500 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 8, 1893. 
PLANTS RECENTLY CERTIFICATED, 
The plants and cut flowers described below were 
exhibited at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, at the Drill Hall, Westminster, on the 28th 
ult., and received awards according to merit. 
Orchids certificated at the same time are recorded 
under " Orchid Notes and Gleanings.” 
Brownea Ariza. —It is seldom that the public 
have the opportunity of seeing the noble heads of 
bloom of this tree, which attains a height of 20 ft. to 
40 ft. The evergreen, leathery leaves are pinnate, 
with six or eight pairs of oblong-lanceolate leaflets 
1 apering to each end. The flowers are tubular or 
funnel-shaped, but densely aggregated in large 
globular heads with the individual blooms subtended 
by bracts. The outer flowers are the first to open, 
so that when half of them are expanded, those in 
the centre form a compact conical bud, covered with 
the bracts already mentioned The flowers are of a 
rich scarlet. Two heads of bloom as well as a much 
larger head of B. grandiceps were exhibited by Mr. 
F. W. Moore, the Curator of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Glasnevin, when a First-class Certificate 
was awarded for B. Ariza. 
Schizocodon Soldanelloides. — The nearest 
ally of this plant is the beautiful Shortia galacifolia ■ 
and both belong to the Diapensiacese, an order very 
poorly represented in gardens, and not particularly 
so in a wild state. The plant under notice was 
brought from Mzyanoshta.on the Sulphur Mountains, 
Japan, in 1891, by Captain Torrens (gardener Mr. 
W. Pascoe) Baston Manor, Hayes, Kent, and 
flowered by him last year for the first time in 
England. He also brought it before the public on 
two separate occasions, and sent a small plant of it 
to Kew. His plant on this occasion had made a 
greater amount of growth and bore twenty-seven of 
its funnel-shaped, deeply and beautifully fringed, 
rosy pink flowers. The latter are horizontal and 
borne in racemes of three to six, perhaps more when 
the plant gets strong. The leaves are roundly 
heart-shaped, leathery and evergreen. We expect 
that the plant has a future before it. A First-class 
Certificate was awarded it. 
Aucuba japonica fructu albo. —Apparently this 
has been raised from seeds, and is interesting as 
showing a striking departure from the type. The 
berries of the latter are scarlet or crimson-red, but 
the fruit of that under notice is creamy-white and 
shining as if varnished. The berries are large, 
oblong, and blunt at either end. A First-class 
Certificate was awarded the variety when exhibited 
by Messrs. Paul & Son. 
Magnolia stellata pink var.— In gardens this 
is perhaps better known as M. Halleana, a dwarf, 
deciduous, spring-flowering Magnolia, about 12 in. 
to 18 in. high. The petals are very numerous, and 
when spread out to the rays of the sun present a 
starry appearance. The flowers of the type are 
white, but in this case of a decided pink externally 
and blush or almost white internally. An Award of 
Merit was accorded it. 
Rhododendron Yellow Gem.— The flowers of 
this hybrid greenhouse variety are of the largest 
size for this class of Rhododendrons, campanulate, 
with a short tube, and of a soft shade of yellow 
which is difficult to describe ; although soft yellow 
they appear as if lightly washed with old gold. The 
leaves are large, oblong-elliptic, and altogether the 
variety is a handsome one. An Award of Merit was 
accorded it. 
Hippeastrum Syren.— The flowers of this variety 
are bell-shaped, widely open with a short tube, and 
remarkable for the width of their segments—the 
three outer of which are scarlet, shaded with rose, 
and the three inner ones bright scarlet. There is a 
short, pale green ray at the base, and the filaments 
are pale. An Award of Merit was accorded the 
variety when shown by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, 
Chelsea, who also were the exhibitors of the 
Magnolia and the Rhododendron. 
Rhopoloblaste hixaxde. —The name of this 
Palm is not very attractive, but the plant itself in a 
measure redeems this fault. The specimen shown 
had pinnate, arching leaves about 2 ft. long, with 
numerous linear, attenuated, dark green pinnae. The 
petioles and midrib of the leaves are scurfy with 
black hairs, which give the plant a distinct appear¬ 
ance. An Award of Merit was accorded it when 
shown by Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, Forest Hill. 
Cereus Hoveyi.— The upright, moderately stout 
stems of this Cactus plant are strongly three or 
four angled with numerous tufts of short, bristly 
processes all along the angles. The flowers are 
large, funnel-shaped, produced from the angles of the 
stem, and have very numerous, moderately wide- 
pointed petals, the outer of which are bright scarlet 
while the inner ones are rosy violet, occasionally with 
a scarlet midrib. The flower as a whole is bold, 
showy and rich in colour. An Award of Merit was 
accorded it when shown by Messrs. F. Ross & Co , 
nurserymen, Merstham. 
Scilla sibirica vera alba.— The additional 
name of vera given this beautiful spring flowering 
bulb, we consider altogether unnecessary, because 
the Siberian Squill is simply Scilla sibirica and its 
albino can be nothing else than S. sibirica alba. Its 
flowers are pure white with a pale green ovary in the 
centre, and the variety should make a companion 
plant to the ordinary blue one so much used for 
forcing and for spring bedding. An Award of Merit 
was accorded the white variety when shown by M. 
de Graaff, Leiden, Holland. 
Hippeastrum Orphelia.— The flowers of this 
variety are widely funnel-shaped with rather pointed 
segments of a creamy white, marked with crimson 
in the centre of each. The crimson sends a few 
streaks on to the paler ground, but is otherwise fairly 
well defined, giving the flowers a distinct and 
characteristic appearance. There is also a short, 
green star at the base. An Award of Merit was 
accorded it when shown by Messrs. B. S. Williams 
& Son, Upper Holloway. 
Olearia stellulata.— There are something like 
eighty-five species of Olearia, all natives of 
Australia, New Zealand, and the neighbouring 
islands. Several of them have been introduced 
from time to time and prove hardy or half-hardy in 
this country. That under notice is of dwarf and 
bushy habit, with small oblong-spathulate, obtusely 
toothed leaves that are evergreen. They would vary 
from Jin. to 1 in. in length. The flowers are 
produced in terminal corymbs in great abundance, 
and have a starry appearance resembling a white 
Aster, as several others of them do. An Award of 
Merit was accorded it when shown by Messrs R. 
Veitch & Son, Exeter. 
Clivia Beechdale.— This variety was first 
flowered in 1891 and is now about eight years old. 
One stout crown now bears two flower stems, bearing 
in the aggregate seventy-six flowers. The individual 
blooms are moderate in size, funnel-shaped, and of a 
bright orange-scarlet. An Award of Merit was 
accorded the variety when exhibited by J. G. 
Geiselbrecht, Esq. (gardener, Mr. Geo. Judge), 
Beechdale, Lee, Kent. 
Cyclamen persicum giganteum. —An Award of 
Merit was accorded the St, George’s Nursery Co., 
Hanwell, for the strain of Cyclamen it exhibited at 
the Drill Hall. The plants were well grown and 
floriferous, with large blooms of various shades of 
pink, rose, red, crimson, and pure white. 
Hippeastrum Lightening.— The flowers of this 
variety are widely funnel-shaped, and of a brilliant 
scarlet with a short, white star at the base. The 
plant shown bore five flowers and buds on a scape. 
An Award of Merit was accorded it. 
Lilac Alphonse Lavallee. —The trusses of this 
Lilac are produced in dense, pyramidal masses, and 
the moderate-sized flowers are of a deep lilac. An 
Award of Merit was accorded it when shown by 
Messrs. Paul & Son, who also showed Hippeastrum 
Lightening. 
- — - 
IBERIS STYLOSA. 
The accepted name of this interesting little plant 
is Hutchinsia stylosa, although best known in gardens 
under the name of Iberis. The whole plant is only 
an inch or two in height, like so many of the other 
members of the Cruciferm, and bears a great quantity 
of pale pink flowers from the branching crowns. It 
is hardy, or very nearly so, and most suitable for 
planting on the rockery to flower in spring when 
flowers are not very plentiful. The plant is very 
easily raised from seed, which should be sown as 
soon as ripe in a cold frame, and potted off, when 
large enough, into small pots to bloom in the follow¬ 
ing spring. It has been flowering for a long time 
past in the nursery of Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, Forest 
Hill. 
LAW NOTES. 
Cocker v. The Royal Horticultural Society 
of Aberdeen. —It will be remembered that shortly 
before the Roya' Horticultural Society of Aberdeen 
held its fete in the Central Park, Kittybrewster, in 
August last, Messrs. James Cocker & Sons raised an 
action against the office bearers of the society to 
have them ordained to receive certain exhibits of 
Roses and Dahlias which Messrs. Cocker had ten¬ 
dered, and which the Committee had refused. 
Messrs. Cocker had been members of the society for 
many years, and had been in the habit of paying 
their subscriptions when the collector called for 
them ; but a rule of the society prescribed that all 
competitors to the show must be members, and sub¬ 
scriptions must be paid on or before 1st August, and 
the committee put forward this rule as their reason 
for excluding Messrs. Cocker's exhibits although 
their subscriptions were tendered on 4th August. 
Notwithstanding the previous practice of paying the 
collector when demanded, Messrs. Cocker alleged 
that the desire to exclude them arose in retaliation 
for their having supported the Floral Fete, which 
was held in the Duthie Park last year. The com¬ 
mittee replied that they understood Messrs. Cocker 
had withdrawn from the Royal Horticultural Society, 
and on that footing they had invited firms from the 
south to exhibit Roses, &c. The action first came 
before Sheriff Robertson, who decided that on the 
strict construction of the Society's rules Messrs. 
Cocker were not entitled to exhibit, and he therefore 
dismissed the action Messrs. Cocker appealed to 
the Sheriff-Principal, but the hearing of the appeal 
was delayed in consequence of a proposal having 
been made for a friendly settlement of the matters 
in dispute. Ultimately, however, the proposal 
made by Messrs. Cocker for a settlement was re¬ 
jected by the society, and the appeal was accord¬ 
ingly heard by Sheriff Smith at his last sitting. He 
has now given judgment recalling the interlocutor 
of 15th August, 1892, repelling the three first pleas 
in law for the defenders, and finding that it is now- 
unnecessary to pronounce any order under the peti¬ 
tion : finds the pursuer entitled to expenses. 
MR. JOHN THORPE, 
Chief of the Floricultural Bureau, Chicago 
Exhibition, 1893. 
The very energetic and popular subject of our 
portrait this week was born in England in the year 
1842, and as he at an early age evinced a liking for 
horticultural pursuits, he eventually received a 
thoroughly practical education in gardening, an 
education which has stood the test of years of 
arduous labour, and which has led to his elevation 
to the topmost branches of the gardening tree of 
knowledge, and has brought him into genial personal 
contact with the foremost gardeners of both the old 
world and the new. Mr. Thorpe was honourably 
known in England in his early days, and with a 
partner he had established a thriving business at 
Stratford-on-Avon, but being of an enterprising and 
energetic turn of mind he envied the rapidly pro¬ 
gressive spirit of the New- World horticulturalists, 
and went to the United States in the year 1S74, 
In America, to quote The American Florist, Mr. 
Thorpe has, since his arrival, been in the van of all 
improvement, and he has exerted a great influence 
on the horticultural progress of the last three 
decades on that Continent, and that progress has, as 
we know, been in many ways fully equal to our own. 
To him the Americans are indebted for their large, 
prosperous, and influential “ Society of American 
Florists,” a society that has quite revolutionised 
American floriculture by causing higher desires or 
ideals, and by encouraging real honest progress of 
all kinds. To Mr. Thorpe also belongs the credit of 
making the Chrysanthemum what it is to-day, viz , 
perhaps the most popular of all the winter blooming 
plants in American towns and cities. Mr. Thorpe 
has been termed “ the Father of the Chrysanthemum 
in America,” and rightly so, for he not only en¬ 
couraged its introduction and growth, but inaugurated 
scientific cross-breeding experiments which have led 
to the origin of the now numerous and beautiful 
American seedling races of this charming flower. 
Not only Chrysanthemums, however, but Carnations, 
Roses, Pelargoniums, Primulas, and other florists' 
flowers have benefited by the impress of his hand. 
