500 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
June  10,  1897. 
Jubilee;”  Cattleya  Mossiae  “Goliath”  (A.M.)  ;  Odontoglossum 
Pescatorei  expansum  ;  Odontoglo98um  Princess  of  Wales,  a  natural 
hybrid,  very  choice,  after  the  way  of  luteo-purpureum  (A.M.). 
Messrs.  F.  Sander  &  Co.  had  a  most  interesting  group,  including 
the  carious  and  rare  Bulbophyllum  barbigerum  (botanical  and 
cultural  certificate),  Cattleya  Mossiae  Princess  of  Wales,  Laelio- 
Cattleya  “  Fire  Queen,”  a  brilliant  flower  of  unknown  parentage  ; 
Laelio-Cattleya  D.  S.  Brown.  Cattleya  Trianiae  X  Laelio-Cattleya 
elegans,  Laelio-Cattleya  elegans  var.  Novelty  (A.M  ),  and  Sobralia 
macrantha  alba  (F.C.C  ). 
Amateurs  again  showed  their  great  interest  by  coming  forward 
with  many  good  things  from  their  collections.  A  F.C.C.  was 
granted  to  Mr.  E.  Shill,  gardener  to  G.  W.  Law  Schofield,  Esq.,  for 
Dendrobium  Bensoniae  alba.  Mr.  Alex.  Hay,  gardener  to  G.  Shor- 
land  Ball,  Esq.,  Alderley  Edge,  showed  in  fine  form  Anoectochilus 
Sanderianum  and  Cypripedium  Curtisi  giganteum  Some  beautiful 
specimens  were  staged  by  W.  Gumble  Groves,  Esq  ,  Alderley  Edge, 
including  an  intensely  coloured  form  of  Dendrobium  Falconeri 
(A.M.).  A  F.C.C.  was  unanimously  granted  for  a  model  plant  of 
the  difficult  Dendrobium  Lowi.  A  cultural  certificate  was  awarded 
for  a  fine  specimen  of  Thunia  Marshalliana,  Miltonia  spectabilis 
radiata  having  the  title,  “  Grove's  variety,”  affixed  to  it  by  the 
Qommittee. 
Mr.  J.  Lucas,  gardener  to  R.  Wigful],  Esq  ,  Ash  Grove,  Sheffield, 
sent  Odontoglossum  crispum  Stonei  ;  Mr.  McDay,  gardener  to 
Duncan  Gilmour  Esq.,  Sheffield,  sent  two  pretty  forms  Cattleya 
Mossiae Reineckiana,  Gilmour’s  variety,  and  Rosy  Queen  ;  Mr.  Edge, 
gardener  to  J.  Leemann,  Esq.,  Heaton  Mersey,  sent  Cattleya 
Mossiae  Constance  Leemann,  and  handsome  Lselia  purpurata,  a  fine 
dark  variety  certain  to  improve,  being  named  Leemani,  being  given 
an  A.M.  Mr.  G.  Shiner,  gardener  to  E.  J.  Sidebotham,  Esq., 
Erlesdene,  Bowdon,  sent  a  capital  form  of  Cattleya  Mendeli  ;  Mr. 
Nicholson,  gardener  to  D  B  Rapport,  Esq  ,  Mere  Bank,  Liscard, 
easily  won  a  F.C.C.  with  the  handsome  Cattleya  Mossiae  Rapnortiana, 
mentioned  in  the  Manchester  Whit  Show  report  (see  page  512). 
Mr.  Spurr,  gardener  to  H.  Greenwood,  Esq  ,  showed  an  excellent 
plant  of  Cattleya  Mossise,  var.  H.  Greenwood  ;  also  fine  Den- 
drobiums  in  variety.  The  exhibition  was  in  every  way  a  great 
success.  G.  Shorland  Ball,  Esq.,  has  been  unanimously  elected 
"Vice-chairman  of  the  Society  and  Committee,  and  E  J.  Sidebotham, 
Esq.,  J.P.,  M.B.,  Hon.  Treasurer,  vice  Mr.  Bill.  All  who  know 
these  gentlemen  will  feel  confident  that  no  better  choice  could 
possibly  have  been  made. — R.  P.  R. 
PRECEPT  AND  PRACTICE. 
“  Scientific  and  Practical  Competency.” 
( Continued  from  page  476.) 
This  sub-heading  is  quoted  from  Mr.  Older-Boy’s  precepts, 
given  for  our  mutual  guidance,  and  which,  as  will  be  recollected, 
were  detailed  and  acknowledged  in  commencing  these  papers. 
Science  is  the  ladder  by  which  we  mount  above  the  drudgery  of 
labour,  and  from  the  eminence  command  the  forces  of  Nature.  It 
is  not  sufficient  that  young  travellers  should  follow  mechanically  in 
the  tracks  of  pioneers,  revealing  the  hidden  ways  ;  few  indeed 
would  find  satisfaction  in  taking  all  teaching  as  an  accepted  fact 
without  some  endeavour  on  their  own  part  to  supply  the  proofs, 
and  in  the  doing  we  fbrm  a  higher  appreciation  of  those  privileges 
they  have  conferred  upon  us,  as  well  as  an  intelligent  interpretation 
of  the  lessons.  Judging,  however,  by  such  evidence  as  is  adduced 
in  the  “  Domain,”  there  is  good  reason  for  supposing  that  our 
young  men  will  not  only  mark  and  learn,  but  inwardly  digest  ;  the 
necessity  of  the  latter  they  will  no  more  overlook  than  its  value 
could  be  over-estimated. 
It  is  not  only  a  question  of  soil,  heat,  water,  and  the  stores 
generally  in  Nature’s  laboratory,  these  we  have  always  had,  it  is  all 
these,  and  more  also  ;  it  is  the  controlling  hand  of  a  great  engineer, 
who  in  driving  a  thing  of  life  and  power  understands  its  intricate 
anatomy  and  delicacy  of  detail.  From  the  higher  intelligence 
springs  deeper  sympathies  with  the  objects  of  our  care  in  this  the 
kingdom  of  silent  life,  and  from  this  results  are  obtained  incom¬ 
parably  superior  to  the  exercise  of  mere  brute  force.  Apart  from 
these  principles,  and  their  direct  dealing  in  the  making  of  gardeners, 
there  is  a  strength  derived  from  the  exercise  which  makes  men. 
Doubtless  many,  at  least,  of  our  petty  vexations  would  vanish  in 
the  acknowledgement  of  laws  immutable,  which,  seen  or  unseen, 
known  or  unknown,  govern  all  things,  for  we  more  often  transgress 
from  ignorance  than  from  design.  Given  but  an  elementary  con¬ 
ception  of  those  grand  laws  which  rule  the  objects  of  the  solar 
system  poised  in  space,  it  must  prepare  one  to  find  the  same  great 
cause  working  out  the  same  perfection,  even  to  microscopic  atoms 
on  our  planet. 
Dr.  Lindley  said,  “In  no  departments  of  natural  history  are 
the  simplicity  and  harmony  that  pervade  the  universe  more 
strikingly  manifest  than  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  ....  and 
the  most  important  phenomena  are  distinctly  explained  by  a  few 
simple  laws  of  life  and  structure.”  “  Simplicity  and  Harmony  !  ” 
The  more  we  reflect  upon  this  the  more  must  the  sublimity  of  our 
subject  impress  itself  upon  us.  It  will  strike  many  that  there  is  a 
great  gulf  fixed  between  the  life  of  a  botanist  and  the  life  of  a 
gardener,  as  such  respectively.  That,  I  venture  to  say,  is  the  case. 
Possibly  we  can  do  but  little  more  than  bridge  this  chasm  by  such 
means  as  an  elementary  text  book  on  botany  will  afford.  This  has 
been  mentioned  before,  so  is  merely  repeated  in  order  to  introduce 
its  twin  pillar  springing  from  the  foundations  of  our  faith,  upon 
which  is  superimposed  the  whole  structure  of  intelligent  cultivation 
— viz  ,  vegetable  physiology. 
Very  probably  any  serious  considerations  of  either  of  these 
matters  will,  for  obvious  reasons,  only  enter  into  a  young  gardener’s 
life  as  recreative  objects.  They  may  well  do  so.  I  know  that  our 
young  men  may  do  worse  than  wield  the  willow  or  hunt  the  foot¬ 
ball  on  a  fine  summer’s  evening  ;  but  they  will,  surely,  do  infinitely 
better  by  keeping  in  sight  the  goal  of  a  gardener’s  life,  and  making 
all  their  recreative  runs  towards  it.  Perhaps  with  most  of  us  in 
early  life  it  is  the  only  way  with  which  science  can  be  sandwiched 
with  practice,  and  serve  as  mental  food  to  physical  labour.  “  More 
precept  than  practice?”  That  is  so.  I  would  fain  leave  impressions 
by  repeated  hammering  upon  material  while  it  is  malleable  even 
to  the  extent  of  older  boys  and  better  men  viewing  them  as 
redundant. 
The  chief  object  of  Nature  is  perpetuation  by  reproduction. 
In  plant  life  and  under  favourable  conditions  invariably  by  seeds 
(other  methods  of  reproduction  will  be  considered)  To  regard 
seeds,  those  which  come  under  our  hands  as  embryo  plants  in  which 
vitality  is  only  arrested  until  set  in  motion  by  an  exciting  cause  is, 
I  think,  a  common-sense  view  conducive  to  successful  germination, 
the  minimising  of  failure,  aDd  rational  treatment  generally.  In 
the  earliest  stage  of  plant  life,  the  delicate  embryo  is  nourished  by 
a  tiny  store  of  food  enveloping  the  germ  during  the  hatching  pro¬ 
cess,  pretty  much  the  same  taking  place  during  the  incubation  of 
an  egg.  The  same  wise  provision  we  find  afforded  by  other  means 
in  the  animal  kingdom  prior  to  a  separate  existence  between  parent 
and  offspring.  Seeds  having,  of  course,  when  properly  matared 
on  the  parent  plant  an  independent  being. 
When  sound  seeds  are  subjected  to  moisture — water  and  heat 
— the  awakening  commences,  accordmg  to  the  individual  character 
of  the  species,  owing  to  chemical  changes  produced  by  those  agents 
— water  and  heat,  which  heat  may  mean  anything  above  freezing 
point,  where  all  life  is  again  arrested.  From  a  superficial  view 
there  are  apparently  strange  anomalies  in  Nature,  which  would 
probably  disappear  nnder  a  little  careful  observation.  For  instance, 
the  natural  method  of  propagation  by  seeds  is,  of  course,  the 
falling  off  from  the  parent  plant  with  the  indirect  means  afforded 
in  manifold  ways  for  distribution,  germination,  and  successful 
development  of  all  which  we  may  call  chance  work,  and  for  which 
due  provision  is  made  by  lavish  production. 
From  personal  observation  of  some  things,  the  Nasturtium,  for 
instance,  we  may  note  .how  year  after  year  natural  sowings  are 
made,  in  which  apparently  unripened  seeds,  left  to  take  care  of 
themselves,  fulfil  their  mission  unaided  and  in  seeming  contradic¬ 
tion  to  facts  advanced.  One  border  I  know  of  is  yearly  adorned  in 
this  way  by  a  luxuriant  growth  of  many  coloured  varieties  of  the 
common  Nasturtium,  and  which  at  the  autumn  clearing  is  thickly 
strewn  with  immature  seeds.  This  border  is  then  forked  over  for 
neatness,  and  Nature  does  the  rest.  Here  are  green,  sappy  seeds 
consigned  direct  to  a  wet,  cold  bed,  to  be  followed  by  such  results 
as  remarked,  and  which  is,  of  course,  a  very  common  illustration. 
It  is  in  the  attempt  to  analvse  these  results  that  we  may  safely 
conclude  that  not  more  than  1  per  cent,  survive  the  ordeal,  and  I 
daresay  that  under  normal  conditions  of  artificial  care  and  treat¬ 
ment  the  maximum  per-centage  of  plants  is  obtained.  Another 
conclusion  may  not  be  lost  sight  of — viz.,  that  over  and  above  all 
the  agencies  more  or  less  erratic  employed  by  Nature  to  fulfil  her 
mission  man  is  the  chief. 
It  is  not,  perhaps,  desirable  to  delve  deeply  into  what  may  be 
regarded  by  some  as  abstruse  questions  ;  space,  moreover,  would 
preclude  us  from  going  on  as  we  have  commenced,  although  it  is 
little  more  than  the  outline  of  a  physiological  section  of  this 
subject — seeds.  Young  students  can  continue  it  according  to 
opportunity,  to  the  end  that  rational  treatment  of  these  delicate 
organisms,  whether  of  the  costliest  Orchid  or  the  commonest 
vegetable,  may  be  given  ;  for  they  are  equally  worthy  of  an 
intelligent  appreciation  of  their  requirements.  Literally  and 
figuratively  “  as  we  sow  so  shall  we  reap.” — An  Old  Boy. 
(To  be  continued.) 
