If6 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
November 19, 1898. 
were awarded. Mr. H. J. Jones confined 
himself chiefly to Chrysanthemums; and 
he again set up a huge and imposing 
group of a form entirely different from any 
that he has hitherto shown at the Royal 
Aquarium. This was acknowledged by 
the visitors. Messrs. Wm. Cutbush & Son, 
had a huge and varied group upon which 
a considerable amount of time and thought 
must have been expended. Besides 
Chrysanthemums, such seasonable subjects 
as Heaths, Lily of the Valley, Roman 
Hyacinths, Carnations, &c., played a 
prominent part. Messrs. H. Cannell & 
Sons devoted their space to a grand display 
of Chrysanthemums, zonal Pelargoniums, 
and Cannas. Messrs. B. S. Williams & 
Son had Orchids, Bouvardias, Heaths, &c., 
in fine form. The Dahlias shown by 
Messrs. T. S. Ware, Ltd., were marvellous 
for the 8th of November. 
-» l» — 
The Aberdeen Chrysanthemum Show is to be held 
on the 23rd and 24th inst., instead of the 25th and 
26th, owing to a hitch in regard to the place where 
the show was to have been held, that having to be 
changed also. 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution.—We are 
asked to state that the committee of the above institu¬ 
tion have been obliged to remove their offices from 
50, Parliament Street, to 175, Victoria Street, to 
which address, in future, all communications should 
be sent. 
Edinburgh Chrysanthemum Show.—This exhibition 
of the Scottish Horticultural Association which takes 
place on the 17th, 18th and 19th instant, promises to 
be a great success, which may be expected from the 
spirited management, and the liberal prizes offered. 
The prize money totals up to over £400 in cash, with 
a plentiful sprinkling of Gold, Silver and Bronze 
Medals and many handsome prizes in plate, &c., 
which should surely tempt competitors. The two 
leading prizes are the City prizes amounting in 
value to /80 in five prizes, and the prize for thirty- 
six Japanese blooms of /15, £ 10, £8 and £5. We 
hope the financial success which this show deserves 
will be achieved. 
Dundee Horticultural Association.—This mutual 
improvement association meets once a month all the 
year round for the reading of papers on horticultural 
subjects, and discussing the same. In order to 
encourage the writers of papers a Silver Medal was 
offered for competition, open to all members, by J. A. 
Stark, Esq., Ferndale, Invergowrie, for an essay on 
any subject bearing on horticulture. The essays 
had to be sent in on the 1st October last, and since 
then the papers have been examined and their merits 
compared. The Silver Medal fell to the lot of Mr. 
John Greig, 1, Roslin Terrace, Dundee, for an essay 
on “ The Cultivation of the Fancy Pansy.” Mr. 
John Machar, Corona Gardens, West Ferry, Dundee 
was declared a good second for a paper on the 
" Culture of the Chrysanthemum,” which was 
practical and up-to-date. 
Juno Cycles.—At the Crystal Palace National Cycle 
Show, November r8th to 26th, 1898, the 1899 
models of these well-kno wn machines will be on view 
in the centre transept, towards the North end, at 
stand No. 51, and will include several novelties and 
improvements. A new back wheel adjustment will 
be shown which, while it is all that can be desired on 
the score of reliability, permits the removal and 
replacement of the wheel in sixty seconds, the chain 
not needing to be unfastened. The frames of Juno’s 
are now constructed of a steel tubing of a special 
manufacture. The tube is manufactured in the 
exact required lengths at the outset, and thickened 
gradually from the centre towards each end. It is 
then strongest where there is most strain and does 
away with all need for inside liners (samples of the 
tubing will be shown), strength is immensely 
increased, and weight proportionately saved. Juno's, 
both ladies and gent’s mounts at £10 10s , £12 12s., 
and £14 14s., will be leading features of 1899, and 
will be thoroughly high grade mounts at these 
popular prices. The Metrpolitan Machinists’ Co. 
are evidently as determined as ever to be second to 
none in point of quality and prices. 
The South Shields Chrysanthemum Society has 
decided not to hold a show this year. 
The Olive and Lemon Plantations in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Mentone were completely destroyed by a 
terrible hailstorm on the 30th ult. The hailstones 
weighed thirty to fifty grammes each, and no such 
storm has taken place before within living memory. 
A Great Naturalist.—In referring to botanical 
works or dictionaries, we often find the name of 
Theophrastus linked with much of our ancient plant 
lore. " He was a famous Greek philosopher 
and naturalist, born 371 years before Christ our 
Lord. He succeeded Aristotle—another great 
naturalist—at Athens, and composed a number of 
works concerning plants, stones, and other natural 
objects. He had a vast knowledge of mankind.”— 
Harrison, D. 
A strange form of Cattleya Flower.—We have seen 
a carefuly prepared drawing of a Cattleya in the 
possession of Messrs. Stanley-Mobbs & Ashton, of 
Southgate, N. It is a peloried form of what seems 
to be Cattleya intermedia, in which the petals have 
assumed the form of the lip with the exception that 
the basal lobes are not folded inwards so as to form 
a tube, but are spread out flat. The terminal lobe 
of the lip so characteristic of C. intermedia is dis¬ 
tinctly formed at the apices of these metamorphosed 
petals, but the latter are further disguised by a 
darker blotch of colour at the apex, running down to 
the claw in a narrower band. At present the plant 
is at Rio de Janeiro, where it is being kept till it 
attains some vigour before any attempt is made to 
bring it home. 
Polygonium vacciniaefolium.—The conical mound 
of this beautiful species in the alpine garden of the 
Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, has been 
grand for some weeks during the past autumn. The 
isolated mound is about 4 ft. high, and the whole of 
the soil is covered with the creeping, leafy stems of 
the plant, but flowers were most abundantly pro¬ 
duced on the southern or sunny aspect of the mound. 
There is every reason why this plant should be 
much more extensively cultivated than it is. On the 
more elevated and sunny exposures of the rockery 
this would be at home ; but moderately moist posi¬ 
tions should be selected for it in dry districts. The 
lance-shaped leaves are amongst the neatest we have 
in the genus ; and the stems being creeping, they 
allow the flower stems to rise just above the 
foliage. 
Provincial Excursion to the National Show.—Not so 
many years ago it used to be said, with a great deal 
of gusto by people who sometimes had nothing to 
talk about, that the Eastern Counties were a day 
behind the fair. Indeed, Punch once had a go at the 
Eastern Counties Railway which, once upon a time, 
started from Shoreditch instead of from Liverpool 
Street, and the tale was something like this :—" An 
individual from rural Kent had had the trepidity to 
actually take a railway ticket on the train at Shore¬ 
ditch to travel into Suffolk, and he had not since 
been heard of.” The tale was evidently meant to 
point the moral of the pre-historic kind of neighbour¬ 
hoods that one might expect to reach in those good 
old days on a trip to the Eastern Counties. It has, 
however, been left to the Great Eastern Railway 
Co., whose rise and progress has been a matter of 
comment for some years past, to extend to its country 
districts facilities for cheap and fast travelling to the 
metropolis on the occasion of the great Autumn 
Festival of the N.C.S., at Westminster. Members 
and other friends residing in Norfolk, Suffolk and 
Essex could reach London on the morning of the 
gth by 9 o'clock at special cheap fares, which calcu¬ 
late out about three miles for id. Those who could 
not start so soon could travel by a later express 
reaching London at 10 30 a.m.,and it is gratifying to 
note that this Railway Co. has once more taken the 
lead in a matter which ought certainly to induce the 
executive committee of the National to organise ex¬ 
cursion facilities on all the main lines running into 
the metropolis. After that august body has finally 
succeeded in settling among themselves that the 
majority will and always must govern.it may be pre¬ 
sumed that there will be sights as well as sites to 
look after, with more likelihood of more practical 
good to its membership of the society itself, and to 
an edified public.— Grp. 
Ripe Strawberries have quite recently been 
gathered in the open air at Hampton-on-Thames. 
Alnus nitida, a Western Himalayan species of 
Alder,has been flowering since the middle of October 
in the Royal Gardens, Kew. Our native species, A. 
glutinosa, does not flower till March and April, 
though the male and female catkins have been well 
advanced for some time. 
Technical Education in Broughty Ferry.—A series of 
twelve lectures is to be delivered in the Art Room, 
Grove Academy, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, under 
the combined auspices of the Committee of Techni¬ 
cal Education and the Broughty Ferry Horticultural 
Association, both of the same place. The first 
lecture, " The Theory and Practice of Horticul¬ 
ture,” was given on the 2nd inst. by Mr. M. Temple, 
Carron House Gardens, Falkirk. Mr. David 
Storrie, Nurseryman, Dundee, follows next at 
intervals of a week, with “ Botany and its Relation to 
Gardening,” " Plants and their Relation to the Soil,” 
and " Manures and their Relations to the Plant.” 
Mr. James Aimer, teacher, Dundee, follows with 
" The History of a Leaf.” Mr. A. C. Cameron, 
Binrock Gardens, Dundee, will speak on " High- 
class Vegetable Culture ” on the 7th December. A 
week after, Mr. Matthew Todd, Art Florist and 
Decorator, Edinburgh, will deal with " The Art of 
Floral Decoration ” on December 14th, and a week 
afterwards, Mr. David Ireland, Douglas Terrace, 
Broughty Ferry, will deal with ” Plants and Flowers 
as Revealed by the Camera." On January 4th, Mr. 
A. F. Innes, M.A., Grove Academy, Broughty 
Ferry, will treat of the " Formation and Chemistry 
of the Soil.” '* Root Management and Fruitfulness of 
Hardy Fruit Trees ” will next be taken up by Mr. 
M. Temple. Mr. David P. Laird, Nurseryman, 
Edinburgh, will next treat of “Ornamental Trees 
and Shrubs for Town and Villa Gardens.” The 
course will be finished on January 25th by Mr. W. 
Ryle Smith, Art Master and Science Teacher, Dun¬ 
dee and Broughty Ferry, who will take the subject 
of " Geometrical Drawing and its Application to 
Gardening, with Colour Schemes for Flower Beds.” 
All interested in horticulture are invited free of 
charge. 
West Derby Mutual Improvement Society.—This 
society held its usual meeting at the Social Club on 
the 2nd inst., when Dr. Herdman, of University 
College, delivered a lecture on " Insect Pests,” this 
being the second lecture of a course arranged bv the 
Technical Instruction Committee of the Liverpool 
City Council. The rest of the lectures are en¬ 
trusted to R. J. Harvey-Gibson, Esq., Professor of 
Botany at University College, Liverpool, and include 
the following important subjects:—“ Blight,” in¬ 
cluding the life history of the mildew of the Rose 
or Chrysanthemum; " The reserve food of plants 
and its digestion ”; " The colours of flowers and 
their transformation ” ; “ Nitrogen : its source and 
use to the plant”; and "Hybrids, and the limits 
within which hybridisation is possible.” The chair¬ 
man, Col. Halifax Wyatt, briefly introduced the 
lecturer as one having a thorough knowledge of this 
important subject. Dr. Herdman gave an exhaus¬ 
tive account of many of the pests that destroy 
vegetation, and in some few cases proved themselves 
the gardener’s friend by destroying other insects. 
Their abundance and importance in the world was 
clearly defined by many insect plagues, and as causes 
and carriers of diseases. Special mention was made 
of a few friends of the gardener, as the sparrow, 
starling, tits, cuckoos, &c. The ladybird was 
also enumerated as a help in destroying some 
pests, and it was not certain that earwigs did the 
amount of damage that was placed to their charge. 
The effects of seasons and climates and the balance 
of Nature and its disturbance with the marked differ¬ 
ence that had been noted in the latter since the Wild 
Birds Preservation Act came into force were dealt 
with. Many examples of noxious insects and their 
habits were given, such as wireworms, weevils, saw- 
flies, flies, moths, thrips, butterflies, plant lice, and 
currant mites, with means that should be adopted as 
preventatives and destroying the pests. The lecture 
was fully illustrated by a large number of excellent 
magic lantern views, which did much to make the 
subject thoroughly understood. The lecturer was 
closely followed by a fair audience, including a good 
sprinkling of ladies. 
