April 27, 1901. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
559 
laudanum as a potion, and became so habituated to 
the use of the drug, that he drank a wineglassful 
every eight hours. He was fully aware that it was 
injurious to health, and resolved to cure himself of 
the habit after the amputation of his arm. Every 
time he took a glassful from the bottle, he filled up 
the latter to the same extent with water, so that the 
drug became weaker and weaker every day, till 
little or nothing but water was left. Thus he 
gradually cured himself of the habit without feeling 
inconvenienced. 
Loudon's next venture was The Gardeners' Magazine, 
the first publication entirely devoted to horticulture. 
In this he had a channel through which he could 
convey his ideas and the results of his experience to 
the public. Noting how well the gardeners were 
supplied with information about London, and what 
little chance the gardeners oi rural districts had in 
the matter of education, his sheet was mainly in¬ 
tended for their especial benefit; but it soon proved 
a medium of general utility for all gardeners. It 
also proved a source of great inspiration to mere 
lovers .or amateurs of gardening, and no doubt 
became the means of imparting to others a taste for 
gardening. In one of the issues he wrote that " In 
an art so universally practised as gardening, and 
one daily undergoing so much improvement, a great 
many occurrences must take place worthy of being 
recorded, not only for the entertainment of gardening 
readers, but for the instruction of practitioners in 
the art." The first number of 4,000 copies was 
sold out in a few days, aDd the periodical at once 
became popular, continuing so for a period of nine¬ 
teen years, till, in fact, the death of its conductor. 
RESOLUTION BY THE FRUIT COM¬ 
MITTEE, R.H.S., AND THE CAUSE OF 
IT. 
Proposed by Mr. J. Wright, April 9th, 1901. 
At the meeting of the committee held on April 9th, 
the Chairman, Mr. Geo. Bunyard, was understood 
to say that it was his duty to place the recommend¬ 
ation of an Award of Merit to Apple Lamb Abbey 
Pearmain, voted for at a previous meeting (March 
26th) before the Council, and also to signify his 
objection to the proposal. Still the honour was 
allowed—Votes for, 11; votes against, 7. 
The specimens of this late dessert Apple were 
unusually fine, and in that respect, also in quality, 
were by far the best Apples that had been placed 
before the committee after the middle of March. 
This Apple is not commonly grown, and may almost 
be classed as a "novelty,” not only because of its 
comparative scarcity, but also because it originated 
as a seedling from the Newtown Pippin and 
possesses more of the texture and quality of that 
famous Apple than does any other variety grown in 
this country. It is described by Dr. Hogg in the 
Fruit Manual as of " first-rate quality ; very valuable 
for its richness and long keeping—namely, till April. 
Tree, a free healthy grower and good bearer.” Mr. 
A. F. Barron describes it in British Apples (Royal 
Horticultural Society), as “ very firm, sweet, late, 
first quality." True, it may not be a " nurseryman’s 
Apple." It is not included in Mr. Bunyard's and 
some other catalogues, though Messrs. Cheal list it 
as of " first quality." 
The Society's Regulations say that the committees 
are to consider " novelties,” and make awards 
according to their merits. Is not this done in the 
case of plants, and awards made whether nursery¬ 
men possess them or not ? But this Apple, though 
a "novelty” to many, is very much more, but all 
the members of the committee may not have proved 
its merits and therefore, very properly, did not vote. 
But though the honour recommended by a com¬ 
paratively small majority was allowed, a rebuke of 
the Council was conveyed by the chairman to his 
fellow-members of the committee for their action in 
the matter, and they evidently felt that they were 
told, in a courteous way, not to do anything of the 
kind again. Yet they had infringed no rules, regu¬ 
lations or instructions whatever! 
At the same meeting (April 9th) a dish of the 
valuable late Pear, Bergamotte Esperen, was placed 
on the table, and the fruits were obviously enjoyed 
by the committee. On ascertaining that the variety 
had never been honoured, an Award of Merit was 
proposed, and only one hand held up against it; yet 
the recommendation was peremptorily rejected by 
the Council. Thus one of the very best late Pears 
was denounced as unworthy of recognition, and the 
committee, with the greatest possible haste, 
pilloried in the Gardening Press as incompetent 
judges of fruit. 
This public notification was, and could not well be 
otherwise, regarded by at least a large section of the 
horticultural public as a vote of "want of con¬ 
fidence " on the part of the Council in the com¬ 
mittee. This seems to have been so self-evident to 
one gardening journal, that the letter which the 
secretary was instructed to send for publication was 
headed in bold, black type 
"WILL THEY (the committee) RESIGN?” 
No. member of the committee will for a moment 
imagine that Mr. Wilks was the author of that 
heading; he simply did his duty. For "sitting on" 
the committee the Council admit that the award was 
recommended by a majority, but did not say it was 
a majority of eleven to one. 
In taking the extreme step they did, whether or 
not on the advice of the chairman of the Fruit Com¬ 
mittee, it will be noticed that the Council have not 
given a remarkable example of consistency. They 
have in their wisdom (or haste) arrived at the con¬ 
clusion that the committee, in giving a few votes—a 
comparative small majority of four—in favour of an 
award for a particular fruit they were right; whereas, 
by voting in an overwhelming majority —eleven out 
of twelve votes—in favour of a fruit of much more 
widely recognised value, they were wrong, for in the 
former case the Council allowed the award, but in 
the latter stamped it out. 
The Council of the Royal Horticultural Society 
has always been held in the highest esteem by the 
members of committees because of the uniform 
courtesy extended towards them, and the graceful 
acknowledgment of such assistance as they have 
been able to render ; but in this instance it is felt 
that the action of the Council has, under some 
strange impulse, been precipitate, on the ground that 
it would only have been reasonably considerate to 
have withheld the award for the reconsideration of 
the committee for some possibly valid reason, that 
might have been advanced by the Council, and 
which was not placed before the meeting when the 
award was recommended. 
Several of the members of the Fruit Committee 
of the Royal Plorticultural Society are chosen as 
judges at provincial shows, because their choice as 
experts by the Council is held as the best evidence 
of competency. The recent action of the Council 
cannot but shake confidence in the men whom they 
have so severely treated. 
Bergamotte Esperen is not, of course, an orchard 
Pear for the million, but a garden Pear for choice 
desserts, such as would find approval with the 
majority of the Fellows of the Royal Horticultural 
Society who have the means for growing it against 
walls, or as espaliers, or pyramids according to 
locality. It is one of the most prolific of Pears, and 
for quality most persons would experience difficulty 
in finding three, if they could even find two, superior 
in April out of the whole of the “ April ” Pears in Dr. 
Hogg’s Fruit Manual, and the catalogues of Messrs. 
Veitch, Rivers, Cheal, Pearson and Bunyard. It 
can be stated as a fact that Dr. Hogg regarded the 
variety as one of the most generally reliable of all 
the first class late Pears ; while, with one exception, 
the whole of the nurserymen on the Council speak 
of it in terms of high praise. It is true that Messrs. 
Bunyard & Co. have omitted Bergamotte Esperen 
from their descriptive list in the catalogue 1900- 
1901, but, curiously enough, they retain it in their 
short list of "Select First-class Pears.” As a 
matter of fact nearly all the fruit experts on the 
Council have so described the Pear as to bring it 
well within the authoritative terms of reference, 
namely, as a variety of " great excellence, the merit 
of which had been hitherto overlooked or ignored.” 
And to the attention of such the committee is speci¬ 
fically invited. 
Though the proposer of the award in question had 
grown the Pear for more than twenty years with the 
greatest satisfaction to all concerned, not a dozen 
words were said in its favour in making the recom¬ 
mendation, but the issue was left to the individual 
knowledge of the experts at the table—some of the 
best gardeners and fruit judges in the kingdom. 
No doubt the Council is entitled to set aside any 
recommendation of either of its committees, but 
since, as is well known, hundreds of awards, recom¬ 
mended by bare majorities, have been allowed the 
present disallowance (and the manner of it) be¬ 
comes the more extraordinary, seeing that only one 
out of twelve persons on the committee (omitting the 
chairman), voted against the proposed award. It is, 
moreover, felt that the hurried form of public an¬ 
nouncement of disagreement with an all but unani¬ 
mous committee of experienced men is unparalleled. 
For those reasons the resolution is moved; and 
because the proposer of the discredited award was, 
all unwittingly, the means of placing his fellow 
members in such an unpleasant position, he retires 
from the committee on which he has served so long. 
He hopes, however, that his colleagues will continue 
their services to the Royal Horticultural Society. 
RESOLUTION 
(To be moved by Mr. J. Wright (health permitting), 
as the proposer of the " recommendation," or by 
Mr. A. Dean). 
" The Members of the Fruit Committee present at 
the Meeting on April 9th, and who, if not without a 
dissentient vote, by a majority of not less than ten 
to one, recommended an Award of Merit to Pear 
Bergamotte Esperen, placed before them by the Earl 
of Uchester, regret the action of the Council in 
hastily publishing the Council’s dissent in the Press 
without any reason assigned (or affording the Com¬ 
mittee an opportunity for re-consideration of the re¬ 
commendation), and thus reflecting injuriously on 
the capacity of the Members in question as judges of 
fruit.” 
Mr. J. Wright was present in person on Tuesday 
last and made the above proposition. 
The following was read by the chairman at the 
meeting of the Fruit Committee .— 
" I am desired by the Council to inform you that 
they have left the confirmation of the Award of 
Merit recommended by this Committee at the last 
meeting, to Bergamotte Esperen Pear, in abeyance ; 
as they would like the Committee to have the experi¬ 
ence of another season, the past one having been in 
their opinion an exceptionally favourable one for 
many late Pears, not ordinarily of first-rate merit. 
" The Council do not think that any real injustice 
will be done to Bergamotte Esperen even if it prove 
itself to be all that the Committee considered it on 
April 9th, as, having been in cultivation for quite 
sixty years without obtaining any award it can 
afford to wait and approve itself in at least two con¬ 
secutive seasons. 
" The Council are happy in being able to approve 
and confirm the recommendations of the Committee 
in 99 out of 100 cases and they trust that the Com¬ 
mittee will not feel hurt by their exercising what 
seems to them only a wise caution in the present 
exceptional instance." 
CESTRUM AURANTIACUM, 
Though one cannot say that the species of Cestrum, 
otherwise known in gardens as Habrothamnus, are 
the cleanest or least subject to pest attacks of our 
greenhouse-climbing plants, we can, I think, include 
them amongst those that are freest and most attrac¬ 
tive in flowering. Cestrum aurantiacum seems to be 
less grown than C. elegans or C. Newelli, both of 
which are worthy plants and well known. The 
species under note has orange-vaseline coloured 
flowers, which are in every way identical in form 
and structure to those of the other species just men¬ 
tioned. A well-developed plant trained erectly to a 
pillar or obliquely upon a beam, where the lateral 
flower shoots with their gorgeous trusses can hang 
pendently, will, at any season of the year, form a 
feature of marked beauty. The leaves are dark 
green, and of moderate size. The plant seems to 
enjoy a good deal of root room, though, with this 
special soft-growing class of plants, it will generally 
be found best to confine the roots, and to rely on 
nourishing the plant by liquid manurial applications 
to the root space. Older plants, too, as a rule, 
flower more freely than young and vigorous ones. 
A mixture of turfy loam, lime and broken brick 
rubble, coarse sand and some peat or dried cow- 
droppings, forms an excellent compost in which to 
grow the plant. Good specimens commence flower, 
irg previous to this time of year, and continue so 
for a very long while. Keep the plants clean by 
frequent syringings and regulate the growth of shoots 
by use of the knife and by slight tying-in. The 
plants should be pruned rather hard when they have 
gone out of flower, whenever that occurs.—L, 
