March 10, 1900 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
487 
SPECIAL NOTICE. 
IF YOU WANT 
REALLY GOOD SEEDS, 
AT MODERATE PRICES, Apply to 
Mr. ROBERT SYDENHAM, 
188, BRISTOL ROAD, BIRMINGHAM. 
NO ONE WILL SERYE YOU BETTER 
MB. ROBERT SYDENHAM’S LISTS 
Are acknowledged by all to be the Best, Cheapest 
and Most Reliable ever published. 
They contain only the 
Best Yegetables, Flowers and Bulbs Worth 
Growing. 
Being the selections of the Largest Seed Growers, 
Market Gardeners, and the most celebrated Profes¬ 
sional Gardeners, and Amateurs in the Kingdom 
They also contain very useful Cultural Instructions. 
Liberal Prizes and Three Fifteen-Guinea Cups, 
to be competed for in 1900. 
The splendid Vegetables exhibited for these prizes 
last year at Shrewsbury, London, Birmingham, Ply¬ 
mouth, &c., were acknowledged by a 1 to be as good 
as any ever seen. 
SWEET PEAS A SPECIALITY, 
At a Half to a Third Usual Prices. 
Nothing Gives So Much Cut Bloom at so small a 
cost or so little trouble To get best results Sow 
Now, as directions sent with each Collection. 
SPECIAL VERY CHEAP OFFER. 
COLLECTION No. 1.—10 Yery Good Yarieties. 
50 Seeds of each in separate packets, 1/3. 
Emily Henderson, white ; Mrs. Eckford, primrose; 
Riyal Rose, rosy-pink; Lady Penzance, bright pale 
rose; Her Majesty, rosy-crimson; Firefly, intense 
cardinal; Emily Eckford, bright pale blue ; Countess 
of Radnor, pale heliotrope; Captivation, rosy- 
purple ; Triumph, salmon and blush. 
^COLLECTION No. 2 —10 Yery Choice Yarieties. 
50 Seeds of each in separate packets, 1/9. 
)Blanche Burpee, finest white; Queen Victoria, pale 
yellow; Venus, pale buff, flushed pmk ; Lovely, rich 
• coral piuk ; Oriental, bright rose; Colonist, deep 
lilac-rose; Mars, rich dark fiery red ; New Countess, 
fine pale lavender ; Prince Edward of York, salmon 
.and rose; Stanley, dark bronzy-maroon, the best 
dark Sweet Pea. 
■ Special Price for the Two Collections, 2/6., 
'Post Free, with a Packet each of White and 
Pink Cupid (50 Seeds), Free of Charge. 
The Finest in Cultivation. 
VEITOH S SUPERB MIXED. 
This straiD of Gloxinia is of the most profuse- 
fbwering character, with the greatest diversity in 
the colours; flowers large and open, growth 
vigorous. Saved from our newest ana best sorts. 
Per Packet, 2 6. 
For full descriptions of other CHOICE 
NOYELTIE8 and SPECIALITIES, see SEED 
CATALOGUE for 1900, forwarded post free on 
application. _ 
JAMES VEITGH & SONS, 
loyal txotie Nursery, CHELSEA, S.W. 
.COLLECTION No. 3 —10 Newest Yarieties. 
50 Seeds of each in separate packets, 3/-. 
SATURDAY , MARCH 1 oth, 1900. 
r Sadie Burpee, new white; Modesty, blush pink; 
Prima Donna, large pink ; Lady Mary Currie, orange- 
Tose; Prince of Wales, deep rose; Salopian, deep 
mulberry-red; Lottie Hutchins, buff, flushed pink; 
Gorgeous, orange and pink; Lady Grisel Hamilton, 
best pale lavender; Navy Blue, deep violet-blue. 
Special Price for the Three Collections, 5/-. 
NEXT WEEK'S ENGAGEMENTS 
Tuesday, March :3th.—R.H.S. Meeting in Drill Hall, West¬ 
minster, S.W. 
Wednesday. March 14th — Fourth Annual Smoking Concert 
of the Gardeners' Charity Guild, Cannon Street Hotel, 
E.C. 
With a packet of Pink and White Cupid, and four 
striped varieties (50 seeds of each), Free of Charge. 
THE BEST SEVEN TOMATOS 
In cultivation; often sold under other names to get 
fancy prices. Each packet contains about 200 seeds. 
Perfection, 3d , a special good strain ; Polegate, best 
for exhibition, 6d. ; Ham Green Favourite, 3d. ; 
Frogmore Selected, raised by the Queen’s gardener, 
3d.; Cha'lenger, 3d. ; Golden Perfection, 3d.; Early 
Open Air, the best for outdoor work, 3d. 
Special Price for the collection, 1/6, post free. 
THE FOUR BEST CUCUMBERS. 
Each packet contains 10 Seeds. 
Lockie’s Perfection, Rollisson’s Selected Telegraph, 
Covent Garden Favourite and Marvel, 6d. each; 
postage, id. each extra; or the Collection, 1/9, post 
free. 
FULL LIST POST FREE ON APPLICATION. 
Tpk OVELT1ES AND POPULAR FLOWERS. -The 
' definition of a novelty is something 
fresh or new ; and in the matter of fruits, 
flowers or vegetables, it means the acquisi¬ 
tion of a new species, hybrid or variety, 
whether for use or ornament, that we can 
grow as an addition to those we already 
possess, or to supplant an older and maybe 
inferior form. Novelties may be new in¬ 
troductions, garden hybrids, or seedlings, 
whether cropping up accidentally, or the 
result ot intentional cross-breeding and 
selection. The two latter terms generally 
go hand in hand; for cross-breeding 
generally gives a superfluity of inferior 
forms or varieties not surpassing, if they 
equal, existing forms from the cultivator’s or 
the public point of view. The best are, 
therefore, selected for perpetuation, or as 
Green Marrow 
PEAS 
FOR THE TABLE FROM JUNE 
TO NOVEMBER, 
TESTED SELECTION of the very 
choicest successional varieties, to 
be sown from March to June, gives 
the very best results. 
Height. Sow. Pick. 
Carters’ Lightning ft. Feb. & Ma^ch May to Tune 
Carters’ Early Morn 3 ft. End MarcK During June 
Carters' Daisv ij ft. Mid April in July 
Carters’ Dauby Stratagem 3 ft. End April July 
Carters’Model Telephone 5 ft. Mid. April July 
Carters’Model Telegraph 5 ft. End April July and Aug 
Carters’M chaelmas 3 ft. May to June Sep. to Nov 
Each, separate price, 2 /- per pint, 3/6 per quirt. 
The collection, 1 pint of each, as above, price 12 / 6 . 
The collection, 1 quart of each, as above, price 22/6 
Carriage Paid, 
CARTER’S EXHIBITOR'S BOX OF VEGETABLE 
SEEDS contains 30 packets of all the choicest 
varieties for exhibition or table use. 
Price 10/6, packing and postage iree. 
ILLUSTRATED LISTS POST FREE. 
SEEDSMEN TO HER MAJESTY 
237 , 233, &. 97, 
High Holborn, LONDON. 
stepping stones to sorre’hing better. The 
objects of getting novelties are of a varied 
character, two of which are (1) to get some¬ 
thing better than one already possesses, and 
(2) simply the gratification of getting some¬ 
thing different from existing forms. No 
one who has ever engaged in the operation 
will deny the real pleasure derived from 
watching a bed or batch of seedlings coming 
into bloom for the first time, and anticipat¬ 
ing something new and handsome. Even 
if ultimately disappointed, he will try again, 
striking out new paths, it may be, in order to 
secure some combination of form or colour, 
which he reasonably surmises may be pro¬ 
duced or wrested from Nature under the 
guidance of his head and hand. In some 
things “ novelty survives long knowledge,” 
as the poet has it; but in many, perhaps 
most, garden flowers, novelty soon gets 
plajed out, and the eye gets tired of same¬ 
ness too long and too oft repeated. In other 
cases, it may be admitted, particularly in 
the case of fruits or vegetables, the life of a 
variety gets p’ayed out long before the pop¬ 
ularity of the said variety wanes. Hence 
the necessity for novelties in order to secure 
fresh constitution or vitality, so that the 
race may escape extermination by disease, 
and produce that weight of crop, which can 
reasonably be expected of them, and by 
which alone they can repay the care and 
trouble expended upon them. 
New introductions sometimes have an 
inherent tendency to vary, as they did possi¬ 
bly in the wild state. The observant 
cultivator has but to seize upon and develop 
the best forms or varieties that come to 
hand. As in the case of the Chinese 
Primula and the Chrysanthemum, some 
introductions may already be inclined to 
vary as the result of artificial cultivation in 
those countries from whence they came. In 
