July i8, 1908. 
rue gardening world 
481 
£vms to a Stoush. 
Caught in the Strawberry net at “ The 
Firs,” June 14th, 1908. 
Ho, plunderer, thou art caught, 
And for the mischief thou hast wrought, 
Death pays the wrong. 
Thy melody avails thee naught, 
Nor all the mystery of thought 
In thy sweet song. 
What though the weary winter days, 
With many cheery winsome lays, 
Thou didst beguile; 
It shall be counted naught to thee, 
Nor evermore shall thou go free 
To practice wile. 
Hadst thou but followed Nature’s law, 
And satisfied thy greedy maw 
With thy meet food ; 
From morn to eve thou could’st regale 
On juicy worm, or luscious snail, 
Sent for thy good. 
But thou forsooth must yearn to be 
A bird of twentieth century, 
Quite up-to-date. 
Forbidden fruit thou needst must steal, 
Of rosy berries make thy meal, 
Early and late. 
Unhappy bird, thy path of sin 
Was set with pitfall and with gin 
And many snares. 
No more on topmost bough to sing, 
For I thy neck with grief must wring, 
So cease thy cares. 
And soon at breakfast thou shall be 
Incorporate at last with me, 
A glorious end. 
What fitter burial could’st thou wish, 
Than thou should’st be a toothsome dish, 
For thy dear friend. 
-- 
The Gardeners’ Royal 
Benevolent Institution 
The sixty-ninth anniversary festival 
dinner of the above institution was held 
at the Hotel Metropole, London, on June 
24th, when a large number of subscribers 
and those interested sat down to dinner 
under the presidency of the Right Hon. 
The Lord Aldenham. 
After the usual loyal toasts, the chair¬ 
man proposed “ Continued Prosperity to 
the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institu¬ 
tion.” It was nearly seventy years since 
it was instituted, and during that time it 
had disbursed nearly ;£ 120,000 for the sup¬ 
port of gardeners, market gardeners, and 
their widows. At present they had 231 
pensioners at an annual cost of ove r 
/4,ooo. About ,£2,506 of this is obtained 
from subscriptions and the rest by volun¬ 
tary contributions, chiefly at the annual 
dinner. 
He discussed the other funds in connec¬ 
tion with it, such as The Good Samaritan 
and Victorian Era Funds, giving the rea¬ 
son for their existence. Speaking on the 
subiect of gardening, he said that you 
could never get to the end of it, as there 
was something fresh to see and learn 
about it every day. He exhorted them to 
assist the gardeners when they came to 
need it, as only few of them could pro¬ 
duce the fine gardens and work which gar¬ 
deners did. With this toast he coupled 
the name of Mr. Harry J. Veitch. 
In responding, Mr. Veitch mentioned 
the names of a number of distinguished 
French visitors present, including M. 
Viger, the president of the French Horti¬ 
cultural Society. With regard to the pen¬ 
sioners, they made no enquiries into the 
creeds of the candidates, but only their 
moral character and their needs. All 
pensioners were elected by the vote of 
subscribers. Nothing was paid to the 
committee, as all gave their assistance 
freely on account of their love of garden¬ 
ing. Their oldest pensioner was 95, and 
he and his wife, who survived him, had 
drawn about /(500 from the funds of the 
institution. 
In the absence of Sir Albert xs.. Rollit, 
“Horticulture in All Its Branches at 
Home and Abroad” was proposed by Mr. 
George Paul, who welcomed our visitors 
from France, and spoke for some time on 
the various branches of horticulture. 
This toast was responded to by Mr. 
George Monro and M. Viger. The lat¬ 
ter spoke in eloquent French, and was 
warmly cheered by those who understood 
the language. Mr. Monro said that the 
Royal Horticultural Society had been a 
power in the land in fostering gardening 
and in creating in people generally a love 
for flowers. He said that in no country 
had market gardening gone on so success¬ 
fully as in England, especially under 
glass. Gardening out of doors had also 
been successful, notwithstanding the 
various difficulties with which we have had 
to contend. When we looked into the 
matter, it was astonishing what an im¬ 
mense supply of foreign fruit came into 
this country. 
At this point the Secretary, Mr. G. J. 
Ingram, announced the various donations 
which had been given by various contri¬ 
butors to the chairman’s list. Needless 
to say, a substantial sum was obtained for 
the benefit of the institution, over ,£2,000 
in all having been given towards the 
chairman’s list. 
“ Our Chairman” was proposed by the 
Right Hon. Col. Mark Lockwood, M.P., 
who said that he envied Lord Aldenham 
for what he had done for the benefit of 
the institution that evening. He also 
paid a high tribute to France. The 
Chairman, in responding, thanked the 
contributors of flowers, which were un¬ 
doubtedly a marked feature of the White¬ 
hall Rooms in which the dinner was held. 
He also- proposed the health of the Se¬ 
cretary, who replied. During the even¬ 
ing songs and humorous sketches were 
rendered. 
-- 
Freak of Sweet Pea 
Helen Lewis. 
Our correspondent, Mr. Hubert Star¬ 
ling, of Melton Constable, Norfolk, sends 
us a freak of the Sweet Pea Helen Lewis. 
Several Sweet Peas have been guilty of 
producing a second standard, and are 
then spoken of as double Sweet Peas. 
The flower which our correspondent sends 
has been behaving in quite a differ¬ 
ent way. The standard has tried 
to become cut up into five pieces, 
possibly by a misfolding in the bud state. 
There are, however, two extra petals, but 
they are wings, not a second standard as 
is usually the case. Nor was it an in¬ 
stance of two flowers in combination, as 
the calyx was very nearly normal, just a 
little wider than usual in the tube, but it 
had only the five lobes as usual. It might 
be described as an accidental flower, 
though we are aware that varieties which 
once behave in this way are liable to do 
it again. The peculiarity may not be 
fixed in this case, however, and if the 
flower sent was the only one of its kind 
it may not occur again. It may simply 
be regarded as an accidental freak, afid 
we hope this is so, for we are by no means 
in love with so-calle'd double flowered 
Sweet Peas. The form of the Sweet Pea 
is perfection of its kind, and we do not 
see that an excess of petals would im¬ 
prove the flower in any way, either from 
the point of view of colour or shape. It 
is more easy to say what this is than why 
it should behave in this peculiar manner. 
-♦♦♦-- 
Where to Spend the Holidays. 
When the question of where to spend 
the holidays comes up for annual con¬ 
sideration, there are few people who do 
not find considerable difficulty in answer¬ 
ing it satisfactorily. Nor when the choice 
of place is made is the matter entirely 
settled. There remains the further ques¬ 
tions as to the ease and comfort with which 
the selected spot may be reached, and 
last, but by no means least, there is the 
important question of expense to be con¬ 
sidered. The publication of their A.B.C. 
programme by the Great Central Railway 
Co. demonstrates the care and attention 
devoted by this enterprising company to 
the solution of these multifarious ques¬ 
tions. For those wishing to reach the 
bracing health resorts on the North-East 
coast, tickets are announced every 7 Satur- 
dav during the season, covering a period 
of from 3 to 17 day 7 s, to Cleethorpes for 
17s., to Scarborough, Bridlington, File) 7 , 
etc., for 2is. Similar tickets are issued to 
the West Coast watering places, viz., to 
Southport and Liverpool for 19s., to 
Blackpool, Lytham, St. Anne’s, etc., for 
2is., and to Douglas (Isle of Man) for 
23s. 6d. and 27s. 6d. Cheap tickets are 
also issued every Saturday for 3, 6, or 8 
days to over 400 towns and health resorts 
in the Midlands, Yorkshire, Lancashire 
and North of England. In the majority 7 of 
cases the fare for an eight day r s’ ticket is 
less than a sovereign. Such low fares are, 
however, not offered to the detriment of 
comfortable and expeditious travel, as 
passengers can perform the journey 7 by ex¬ 
press train composed of up-to-date corri¬ 
dor stock, and a buffet car is attached for 
the provision of yieals on the train at a 
most reasonable tariff. These arrange¬ 
ments are conveniently tabulated in an 
A.B.C. excursion programme, obtainable, 
free of cost, at Marylebone Station, and 
Town Offices, or from Publicity Depart¬ 
ment, 216, Marylebone Road, N.W. 
National Rose Society’s Show 7 . —A 
novel experiment was carried out at the 
National Rose Society’s Show on Friday 7 
last at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Re¬ 
gent’s Park. Visitors at this time of the 
year complain of the heat of the show 
tents, and it was therefore arranged that 
Merryweather’s spraying apparatus 
should be employed to cool the canvas. 
These were at work all day, with satis¬ 
factory results. 
