February 15, 1908. 
108 
TUB OAPnBNINCr WOP! H 
SPECIAL NOTICE FOR 1908. 
If you want 
REALLY GOOD SEEDS 
at moderate prices 
SEND TO 
MR. Robt. SYDENHAM, 
NEW TENBY STREET, BIRMINGHAM. 
No one wiSI serve you better. 
HIS UNIQUE LISTS 
sent post free on application, 
are acknowledged by all to be the Best, Cheapest, and most 
Reliable ever published. They contain only the Best 
Flowers & Vegetables 
WORTH GROWING, 
Being the Selections of the Largest Seed Growers, Market 
Gardeners, and the most celebrated Professional Gardeners 
and Amateurs in the Kingdom. They also contain very 
useful cultural instructions. 
NOTICES. 
To Readers and Co-respondents. 
“THE GARDENING WORLD” is published by 
M ACL AREN AND Sons, 37 and 38, Shoe Lane, London, E.O. 
Telegrams and Gables: “ Buns,” London. Telephone 
Number: 997 Holborn. 
“THE GARDENING WORLD” is published every 
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Advertisement Orders should be addressed to the Pub¬ 
lishers. The insertion of advertisements cannot be 
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Saturday before date of publication. 
EDITORIAL.—Letters for publication, specimens for 
naming, requests for information, manuscripts and 
photographs must be addressed to the Editor. Corre¬ 
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The Editor will not be responsible for loss of unaccepted 
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SPEOIMEN COPIES.—The Publishers will be pleased 
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for distribution amongst friends, and will appreciate the 
services rendered by readers in this connection. 
but that would not discount the idea that 
it is wild because there are many hybrids 
in a wild state. Its wide distribution 
should indicate that its parents were abo 
widely distributed over the same area, or 
that the seeds reproduce the plant true to 
the type. 
After coming to the more practical part 
of cultivation, he deals with pruning for 
exhibition purposes, giving illustrations 
by means of drawings. Budding is also 
amply dealt with, and a chapter on ma¬ 
nures includes information about arti¬ 
ficial and natural manures, as well as 
artificial compounds, amongst which he 
gives Tonk’s prescription of the materials 
necessary by amateurs who intend to mix 
their own Rose manures. Besides a deal 
of other useful information, there is a 
descriptive list of the various Roses re¬ 
commended for cultivation. The book is 
being published by Messrs. Longmans, 
Green and Co., 39, Paternoster Row, Lon¬ 
don, at 10s. 6d. with postage extra. 
-- 
LOBELIA 
Maid of Moray. 
A Letter to 
the Editor. 
SWEET PEAS A SPECIALITY. 
No flowers give so much cut bloom at so little cost and 
trouble if treated as instructions sent with each collection 
1*2 Cood Varieties, 50 Seeds of each ... Is. 8d. 
12 Better Varieties, 50 Seeds of each ... la. 9d 
Or the Two Collections for 2s. 6d. 
12 Best Varieties, 50 Seeds of each ... 2s. Od. 
Or the Three Collections, 4s. post free, 
and four striped and four other varieties added free 
of charge. 
NAMES ON APPLICATION. 
2 Newest Varieties ... 4s. Od. 
or what I consider the best of the newest. 
The number of seeds in these packets varies ; the quantities 
are stated in black figures after each name : 
Agnes Ecktord (15) soft blush pink, 3d.; Earl Cromer 
(20) mulberry, 4d.; Frank Dolby (20) lavender, 4d. ; 
Herbert Smith (25) orange bi-color, 6d.; Lord Nelson (20) 
dark blue, 4d. : Miss Millie Maslin (25) rich crimson, 4d. ; 
Mrs Hardcastle Sykes (20) blush pink, 6d. ; Mrs. Collier 
(20) new primrose, 4d. ; Nora Unwi > (20) white, 4d. ; 
Primrose Countess oi Clara Curtis (10) new wavy prim¬ 
rose. 6d.; Queen of Spain (20) salmon-pink, 4d. ; White 
Countess (10) syn. or improved Etta Dyke, the newest, best, 
and largest wavy while, 6d. 
Collections Nos. 3 and 4, 5s. 
Primrose Countess and White Countess may be had in pkts. 
of 25 seeds, Is. each, or 6 packets for 5s. 
Special Price for the four collections, 7s. 
THE BEST TOMATOES. 
3d. per Packet of 200 Seeds. 
THE BEST CUCUMBERS. 
6d per packet of 10 Seeds. 
THE BEST ONIONS FOR EXHIBITION. 
EXCELSIOR, 6d. per Packet of about 1,500 Seeds. 
AILSA CRAIG, 6d. per packet of about 1,200 Seeds. 
Please compare these prices 
with what you are paying. 
ALL OTHER SEEDS EQUALLY CHEAP AND GOOD. 
MR. SYDENHAM’S SEEDS AND BULBS 
have been represented and gained as 
".any First Prizes at London, Birmingham, 
Cardiff, Preston, Edinburgh, Newcastle 
on-Tyne, Plymouth, Hanley, Shrewsbury, 
Taunton, Wolverhampton. &c., &c., for the 
past twelve years as any firm in England. 
FULL LISTS POST FREE ON APPLICATION, 
Gdifopiol. 
jl New $ook ott Roses. 
Under the title of “ Roses: Their His¬ 
tory, .Development and Cultivation,” the 
Rev. J. H. Pemberton has written a book 
upon Roses which departs entirely from 
most others in existence. He has been a 
persistent grower and exhibitor for a great 
many years, extending back at least to 
1887 to our knowledge. About that time 
he was the principal amateur advocate of 
single and other summer flowering Roses 
grown purely for garden decoration. 
Since then this class has grown to be one 
of the most striking features of the 
National Rose Society’s principal annual 
exhibition. Appropriately enough then 
in tracing out the history and develop¬ 
ment of Roses, the author has gone back 
to illustrations repiesenting wild types or 
early forms of Roses from which Hybrid 
Perpetuals, Tea Roses, Hybrid Teas, 
Ramblers, Scotch Roses, Bourbon Roses, 
and others have descended. It is only by 
reference to these simple or wild types 
that one can glean any adequate idea of 
the vast advance that has been made 
along all the lines in Rose growing. 
The book is illustrated by ten of these 
plates, including a coloured one of the 
Dog Rose (Rosa canina). The parent 
of the Ramblers was R. multiflora, a tall 
bush bearing small white blossoms not 
much larger than those of a Bramble, but 
produced in great clusters One of the 
first of the Perpetual Roses is illustrated 
on p. 80. This is called R. damascena 
italica “Rose of the Four Seasons.” 
That variety was an open Rose, and 
scarcely more than semi-double. Inter¬ 
esting, also, are his remarks about the 
wide distribution of the white Rose (R. 
alba) in Europe and Asia. Some eminent 
authors are of the belief that this is a 
hybrid between R. canina and R. gallica, 
Sir, — This Lobelia should be better 
known and more widely cultivated than it 
is at the present time. It is seldom ad¬ 
vertised in any nurseryman’s catalogue. 
Two years ago I tried several nurserymen 
for seed or young plants. I was told 
by one that he did not stock it, as it was 
so difficult to keep during the winter 
months. I then wrote to a friend of mine 
in Scotland, and I am pleased to say se¬ 
cured twelve well-rooted cuttings in De¬ 
cember. I inserted them in a shallow 
box containing nice light soil, and covered 
the surface with good sharp sand. In 
February they were all healthy, bushy 
plants. I again propagated all the cut¬ 
tings 1 could get, and by bedding-out 
time I had a good stock of splendid plants 
and had no trouble in keeping them 
through the winter at a night temperature 
of 40 degrees. If this lovely plant was 
better known, I am sure it would be much 
appreciated and more widely cultivated 
by gardeners and amateurs. It is a very 
dwarf and compact variety, and grows 
from three to four inches high, with a 
dark blue flower and large distinct white 
eye. It is particularly effective when 
used in carpet bedding and edging, and 
flowers profusely during the whole of the 
summer. 
D. M. Allan. 
Folkestone. 
-f+4- 
Record Fruit Year. 
The figures for last year’s British fruit 
trade constitute a record. The Apple 
harvest yielded no less than 1,250,000 
bushels, while the Strawberry crop pro¬ 
duced 1,000,000 cwts. The import figures 
include the following: 
Orange (cases) . 5,500,000 
Apples (bushels) . 10,000,000 
Bananas (bunches) . 6,000,000 
Lemons (cases) . 800,000 
Nuts (cwts.) . 750,000 
Tomatos (cwts.) .. 1,250,000 
