cypripedium Leucor- 
hodum with four spikes of bloom. Other good 
Cypripediums were Cardinale, Lawrenceanum and 
Leeanum superbum. 
Mr. Meredith has been very successful with seed¬ 
ling Anthuriums. One of his seedlings has a splendid 
habit with shield-shaped spathes 6 in. by 5 in., and 
the deepest crimson in colour, the spadix was white 
topped with yellow. The Rose house 90 ft. by 18 ft. 
looked wonderfully well, the plants being in splendid 
health. They are calculated to produce 20,000 
blooms this season, and I have no doubt they will. 
The varities are American Beauty, Sunset, Bride, 
Niphetos, Pearl and Duchess of Albany.— Am. Cor. 
The Carnation : its History, Properties, and Management, 
with a descriptive list of the best varieties in cultivation. By 
E. S. Dodwell. Third edition, with supplementary chapter on 
the yellow ground. London: Gardening World Office, i, 
Clement's Inn, Strand, W.C. is. 6d ; post free, is. yd.— [Advt, 
VEITCH MEMORIAL PRIZES. 
At a meeting of the Trustees of the Veitch Memo¬ 
rial Fund, held on the 17th inst., it was decided that 
the medals and prizes placed last year at the disposal 
of the Royal Horticultural Society and the Man¬ 
chester Botanical and Horticultural Society, but not 
competed for should be again offered this year, viz.:— 
At the Temple Show, to be held May 25th and 26th, 
a medal and prize of £5 for the best six hard-wooded 
greenhouse plants in bloom, and at the special exhi¬ 
bition of Orchids, to be held in the Manchester 
Botanic Garden on May 19th, a medal and prize of 
£5 for the best hybrid Orchid in bloom already in 
commerce, and a medal and prize of £j for the best 
hybrid Orchid in bloom, not in commerce. It w r as 
also decided to place a medal and prize of /y at the 
disposal of the Royal Horticultural Society, to be 
competed for at the Great Fruit Show to be held 
in the Agricultural Hall, Islington, on August 29th 
and three following days. Also a medal and prize 
of £5 to be competed for at the Ghent Quinquennial 
International Exhibition, to be held in April, for the 
best hybrid plant in the Exhibition, and a medal and 
prize of ^5 to be competed for at the Annual Exhi¬ 
bition of the Clay Cross Horticultural Society in 
August. 
-- 
DRESSING CARNATIONS. 
Mr. MacKay would have done better if instead of in,, 
dulging in childish glee at the idea of treading on 
somebody's toes and making senseless comparisons 
between the displaying of the petals of a Carnation 
and the carving of grotesque figures on a Turnip, he: 
had simply responded to my challenge as to whether- 
he had ever seen a bizarre or flake Carnation before: 
and after dressing by competent hands—if he had, in 
fact given evidence of ever so little practical ac¬ 
quaintance with the matter on which he was posing 
as an arbiter. He carefully avoids the test. 
Mr. MacKay, however, delivers himself of a grand 
pronouncement. Says our critic, " Ifi my opinion 
any one who is not capable of seeing the same merit, 
that is of high cultivation and perfection as a flower 
of its class, equally as well in an undressed as in a 
dressed flower, is not worthy of being termed a 
florist, and certainly is not qualified to act as a 
judge." Agreed nem. con., only it isn't the point, and 
Mr. MacKay knows, or ought to know, that it 
isn't the point. The point in question is, of course, 
not the simple recognition of quality in an individual 
bloom, but the determination of comparative excel¬ 
lence in numbers pitted against each other in com¬ 
petition, and this comparison cannot be adequately 
made in the Carnation nor relative merits determined 
unless the latter are fully revealed to the judge by 
the display of the petals of the flowers, effected in the 
operation we call dressing. 
A responsible writer desirous to know the facts 
might be simply recommended to grow and to study 
the character of the flowers and to read what ex¬ 
perienced cultivators have had to say on the subject. 
These homilies by the critics of the florist instruct¬ 
ing him in all the ways he should go would claim no- 
notice but for the position of the journals in which* 
they from time to time appear. Delivered always, 
by persons who do not grow the flowers, and whc, 
w'rite therefore without practical acquaintance with, 
their subject, full of assumption of artistic knowr- 
ledge equally baseless, these utterances of censors 
dogmatising on matters of which they have not 
learned the rudiments, only amuse the specialist and 
need impose on nobody else.— M. Rowan. 
Once again the annual grumble appears anent the 
presentation of dressed Carnation blooms on the 
show table. It has been said that there is but a 
wrong and a right, but observation teaches us that 
there are many wrongs, and but one right Our 
friends appear to be in earnest, and the battle waxes 
strong, but it occurs to me that as there is such a 
diversity of opinion, would it not be well to apply 
some special test that the public may be able to 
judge between the combatants. I must confess that 
I admire the Carnation as it grows in the open 
border in all the abandonment of its floral beauty. 
I have grown them for a good many years, but I 
never ventured to stage my flowers until I took a 
box of blooms raised from Continental seed to one 
of the Oxford shows. On seeing the marvellous 
blooms staged by those veterans, E. S. Dodwell, 
Robert Lord, Martin Rowan, and others, I quietly 
consigned mine to a rubbish heap in a comer of 
