796 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 10, 1901. 
The Name of the Station.—First Holiday Travel¬ 
ler (as the train stopped) : " What station is this ? " 
Second Traveller : “ Sutton's Seeds.” 
Examination in Horticulture. —The examination 
syllabus has been revised recently by the Council 
of the Royal Horticultural Society, acting on the 
advice of the examiners. Intending students should 
send a penny stamp for a copy of it. 
Miss Ormerod’s Book. —The volume on her 
personal reminiscences on which she was engaged a 
few months previous to her death, will be a uniquely 
interesting one, and arrangements have been made 
for completing it without delay. 
Royal Horticultural Society.—The next fruit 
and flower show of the Royal Horticultural Society 
will be held on Tuesday, August 13th, in the Drill 
Hall, Buckingham Gate, Westminster, 1 — 5 p.m. 
A lecture on “Tender Plants for Outdoor Gardening” 
will be given by Mr. Wm. Townsend at 3 o'clock. 
Horsham Horticultural Society’s Show. — The 
30th annual show of this old society is to be held at 
Springfield, Horsham, on August 22nd. The 
schedule which we have to hand shows that it is 
well up to date and all classes of exhibitors are well 
provided for, especially the amateur classes. Pro¬ 
viding as it does for this class of people, it has given 
a great impetus to cottage gardening in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, and the good work of the society in thus 
promoting a higher standard of horticulture deserves 
every encouragement. There are 100 classes 
besides special prizes offered by the trade. 
A Law Note.—There has been a large amount of 
interest created lately over the case of Mr. James 
Beisant, head gardener at Castle Huntly, versus the 
Caledonian Railway Company. The case arose out 
of the alleged damage of blooms of Chrysanthemums, 
144 in number, which were entrusted to the above 
company last November,to be conveyed to Edinburgh, 
where they were to compete for the Edinburgh Cup. 
While the van was being shunted it was run into so vio¬ 
lently by the shunting engine as to injure the van and 
upset the boxes of bloom so that they were rendered 
useless for exhibition. Mr. Beisant claimed £ too , 
and after a long hearing in which much expert 
evidence was called, defendants had to pay £60 as 
damages. 
Bank Holiday.—The weather prophet was out of 
it again on Bank Holiday, and, doubtless, for. once 
he was congratulated on the failure of his prognosti¬ 
cations, as he said it would be wet. It was an ideal 
day for a holiday, and thousands betook themselves to 
that favourite holiday resort, the great lung of London, 
Kew Gardens. It was a day to make one feel happy, 
ir was not too damp to indulge in a lounge on the 
green sward, and that fatiguing heat which has been 
troubling Londoners so much during the past 
few days was conspicuous by its absence. We have 
not yet heard the estimate as to how many passed 
into the gardens, but doubtless the statistic fiend, 
like the camera and death, was with us and marked 
all in their turn, irrespective of quality. 
Founder’s Day at Reading —In previous years 
this has been celebeated in December, but after 
considering the many advantages of a summer 
celebration it has been changed to July. This was 
the fourth Founder’s Day Celebration, but in other 
years there has been nothing more than this. This 
year saw the first Hostel show, held in conjunction 
with the Founder's Day festivities. Students are 
provided with a plot of ground on which to grow 
things for this show, and this year they were the 
subject of many complimentary remarks from the 
judges. Besides a good show of garden produce 
there was a good exhibit of honey, jam, bottled 
fruits, &c. A working dairy was open for inspec¬ 
tion both days, and there were several demonstra¬ 
tions in the dairy art. There were many speeches, 
but all were commendably short and concise. The 
work of Lady Warwick's Hostel is known through¬ 
out the British Isles, and is highly spoken of in 
many countries on the Continent. It is a good work 
and we wish it success. Speaking to an old 
gardener on the subject of lady gardeners recently 
elicited the following bold reply—“ Eh, lad ! they 
may not mek gerdeners but gi' ’em a chaunce and if 
they dinna manage the job they’ll make rare 
gerdeners' woives.” 
There ia a photo of a Cattleya labiata in a recent 
number of American Gardening showing seven per¬ 
fectly developed blooms on one spike. 
Costly Odontoglossums.—The Chronique Orchi- 
deenne says that at a recent sale of Orchids made 
at London, a plant of the hybrid Odontoglossum 
Rolfae, with two pseudobulbs, was sold for 210 
guineas; and O crispum The Earl was bought for 
160 guineas. 
Royal Horticultural Society.—At a general meet¬ 
ing of the Royal Horticultural Society held on 
Tuesday, July 30th, forty-one new Fellows were 
elected (making 688 since the beginning of the 
present year), amongst them being:—Lady Cran- 
worth, Lady Pollock, the Hon. Mrs. Gretton, the 
Right Hon. R. W. Hanbury, M.P., the Hon. N. 
Charles Rothschild, and Clement Godson, Esq., 
M.D. 
Inspecting Orchards.—There is an outcry in the 
Australian Press against the apathetic way in which 
the Department of Agriculture are carrying out the 
inspection of Orchards in Victoria. According to 
the accounts to hand the parks, cemeteries, and 
large private gardens are swarming with scale 
insects, and the dreaded San Jose scale has put in 
an appearance in many places. Surely the terrible 
effects of letting such matters exist without some 
organised attempt to prevent their increase was 
sufficiently pointed out in the Californian fruit 
districts some years ago, or are all our Government 
bodies obsolete ? 
Cannell’s Championship Belt for the Best Fruit, 
Flowers and Vegetables, the latter grown from 
Cannell’s own home-grown seeds, and exhibited by 
the various gardening societies in Kent, was sharply 
contested for at the Eynsford Show held last Back 
Holiday. All the productions were of the greatest 
excellence, and although the Eynsford Society was 
awarded first prize, Chislehurst second, and St. 
Mary Cray and Orpington third, the difference 
between them was trifling. The judges pronounced 
the exhibits the best that this now popular county 
prize has ever brought forth, and the keen rivalry 
caused a great deal of excitement during the day. 
Cutting off Seed Pods.—One of the greatest 
mistakes a gardener makes when growing plants for 
the beauty of their flowers alone is to allow those 
plants to seed. It is not the object of plants to pro¬ 
duce flowers for appearance, but they throw all 
their energy into the mission they have to fulfil, and 
that is to provide for the future generation by pro¬ 
ducing seeds for the reproduction of their species. 
This is the one aim of a plant, and if the young 
seeds are taken off it will make another endeavour 
to fulfil its mission, and will do so until it becomes 
exhausted. By checking the production of seeds on 
annuals, their blooming period is greatly extended, 
and they are bright throughout the season, instead 
of giving one batch of bloom and then ripening off. 
Flowers and Fruits—Mr. R. Lloyd Praeger, 
B.A., has a most interesting article on this subject 
in the current number of Knowledge. He brings 
forward numerous examples of unique methods 
which plants adopt in attracting insects for fertilising 
purposes. As one of the examples he mentions the 
Umbelliferae, where the flowers are small and in¬ 
conspicuous, but nature has made them more con¬ 
spicuous, crowding them together in simple or com¬ 
pound umbels, which from a very short distance 
look like one huge bloom. In plants which have 
large and highly coloured flowers this is not 
necessary, and they are borne on solitary stems as a 
rule. Another striking instance which he points 
out as an example is that afforded by the uncultivated 
Snowball, Viburnum Opulus, whose flowers when 
perfect are small and inconspicuous, but to make 
them more attractive the sexual organs are aborted 
in the outer rows of flowers in the head of bloom, 
and instead of having small corollas they have 
large and showy ones, thus sacrificing some of the 
flowers to make a bol{l advertisement to attract 
insects to their smaller companion flowers. He 
writes in an interesting manner on seed dispersal, 
and illustrates his article with numerous examples 
of the various methods and agencies employed, 
amongst which wind seems the predominant agent. 
Crystal Palace Fruit Show.—The Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society’s eighth annual show of British 
grown fruit will be held at the Crystal Palace on 
October 10th, nth, and 12th. The prize schedule 
is now ready, and contains, in addition to the list of 
prizes, an authoritative list of dessert and cooking 
Apples, Pears, and Plums. Copies can Tie obtained 
on application to the secretary, Royal Horticultural 
Society, 117, Victoria Street, Westminster. Appli¬ 
cants should enclose a stamp. 
Edinburgh Spring Show. —We have just received 
an advance prize schedule of the Royal Caledonian 
Horticultural Society for the spring show, and call 
attention to a very interesting competition for young 
gardeners, which is to be one of the features. It is 
quite a new scheme, and we are sure that when 
well known it will prove a very popular one. It is 
only for young gardeners, and taps a class of work to 
which little study is given at present—the laying out 
of grounds. The competition is for the best plan 
drawn to scale (40 ft. to 1 in.) fcr laying out a piece 
of ground about twenty acres in extent, arranging 
for kitchen garden, flower garden, and pleasure 
grounds. We will report further particulars when 
the chief schedule is prepared. 
Edgbaston Botanical Gardens.—These pretty 
gardens, which are not patronised nearly so much 
as they deserve, were enlivened on July 31st by the 
attraction afforded by the Carnation Show. The 
blooms were very fine, as were also the non-com¬ 
petitive exhibits. Mr. J. H. White, Worcester, 
made a bright show with a stand of cut flowers. 
Mr. Davis, Yeovil, brought some fine Begonias ; 
Mr. Amos Perry, Winchmore Hill, London, made 
an interesting exhibit with Water Lilies; Messrs. 
Jones & Sons, Shrewsbury, staged a collection of 
Cactus Dahlias; and Mr. Robert Sydenham, Tenby 
Street, Birmingham, showed Sweet Peas. It was 
not a large floral show, but a select gathering, and 
proved a most'enjoyable event. 
Tritonias at Kew.—Visitors to this museum of 
living floral specimens should not fail to note the 
magnificent bed of these now in bloom near the 
Palm house. If they visit that part of the garden 
they are bound to be attracted by the bright glow of 
orange colour which they are now making. They 
are growing in the kind of soil which is well suited 
to their requirements—a light, deep, and rich loam* 
Of course this is not the natural soil of Kew 
Gardens, as that is almost pure sand in, places. 
They are in a sunny position, too, and that suits 
them, as the more sun they get the better will they 
bloom, and the brighter will the colours be. They 
should have plenty of drainage, so that they can 
have a good supply of fresh water when growing. 
An Orchid which Drinks.—The Westminster 
Gazette recently had a remarkable article in its 
columns on the above subject. It would be un¬ 
gracious to doubt the authority of the article, but 
we should be pleased to ascertain the name of the 
genus to which tnis peculiar plant belongs, also 
whether the discoverer thought of bringing away a 
specimen of it, for we are sure that if all that is said 
about it is true, it will cause a sensation. We have 
the name of the discoverer, aDd perhaps it is his 
address which makes one a bit wary of swallowing 
the article in its present form, as he hails from the 
land of large ideas—the neighbourhood of Phila¬ 
delphia. Here are his own words, we will not 
attempt to judge for you, as we might “ Put our fort 
in it.” “ I noted one different trom the rest, the 
leaves, sharp, lancehead shaped, growing all around 
the root and radiating from it. From the centre or 
axis of the plant hung a long, slender stem about 
one-eighth of an inch thick by one-fourth inch wide, 
the lower end of which was in the water to a depth 
of about four inches. By subsequent observation I 
found that when the plant was in want of water, 
this tube would gradually unwind till it dipped into 
the water. Then it would slowly coil round and 
wind up, carrying with it the amount of water that 
that part of the tube which had been immersed con¬ 
tained, until when the final coil was taken the 
water was dumped, as it were, direct into the roots 
of the plant. The coil remained in this position 
until the plant required more water. Should the 
plant, however, be touched while the tube is ex¬ 
tended the Orchid acts like the sensitive plant 
(Mimosa) and the coiling is more rapid. 
