June 19, 1897. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
665 
it all depends upon the size of the plants now as to 
the time that the fruit is fit to gather. 
Figs .— M. R. —The Fig leaves you sent us are 
badly attacked with red spider. If the whole of the 
tree is as bad as the sample it is in a bad way. Make 
up a solution of nicotine soap and syringe, after¬ 
wards giving repeated washings with clear water. 
Keep this up until the tree is clean again. Some of 
the leaves will be likely to drop. 
Retarding Lilies. —I have a number of bulbs of 
Lilium lancifolium, and L. 1 . roseum in eight-inch 
pots. I should like to keep some of them back from 
flowering for as long as possible. The plants are 
now about eighteen inches high. Please tell me how 
I am to do this.— C., Tonbridge. 
Find a corner where two walls, respectively look¬ 
ing north and east, meet. Stand the plants there, 
and as they will be shaded from all the sun, except 
that of very early morning they will move very 
slowly, and may be had in bloom fairly late in the 
autumn. By the way we may mention that the 
specific name of ‘'lancifolium” is incorrect; it 
should bs " speciosum.” 
-f- 
ROYAL SEED FIRM’S DIAMOND 
JUBILEE. 
As a supplement to our remarks on p. 645, we are 
pleased to be in the position to present our readers with 
aportraitof three of the members of thefirm of Messrs. 
Sutton & Sons, the Royal Seed Establishment, Read¬ 
ing. By reference to our notice in last week’s issue, 
it will be seen that the firm celebrated the entering 
of Mr. Martin Hubert Foquett Sutton into partner¬ 
ship with Messrs. Sutton & Sons, on the rst inst., 
and at the same time its own Diamond Jubilee, by 
giving a dinner to the whole of the employees with 
their wives, numbering in all about 500. 
Mr. Martin Hope Sutton (see accompanying photo¬ 
graph), the founder of the firm, was born in 1815, and 
commenced business in a garden on the very 
spot where their extensive premises of shops, seed 
rooms, and warehouses now stand. He took posses¬ 
sion of the garden in question sixty years ago, and 
to-day the firm has the most extensive retail seed 
business in the world. This includes both agricul¬ 
tural and horticultural seeds. 
Mr. Martin John SuttOD, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., born 
in 1850, and the son of Mr. Martin Hope Sutton, is 
now the senior partner of the firm, and devotes 
attention chiefly to the agricultural department. He 
joined the firm thirty-one years ago, but was only 
taken into partnership about twenty-six years ago. 
Ever since he joined the firm he has consistently 
worked hard in its interests and has been instru¬ 
mental in making the business more and more widely 
known all over the world. 
Mr. Martin Hubert Foquett Sutton, the eldest sou 
of Mr. Martin John Sutton, was born in 1875. He 
graduated some years ago at Christ’s Church, 
Oxford, and since then has been travelling in foreign 
lands, returning to Reading only quite recently. 
During the evening of the dinner his health was 
proposed in fitting terms by his grandfather now in his 
eighty-third year. A glance at the portrait will show 
three generations of the family—a rare occurrence 
in the annals of a firm. 
MAJOR JOICEY’S ORCHIDS. 
In order to follow up our last week’s notes, we come 
now to speak of the glasshouses and kitchen garden, 
but more particularly the Orchids which we went to 
see in the establishment of Major Joicey, Sunning- 
dale Park, Sunningdale, Berks, pleasantly situated 
amongst its tall ancestral trees. The exhibits made 
at the Drill Hall and the Temple Show of the Royal 
Horticultural Society are usually moderate in size, 
but as often contain something that is rare, un¬ 
common, or particularly difficult to grow. Mr. F. 
J. Thorne, the gardener, takes much delight in sur¬ 
mounting these difficulties, yet seems to regard them 
as easy of accomplishment. 
Mexican House. 
This structure has been exceedingly gay for some 
weeks past, and at the time of our visit contained a 
rich and varied assortment of Orchids, amongst 
which the Miltonias, chiefly M. vexillaria, were most 
conspicuous on account of the number of plants, the 
quantity of flowers, and their simple, though 
charmingly effective arrangement. Some of the 
larger specimens in 8 in. pots carried thirty to thirty- 
nine spikes, and each pseudobulb supported from one 
to five. The flowers were very variable in colour. 
Recently imported pieces have made vigorous growth 
in 60-size pots or small pans, and are also flowering 
freely. One variety had very dark petals. Old and 
young were mixed together, but with sufficient space 
between them to show off the gracefully arching 
spikes to advantage. They were stood on the benches 
to the right of the entrance. Suspended from the 
roof right in front of the door was a magnificent 
piece of the rare Pescatorea Lehmanni, carrying 
three pendent spikes of its orange flowers, one of 
which carried 45 blooms. A plant of the same 
species was shown at the Drill Hall recently, 
bearing 75 flowers on a spike. The blossoms of some 
Orchids are fugitive, but those of this Pescatorea 
last for 21 to 28 days. We could not help noticing a 
grand variety of Cypripedium lawrenceanum, with a 
richly coloured dorsal sepal and a very dark lip. The 
huge flowers were born on seven scapes, each 2 ft. 
high or over. 
Here again we noted the two splendidly grown 
pieces of Anguloa Clowesii, which made their 
appearance at the Temple Show. One of the pieces 
carried 22 flowers, and three of the scapes carried 
twin flowers each. The pretty, white and pink- 
spotted A. Watsoni was also flowering. The 
panicles of brown and yellow flowers of Oncidium 
sphacelatum were 4 ft. long. The contrast between 
this and O. uniflorum was great, the latter being only 
a few inches high and bearing one or two flowers on 
a scape. The Laelias were in season, including the 
rich scarlet L. cinnabarina. A fine variety of L. 
purpurata had white flowers, with a broad blue- 
purple band across the lip. The rare Epidendrum 
atropurpureum Randii had buff sepals and petals 
with a rose blotch upon it. Seasonable Dendrobiums 
in bloom included B. chrysotoxum, D. c.suavissimum, 
D. tortile, a fine form of D. Hillebrandii, and D. 
ochraceum (cambridgeanum). 
In the next division of the same building numerous 
subjects requiring a higher temperature were flower¬ 
ing. Cattleyas were conspicuous on the sunny side 
of the house, and included C. Mossiae, C. Mendelii, 
and the pretty C. walkeriaua. Others were Laelia 
purpurata, the floriferous Epidendrum phymato- 
chilum and Thunia marshalliana, a large piece of the 
latter showing nine flower spikes in various stages of 
development, while several younger stems will pro¬ 
bably show for flower presently. On the shady side 
of this same division, Cypripediums were the 
dominant feature. The collection is pretty extensive, 
but amongst those in bloom we noted C. lawrence¬ 
anum, C. niveum, C. Exul, C. hirsutissimum, C. 
harrisianum, C. superciliare, C. Hookerae, and C. 
Curtisii with large and massive flowers on very 
dwarf stems. C. rothschildianum carried three fine 
flowers on a scape. Very fine also was C. caudatum 
Wallisii, and the type when in bloom produces petals 
over 2 ft. in length. 
A third division of this well-built, span-roofed 
structure contained Orchids requiring the tempera¬ 
ture of the East Indian houses. There was a good 
sized batch of Vanda teres and V. hookeriana, some 
of which were in bloom. Some well-grown and tall 
plants of Dendrobium moschatum, with their curious 
pouch-like lip, were flowering freely. Cypripedium 
Lowii, C. Parishi and C. Stonei, each represented 
their kind, the latter carrying three to four blooms on 
a scape. 
Cool Odontoglossum House. 
Here we noted a number of useful things including 
many fine varieties of the useful O. crispum, with 
heavily blotched round flowers. Very fine also were 
O. polyxanthum, and O. cordatum, carrying unusu¬ 
ally large spikes. O. ratnosissimum supported three 
branching scapes from one pseudobulb. Mr. Thorne 
also does Epidendrum vitellinum majus very well, 
Mr. Martin Hope Sutton. 
Mr. Martin John Sutton. Mr. Martin Hubert^Foquett Sutton. 
