512 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 15, 1893. 
Beyond being compelled to reinstate the 
Messrs. Cocker in full possession of their 
rights as exhibiting members of the 
Aberdeen Society the committee have to 
face payment of the heavy legal costs they 
have so unwisely incurred. It is a big 
penalty to pay, but those who will play 
with edged tools must expect to cut 
their fingers. The whole thing is deplor¬ 
able. Would that it could have been 
nipped in the bud, and a grave disaster to 
the society saved. Yet we must congratu¬ 
late the Messrs. Cocker on their success, 
for they have won a position that will not 
only render them impregnable, but also 
must act as a grave warning to other com¬ 
mittees henceforth. 
rtificial Flowers. —It is an odd and an 
instructive fact that whilst the feminine 
portion of humanity exhibits, in spite of the 
variations of fashion, the most intense 
admiration for artificial flowers in their 
head gear, and that is usually fearfully and 
wonderfully made, yet this same section 
will have of the humblest, simplest, 
cheapest, or any other of natural flowers 
only for sprays or buttonholes; so much 
of love for that which is natural still re¬ 
maining. 
That such should be the case after all is 
highly creditable to woman, for that innate 
love of decoration which marks all her 
tribe has to undergo severe trial in these 
days when the art of the floral artificer is 
carried to such remarkable perfection. We 
say remarkable because of two things— 
first, the artificer shows great adaptability 
to copy real flowers with exceeding 
accuracy, whilst also in many cases adding 
to them tints that are if not so much 
unnatural are at least novel, and not 
infrequently very beautiful. Just now the 
great forte of the artificer lies somewhat in 
the production of sprays or wreaths, and 
these are very popular with the wearing 
part of the public. 
Then the artificer can excel nature in 
the formation of flowers of which the most 
experienced of florists are quite ignorant. 
Tnese naturally wear a very odd or quaint 
aspect, but there is throughout this 
artificial flower manufacture now such 
refinement and taste that it is no wonder 
these decorative efforts are and promise 
long to be the most favoured for the grati¬ 
fication of feminine pride. Well it is after 
all a high compliment to natural flowers 
that these artificial copies should thus be 
so popular, and we see the effect in the 
further fact that natural flowers for ordinary 
wear are getting yearly more popular also. 
For so much we have every reason to be 
grateful. Long may it be so. 
uriculas. —We may remind those of our 
readers who are only admirers and not 
growers of these delightful spring flowers, 
that the annual show of the Southern 
Auricula Society is close at hand, and that 
on Tuesday week next the various growers 
will marshall their forces and have their 
little bloodless contest at the Westminster 
Drill Hall. We have some reason for 
hoping this year to see some of our northern 
friends foregathering at the tables, for they 
should not have reason to complain of the 
backward or sunless c mdition of the season. 
Certainly it has not been so far a case of 
fire-heat winning ; indeed, it may not at all 
be unlikely that some of our southern 
growers will complain of too much sun-heat 
and too much consequent shading. 
Hardy as the Auricula is it can only be 
induced to exhibit all its innumerable 
charms and beauties when some warmth is 
afforded, and yet it is very impatient of too 
much heat, and not only expands too rapidly 
but wastes too rapidly, whilst markings 
that must be of the nicest to catch the 
censor’s eyes soon become rough and 
demoralised. Certainly it is long sinse we 
have had a season that has so much 
equalised chances, and it is because of that 
we have so much of hope that our northern 
friends will turn up in quantity, give us 
once more a taste of their quality, and let 
us see Auriculis in their highest perfection. 
We are rather tired of hearing excuses 
when the exhibition falls below par. The 
season is either too early or too late, or it 
has been too cold or too hot, or something 
or other has prevented sending up the 
flowers in their best form. 
Probably we shall hear that the present 
spring has been too sunny, too piercing. 
Well, if such excuse be made, then it will 
show that the Auricula grower is never to 
be satisfied. However, we cordially hope 
that for once all may be satisfactory. 
Spring flowers out in the open have had a 
somewhat dry time of it, but so much of 
the material shown is grown in pots that 
with the exception of Primroses, which 
have been somewhat hurried into bloom, 
and may be past their best, there seems 
little to complain of. 
he Cultivation of Apples for 
Profit.— An admirable example of the 
way in which non-professional writers on 
fruit may mislead readers was noticeable in 
a prominent morning newspaper a few days 
ago, when readers were told that “ New¬ 
town Pippins continue to command first- 
class prices, a fact which may hi suggestive to 
cultivators." The italics are ours because'it 
is this sentence which is so misleading. 
How many readers of that paper are there 
who may not be induced to revile the 
unfortunate home grower because he 
does not grow Newtown Pippins, setting 
the fact that he does not do so down to 
his insular stupidity and stubborness ? or 
else they or others may be induced in the 
fullness of their faith in the said writers’ 
knowledge to purchase and plant New¬ 
town Pippin trees in the expectation of 
realising sometime hence those “first- 
class prices” that are so productive of 
mouth watering. 
More tflan thirty years ago one of out- 
leading pomologists wrote of this Apple 
that it “ requires a wall in this country ! ” 
What fact more damning to its reputation 
for ordinary culture. Apples that need 
walls in the southern counties need 
to sell at two shillings per pound 
in this country, for never under the 
most favourable conditions are wall-grown 
Apples a great success. In these days, 
when lists of the best Apples for all 
purposes are being constantly published, no 
one ever dreams of including the Newtown 
Pippin. Superb as may be the fruits of it 
grown in America, here when it does fruit, 
and that is seldom, they have no special 
merit. Really with such splendid Apples 
as Cox’s Orange Pippin, Blenheim Orange, 
Cockle's, Stunner, Rosemary, Ribston, 
Golden and other Pippins, all of first- 
rate excellence, and will thrive well 
and crop well with us, what need is 
there of troubling about Newtown or 
other Pippins which may have factitious 
reputations, but are utterly useless here. 
We do not regret to learn that English 
Apples are now very dear for the sake of 
the consumer. Still those who have good 
late sorts well preserved are entitled to 
some reward for their trouble. When it is 
said that American Apples have been 
rather disappointing this season we are 
not surprised, because our competitors 
across the Atlantic are not unlikely to be 
in too much hurry to gather their fruits, 
and hence they come to us imperfectly 
matured. The Tasmanian Apples now 
coming to hand, if dear, are at least ex¬ 
cellent in quality. 
-- 
Mr. James Cooper, late of The Gardens, Ment- 
more, Leighton Buzzard, has been engaged as 
gardener to Lord Abinger, at Inverlochy Castle, 
Kingussie, N.B. 
Death of Prof, de Candolle.—We regret to hear of 
the death at Geneva, on the 4th inst., of the distin¬ 
guished botanist, Professor Alphonse de Candolle, at 
the ripe old age of eighty-seven years. He was a 
foreign member of the Royal Society and the 
Linnean Society, and the whole of his active life 
may be said to have been devoted to botanical 
science. 
The Trentham Flower Show.—The sixth annual 
exhibition of the Trentham and Hanford Horti¬ 
cultural Society is fixed to be held on Thursday, 
July 12th, and we are glad to hear that the present 
Duke of Sutherland, who is the president of the 
society, has signified his willingness for the show to 
take place as heretofore in Trentham Park, when 
doubtless, should the weather be fine, another 
success will have to be recorded, so popular has the 
Trentham Show become with the inhabitants of the 
Potteries. The schedule, copies of which can now 
be obtained from Mr. John Taylor, 22, Glebe 
Buildings, Stoke-on-Trent, provides for over 100 com¬ 
petitions, which are open to all. The premier class is 
again that for a group not exceeding 300 square feet, 
always a prime feature at Trentham, and the winner 
of the first prize will secure /30 10s. as his reward ; 
the second taking £20 ; the third, /13; and the 
fourth, £q. The Rose classes are again most 
liberally provided for, as also are fruits and 
vegetables. With such a capable exhibition 
superintendant as Mr. Blair, such an enthusiastic 
secretary as Mr. John Taylor, and such a hard¬ 
working committee, Trentham Show bids fair to 
become “ a big thing." 
A Useful Palm.—The following are among the uses 
to which the Palmyra Palm (Borassus fiabeliformis) 
is put in the economy of the Indian agricultural 
classes. The roots are boiled and ground to a kind 
of flour, which is said to possess very nutritious 
properties, and a special preparation mixed with 
Chillies forms an important item in the native 
pharmacopoeia. The web is an excellent fuel, the 
leaf stalk is of sufficient size and strength to form 
the palings of fences, and even cross sticks for the 
roof of small houses, and its fibre is largely used for 
the manufacture of cables, cordage, and ropes of all 
kinds. The leaf of the Palmyra is not only used for 
thatching the house of the middle and lower classes, 
but also constitutes the walls of a large proportion 
of these dwellings. Narrow strips are woven into 
baskets, mats, bags, hats, sandals, fans, umbrellas, 
and many descriptions of plain and fancy work. It 
still forms the ordinary stationery of South India, 
the strips taken from the young leaf for this purp ise 
requiring no other preparation than drying. The 
flower stalk supplies the saccharine sap which gives 
to Palmyra its principal commercial value ; and the 
fruit, although not palatable when mature, contains 
while unripe a vegetable jelly highly esteemed by 
the natives. 
Culture of Plants by Cottagers.—In divers towns 
in England, France and Holland, horticultural 
societies organise competitions amongst labourers 
and cottagers, and with this object offer them rooted 
cuttings of plants. The Revue de VHorticulture Beige ex¬ 
presses the view that such societies find imitators 
in Belgium. An exemplary society in the north of 
France offers rooted cuttings with the following re¬ 
commendations :—As soon as the would-be exhibitor 
receives the plants he should pot them with good 
fresh soil from a field, mixed with a half of well- 
decayed leaf soil well mixing them. The plants 
should be placed on the sill of the window facing the 
south or east, never the north. They should be 
watered judiciously and repotted when the roots 
grow round the ball of soil, touching the pots. 
With the exception of Coleus, which prefer the in¬ 
terior, the plants can be placed outside on the 
balcony or it may be a small table with a gallery 
nailed under the window. The question of manures 
and insecticides is left to the care of the exhibitor. 
The first repotting should be given in a pot 4 in. in- 
