820 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 26, 1899. 
Few places, we opine, in the British Isles 
could attempt anything similar to the 
Waverley Market in Edinburgh; yet never¬ 
theless a hall of suitable dimensions for 
accommodating all the more valuable pot 
plants might be built without putting any 
great strain upon the resources of the public 
purse. Circumstances might favour the 
erection of tents or marquees in the 
vicinity of the hall for the housing of cut 
flowers, vegetables, and the least valuable 
of the fruit exhibits. In these days of co¬ 
operation it ought not to be difficult to 
build a hall that could be turned to many 
useful purposes during the course of the 
year, and thereby be of the utmost benefit 
to the community at large. 
-———•*•- 
Mr. P. Acton has been appointed head gardener to 
H. Haughton, Esq., The Grennon, New Brighton, 
Birkenhead, Cheshire. 
Mr. H. E. Milner, the eminent landscape-gardener, 
has received the honour of Knight of the Order of 
the Northern Star from His Majesty King Oscar, of 
Sweden. 
National Laboratory—The committee appointed by 
the Treasury recommend the establishment of a 
national laboratory, by extending the Kew Observ¬ 
atory in the Old Deer Park, Richmond, Surrey. It 
also recommends that the Royal Society should con¬ 
trol the laboratory. 
William McMillan, late superintendent of Essex 
Co unty Park, Essex County, N.J., U.S.A., died at 
Newark early in August, in his sixty-eighth year. 
He went from Scotland to America forty years ago. 
He was formerly superintendent of the Park System, 
at Buffalo, N.Y. 
Royal Horticultural Society. — The next fruit and 
flower show of the Royal Horticultural Society will 
be held on Tuesday, August 29th, in the Drill Hall, 
James Street, Westminster, 1-5 p.m. At three 
o'clock a paper on *' The Soil considered as Plant- 
food, and its Exhaustion,” by Monsieur Georges 
Truffaut, will be read. 
Weather in London.—The past eight days have 
been of an even tenor. Some have been close and 
oppressive, others bright but breezy. Saturday, 
August 19th, was showery ; Sunday, dull and breezy; 
Monday, bright; Tuesday, cool and duller; while 
Wednesday was bright. The nights are drawing in 
quickly. Rain is needed. 
The English Arboricultural Society.—The annual 
outing of this society was held in London last week. 
The party (about 100, mostly from the North of 
England) had a varied tour around Richmond, Kew, 
Syon House, Osterley Park, &c. The aims of 
eighteen-years-old society are for the spreading and 
gaining of sound arboricultural knowledge. At the 
business meeting it was shown that twenty-two new 
members had enrolled duri ng the year. The total at 
present is 439. 
Horticultural Photography.—As we recently men¬ 
tioned in these columns, the Agricultural and Horti¬ 
cultural Association during its annual festival at the 
Crystal Palace, had a show and competition for 
photographs of gardens or garden produce. There 
were something like 1,200 photos of varying merits. 
These were hung chiefly on either side of screens in 
the central transept. We can all imagine how inter¬ 
esting and instructive such a collection must have 
been. 
Where are the Gleichenias?—A nurseryman has 
been going the round of the London nurseries, par¬ 
ticularly where Ferns are largely grown, with the 
object of securing some plants of Gleichenia, large 
enough for exhibition purposes, or nearly so. He 
has failed in his mission and has been told more than 
once that he will be unable to find them outside Kew. 
It may well be asked where are the fine plants that 
used to be the glory of exhibitions, especially in 
groups of stove and greenhouse plants. Alas ! it is 
to be feared they have gone where the old time 
exhibitions themselves have gone. 
The S6ed Capsules of the Antirrhinum are remark¬ 
ably suggestive of a Bedouin’s head when they are 
severed from the stalk and inverted upon a hook or 
pin. 
Cricket.—Hurst & Son C.C. v. Clivedale C.C.: 
This match was played at Walthamstow, August 19, 
and was won by the former. The scores were, 
Hurst & Son C.C., 202 for six wickets (Squire 106, 
Delacourt 51, not out); Clivedale 61. 
Liberation of Captive Wild Birds.—In the market 
place of Kingston-on-Thames some days ago, a man 
was offering wild birds for sale in cages. A fashion¬ 
ably dressed young lady approached the stall of the 
vendor and effected the purchase of a dozen linnets. 
As the cages were banded to her she removed the 
birds one by one from their cages and threw them up 
in the air to the great surprise of the bystanders. 
The bird-seller’s customer was seen to approach a 
little later on, and buy the whole stock of wild birds, 
which she promptly liberated, As the birds dis¬ 
appeared into space the lady was warmly applauded 
by the market people. 
Depravity amongst Bees.—Tilia petiolaris, the 
Crimean Lime, flowers much later than the most of 
its congeners, having only finished flowering a few 
weeks ago. When in bloom it is largely visited by 
humble bees, dozens of which may be found dead 
around the tree, as in the case of a specimen near the 
Succulent house at Kew. Whetherthe nectar from the 
flowers is poisonous or simply intoxicating is not quite 
clear ; but certain it is that the bees get weaker and 
weaker, yet still persist in flying back to the flowers 
to sip the nectar or boose till perfectly unfit to hold 
a foot. Should the wind be making the branches 
play lightly the bees frequently get knocked to the 
ground, but as persistently fly back till unable to get 
up at all. They are then very bad-tempered if inter¬ 
fered with, and clutch at the intruder with their feet, 
while unable to get up. On the lee side of the tree, 
the dead bodies are most thickly scattered about 
It seems the more they tipple the more they desire 
to, till unable to move. 
Strange Development in Gloxinias —Mr. F. G. 
Brewer, gardener to Graham Fish, Esq., Oaklands, 
St. Albans, has raised a curious strain of Gloxinias, 
the ou’come of which it would be difficult to foresee, 
if he only perseveres for a time in raising succeeding 
generations from seed for a number of years. In 
colour the flowers are maroon-purple, fading to blue 
at the margin, while the form is of the ordinary up¬ 
right flowering type. In this the flowers present 
nothing beyond what may be seen in any modern 
batch of plants raised from seeds. Upon looking in¬ 
to the flower, however, four white lines or ridges may 
be observed in the ‘hroat, forking in the form of the 
letter Y. The apices of the forks are more or less 
prolonged and free, their white colour being strongly 
pronounced against the maroon-purple of the corolla. 
These forking lines seem to be an outgrowth or 
freak of the stamens; for the two cells of the usual 
four anthers are free and diverging, thus showing 
that there has been some disturbing influence at 
work in the process of their growth. 
“Do Plants Think P "—Anything likely to prove 
that what has hitherto been regarded as absurd may 
after all be possible, is eagerly made use of by the 
public Press. In a contemporary we find the above 
heading, and the citation of a case where the tendril 
of a Vine was observed to be making straight for a 
nail in the neighbouring wall. This would be its 
support. But the observer shifted and repeatedly 
shifted the nail, and always it was found that the ten¬ 
dril had likewise changed and was reaching for the 
coveted nail. It got to it by-and-bye, and twined it¬ 
self firmly round. From this experiment the gentle¬ 
man (said to be a well-known botanist), deducted, 
that plants m 1st be capable of reason. But after all. 
although the observations may have been correct, no 
thoughtful person could ever have it that vegetation 
has a thinking centre. A variety of circumstances 
could have aided the tendril to succeed and act as it 
did. Darwin had the proper theory when he said 
that the power of reaching outwards and upwards, 
and of making use of contiguous supports was in¬ 
herent and natural to climbing and twining plants. 
They generally grow fast, and their movements of 
circumnutation are greater and more obvious than 
those of other plants. 
A New Wrinkle in Spraying is reported from Cali¬ 
fornia. Seme old fruit trees were badly infested 
with scale ; they were sprayed with pure kerosene 
and immediately afterwards with a weak solution cf 
caustic soda. The oil routed the scale and the 
caustic soda then neutralised its power to harm the 
trees. The usual solution of soda is 2 ozs. to 40 
gallons of water. 
Trials at Chiswick.—The Peas mentioned at p. 8c6. 
namely, Winifred.Nobleman, and Alderman Selected, 
as haviog received Awards of Merit from the Royal 
Horticultural Society, were sent there by Mr. 
William Deal, Junr , Feering Hill, Kelvedon, Essex, 
and not by Mr. A. Dean, as stated. We have aho 
been informed that the new Pea, Glory of Devon, 
which received an Award of Merit, and was ascribed 
to Messrs. Toogcod & Sens, was really raised by 
Messrs. R. Veilch & Son, Exeter, Devon. We pre¬ 
sume it was sent to Chiswick by the Messrs. Veilch ; 
and, if so, the Award of Merit belongs to them. 
Seed Growing in California.—A writer in The 
Florists' Exchange, says that after having visited all 
the largest seed growers on the Pacific Coast of 
America, he feels satisfied that the seed growirg for 
America if not for Europe wiil be done in California 
on account of the most favourable conditions for it in 
that part. Although very little rain falls for nine 
months of the year, the moisture is supplied from the 
air and by irrigation. The seeds ripen so perfectly 
that they yield nearly 100 per cent, germination 
test. Besides having remarkable success with such 
plants as Asters, Verbenas, Smilax, and Sweet Peas, 
the growers are just now busy drying and harvesting 
Callas, Freesias, and other roots and bulbs, which 
will be shipped to the East. 
-—— 
WATER LILIES AT EDENSIDE. 
From year to year we find that the Water Lilies 
new and old, that is, the species and varieties, with 
the more recent hybrids, are finding their way into 
nurseries and gardens everywhere. This is most 
gratifying. We may here observe that the recent 
hybrids have furnished the incentive for the revival 
of the culture of this showy and most interesting race 
of aquatics. Their easy culture is another valid 
reason for their wide dissemination in gardens. Given 
sufficient depth of water to float their leaves and 
flowers, they only require to be planted out, or to 
be sunk in baskets, boxes or pots, to ensure a hand¬ 
some display of their variously coloured flowers 
during the greater part of summer. As would-be 
cultivators come to recognise their hardiness, the 
number of cultivators and Water Liles is bound 
yet further to greatly increase. 
Some little time ago, when inspecting the Car¬ 
nations at Edenside, Great Bookham, Surrey, the 
nursery of Mr. James Douglas, V.M.H., we were 
agreeably surprised to notice that he had recently 
constructed two tanks of considerable length, and 
filled them with all the best of the Water Lilies 
procurable, and that at considerable cost, especially 
for the newer ones. Amongst those in bloom we 
noted Nymphaea Laydeckeri rosea, the flowers of 
which are of a soft blush-pink when they first open, 
but ultimately become deep rose, with red filaments, 
N. L. purpurea has rich rosy-purple flowers, but the 
foliage is also purple, at least when young, and that 
adds materially to the beauty of the variety. 
The pigmy N. pygraaea is a sweet little thing with 
white flowers and yellow filaments. In N. ellisiana 
we have one of the, if not the, darkest Water Lilies in 
cultivation, the flowers being of a rich crimson-red. 
Into the same category comes Gloriosa, also crimson- 
red ; and if a shade lighter, this is compensated for 
by the much larger size of the flowers and their 
numerous petals. N. robmsoniana is another crim¬ 
son-red variety with larger but slightly paler flowers 
than those of N. ellisiana. N. odorata rosea, a 
variety of a North American species, has large 
flowers of a pleasing soft rose. N. gladstoniana is 
notable for its large flowers, but they as well as the 
leaves are late in developing by comparison with the 
rest. N. caroliniana nivea is notable for its very 
numerous petals, which are pointed, and white 
flowers, as the name would indicate. N. Candida 
has broad, blunt, white petals; but the filaments are 
yellow, deepening to orange at the base, thus making 
a beautiful contrast to the rest of the flower. 
Probably the largest of all the Water Lilies is N. 
marliacea albida, having very large flowers, and 
