February 7, 1903. 
Fhe Gardening World 
GENERAL NOTICES. 
We would earnestly urge secretaries of societies to notify us as far in advance as possible as to dates of meetings, shows, etc. We desire to do all in our power to have these 
equately represented in the columns of The Gardening World. 
We respectfully request our readers, when they write to persons or firms advertising in his paper, to mention that their advertisement was seen in The Gardening World 
' ey will thereby not only oblige this paper, but the advertisers. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
f‘ Good luck is very often, even if not always, the result of forethought and intelligence, coupled with persistent industry.”— Burbidge. 
i 
Weekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World 
irill give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for 
THE BEST FARAGRAPH, or SHORT ARTICLE, sent 
ay readers during the week. The Editor’s 
judgment must be considered final, and he will 
'be at liberty to use any of the contributions 
sent in. The paragraph, or article, must not 
EXCEED ONE COLUMN IN LENGTH, but the Value, 
rather than the length, of the article will be 
considered in making the award. Competitors 
may send in items of news or comments on 
news; hints of practical interest to gar¬ 
deners or growers of plants, fruits, or flowers; 
mcoessful methods of propagating plants 
isually considered difficult; or contributions 
ON ANT SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE 
of gardening proper. Letters should be 
addressed to The Editor, marked “ Competi¬ 
tion, ” and posted not later than Friday night 
|i;o ensure insertion in the issue of next week. 
Photographic 
Competition. 
A Prize of Two Guineas will be awarded for 
the best photograph, sketch, or water-colour 
drawing sent in for reproduction by readers 
before February 28th, subject to the following 
conditions:—(1) That the Editor’s judgment 
must be final. (2) That the photograph, sketch, 
or drawing be accompanied by the following 
particulars: (a) The name of the subject, (b) 
,he name and address of the competitor, who 
must be the actual photographer or artist, (c) 
|vhen and where the subject was taken or 
drawn. (3) That the competitor is the owner 
of the copyright. (4) That the photograph, 
sketch, or water-colour drawing has not been 
ised in any other publication. (5) That the 
Editor is at liberty to use any of the photo¬ 
graphs, sketches, or drawings. Extra prizes of 
loive Shillings each will be awarded to any 
subjects the Editor decides to use other than 
.hat awarded the first prize. Letters must be 
iddressed to the Editor, marked “ Photograph.” 
rhe Editor will not be responsible for the return 
>f photographs, but if stamps be sent an effort 
vill be made to return unsuccessful contribu- 
ions. 
Views and Reviews. 
Etherisation of Plants. 
Some few years ago the horticultural world 
was startled with the discoveiy that plants 
could be retarded for weeks or months beyond 
their natural period of blooming. The old- 
world notion of refrigeration among gar¬ 
deners was that Cauliflower and other 
vegetables liable to rapid deterioration could 
be preserved in good condition for a week or 
ten days, either for home use or for the 
advent of the local exhibition, by putting 
them in the ice house. Should they succeed 
in doing this they were satisfied that some¬ 
thing clever had been accomplished. Since 
then, however, the idea has expanded, till 
fruits, flowers, and vegetables, can be pre¬ 
served for longer or shorter periods, and then 
turned to useful account. 
Another development akin to this was the 
freezing of real live flowers in full bloom at 
the Antipodes or some similarly distant place 
and sending them to the mother country in 
a block of ice for the delectation of the public 
during a fleeting period of a few hours, till 
the block of ice melted, after which curiosity 
was satiated, and the incarcerated. and 
miserable-looking flowers turned into a 
blackened and rotting mass of vegetable 
matter. The one idea of utility about this 
was that people at home could get a glimpse 
of some new variety of Chrysanthemum or 
other flower which may have been raised and 
cultivated by our kinsmen in that distant 
part of the globe', so that we could form an 
opinion of their utility for home culture. 
After all, the flower as grown at the Anti¬ 
podes might not prove equally suitable for 
cultivation in this country, or it might not 
come to the same perfection • on the other 
hand, it was just possible that, we might have 
been able in our climate to develop a flower 
of even finer proportions. It follows, then, 
that we have to import live specimens and 
try what can be done with them. The ex¬ 
periment of sending home the blooms in a 
frozen condition was then rather expensive 
for all the advantage it served, and now we 
heai little or nothing about the advent of 
frozen flowers on our shores. 
The refrigeration chamber on board 
steamers for the preservation of fruits and 
other commercial commodities has proved 
much more serviceable, and is likely to be 
still further developed and rendered more 
serviceable. Refrigeratioii for the purpose 
of retarding bulbs, bulbous and tuberous- 
rooted plants, has come to stay, for by its 
means we are enabled id have flowers at 
certain periods of the year that could not 
otherwise have been accomplished, at least 
with the means as yet at command. The 
commercial value of Lilies, Lily of the Valley, 
and other subjects has been greatly increased 
by retardation, and not only market growers 
hut private gardeners have benefited by the 
innovation. Not every gardener can go to the 
extra expense of retarded Lily of the Valley 
in order to have 'a supply that will bridge 
over the summer and autumn months ; but 
the number that can and will do so is 
annually increasing. 
A more recent phase of the progressive 
industry of gardening in its widest sense is 
the “ etherisation of plants,” which lias for 
its object the hastening of the natural period 
of flowering, and therefore the opposite ex¬ 
treme of retarding them. It has long been 
known that the freezing of Lily of the Valley 
crowns has the effect of making them start 
into growth more easily and readily when 
ultimately put into heat. The new dis¬ 
coveiy seems to have been more successful 
in hastening or facilitating the flowering of 
Lilacs than Lily of the Valley, but more 
experiments are yet needed to- demonstrate 
the capabilities of etherisation in the service 
of horticulture. In this country we are 
accused of making haste slowly; or, in other 
words, we are slow to alter our old-time 
methods and to catch on with new ideas. 
Hitherto only one exponent of the process in 
tins country seems to have turned the dis¬ 
covery to practical account, and consistently 
enough the experimenter is not aboriginal to 
these islands, though we welcome his pro¬ 
gressive turn of mind all the same. 
Moreover, etherisation has been enjoying 
a certain vogue for some years on the Con¬ 
tinent ; and even now we are following con- 
