486 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
April 1, 1899. 
Aniline Colours soluble in water can be used for 
dyeing grasses and foliage. Rosine is used for pink 
and red ; phosphine for cream, or with a little wash¬ 
ing soda added, a good yellow; any of the soluble 
blues for various shades of blue ; and these mixed 
with yellow for producing green. 
•• Middlesex.”—This is the name adopted by 
Kewites for the lady gardeners. Although ungallant, 
it has some sense; the ladies are not men, two of 
them being considered the equivalent of a man. 
They are not boys, for they receive a higher wage; 
hence the name, " Middlesex." 
Where is the Orchid House ?—Evidently the 
ordinary public are beginning to form some idea of an 
Orchid, for when in the Succulent House, Kew, they 
frequently ask if it is the Orchid house. A man 
once walked through a house of Cypripediums and 
Laelia anceps in full blossom, and then asked, where 
the Orchid house was. 
An early Cuckoo—An English correspondent to 
The Farmers' Gazette states that he heard the cuckoo 
very distinctly several times on January 19th, and 
that the lark was singing beautifully on January 
24th. Now Gilbert White, in his •• Natural History 
of Selborne," mentions having heard the lark as 
early as the 21st of January, but with regard to the 
cuckoo surely the gentleman who believed he heard 
it must have been a victim of his own imagination. 
The seasons have certainly been a good deal "out 
of joint” lately but this early cuckoo passes belief. 
As The Farmers' Gazette slyly hints, the bird was 
probably a mechanical one. 
Kew Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society.— 
Through the kindness of the popular curator, Mr. 
George Nicholson, the members of this society were 
entertained on Saturday evening, March 18th, to a 
lantern lecture entitled “The Queen of the Valais’, 
Peaks and Plants of Saas-Fee,” by J. W. Reed, 
Esq., of the Quekett Microscopical Club. The 
chair was taken by Sir William Thiselton Dyer. 
Some no excellent photographs, taken by Mr. Reed 
in 1897, well illustrated the lecture, which was 
listened to with wrapt attention. The following is a 
synopsis of the proceedings :—Books on the Alps ; 
views of Lake Geneva, Vevey, Clarens, and 
Montreux; characteristics of the Rhone Valley, 
with views of St. Maurice, Martigny, the Pissevache, 
Sion, Sierre, Visp, etc.; river cones, and rock falls ; 
Saas Fee and its scenery ; Saas Valley and Saas- 
grund ; views of Fee glacier, stratification of snow; 
romance of plant life by a parasitic fungus ; views 
of the high Alps; bee keeping; perched block; 
ascent of Fletschorn and collecting plants; Matt- 
mark Lake ; peaks, iceflows, waterfalls, and blocks 
of ice transported serpentine ; dogs and Chapel of 
'Simplon Hospice; earth pyramids of Stalden and 
Useigne, etc.— Colchester. 
Reading Gardeners’ Association. —At the fortnightly 
mreting of this association on Monday evening last 
The arrangement of Hardy Plants in the Garden ’• 
was the subject of a lecture given by Mr. Alexander 
Wright, of Falkland Park, South Norwood Hill, in 
the Old Abbey Restaurant Club Room, when Mr. C. 
B. Stevens presided over a good attendance of 
members. In introducing the subject Mr. Wright 
pointed out that no branch of gardening was so 
important as that of the arrngement of plants in 
gardens, and as it wAs such a large question he would 
treat it under three headings, viz.:—1st, Trees; 
2nd, Shrubs; 3rd, Herbaceous and Alpine Plants 
and Bulbs. A great many practical hints were given 
as to the arrangement of various varieties, harmony 
of colour, and position most suitable for planting, 
but certainly the chief point was the system of 
"massing” instead of that of "dotting,” and that 
also of selections instead of collections. A very 
animated discussion followed, in which the question 
of massing gave rise to much controversy and 
difference of opinion, in which Messrs. Woolford, 
Stanton, Townsend, Powell, Hinton, Neve, Harris, 
Fry, and Martin, took part. A hearty vote of thanks 
was proposed from the chair to Mr. Wright for his 
able and practical lecture, and this was carried unani¬ 
mously. Mr. Stanton,of Park Place Gardens, Henley- 
on-Thames,exhibited some splendid heads of Sutton's 
Commodore Nutt Lettuce, its compact appearance 
recommending it as a first-rate variety for frame 
wotk.— H.G.C. 
Lady A. : Oh! how beautiful these Camellias 
are.”—Lady B.: Yes, but I dislike them on account 
of their strong fragrance. 
New Invention. —Will you allow me to correct and 
slightly supplement your correspondent's remarks on 
the new " Cultivator," in this week's issue (p. 474). 
The inventor is Mr. G. W. Shailer, of Hokowhitu, 
Palmerston North, New Zealand, and the tool has 
had a very large sale there already. It is being 
manufactured and will be on the market here very 
shortly, and as its merits become known will be 
looked Upon as quite indispensable in the garden and 
will almost supersede the Dutch hoe for loosening 
the soil between growing crops, &c.— A. E. Shailer. 
Lord Carrington, at the present time, has 1,400 
tenants who cultivate from one-tenth to an acre of 
land each, on his estate at High Wycombe, Bucks. 
The rent varies from 20s. to 50s. per acre. Besides 
these, his lordship has 1,000 village allotments in the 
last named county and in Lincolnshire, with other 
small holdings on various parts of the estates. These 
small holders take more out of the land than large 
farmers, and Lord Carrington gets a better return in 
rent. There are no poor, for these contented workers 
of the soil have solved for themselves the question 
of old age pensions. If the people can be kept upon 
the land with such good results to themselves, the 
landlord and the country at large, it is high time 
that other land owners should follow the lead and 
example set by Lord Carrington. 
The Russian International Horticultural Exhibition. 
—We have given on previous occasions some of the 
features of this great horticultural show which is to 
enliven Petersburg during the coming month of May. 
All arrangements for the conduct of the show are not 
yet perfected, however. Amongst other things a 
second supplementary programme has been issued 
containing notices of special prizes to be offered by 
various august grand dukes and grand duchesses of 
the Muscovite empire. There seems to have been an 
unusual quantity of gold and silver medals and works 
of art put at the disposal of the jury. Notice is also 
given of the methods of and rates for transport of 
exhibits destined for the show. These we mentioned 
in a recent issue, so it is not necessary to refer to them 
again. A list of the various delegates from the 
different governments sending representatives is like¬ 
wise given. Bavaria sends Herr Max Kolb, the 
Inspector of the Royal Garden at Munich ; Belgium 
sends Comte Oswald de Kerchove de Denterghem, 
M. Edouard Pynaert Van Geert, [and M. Albert 
Maertens ; France depends upon M. H. Leveque de 
Vilmorin, M. Ab. Chatenay, M. A. Truffant, and M. 
H. Martinet; Dr. Zacharias, the director of the 
Hamburg Botanic Garden, represents Hamburg; M. 
Ernest Krelage, and M. Galesloot will look after the 
interests of Holland ; Dr. Oscar Froude is sent from 
Saxony ; and Mirza Samar Khan Momtazis-Saltaneh 
represents Persia. In the committee which looks 
after the foreign section of the exhibition M. A. A. 
Fischer de Waldheim is president, M. W. Ender is 
secretary, and Messieurs K. J. Bartelsen, H. F. 
Eilers, W. K Freundlich, and A. A. Gramberg are 
members. 
-•*-- 
« BRADLEY’S GARDENING.” 
It is refreshing as well as instructive to have an 
occasional dip into the old horticultural authors. 
By so doing one can form a more accurate estimate 
of the extent to which knowledge has progressed 
since their time to the age we live in. It is quite 
needless to say that professional and public opinion 
has undergone marked revolution since " Bradley ” 
wrote of the Potato and the Artichoke as follows : — 
" Potatos and Artichokes are roots of less note 
than those I have mentioned, but as they are not 
without their admirers, so I shall not pass by the 
method of their culture in silence." This does not 
say much for the opinion formed of one of our most 
useful roots in its earlier years of infancy. 
Herbaceous Asters were evidently rarae aves in the 
same author's day. In expatiating upon these plants 
he enumerates only two, the " October flower,” 2 ft. 
high, colour purple, and the " Italian Starwort,” 3 ft. 
high, also purple. What a saving of nerve energy 
to present day humanity were it still so. We always 
look upon those belated occupants of the garden with 
mixed feelings of pity and admiration. Pity for 
their inconsistency with their environs, and admir¬ 
ation for their plucky tenacity, in struggling heroic¬ 
ally against their inauspicious condition. They are 
invariably cut down when in the noonday of their 
glory with the autumnal frosts, and should they 
evade this the cold nature of the soil and atmos¬ 
phere convey to the flowers an indefinable quality 
which is neither pleasant nor yet despicable. In a 
word, some of the early Greek phytologists who 
attributed sensation to plants would, we feel con¬ 
vinced, survey the poor Aster’s condition with a 
strong tinge of melancholy. 
Bradley advocates the planting of them in pots 
with the bottoms knocked out, in order to keep them 
in bounds. 
Commenting on the Auricula he lays down eight 
definitions which comprise the qualities of a good 
flower :—" (1) Flower stem strong and substantial; 
(2) Footstalk must be short and self-supporting (i.e.), 
capable of holding up the flower in an upright con¬ 
dition ; (3) That the pipe or neck of each flower be 
short; (4) That the flowers be large and of regular 
form ; (5) That their colours be bright and mixed ; 
(6) That the eye be large, round, and of a good 
white ; (7) That the flowers spread themselves flat 
and be on no wise inclined to cup ; (8) That there 
be a good truss, equally spreading on the stalk.” He 
speaks of the " Primrose Tree.” What is this tree ? 
Can any person say ?— Gamma. 
POOR GARDENER! 
Poor gardener! Why poor gardener ? Rather 
poor Miss Jekyll! Who is to be pitied—the crafts¬ 
man who loves his work ; prides himself upon the 
place under his superintendence, large or small; 
devotes all his energies, time, and labour to his 
employer’s interest ? or the employer who boasts of 
education, culture, social position and advantages, 
travel, leisure, possession of a garden and of associa¬ 
tion with the leading lights of horticulture, and yet 
grudges the gardener his only pleasure, viz., a de¬ 
light in the product of his thought and brain and 
work ? Who descends from a high position to notice 
the weakness of an uneducated—perhaps—but 
thorough, earnest, whole-hearted worker ? There 
are those employers who, on their part, think 
their gardener is like their wheelbarrow, with no 
life, no animation, no brain, and treat him accord¬ 
ingly. He must not venture an opinion, but simply 
do as he is bid ; they reduce him to an automaton. 
They forget, if they ever knew, that any man worthy 
the name of gardener, who has spent all his days in 
a garden and in garden work, takes a pride and 
pleasure in his work, and delights in the exercise of 
his brain and skill in carrying out his employer's 
wishes.. One employer who keeps three or four men 
told me herself she had everything done in her garden 
exactly in her own way, and there was abundant 
evidence of it, too. The gossips say that this good 
lady, observing a “ straight back,” just goes outside 
and claps her hands. That is sufficient to start 
Joseph on again. 
I think a patron of gardening would be better ad¬ 
vised to hide rather than reveal squablings with an 
employe, who is to be commended rather than 
snubbed for a little pardonable, over-zealous regard 
for his work and the plants he nurtures and loves — 
A. P. 
SOME UNIQUE PLANT COMBINATIONS 
AT KEW. 
The present-day Kew, as regards horticulture, is as 
far in advance of the Kew of twenty years ago, as 
the Kew of that date was in respect to, perhaps, a 
century previous. In other words, Kew, in its 
decorative aspect, has proceeded by leaps and 
bounds during the last two decades, making as much 
or more progress over the shorter than the longer 
periods. Kew, then, if this estimate be correct, is 
an up-to-date and progressive establishment, and in 
no respect is this progressive feature more apparent 
than in the happy arrangements and groupings of 
plants which now obtain in the greenhouse, or con¬ 
servatory. Amongst the great variety of choice and 
interesting subjects, hardy and half-hardy, I have 
selected the following combinations, as the most 
likely to appeal to amateurs and professionals alike. 
Entering this house, then, by the usual, or eastern 
door, we pass by a grand collection of Cyclamen— 
which have been already noticed—and come upon a 
very pretty arrangement of Due van Thol Tulips and 
