658 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
August 1. 1903. 
L, e. biligulatum. 
The flowers in this instance are reddish-brown, with a few 
black spots. It is also a strong growing variety, and flowers 
early. The flowers are scarcely so handsome, however, as in 
most of the above-named types, if broad segments are to be 
taken as a criterion of quality in Lilies, and breadth of petal 
is usually reckoned of the highest importance'. 
L. e, Wallacei. 
The flowers in this instance are of a bright apricot', with a 
slight suspicion of red or rose over the other hue. It blooms 
rather late, and produces one 1 or two flowers on a stem having 
broad imbricate segments. 
Lady Gardeners. 
I strongly advise my good friend Mr. Burbidge not to treat 
too' lightly the incursions of women into the long-cherished 
men's domain of horticulture. With all respect for the younger 
generation of male gardeners, I wish I could see in them that 
earnestness and determination that I see in the women who 
become students in such institutions as the Horticultural Col¬ 
lege at Swanley and the Lady Warwick Hostel at Reading, 
lie may take it from me, as one who was once strongly biassed 
against women in gardening, that the only thing women lack 
is physical strength. But as to intelligence, earnestness', 
patience in study, perseverance, and in desire to excel, the 
women I have seen in these institutions bid fair to knock young 
men into 1 cocked hats. Neither lie' nor I will live to see it, 
but it is an undoubted fact, as 1 see for mysielt on every hand, 
that whilst there is going on a gradual increase, in women’s 
stature—or at, least, shall 1 say, in girls’?—the tendency on the 
part of the male sex is to deteriorate or become shorter, and 
titty years hence there may be seen a change that would astonish 
some of the old ones such as lie and 1 should be<, could ive 
come to life just then. Girls are emancipating themselves 
from nursery thraldom. They “ bike,” they play, they indulge 
in athletics, and they grow strong. 
Now as to attainments. How can young mem hope to acquire 
all descriptions of important scientific and theoretical know¬ 
ledge in private gardens and nurseries, quite untaught, as girls 
or women can be in colleges where they have first-class in¬ 
structors of all descriptions to. assist them? Then, in the 
matter of practice in gardening they have at Swanley so capable 
a. gardener for instructor as Charles Herrin, who has nothing 
of the charlatan about, him, and at Reading another first-class 
gardener in William Iggulden. What bead gardener in any 
private garden is there who, takes, bis young men in band, 
treating them as students, as the men I have named do the 
ladies whom they instruct? Almost our only male training 
school or garden for young men, as such, is the old garden 
at Chiswick. Alas that it be so, poor old ghastly ruin a 
disgrace to the Royal Horticultural Society. The best that 
is possible that can be done is done in it for the youths there 
as students by the superintendent, but it cannot be compared 
with the admirable opportunities for practical study in all 
branches of gardening that Swanley College, for instance, 
offers. }! 
1 was there not long since, and took veiy keen notice of the 
sort of women students I saw there. I could not for one 
moment mistake their intensity, their determination, their 
industry. How many of our youths would like to. do as those 
girls did during the Strawberry season, turn out at 4 a.m. to 
gather the fruit for that morning’s market, or he up at 6 a.m. 
and outdoors at work? As a rule, even when their ordinary 
day’s work was over, I saw them at 6 p.m. come out into 
their own plots, carrying cans of water, hoeing, digging, tying 
up, and doing all sorts of work with gusto'. Our youths would 
have made wry faces at that, and would have been off to 
cricket or tennis. Many of these Swanley girls have been 
tenderly brought up also, and have rich parents. But they 
detest the useless, aimless lives that custom would force upon 
them, and live for work and for usefulness. Really, they 
mean business. 
When I have lectured to' the students whilst the college 
admitted both sexes, I found the men careless, inattentive, and 
almost contemptuous, whilst the girls took notes freely and 
were all attention. All lecturers there say the same. Now 
the males have been dispensed with, and the college is occupied 
by women solely. The head is Miss Wilkinson, landscape gar¬ 
dener to the Metropolitan Gardens Association, a very prac¬ 
tically-minded and earnest lady who stands no nonsense and 
thoroughly means business. At Reading the head is Miss 
EilopiUELlA PEeTersIAnL (See p* 656.) 
Edith Bradley, a warm-hearted, earnest lady, and she is; ably 
seconded by Miss Crooke, a most practical-minded aud able 
lady, with whom anyone who. pooh-poohs the lady gardener 
student would do well to have a little straight talk. At 
Swanley on© sees no foolish pride. It all disappears speedily, 
and the reality of life, of study, of work, is in all the girls 
profoundly evident. Depend upon it, the woman gardener has 
become a permanent fact. A. Dean. 
The Duchess of Portland opened the flower show held 
under the auspices of the People’s Palace and East London Hor¬ 
ticultural Society, at Mile End. The King sent plants from 
Windsor, and Leopold de Rothschild also sent some. 
