80 
WURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
January  27,  1898. 
-  National  Viola  Society. — A  Committee  meeting  of  this 
Society  will  be  held  on  Thursday,  the  27th  inst.,  to  arrange  schedule  of 
prizes  for  the  forthcoming  season.  The  lion.  Secretary  is  Mr.  K.  T. 
Dougall,  52,  Pembroke  Eoad,  Walthamstow,  Essex. 
-  Death  of  an  Old  Florist. — ^Midland  and  other  florists 
will  learn  with  regret  of  the  death  of  Mr.  J.  P.  Sharp,  aged  seventy-nine 
years,  which  took  place  on  the  20th  inst.,  at  his  residence,  King's  Heath, 
Birmingham.  The  deceased  was  a  well-knowm  florist,  especially  in  the 
cultivation  of  Carnations,  Picotees,  Auriculas,  and  Tulips,  around 
Birmingham  ;  also  as  an  exhibitor  of  the  same  some  years  ago.  He 
was  the  raiser  of  such  Picotees  as  the  heavy  red-edged  varieties — Mrs. 
Sharp,  Campanini,  and  others. 
-  Newcastle-on-Tyne  Flower  Shows. — We  have  received  a 
copy  of  the  schedule  of  the  above.  The  spring  show  will  be  held  in 
the  Olympia  on  Wednesday  and  Thursday,  20th  and  21st  April,  and  the 
summer  show  in  the  Recreation  Ground,  in  conjunction  with  the 
Northumberland  Agricultural  Show,  on  Wednesday,  Thursday,  and 
Friday,  13th,  14th,  and  15th  July,  1898.  The  Rojml  Horticultural 
Society’s  Council  have  accepted  an  invitation  to  be  present,  and  will  send 
a  deputation  with  full  powers  to  make  awards.  The  attendance  at  the 
last  joint  show,  in  the  year  1893,  wa.s  enormous,  and  the  financial  result 
was  a  very  successful  one.  Copies  of  the  schedule  may  be  had  from  the 
Secretary,  54,  Westgate  Road. 
-  The  Abnormal  Weather  Abroad. — An  evening  paper 
says,  “As  in  England,  so  on  the  Continent.  The  infallible  ‘oldest 
inhabitant  ’  cannot  remember  such  a  mild  winter  in  Germany  as  the 
present  one.  Reports  from  all  parts  of  the  country  speak  of  the  spring¬ 
like  weather  now  prevailing.  In  South  Thuringia  grass  is  being  mown 
in  the  meadows,  and  the  storks  and  starlings  have  returned  from  their 
Winter  quarters.  A  list  of  the  flowers  in  bloom  in  the  same  district  has 
just  been  drawn  up  by  a  botanist  residing  there.  It  includes  twenty 
kinds  of  spring  flowers,  among  them  being  Daisies,  Dandelions,  Ranun¬ 
culus,  Ladies’  Fingers,  Strawberries,  Wild  Pansies,  IMeadow  Grass, 
Speedwell,  Brambles,  Raspberries,  Violets,  and,  in  the  gardens,  Christmas 
Roses.” 
-  The  Weather  of  1897. — The  wind  was  in  a  westerly  direction 
ninety-two  days.  The  total  rainfall  was  25-16  inches,  which  fell  on  194 
days,  and  is  1’63  inch  below  the  average  for  the  year.  The  greatest  daily 
fall  was  1-28  inch  on  July  26th.  August  was  the  wettest  month,  with 
4-51  inches.  Barometer  (corrected  and  reduced)  :  Highest  reading, 
30708  inches  on  November  21st ;  lowest,  28-575  inches  on  IMarch  3rd. 
Thermometers  ;  Highest  in  the  shade,  88°  on  August  5th  ;  lowest,  19°  on 
December  23rd.  Mean  of  daily  maxima,  55-60°  ;  mean  of  daily  minima, 
4P19°.  Mean  temperature  of  the  year,  48’39°.  Lowest  on  the  grass,  16° 
on  April  11th  and  December  23rd  ;  highest  in  the  sun,  145°  on  June  28th 
and  July  12th.  Mean  of  earth  temperature  at  3  feet,  48-64°.  Total 
sunshine,  1549  hours.  There  were  seventy-one  sunless  days. — 
W.  H.  Divers,  Behoir  Castle  Gardens,  Grantham, 
-  The  Gardeners’  Orphan  Fund.  —  How  strange  it  is  that 
many  gardeners,  and  especially  fathers  of  young  families,  cannot  be 
induced  to  subscribe,  if  but  5s.  annually,  to  the  Orphan  Fund. 
Hundreds  do,  and  thousands  do  not.  In  the  ballot  papers  for  the  ensuing 
election  there  are  eighteen  candidates  for  election,  but  of  sixteen 
families  only,  as  in  two  cases  members  of  the  same  family  are,  I  con¬ 
sider  most  improperly,  nominated.  The  rules  ought  to  forbid  that 
certainly.  But  out  of  the  sixteen  cases  not  one  in  the  descriptions 
attached  mentions,  “Father  a  subscriber  to  the  Fund.”  This  is  worse 
than  unfortunate,  it  is  culpable  neglect.  People  who  have  never  shown 
the  least  desire  to  support  the  Fund  in  life  scruple  not  to  let  the  sub¬ 
scriptions  of  other  gardeners  be  used  for  the  maintenance  of  their 
children  should  they  become  orphans.  Surely  it  is  time  some  conditions 
as  to  subscriptions  were  imposed,  as  nothing  seems  to  be  at  present  done 
to  enforce  amongst  a  large  section  of  gardeners  the  principle  of  self-help. 
It  will  be  interesting  to  notice  results  when  the  election  takes  place. 
Some  applications  are  of  a  very  pathetic  nature,  others  show  very  little 
indeed  of  hardship.  Will  those  cases  that  strike  any  unbiassed  subscriber 
as  demanding  the  greatest  sympathy  be  successful,  or  will  those 
candidates  be  returned  who,  apart  from  merit,  have  the  largest  number 
of  friends,  either  in  the  country  or  at  court  ?  After  all,  as  is  well  known, 
it  is  in  the  latter  place  where  elections  are  won.  To  make  the  ballot  a 
reality,  every  subscriber  should  fill  up  his  or  her  ballot  papers  as  they 
desire,  sign  them,  and  return  them  to  the  Secretary  direct,  and  if  votes 
were  given  solely  because  of  the  merits  of  the  case,  and  not  because  of 
favour  or  influence,  great  good  would  result. — A  Gardener. 
-  Gardening  Appointment. — Mr.  John  Haynes  (for  several 
years  a  well-known  successful  gardener  at  Edgbaston,  Birmingham),  has 
been  engaged  as  head  gardener  to  —  Lamb,  Esq.  (an  opulent  Manchester 
manufacturer),  at  Studley  Castle.  There  were  no  less  than  eighty  appli¬ 
cants  for  the  situation  in  question. 
-  A  Rosarian's  Legacy  to  the  Bible  Society. — It  w-as 
recently  announced  that  under  the  will  of  the  late  Rev.  E.  N.  Pochin  the 
Bible  Society  will  receive  a  sum  of  not  less  than  £80,000.  As  the  widow, 
two  sons,  and  daughter  were  passed  over  in  the  will,  the  Committee  of  the 
Society  have,  after  most  careful  examination  into  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  case,  and  under  legal  advice,  felt  it  their  duty  to  undertake  to  relinquish 
for  the  benefit  of  th&  family  half  of  whatever  sum  the  Society  may 
eventually  receive  under  the  will. 
-  Birmingham  Gardeners’  Association. — On  the  24ih  inst. 
a  special  meeting  of  this  Society  was  convened  for  the  purpose  of 
appointing  a  new  Secretary  in  the  place  of  Mr.  John  Hughes,  who  was 
mainly  responsible  for  the  inauguration  of  the  Society.  Mr.  Hughes' 
increasing  duties  in  other  channels,  and  more  especially  as  Secretary  of 
the  Birmingham  Chrysanthemum  Society,  rendered  it  necessary  that  he 
should  relegate  the  duties  in  question  to  some  other  member  of  the  Asso¬ 
ciation.  Mr.  W.  B.  Latham  (the  Chairman),  Mr.  Walter  Jones,  and  Mr. 
John  Child  respectively  acknowledged  the  invaluable  and  gratuitous 
services  which  Mr.  Hughes  had  rendered  towards  the  Society.  Mr. 
William  Deedman  (foreman  in  the  Botanical  Gardens,  Edgbaston)  was 
elected  as  the  future  Secretary 
-  “  Garden  Notes  for  the  Colonies  and  Abroad.” — Such 
is  the  title  of  a  trade  medium  that  has  been  issued  by  the  well  known 
firm  of  Messrs.  James  Carter  &  Co.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  there  are 
not,  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  term,  colonies  “  at  home,”  it  is 
all  the  same  apparent  that  the  publication  gives  a  great  amount  of  com¬ 
pressed  information  on  the  nature  and  capacities  of  many  countries  as 
producers  of  useful  products  of  the  soil.  It  is  the  second  edition  that  is 
before  us,  accompanied  by  a  notification  that  all  the  available  copies  of 
the  first  edition  were  acquired  by  one  of  the  colonial  governments  for 
distribution.  This  was  a  good  beginning,  and  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that 
the  demand  will  grow  for  the  first  work  of  the  kind  we  have  seen,  and 
which  seems  to  cover  all  the  civilised  as  well  as  the  recently ‘‘ tapped  ” 
uncivilised  portions  of  the  earth.  The  work  in  its  way  has  been  done 
well,  and  there  is  plenty  of  it  for  a  shilling. 
-  Attraction  of  Flowers  for  Insects. — Professor  Plateau 
states  in  “Nature”  that,  in  seeking  for  pollen  or  nectar,  insects  are 
guided  only  to  a  subsidiary  extent  by  the  sense  of  sight.  They  continue 
to  visit  scented  flowers  after  the  coloured  parts  have  been  almost  entirely 
removed.  When  flowers  of  the  same  species  vary  in  colour,  they  exhibit 
neither  preference  nor  antipathy  for  one  colour  over  another.  Incon¬ 
spicuous  flowers  hidden  among  foliage  attract  large  numbers  of  insects. 
Artificial  riowers  made  of  paper  or  calico,  even  when  brightly  coloured 
and  closely  resembling  real  flower.s,  are  not  visited  by  insects  ;  but  they 
are  when  made  of  green  leaves  which  have  a  vegetable  scent.  If  flowers 
which  have  little  or  no  nectar,  and  which  are  therefore  habitually 
neglected  by  insects,  are  smeared  with  honey,  insects  are  attracted  in 
large  numbers.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  nectary  is  removed  from 
flowers  habitually  visited,  their  visits  cease  at  once.  From  all  these 
facts  and  other  facts  the  conclusion  is  drawn  that  the  guiding  sense  to 
insects  in  visiting  flowers  must  be  chiefly  the  sense  of  smell. 
-  Oriental  and  American  Lilies  in  Scotland.-  Having 
been  desirous  for  some  time  past  of  ascertaining  how  Lilies  fare  in  the 
North-East  of  Scotland  I  have  learned  on  inquiry  that  the  following  are 
most  successfully  cultivated  in  the  county  of  Aberdeenshire  —  viz.^ 
Lilium  auratum  platyphyllum,  generally  supposed  to  be  the  most 
enduring  of  the  section  to  which  it  belongs,  it  also  produces  the  largest 
flowers  ;  Lilium  auratum  rubro-vittatum,  the  red-banded  variety,  which 
is  not  so  strong  growing  as  nor  yet  so  prolific  of  its  flowers  as  the 
other  auratums  ;  Lilium  pardalinum,  the  Californian  “Panther  Lily,” 
which  grows  in  Aberdeenshire  exceedingly  strong  ;  Lilium  Browni  and 
Lilium  Krameri,  which,  though  very  beautiful,  are  somewhat  sparing  of 
their  blooms,  while  the  latter  is  not  very  easily  cultivated,  though 
originally  brought  by  its  introducer,  Mr.  Kramer,  from  a  high  altitude 
among  the  mountains  of  Japan  ;  Lilium  Martagon  album  and  its  more 
valuable  sport  or  variation,  album  superbum,  which  grows  more  vigorously 
and  produces  larger  flowers.  Liliums  candidura,  tigrinum  splendens, 
and  Fortuni  ;  L.  davuricum,  an  early  blooming  Lily  from  Siberia  ;  Lilium 
chalcedonicum,  Lilium  Szovitzianum,  a  noble  variety  of  the  Martagonian 
sub  -  genus  from  the  regions  of  Mount  Caucasus,  are  also  largely  and 
Buccessfully  cultivated  in  North-Eastern  Scotland. — D.  R.  W. 
