410 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
It is a carious fact tbat in the favourite Mona of 
the Druids (Anglesey)—that greatest seat of Druidical 
superstition—there is only one specimen of the 
Mistleto Oak, although of cromlechs, carnedds and 
other Druidical remains many still exist, not a few 
being in a good state of preservation. 
In our own Christmas ceremony of the Mistleto 
may yet be recognised a slight vestige of the impor¬ 
tance once attached to this peculiar shrub; but that 
these good old times are now passed will be fully 
realised in the following animated lines by Sir Walter 
Scott : — 
'* England was merry England, when 
Old Christmas brought his sports again. 
'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightiest ale, 
'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale. 
A Christmas gambol oft would cheer 
A poor man’s heart for half the year. 
The hall was dressed in Holly green ; 
Forth to the wood did merry men go, 
To gather in the Mistleto.” — A. D. Webster. 
- «1- 
LATE APPLES. 
I have seldom seen Apples keep better than they are 
doing this season. We left them on the trees much 
later last autumn than usual; the weather being 
mild and damp our fears were that keeping the fruit 
would be difficult. I notice where trees are allowed 
to become thick, and sunshine and air excluded, the 
fruit is not only badly flavoured, but does not be¬ 
come matured, and keeps badly. When the fruit is 
well exposed to all weathers it is in good condition 
when harvested, and will keep sound longer in the 
season. We put a number of Stirling Castle Apples 
apart from the others to test their keeping qualities, 
as many cannot keep that useful variety later than 
December. They are in capital condition at the 
middle of February. Golden Spire has also kept 
well. King of the Pippins has not remained so 
plump so long as usual. Sandringham has again 
proved its usefulness. It is a hardy sort, which bears 
freely and keeps well. Latest varieties, such as 
Northern Greening and Yorkshire Greening, are 
sound and good ; but all are out-distanced by Seaton 
House, which was fit for use by September, and will 
give the main supply till well into April. Where 
Apples have been planted on a good layer of brick 
rubbish, and kept above the surrounding soil, they 
ripen their fruit better, and the latter keeps better 
than from trees which root deeply into the soil.— 
M. T., Carron. 
- I— - — 
IN LIGHTER VEIN. 
Our Mutual Improvement Society. 
We are proud of our Society, and not without 
reason. Any new members ? the chairman asks. 
I beg to propose that Mr. Chickweed become a mem¬ 
ber, etc. I beg to propose Mr. Groundsel. I beg to 
propose Mr. Plantain, and so we go on, four or five 
new members duly proposed and seconded with 
much pleasure every meeting night since the begin¬ 
ning of the session. It has come to this, we want 
more cubic space ; there’s not breathing room ; in¬ 
sufficient oxygen. Why ? When the discussion is 
opened and fairly started, we stand in danger of being 
asphyxiated. That’s a big word, but I believe its 
right. As I said, it has come to this, we are going 
to have a larger room. Personally, I’m sorry ; it 
was (I mean our late location) a cosy room, and we 
seemed all very sociable, and at home-like. It hap¬ 
pened like this —The subject for discussion was 
upon "Gardeners’ Education," or something like 
that, I think. A splendid paper was read, and the 
discussion began. The aims, hopes, and ambitions 
of young gardeners were all well ventilated, and one 
speaker touched upon the "No Family" clause 
found in so many advertisements you read. 
Then it was that the temperature of the small 
room rose, and it was discovered that we had not 
sufficient breathing space. Whether it was appre¬ 
hension for the future, or indignation which stirred 
the younger members, I cannot say. However, next 
meeting night we shall have a larger room, and shall 
bs able to give vent to our pent up feelings. I’ve 
seen the new room we've secured for our meeting, 
and I do not think we shall crowd that, somehow. 
It has struck me that your readers might like to 
know something about our society. Well, we have a 
jolly good president ; not a live-off-the-premises gen¬ 
tleman, who looks in once a year, as some presidents 
I know, but a real useful, sound, serviceable’one, 
who attends every meeting, although he's a busy 
man, 
I don’t know about a vice. I’m sure he has none. 
Then there's the chairman, the backbone of the 
society, a real live F.L.S., as full of sound scientific 
and practical knowledge as an egg is full of meat. 
You cannot touch upon a single topic within the 
gardening world but he will give you more informa¬ 
tion than you can carry home in your head. He will 
explain why it is that a fly will light upon your nose 
at the moment your hands happen to be full, and the 
difference between the two-tailed sesquipedalian 
mealy bug and the tailless variety, or how a worm¬ 
eating slug will swallow a worm three times as big 
as himself, and then manage to hitch up under 
that tiny shell which you may observe on his tail; 
in fact, he’s a living, walking encyclopaedia. I have 
heard that he has travelled into the interior of the 
earth 1,000 miles in search of fossil vegetables. But 
that's only hearsay. I know he has seen them grow¬ 
ing, for he has specimens. That’s our chairman. It’s 
not every society that can boast such a chairman as 
ours. 
Our secretary is a young man, who takes down 
and reads the minutes very accurately, and looks 
after the subscriptions. 
There are two vice-chairmen. I don't know what 
their duties are, but I think their principal purpose 
is to figure between the chairman and the eight 
committeemen on the title page of the programme. 
You will see we are well officered and well-looked 
after, numerically strong, financially sound, with 
debating power unlimited ; our discussions are 
vigorous, strictly scientific and practical, never 
heated (except on occasions above-mentioned). The 
speakers, well, they vary somewhat, but most of 
them can—to use a parliamentary expression—com¬ 
mand a house. 
There’s Mr. Brown, an Amateur, a great authority 
on British Ferns and a distinguished Latin and 
Greek scholar. Woe betide the unluckly speaker 
who is so inconsistent as to pronounce,say, Saxifraga, 
with a soft g, or hybrid with a hib., and Cyclamen 
with a Syke accentuation in the course of his remarks. 
This is Mr. Brown’s department, and he permits no 
backsliding. We are not roo miles from Kew Gar¬ 
dens, and sometimes excursions run close by our 
meeting place, then we are strengthened by a con¬ 
tingent of men who combine science with practice 
and enthusiasm and energy with each. Altogether, 
I think ours a model society. If the Editor permits, 
I will describe one of our meetings and how we pro¬ 
ceed, in another paper —A Member. 
— - I *- 
EASTCLIFF, TEIGNMOUTH. 
I have read with much interest your account of a 
visit to “ Eastcliff," Teignmouth, recorded in your 
issue of February nth. I am afraid that your flying 
visit scarcely afforded you the opportunity of getting 
a very clear idea of the merits of Jadoo Fibre as ex¬ 
emplified in the plants you saw there, so if you will 
extend your kind permission to me I think it may be 
of interest to many of your readers if I supplement 
your article by a few further remarks. For this I 
am none the less qualified by having no pecuniary 
interest in Jadoo whatever. 
Previous to last autumn I had never seen Jadoo 
Fibre, and when I entered upon my new duties 
here as gardener my predictions were, if anything, 
unfavourable to it. I was inclined to be critical I 
thought that too much was claimed for it by its 
enthusiastic inventor. I could not credit that any 
one compost could be in itself sufficient for all kinds 
of plant life, and I waited for something more than 
verbal assurance to accept it as a fact. I could 
scarcely realise that in my case the important busi¬ 
ness of carefully selecting and as carefully mixing 
the various composts for this, that, and the other 
plants would no longer form part of my daily duties, 
and so as I walked around my new domain, it was 
with an eye critical in defence of established customs.. 
But no ! I looked in vain for a peg on which to 
hang any criticism. All that I had been told was 
true. Fruit trees in pots and in the ground ; Vines 
and Roses in pots ; Ferns in great variety from the 
common Polypod to Adiantum farleyense, Dracaenas, 
Palms, Crotons, Caladiums, Cinerarias, Callas, 
Chrysanthemums, Calceolarias, Eupatoriums, Epi- 
phyllums, Pelargoniums, Primulas, bulbs of all 
sorts, hardy plants, greenhouse plants, and stove 
plants, one and all growing and thriving equally 
well in one common compost. 
I confess it seems incredible, and yet, after some 
February 25, 1899. 
months of practical experience, I can assert its 
truth. In your article you said “ the gardener has 
every reason to be satisfied with the compost to 
hand," and, indeed, the gardener is so well satisfied 
that he would like every other gardener to know it- 
In using Jadoo I find the plants require much less 
attention as to watering, &c.; there is never a weed 
to be found in any pot, nor in the seed pan ; the 
plants do not so frequently require repotting, and 
when they do, they will allow great liberties to be 
taken with them. As a case in point, I may mention 
that of two large Asparagus Sprengeri mentioned in 
your article. I found it necessary to repot them, 
for the masses of fleshy tubers and roots had 
apparently consumed the whole of the Jadoo Fibre. 
I did not want to increase the size of the pots, so I 
took my knife and sliced off a jacket of roots ij in. 
thick all round, which, of course, carried away all 
the tubers, and then I cut the lower half of the ball 
right off. This was most drastic treatment, especi¬ 
ally when we consider that they were in full growth 
—in short, taking away four-fifths of the entire root 
—then I repotted them in the same pots and waited 
for their expected sickness. But it didn’t come. In 
one week growth had recommenced, and in three 
weeks there were on one plant eleven new fronds 
nearly 2 ft. long, and on the other one fifteen new 
fronds. In five weeks many of these fronds were 
6 ft. or y ft. long! Had the plants been in soil I 
would never have ventured on such drastic treat¬ 
ment, but I had become so impressed with the extra¬ 
ordinary root action of plants in Jadoo, that I threw 
aside all scruples. 
For many years I have been a grower for Covent 
Garden market, but never before have I grown such 
specimens of Arums, Lachenalias, Caladiums, and 
regal Pelargoniums as I have now under this Jadoo 
treatment; and I hope to demonstrate during the 
coming season that plants, flowers, and fruit may not 
only be grown in Jadoo equally as well as in soils, 
but rather better. Seeds of all kinds appear to love 
it. On February 13th, I sowed a box of Carnation 
seed ; to-day, the 15th, they are up ! One hundred 
per cent, have germinated. Cuttings strike more 
readily than in soil, and up to now I have success¬ 
fully increased my stock of Coleus, Fuchsias, Pelar¬ 
goniums, Petunias, Marguerites, Chrysanthemums, 
Heliotropes, Vines, Genistas, Polygalas, Acalyphas, 
Hibiscus, Abutilons, Dracaenas, Crotons, and many 
other plants by inserting the cuttings in Jadoo Fibre 
and a sprinkling of silver sand. 
A simple compost, ready to hand, requiring no 
further preparation, that can be used so successfully 
for so many and varied species of plants, is a great 
boon and has a big future, and it is well that every 
gardener who reads your columns should know from 
one, who claims to be a practical man, that such an 
article is within their reach. I shall be very pleased 
to give any further information that may be required. 
—F. Fletcher. 
- •*- - 
PLANTS RECENTLY CERTIFICATED. 
Awards were made to the undermentioned subjects 
by the Royal Horticultural Society on the 14th inst. 
Orchid Committee. 
Cattleya Trianaei Amy Wigan. Nov. vav. —The 
sepals of this grand variety are rose with some pur¬ 
ple splashes on the inner side of the lateral ones. The 
petals are rose with a large central purple blotch 
from the apex downwards. The lamina of the lip is 
intense purple, deepening to crimson in the throat so 
that the usual yellow blotch is absent. First-class 
Certificate, Sir F. Wigan, Bart, (grower, Mr. W. H. 
Young), Clare Lawn, East Sheen. 
Laelioc\ttleya warnhamensis Hypatia. Nov. 
tmr. —The sepals and petals of this variety are of a 
rich Apricot-orange. The tube of the lip is similar 
in colour to the sepals and petals both outside and 
inside; the lamina of the same is intense purple, 
shaded with crimson. The colours are several shades 
darker than in the type. Award of Merit. Messrs 
'Charlesworth & Co., Heaton, Bradford. 
Phalaenopsis Mrs. James H. Veitch. Ncv. hyb .— 
The parentage of this hybrid was P. sanderiana 
crossed with the pollen of P. luddemanniana. The 
sepals and petals are pale yellow, spotted all over 
with light brown, and spathulate. The lip is white 
with purple spots at the base of the terminal lobe, 
which has two short, hooked points at the apex ; the 
