July 24, 1897. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
A Slice of Tomato is a good thing for removing 
stains from the hand. 
The Leytonstone and Wanstead Floricultural 
Society is to be congratulated on the successful exhi¬ 
bition recently held in the grounds of Snaresbrook 
House, Leytonstone. The entries were more 
numerous than ever, and the quality of the exhibits 
reached a high standard. 
Lambeth Flower Show was inaugurated about 
twenty years ago, and the 1897 fixture took place by 
kind permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 
the grounds at Lambeth Palace. The show is man¬ 
aged by a committee of gentlemen belonging to the 
various places of worship in the district. 
Wolverhampton Floral Fete. —This annual exhibi¬ 
tion, of which we gave a short account last week, was 
a great success, beating all previous records. Un¬ 
fortunately Mr. W. A. Green, the hon. secretary, was 
taken ill on Monday night previous to the opening 
day on Tuesday. Notwithstanding this he did his 
duties to the satisfaction of everybody. 
Battle of Flowers at Skegness.— A battle of 
flowers, recently held at this well-known Lincoln¬ 
shire seaside resort, was a great success. A procession 
started from the cricket ground in the centre of the 
town and marched through the principal streets of 
the town to the North Parade, where the battle took 
place. Mr. S. G. Randall received a prize for the 
best decorated premises in the town, and the Misses 
Selby also were awarded a prize for a decorated 
allegorical car. 
Trees struck by Lightning.—During the recent 
severe thunderstorm which passed over the country, 
an old Oak tree in Richmond Park, Surrey, was 
struck by lightning, which tore out a piece of wood 
from a large limb, carrying it for some distance, and 
passing downwards tore off great pieces of bark and 
split the trunk into shivers. Half of the tree is 
now dead and the leaves brown. During the same 
storm, an Oak on the estate of E. M. Nelson, Esq., 
Hanger Hill, Ealing, was struck, and the trunk 
splintered into thin laths. 
Woolton Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society. 
—I have the pleasure to inform you that the com¬ 
mittee of the Liverpool Horticultural Association 
have kindly granted permission to the above society 
to arrange a sale stall at their forthcoming exhibi¬ 
tion, to be held in Sefton Park, on July 31st and 
August 2nd, the proceeds to be devoted to the 
Victorian Era Fund of the Gardeners’ Royal Bene¬ 
volent Institution. May I therefore, on behalf of the 
above society, beg the favour of your kind assistance 
and co-operation on this occasion by gifts of cash, 
flowers, fruits, plants, vegetables and horticultural 
requisites ; also of your kind patronage at the stall, 
so that the society may have the pleasure of trans¬ 
mitting to Mr. Harry J. Veitch (treasurer of the 
V.E.F.), a goodly sum, as the general help of Liver¬ 
pool and district.— R. G. Waterman, Hon. Secretary 
and Treasurer. 
Shirley Gardeners' Mutual Improvement Associa¬ 
tion.—The monthly meeting was held on Monday, 
the 19th inst., at the Parish Room, Shirley, 
Southampton, Mr. B. Ladhams presiding over a 
good attendance of the members. The subject for 
the evening was a Rose Show and discussion on the 
exhibits, but owing to the late date of the meeting, 
and the exceptionally hot, dry period, Roses in the 
district are nearly over and there was a small 
number of exhibits. Rev. W. J. Rudge (gardener 
Mr. J. Hallet) was awarded first prize and Certificate 
for the best Rose in the show and Mr. W. F. G. 
Spranger (gardener, Mr. Curtis) was awarded second 
prize. There were good collections of Roses not for 
competition exhibited by Mr. W. H. Rogers, Red 
Lodge Nursery, and Mr. B. Ladhams, Shirley 
Nurseries ; and a collection of buttonhole Roses, 
Teas, by Mr. T. M. Lord (gardener, Mr. W. Knapp). 
Mr. Allen sent fruit, Mr. Curtis, Tomatos ; Mr. 
Jeffrey, Sweet Peas ; and Mr. Ladhams a big show 
of hardy plants. The discussion was joined in by a 
number of the members and was of an interesting 
and useful character. A vote of thanks to the 
exhibitors and the chairman closed the meeting. 
741 
Gardeners Royal Benevolent Institution.— The Mer¬ 
chant Taylors’ Company, and the Skinners Company 
have each contributed the sum of £10 10s. to the 
funds of this Institution. 
Axminster Gardeners’ Society.— On the evening of 
Monday, July 12th a meeting of the Axminster Dis¬ 
trict Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society took 
place. Dr. Langran, of Axminster, obtained the 
premier prize in the amateurs' class, whilst Mr. J. 
Bull, also of Axminster, was similarly rewarded in 
the cottagers’ section. The chairman, Mr. Catford, 
afterwards gave a lecture on leguminous plants, 
which was listened to with much attention. 
Bath Rose Show.— In spite of the fact that Rose 
shows were being held elsewhere, and as close as at 
Gloucester a fine display of blooms turned up at the 
annual fixture held in the Sydney Gardens, Bath, on 
July 8th. Although some Rose growers that are 
usually in evidence at Bath were absent, the com¬ 
petition was keen throughout. Messrs. Cooling & 
Sons, Bath, secured a very creditable win over the 
Messrs. Paul in the premier class for seventy-two 
blooms, distinct, whilst they had no opposers in the 
following class for triples. The Messrs. Cooling 
were again first in the class for any new Rose of 
1895-96, showing fine samples of Lawrence Allen. 
Mr. Hill Gray was to the front for Teas and 
Noisettes, and the Rev. J. H. Pemberton, Havering- 
atte-Bower, Essex, was very successful among the 
amateur competitors. Groups of plants, bowers of 
garden Roses, and tastefully bedecked floral dinner 
tables were all capitally represented, and added 
materially to the attraction of the show. 
Fruit and Vegetables for Manchester.—The source 
of supply of the various fruits and vegetables for 
this industrial centre would apply very largely to 
other towns in that neighbourhood as well as the 
north. For Manchester the earliest Cabbages are 
obtained from Evesham, and later on from Lincoln¬ 
shire and Cheshire. Bedfordshire supplies most of 
the home-grown Onions ; but foreign produce com¬ 
petes keenly with this article. France and then 
Holland supplies the earliest Carrots, to be suc¬ 
ceeded in due time by consignments from Bedford¬ 
shire, Lincolnshire and Huntingdon. Mushrooms 
are furnished by Kent, and the growers around 
London. Ashton-under Lyne sends Celery. The 
Canary Islands send the first supply of New Potatos 
about Christmas ; and France and Cornwall also 
contribute largely about that time. The supply from 
the Channel Islands later on keeps the market 
furnished till Bedford, Cambridge and Cheshire in 
succession are able to send consignments of the 
noble tuber. 
-=9—- 
CHEMICAL PROCESSES IN AN ORCHID. 
Dear Mr. Veitch, 
At your suggestion I have jotted down some few 
remarks to further elucidate what I believe are the 
chemical processes which take place in the Orchid. 
Orchids take up through their leaves carbonic acid, 
free ammonia, and water in the form of watery 
vapour, but I believe the alkalies and earthy salts are 
taken up through the roots. I consider that chloro¬ 
phyll is built up on an ammonia type. Ammonia, 
f H 
NH 3 , may be regarded as NJ H but in the case of 
u 
the tertiary nitrides, each equivalent of the hydrogen 
may be replaced by an organic radical (C n H n + .,). 
If the radical methyl C 2 H 3 (the alcohol of which, 
C. 2 H t O, 2l is wood spirit, derived from the destructive 
distillation of wood) replaces each of the equivalents 
of hydrogen, we get a substance with the formula 
(C 2 H 3 
N -t C 2 H 3 ; if three equivalents of carbonic acid 
(.c 2 h 3 
3 (C 0 2 ) are then absorbed, a product would be the 
result with the formula NC,,H 9 O e , which under 
light, gives up two equivalents of oxygen ; chloroph} 11 
is formed CgHgNOj,, and 2 equivalents of oxygen are 
given off. It is a well known fact that plants differ 
from animals by absorbing carbonic acid, and giving 
off through their leaves oxygen. This is just the 
reverse process to that which takes place in the 
animal economy. 
I have found that by making an infusion of ordinary 
meadow grass, by pounding it up in fifteen times its 
weight of water, filtering the fluid, examining it as in 
water analysis, and comparing an infusion from the 
same quantity of grass which had recently been 
irrigated with sewage, the yield of 
In Meadow In Sewage-fed 
Nitrogen as amrnoniacal 
Grass. 
Grass. 
salts was 
2-8 
8-4 
Organic matter .. 
07 
i '4 
Albuminoid ammonia .. 
56 
12 6 
g-t 
22'6 
I also observed that the quantity of free ammonia 
and albuminoid ammonia in the sewage grass after 
two or three weeks growth, diminished in quantity, 
and more closely corresponded with the ordinary 
meadow grass, proving that the amrnoniacal salts had 
become absorbed and converted in the tissues of the 
grass. Watercress grown in the effluent from a 
sewage farm contained more free and albuminoid 
ammonia than Watercress grown in spring water. 
I think it is probable that when the plant has 
nearly finished its growth it is the period when the 
mineral salts are taken up through the roots, and 
that two equivalents of chlorophyll j ta ^ e 
up an equivalent of carbonate of lime, C a O C 0 2 , 
which is decomposed by some process which is not 
quite clear, into C 13 H 18 NO, + C a O NO, nitrateof 
lime; this is stored up in the pseudobulb. It is 
probable that many of the Orchids which grow in 
their native habitats derive their earthy salts from 
the bark of the trees on which they grow by a process 
of dialysing the earthy salts from the tree and ab¬ 
sorbing them through the root of the Orchid. 
It is well known that crystalisable salts mixed with 
gelatine, gum, or other colloidal substance placed on 
a membrane upon water, the salts will dialise, that 
is, pass freely through the membrane into the wa'er, 
whilst the colloids will remain behind on the mem¬ 
brane. 
From the researches of Hornberger it has been 
shown that if the increased growth of trees when 
thinned is due to the effect of light on the soil, 
resulting in the more rapid decomposition of the 
humus, rather than to the direct action of the light 
on the crowns of the trees, the wood of trees which 
have been thinned should be richer in ash consti¬ 
tuents and nitrogen than that of trees which have 
not been thinned. It has frequently been shown 
that the outer wood is richer in minerals than the 
inner wood. He compared the composition of (1) 
the outer, (2) the intermediate, and (3) the inner 
wood of two beech trees over 100 years old, one of 
which (A) had, for thirteen years, the advantage of 
increased light, the other (B) not. The numbers 
show the average results per thousand in the dry 
wood: 
KO. C a O. MgO. Mn., 0 3 . PO s . S 0 3 . Totl. 
Tinner wood 2 25 123 0 33 0 24 0 38 015 4 58 
A-,Intrmd. „ 194 150 047 033 0 24 0 21 469 
(.Outer ,, 15c 1 59 048 0 33 028 0 20 439 
Tinner ,, 109 1 28 046 C24 0 23 015 3 45 
B^Intrmd. ,, 2 33 ro8 0 35 017 0 42 — 4 35 
(-Outer ,, 135 0-84 021 015 0 27 0 23 3 05 
Comparing the outer wood of the two trees, there 
is a greater amount of each constituent, except 
phosphoric and sulphuric acids, in A than in B. 
When the amounts of ash constituents of the outer 
wood are divided by the corresponding arithmetical 
means of those of the intermediate and inner wood, 
the quotients for A, except in the case of potash, are 
greater than in B. The difference is still more 
distinct if the outer and intermediate wood alone are 
considered, binder the influence of increased light, 
there was thus a greater percentage of mineral 
matter in the wood, notwithstanding that the pro¬ 
duction of wood was increased. There was also an 
increase in the amount of nitrogenous matter. 
(To be continued.) 
FLOWER GARDENING IN SCOTLAND. 
The growing of flowers, whether for cutting or the 
decoration of the parterre, and flower gardens in 
general, has always held a foremost position in 
Scottish Gardens ; but at no time have the more 
useful species been more popular than at present, 
and the taste for them seems to beincreasirg yearly. 
Thirty years ago, or more, the rage for bedding plants 
crowded out many cf the finest collections of 
herbaceous plants in the country. Many a cultivator 
of these, who had arranged them with consummate 
care, and to whom the names of them were as familiar 
as A, B, C, had to obey the mandate of prevailing 
fashion and clear off his pets to make way for gorgeous 
beds of Pelargoniums, Verbenas, Calceolarias and 
