300 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
April  12,  1900. 
of  silver  in'our  hair,  but  still  the  duty  is  the  same,  for  we  must  do  what 
we  can  for  these  who  remain  behind.  The  duty  then  lies  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  in  insurance — not  necessarily  in  some  vast  insurance 
corporation,  but  in  such  a  society  as  the  Gardeners’  Royal  Benevolent 
Institution,  which  is  far  better,  because  it  was  formed  and  is  maintained 
with  only  one  object  in  view,  and  that  is  to  benefit  gardeners. 
A  season  such  as  the  present  is  one  which  does  not  come 
frequently  in  the  history  of  our  land.  It  is  a  season  of  war,  and  war 
inevitably  enhances  prices  and  increases  the  cost  of  living  for  every¬ 
body.  The  invariable  tendency  of  such  a  condition  of  affairs  is  to 
cause  a  great  diminution  in  the  amount  of  charitable  offerings,  and 
it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  gardening  charities  will  be  exempt 
from  the  prejudicial  influences  now  reigning.  Hence  it  is  desirable 
that  both  the  amateur  and  professional  horticulturists  should 
seriously  consider  the  necessity  of  making  some  special  effort,  in 
order  that  the  Gardeners’  Royal  Benevolent  Institution  may  suffer 
no  serious  misfortune  of  war  in  this  spring  of  1900  a.d.  Owing  to 
the  energetic  management  of  recent  years  and  the  greater  publicity 
given  to  its  operations,  the  Institution  has  progressed  marvellously. 
With  continued  publicity  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  its  fortunes 
may  at  least  be  maintained  at  their  present  high  level.  This  object, 
however,  is  only  likely  to  be  secured  by  a  great  collective  effort  and  a 
keen  realisation  of  the  merits  of  the  cause. 
Now,  can  anyone  point  to  another  institution  that  gives  the 
gardener  such  an  excellent  percentage  on  his  investment  ?  There  are 
no  shareholders  here,  no  board  of  directors,  and  no  splendidly  fitted 
buildings,  all  of  which  are  constantly  crying  out  for  more  money 
with  an  appetite  that  is  insatiable.  Instead  of  these  things  what  do 
we  find  ?  A  committee  of  ea'^nest  men  whose  sole  endeavours  are  to 
do  the  greatest  amount  of  good  with  the  funds  in  their  hands,  a 
secretary  who  is  a  worker  and  not  a  mere  figurehead,  and  an  office  of 
two  rooms.  Could  anything  be  more  economical  than  this  ?  Surely 
such  an  institution  finds  the  support  of  every  gardener  !  But  no,  this 
is  not  the  case. 
The  response  of  the  gardener  to  this  call  of  duty  is  meagre  indeed, 
it  might  almost  be  called  a  disgrace  to  our  noble  calling.  What,  it 
may  be  asked,  is  the  cause  of  this  ?  The  reply  must  be  sheer  apathy 
and  indifference.  Men  will  not  allow  themselves  to  be  roused  in  such 
a  cause  ;  they  make  no  effort,  but  let  things  slide.  Some  of  them  say 
they  will  never  require  a  pension.  But  are  they  sure  ?  Have  they 
an  annuity  that  cannot  fail  ?  Others  say  they  have  a  chance  of  the 
pension  whether  they  subscribe  or  not.  This  is  true,  but  they  are 
eating  the  bread  of  charity,  and  this,  to  an  independent  man,  is  not 
always  sweet.  A  third  class  asserts  that  as  the  management  is  in 
London  metropolitan  gardeners  are  the  first  recipients.  This  is  pure 
nonsense,  as  the  election  is  by  ballot  of  subscribers  all  over  the 
country. 
During  the  past  few  years  inestimable  good  has  been  done  by  the 
establishment  of  provincial  auxiliaries,  but  these  are  not  sufficiently 
numerous.  Here  again  we  find  a  number  of  devoted  men,  working 
strenuously  to  benefit  the  general  gardening  community.  They  seek 
no  recompense  for  their  labours — indeed,  if  the  truth  were  known,  it 
would  probably  reveal  the  fact  that  they  were  decidedly  out  of  pocket 
over  and  above  their  annual  subscriptions.  From  whatever  point  ol 
view  the  work  of  the  Gardeners’  Royal  Benevolent  Institution  be 
regarded,  it  is  found  that  it  is  to  benefit  gardeners  or  their  widows; 
and  the  more  the  affairs  of  the  society  are  looked  into,  the  greater  will 
be  the  adrr.iration  of  all  thinking  men.  There  may  be  some  men  who 
cannot  see  the  good  that  has  been,  is  being,  and  will  bo  done  ;  but 
these  are  purposely  blind,  and  are  rather  to  be  pitied  than  condemned. 
The  most  serious  objection  that  any  gardener  can  bring  forward  is 
that  he  cannot  afford  to  subscribe.  It  has  been  heard  many  and  many 
a  time,  but  is  it  true  ?  Everyone  who  is  intimate  with  the  inner 
workings  of  the  craft  knows  that  the  gardener  is  not  “made  of 
money  !  ”  He  has  frequently  many  demands  on  an  already  slender 
purse.  Should  this,  however,  prevent  his  adding  his  mite  to  an 
excellent  cause  ?  By  no  means.  Surely  a  little  could  be  spared  to  be 
handed  over  to  swell  the  all  too  limited  funds  of  the  society.  What 
the  amount  should  be  must  of  course  be  a  matter  for  individual 
decision,  but  it  may  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  nimble  sixpence 
laid  by  weekly  means  twenty-six  shillings  at  the  end  of  the  year. 
“  Too  much  ”  some  will  say  ;  very  well,  reduce  it  by  one  half — three 
pence  per  week — which  cannot  well  be  deemed  extravagant. 
Lei  us  make  a  little  estimate  of  what  the  amount  would  be  if  one 
half  of  the  gardeners  of  the  United  Kingdom  subscribed  to  the  funds 
of  the  Gardeners’  Royal  Benevolent  Institution  the  sum  of  13s.  each 
per  annum.  To  do  this  we  rnust  first  ascertain  bow  many  gardeners 
there  are,  and  to  this  end  we  will  make  use  for  a  moment  of  the 
“  Horticultural  Directory.”  This  book  does  not  embody  all  the 
gardeners  by  several  thousands,  but  it  will  do  for  the  object  in  view. 
To  the  alphabetical  list  of  gardeners  we  find  eighty-eight  pages 
devoted,  and  estimating  each  of  these  pages  to  contain  eighty  names 
and  addresses  we  get  a  grand  total  of  7040.  Supposing  each  of  these 
subscribed  the  suggested  IBs.,  the  amount  would  be  £4576 — a  hand¬ 
some  sum  indeed,  but  not  too  large  for  the  committee  to  employ  to  the 
general  benefit  of  the  craft.  Doubtless  there  are  three  times  the 
number  of  gardeners,  so  that  the  estimate  cannot  be  [^termed  an 
unreasonable  one.  1^^’ 
Gardeners  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  are  called  upon,,  to  think 
of  these  things.  Let  them  ponder  deeply  over  the  figures  given  in 
the  preceding  paragraph,  and  decide  to  answer  to  this  call  of  duty.  If 
they  do  not  care  to  send  their  mite  to  headquarters,  they  must  seek 
the  nearest  auxiliary  and  place  their  subscriptions  in  its  hands.  There 
may  not  be  a  convenient  auxiliary,  but  one  can  soon  be  formed  if  a 
score  or  more  of  determined  men  set  themselves  to  the  task ;  they  can 
always  get  valuable  assistance  to  such  ends  as  these  from  Mr.  Ingram, 
175,  Victoria  Street,  London.  Those  men  who  come  forward  now  can 
rest  assured  that  they  could  not  work  for  a  better  cause — a  cause  of 
which,  though  they,  personally,  may  never  have  the  need,  hundreds  of 
their  brethren  of  the  craft  wdll  participate  in  and  receive  benefit  from 
in  the  years  that  are  to  come.  Gardeners,  duty  calls  you — the  noblest 
duty  of  all,  for  it  is  that  which  extends  the  hand  of  assistance  to 
others  in  distress.  Who  will  not  answer  to  the  call  ? — A.  B. 
Tlie  Qneen  in  Ireland. 
Floral  decorations  played,  perhaps,  only  a  minor  part  in  the 
magnificent  reception  given  to  our  Queen  by  the  Green  Islanders  on 
Wednesday  last  (April  4th),  when  her  Majesty  a' ter  long  years 
came  back  to  Erin,  and  it  is  a  question  whether  they  were  sufficiently 
in  evidence  to  warrant  a  note  for  the  Journal  of  Horticulture,. 
They  may,  however,  serve  as  an  excuse  to  voice  in  its  pages  the 
depth  of  feeling  which  now  permeates  the  Milesian  metropolis.  Ah  ! 
You  “can  read  it  all  in  the  papers,  and  do  not  want  a  gardener’s 
description  ;  ”  be  could  never  do  justice  to  that  wild  wave  of 
enthusiasm  which  accompanied  the  Queen  along  “  the  rocky  road  to 
Dublin,”  where  my  Lord  Mayor,  with  ancient  pomp  and  pageantry, 
admitted  her  Majesty  by  the  finest  piece  of  decorative  work  of  all — 
viz.,  a  reproduction  of  the  old  city  gates. 
Really  flo’al  decorations,  when  one  comes  to  think  of  it,  were 
almost  conspicuous  by  their  absence,  yet  not  wholly  so.  Here  and 
there,  at  rare  intervals  indeed,  some  simple  decoration  in  which  ever¬ 
greens  were  a  prominent  feature  formed  a  pleasant  relief  to  the 
thousands  of  flags  which  fluttered  o’er  the  ten  mile  route.  The  more 
we  were  beflagged  the  more  we  missed  that  one  touch  of  nature  which 
would  have  harmonised  so  well  with  the  bravery  of  bunting — viz., 
evergreens.  Little  compensation  was  to  be  found  in  the  costly  floral 
arch  in  which  Booterstown  displayed  its  ingenuity  and  expressed  its 
loyalty,  for  although  the  most  elaborate  thing  of  its  kind,  the  bulk  of 
the  flowers  of  which  it  was  composed  were  of  the  “  papyrus  crinklum  ” 
variety,  Mr.  Carroll  adorned  the  unpretentious  entrance  to  Dornden, 
over  whose  garden  he  preside.*,  by  a  happy  blending  of  nature  with  art, 
in  the  use  of  evergreens  tastefully  draped  about  the  ol  1  Irish  motto, 
cead  mile  faille  worked  in  white  letters  on  a  red  ground.  Evergreen^ 
certainly,  are  not,  strictly  speaking,  floral  decorations,  but  in  no 
instance  could  their  importance  as  decorative  subjects  have  been  better 
shown  than  in  the  examples  seen. 
It  is  reporied  that  on  landing  at  Kingstown  her  Majesty  expressed 
a  wish  for  some  Shamrock  to  wear,  which  was  immediately  supplied 
from  the  sward  outside  the  landing  place.  We  did  not  notice  the 
emblem  in  the  excellent  view  of  our  Queen  as  she  drove  by,  but  saw 
in  the  carriage  beside  her  a  charming  bouquet  of  Callas  and  Lily  of 
the  Valley  which  had  been  presented  at  the  pier.  A  silver  basket 
filled  with  Roses,  Orchids,  and  Ferns  w.»8  further  presented  by  the 
Lady  Mayoress  at  the  gate  of  the,  then,  most  beflagged  city  of  the 
Empire.  As  for  the  weather,  which  as  much  concerns  our  Journal 
readers  as  it  was  a  matter  of  concern  to  Dublin  that  day,  with  the 
exception  of  a  slight  shower  it  was  perfect,  and  in  striking  contrast  to 
the  day  previous,  when  hopes  went  to  zero,  and  although  a  north  wind 
cooled  the  bright  sun  rays,  it  was  fully  atoned  for  by  the  warm  Irish 
welcome  accorded  to  our  Queen,  God  bless  her. — K. 
