1070 
THE GARDENING WORLD . 
December 31. L04. 
Letter to the Editor. 
Edinburgh Chrysanthemum Show. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir,—It is a cheery thing, a “ guid ganging argument,’' and 
the way Mr. R. Barnes (page 1031) picked holes in the 
etceteras of “ D. C.’s” letter (page 975) was rather neat. 
He, however, left the main question unanswered ; that is, 
would it not be a good change to try and grow the Clnysan- 
themum blooms “wee,” instead of big? Even this kind of 
cultivation is no new idea ; for the Japanese, as we all know, 
dwarf their large trees into pigmies. 
Growing Chrysanthemum blooms small and beautiful would, 
I am afraid, be a severer test of the gardener’s skill than grow¬ 
ing them large and beautiful. 
If they could be reduced to the size of the flowers of Achillea 
Ptarmica fl. ph, having numerous neat little flowers to each 
stem (for nature, as a rule, compensates in numbers for want 
cf bulk), then if we had these neat little flowers in all the 
shades of colour that exist at present amongst the large blooms, 
they would be very beautiful and very useful for decorative 
work. It is quite true a considerable section of the public is 
tired of the big bloom novelty, and is wearying for some other 
novelty; why not try them with the “ wee ” bloom novelty ? 
In cultivating plants to produce beautiful flowers, we should 
not grumble at the small size of the flowers as long as we can 
comfortably see their beauty. This is all that the lover of the 
beautiful cares for. Of course, it would be different if they 
were meant to be eaten; then the bigger the better, if they 
carry their eating qualities along with their size. We have 
not commenced to eat them yet, and why not have a trial of 
growing “ wee ” blooms instead of big ones, as “ D. C.” sug¬ 
gests? In the way of a start “ D. C.” might lead away with an 
exhibit of “ wee anes ” at our next Edinburgh show. W. K. 
Desmodium cinerascens. 
The species of Desmodium, so far as they are grown in this 
country, are dwarf,- bushy shrubs with blue or purple flowers. 
The species above named by Franchet and now being put into 
commerce for the first time by Messrs. Vilmorin-Andrieux and 
Co., Paris, is described as somewhat valuable in the matter 
of colour. It blooms at two seasons of the year'—namely, in 
June and September, on the first occasion being very flor- 
iferous. The numerous racemes of medium-sized flowers vary 
from rosy-lilac to violet-red and self-violet, the last-named 
being considered the choicest and most distinct variety, and 
valuable even by comparison with others already in cultiva¬ 
tion. The shrub grows rapidly into a bush of large size, form¬ 
ing a mass of about a yard high, 2 yards wide and furnished 
with a compact mass of foliage. The leaves are of large size 
and made up of lozenge-shaped leaflets. The value and dis¬ 
tinctness of this species is said to depend upon the large size 
of the leaves and the rich violet colour of the flowers. It is 
a Chinese plant which has been introduced to France for the 
last ten years, though only now about to be put into com¬ 
merce. 
The Cape Gooseberry. —The “ American Botanist ” tells us 
that the fruits of this Solanaceous plant are in considerable 
demand in some of the larger cities of the United States for 
making preserves. They command about lOd. a quart. It 
is interesting to note what a number of synonyms it has, both 
botanical and popular names. The correct botanical name is 
Physalis peruviana, and thus gives little evidence of its coming 
from the Cape of Good Hope. Like many other fruits of warm 
Countries, it is transported and cultivated in various countries 
where it can be grown to advantage or with little trouble in 
the open air. Other popular names for it are Ground Cherry, 
Husk Tomato, Strawberry Tomato, and Paper-shell Tomato. 
Amongst botanical names, besides those above given, Physalis 
pubescens and P. edulis may be mentioned. 
Bridehead Gardens : Remarkable, but a Fact. — A dish of 
ripe Raspberries was placed on the breakfast table of Colonel 
R. 'Williams-, M.P., on Christmas Day, 1904. The flavour was 
pronounced excellent. This fruit was gathered from plants 
which have been producing fruit since the middle of August, 
and were so abundant in October that Mr. W. Birkinshaw 
picked for pr*eserving and other purposes during that month 
* * * 
The Hampton Court Tine. —Some forty years ago the big 
Vine of Black Hamburgh carried between 2,300 and 2,500 
bunches of fruit weighing about a pound each. Within the 
last few years the Vine has been thinned out severely in order 
to produce large bunches with finer berries. Last summer only 
about 700 bunches were allowed to reach maturity. The treat¬ 
ment given to the Hampton Court Vine had also been carried 
out previously in the case of the Cumberland Lodge Vine at 
F rogmore. 
* * * 
Christmas Trees at Covent Garden. —On the morning of 
December 19th about 20,000 Christmas trees arrived in Covent 
Garden, and these, added to those which had come during the 
previous few days, ran the number up to 80,000, and even that 
was believed to be under the number that would arrive by the 
end of the week. They consisted chiefly of Spruce trees brought 
up from Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, and Yorkshire. Others 
came from Germany and Scandinavia. They varied in height 
from 2 ft. to 24 ft. There was a good demand for these trees. 
* * * 
Evesham Gardeners’ Trip to Paris.— A meeting was recently 
held in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Evesham, to listen 
to a paper by Mr. McKay on French methods of market gar¬ 
dening, and also to organise a trip to Paris by market gar¬ 
deners in order to ascertain how the French growers carry on 
their business. The chairman stated that Mr. R. M. Holland 
was prepared to- give a donation of £10 towards the expenses 
of the trip. Mr. McKay promised a contribution of £10 also. 
The idea was to enable market gardeners to make this trip to 
Paris whether they had means of their own for doing so or 
not. There was a desire that this trip should not be confined 
to market gardeners of any particular class. Mr. McKay then 
read his paper, and said that the idea had occurred to him 
many years ago that there was an increasing necessity for his 
countrymen to compete with the Parisians in the cultivation of 
early vegetables. He said that Evesham had a splendid climate 
and fertile soil to grow early vegetables with success. Nothing 
was lacking to the attaining of this end except the manner of 
doing it. It was also stated that the gardeners around Paris 
were much the same class of men as in the Valley of Evesham, 
namely, hard-working, painstaking, energetic, and straight¬ 
forward. The gardens were well kept, but usually small, vary¬ 
ing from 3 acres to 10 acres as a rule. They used small lights, 
cloches, or bell-glasses for the purpose of covering up early 
vegetables. They also used reed-mats, which were considered 
better than those made of straw for covering up. 
Platan us orientalis laciniata. -The number of species and 
distinct varieties of Plane is not very great, yet it is remark¬ 
able how gieat a difficulty botanists and arboriculturists have 
in agreeing upon the names which such should bear. The 
“ Florists’ Exchange ” for December 10tli gives a supplement 
illustrating a shapely tree of a Plane under the above 
name, taken from a specimen in the United States Botanic 
Garden at Washington. The size of this tree is not stated, 
but. it is said to be ‘‘just of an age and of a size when most 
attractive.” Judging from the illustration we should say i; 
is 30 ft. to 35 ft. high. The writer, Mr. Joseph Meehan, speaks 
highly of ip. In comparing the Oriental with the native Plane, 
he says that the former is the oetter for general purposes, and 
for novelty he would recommend P. orientalis laciniata. The 
leaves of the' specimen as shown in the illustration are very 
much reduced, but, as far as we can make them out, they appear 
to be identical with the typical P. orientalis as grown in this 
country. It has always been known by the long finger-like 
lobes of the leaves as compared with the London Plane, which 
is described under the name of P. acerifolia. It is really this 
