July 30, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
755 
THE ROYAL NURSERIES, MAIDSTONE, KENT. 
GEORGE BUNYARD & CO, 
Are Now Booking Orders for Early Delivery of the Very Best 
NEW & OLD STRAWBERRIES 
For Crop 1899, or for Forcing. 
THEY OFFER THE LARGEST STOCK AND THE BEST PLANTS IN THE TRADE. 
CATALOGUES of STRAWBERRIES and SUMMER FRUITS NOW READY. _ 
WEBBS'SEEDS 
WEBBS’ 
EMPEROR CABBAGE. 
The Earliest and Best. 
6 d. and Is. per packet; Is. 6d. per oz. 
From Mr. J. TURNBULL, The School House. 
July gTH, 1898. 
“ j sowed some seed of Webbs’ ‘Emperor Cabbage' and 
the Cabbages have been simply grand ; they get better each 
time we have them.” 
WEBBS’, WORDSLEY, STOURBRIDGE. 
ORCHIDS. 
Clean Healthy Plants at Low Prices. 
Always worth a visit of inspection. Kindly send for Catalogue, 
Exotic Nurseries, CHELTENHAM. 
FINEST MEDAL COLLECTION 
& IN THE WORLD. & 
.Send for CATALOGUE to 
JOHN PEED & SONS, West Norwood, London 
GLOXINIAS 
The Royal Nurseries, Maidstone, Kent. 
GEORGE BUNYARD & CO., 
Are now booking orders for early delivery of the very best 
NEW AND OLD STRAWBERRIES. 
For crop 1899, or for forcing. 
They offer the largest stock and the best plants in the trade. 
Change ol stock pays. 
Catalogue of Strawberries and Summer Fruits now ready. 
FINEST COLLECTION 
in the World, We make 
a speciality of CALA- 
DIUMS. Gold Medals 
Manchester& Leicester. 
Silver Cup, R.H.S., &c. 
Satisfaction guaranteed. JOHN PEED AND SONS, 
' West Norwood, London, 
Caladiums 
A 
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As Cool 
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FROSTEEN 
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Heat, but not light proof. Easily 
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entirely superseding old fashioned 
methods and preparations. Can be 
ordered through all seedsmen and 
florists, or direct from the makers, 
price is. FROSTEEN AZO must be 
used in addition to wake it permanent, 
price is. 6d. Both sent carriage paid 
for P.O. 2S. 6d. 
FROSTEEN SYNDICATE, LTD., 
341 , Argyle Street, Glasgow. 
O RCHIDS of the highest quality, every 
plant guaranteed true to name, from 2/6 each. Please 
send for free list.—P, McARTHUR, The London Nurseries, 
4, Malda Vale. London W. 
" Gardening Is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
Edited by J. FRASER, F.L.S. 
SATURDAY , JULY 30 th, 1898. 
NEXT WEEK’S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Monday, August ist.—Atherstone Show. 
Beddington, Carshalton and Wallington Show. 
Leicester Show (2 days). 
Northampton Horticultural Society's Show (2 days). 
Friday, August ;tb.— Midland Carnation and Picotee Society’s 
Show (j days). 
RETARDED LILY OF THE YALLEY CROWNS. 
Headquarters at Dersingham. 
For prices iSrC., apply to — 
T. JANNOCH, 
Lily Nursery, Dersingham, King's Lynn, Norfolk. 
Whe flavour of Apples and Pears.— 
A In private establishments this is a 
matter of leading importance, and every 
energetic gardener does his best to solve 
the problem as best he can. He is limited, 
however, in many ways, by the nature of 
the circumstances, and the varieties under 
his care. The task of making a proper test 
as to the best and most useful annuals might 
at great expense be accomplished in the 
course of a single year ; but the task be¬ 
comes formidable and even prohibitive for 
any single gardener to test the hundreds of 
Apples and Pears in cultivation to discover 
which were the best flavoured and most 
suitable for table use during the twelve 
months of the year. A plebiscite, so to 
speak, has been taken by the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society during practically two 
years extending from July 14th, 1896 to May 
10th, 1898, and the facts resulting have been 
tabulated in the Journal of the society issued 
the other week. The general custom of 
sending circulars to be filled up by gardeners 
in different parts of the country has not 
been followed, but prizes were offered for 
competition at the ordinary meetings of 
the society, so that the samples adjudicated 
upon have been open to the inspection and 
instruction of the public. 
When this work has been continued for 
the space of time indicated, one should be 
in a position to base a general opinion upon 
the subject. In looking down the list of 
exhibitors it would seem that most or all of 
the prize winners belong to the southern 
half of England. This might give rise to 
various suggestions and reasons for the 
results, and no doubt several things would 
have to be taken into consideration in 
basing a hypothesis that would be fair both 
to exhibits and exhibitors alike. The 
southern exhibitors are favoured by climate, 
and locally in some cases by the nature of 
the soil. By climate alone the earliness of 
any particular variety would be determined 
so that an exhibitor at a distance, that is, 
from a northern country would be unduly 
handicapped by climate alone in entering 
the lists against a southern grower. The 
latter would be able to get the best varieties, 
during any particular month, properly 
matured before his northern rival could 
possibly do so. This idea would suggest 
that a similar competition should be held 
at some northern centre in order to deter¬ 
mine which were the best flavoured Apples 
and Pears for the district or division of the 
country under consideration. No doubt 
many of the varieties at the top of the list 
in the North would correspond with the 
selections made in the South. We could 
hardly imagine that the varieties would be 
the same in both cases, for they vary widely 
under different conditions of soil and 
climate, some varieties giving great satis¬ 
faction in • northern latitudes that are 
practically indifferent for culture in the 
south. Then it follows that while the 
varieties awarded the palm at London 
might hold good to some considerable ex¬ 
tent for the whole of Britain, there would 
be defects of detail that would have to be 
remedied by making similar tests, say at, 
York, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness. 
In the case of the competition at the 
meetings of the R.H.S., those who are con¬ 
versant with the facts know that some of 
the varieties taking the first award at one 
meeting were placed second at the following 
or some subsequent meeting, or got no 
prize at all. This is obviously due to the 
fact that varieties remain in perfection dur¬ 
ing a certain period only, after which they 
lose flavour and practically become useless 
for table purposes. That of course applies 
to all Apples and Pears. Admitting these 
facts and their general application, we note 
that some varieties remain in excellent 
table form for a long period. Cox’s Orange 
Pippin Apple took the first prize at 7 con¬ 
secutive meetings, namely, from October 
ist, 1896 to January 12th, 1897, that is, for 
five months of the year. It «as not shown 
at all in February, and the premier award 
at the meeting on the gth of that month 
went to Blenheim Orange. During the 
following year it had a checkered career, its 
place on several occasions being taken by 
such old favourites as American Mother, 
Cockle’s Pippin, Adam’s Pearmain, and 
Margil, the latter being shown on January 
nth, 1898. Curiously enough it took a lead¬ 
ing position on February 8th, the samples 
coming from Lincoln ; and on March 8th it 
again proved the best out of twelve popular 
varieties shown. In different parts of the 
country then, this variety is the best 
flavoured Apple during seven out of the 
twelve months of the year. No other 
Apple can show such a record. 
When the competition was first started, 
Pears made their appearance at the Drill 
Hall, a month in advance of the Apples, 
but they were represented only by Citron 
