October 24, 1903. 
The 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 onr readers, when they write to persons or firms advertising in this 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: 
“See the fading many-coloured woods, shade deepening over shade, the country round imbrown.’— Thomsen. 
Weekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World ( 
vill give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for 
■he best paragraph, or short article, sent ) 
>y readers during the week. The Editor’s ) 
udgment must be considered final, and he will i 
>e at liberty to use any of the contributions \ 
ent in. The paragraph, or article, must not S 
:xceed one column in length, but the value, ) 
•ather than the length, of the article will be ) 
:onsidered in making the award. Competitors ( 
nay send in items of news or comments on < 
lews; hints of practical, interest to gar- S 
leners or growers of plants, fruits, or flowers ; > 
uccessful methods of propagating plants ( 
usually considered difficult; or contributions ( 
IN ANY SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE ( 
if gardening proper. Letters should be ) 
iddressed to The Editor, marked “ Competi- - 
hon,” and posted not later than Friday night } 
i ensure insertion in the issue of next week. ' 
The following Coloured 
Plates have appeared :— 
March 14.— NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS. 
March'28 —TEA ROSE “ CHAMELEON.” 
April 4. —COLEUS THYRSOIDEUS. 
April 18.— CESTRUM SMITHII. 
May 23 —SAXIFRAGA GRISEBACHII 
,nd A GROUP OF ALOCASIAS. 
May 30. — DENDROBIUM NOBILE ) 
tOTUNDIFLORUM and D.n. NOBILIUS. > 
June 6.— CALADIUMS. < 
1 June 20.—ZENOBIA SPECIOSA PUL \ 
fERULENTA. < 
July 4 —APHELANDRA AURANTIACA ( 
10EZLII. 
July 11. — AUSTRALIAN PITCHER 
PLANT. \ 
August 1— BORONIA HETEROPHYLLA. < 
September 12.— SIX NEW DAFFODILS. < 
October 3— LILIUM AURATUM PLA- ) 
TYPHYLLUM SHIRLEY VAR. 
Back numbers may be obtained from the 
)ublishers, price 2^d. post free. 
With the PRESENT ISSUE we preseat < 
i Half-tone Plate of CACTUS DAHLIA , 
LORENCE M. STREDWICK. 
NEXT WEEK we shall give a Half-tone S 
late of AQUATICS AT GUNNERSBURY ) 
iOUSE. 
Views and Reviews. 
Century Book of Gardening. 
The above work has been reissued in parts, 
which should make it easy of acquirement by 
those who' can, only Spare a certain amount 
for books weekly. After a. lengthy introduc¬ 
tion the plan of the book is to give the 
information on the various topics of the 
garden which are now very comprehensive, 
but tire subject of gardening being immense, 
even in a work of this kind running to 610 
pages, each over 9 in. in length, it is neces¬ 
sary to condense. Needless to say, there¬ 
fore, the various topics cannot be given ;n 
the detail which would be possible if the 
subject of gardening; were dealt with in 
separate sections. For those who. wish to- 
get a comprehensive view of the subject m 
one volume, however, they will find within 
the covers sufficient to engage their atten¬ 
tion, for a long time. 
The various chapters into which the book 
is divided may be found on reference to the' 
index. The same may be' said of the plants 
dealt with in its pages t,o some extent, but, 
not all of the names will be found in the in¬ 
dex. For instance, Primus japonica is not 
mentioned, although the plant is .recorded 
under the name of P. sinensis fl. pi. In the 
matter of nomenclature the Kew hand¬ 
lists have been followed, although more 
recent editions of the same have been pub¬ 
lished giving some changes which do' not find 
their way here. It will be an immense boon 
to all concerned with gardening if ever we 
should arrive at a, uniform system of nomen¬ 
clature in this country which all may be 
induced to folloiy. Should that ever happen, 
we should be able to dispense with the trou¬ 
blesome question of synonyms, which are 
always a stumbling-block to the gardener 
who cannot understand the reason for a 
plurality of names to plants. 
Unless the gardener takes the trouble, to 
keep himself fully abreast with the times, in 
the course of ten years he finds hie eaily 
He Century Book of Gardening A ewnprehens^ 
pvptv lover of the Garden. Edited hy E. l. 
i ■ Published at the Office of Country Life, 20, Tavis- 
:r’s Sons. Part 1 to 26. Price 6d. eaffi. 
names which he learnt have very largely 
slipjied out of use', and he is very much at 
sea. A question is agitating some American, 
writers at, present that the name by which a 
plant is best known should be retained as 
the proper name of the plant,, but the ques¬ 
tion still arises, What is the best-known, name 
of such a plant ? because many people in 
different parts of the country may have 
known it under as many different names all 
their lives. Evidently that would not be a 
solution of the question. 
About, twenty years ago an idea was preva¬ 
lent of lumping various plants under one 
specific name and giving them varietal or 
sub-varietal names, as the' case' might be. 
This had a very troublesome result by pro¬ 
ducing lengthy names that could not be 
placed upon garden labels, and seemingly 
gave as much trouble to cultivators to- under¬ 
stand, if not more so, than if the names had 
been, simpler. There seems to be a tendency 
on the part of cultivators themselves to stick 
on repeated varietal names to indicate that 
the plant is related to some other well-known 
form. 
The modern tendency is to give a generic 
and a, specific name to any form of plant 
which seems to be sufficiently distinct to 
warrant the idea of its being considered as 
a distinct species. To those engaged in hor¬ 
ticulture, or even in botany, this would cer¬ 
tainly simplify matters considerably. In 
the matter of labelling in gardens, whether 
under glass or in the open air, the shorter 
and simpler the names the better. Even, if 
it is well known that the plant, is related to 
some other, it must always remain, so that 
we have groups of allied plants which might 
well be regarded as separate, units, rather 
than lump them together merely to indicate 
that they are allied. 
To indicate what, we mean, we may refer 
to page 387 in the chapter dealing with beau- 
t iful deciduous trees and shrubs, where a 
certain Maple is recorded under the name of 
Acer tataricum var. Ginnaia. According to 
the Kew hand-list this is now regarded as. a 
true species under the name of A. Ginnaia. 
The right of this plant, to be considered as 
a true species may be open to question, but 
there will always be differences of opinion 
on the point, of value which may be given 
