84 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTTCULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
January  27,  1898 
The  N.C.S.  and  the  Koyal  Aquarium — A  Review. 
Although  the  correspondence  which  has  taken  place  upon  this 
subject  has  been  somewhat  lengthy,  no  true  lover  of  the  Chrysanthemum 
can  fail  to  recognise  that  the  importance  of  the  question  which  has  been 
raised  fully  justifies  the  space  accorded  to  it,  and  especially  should  the 
members  of  the  N.O.S.  be  grateful  to  the  Journal  of  Horticulture  for  so 
generous  a  concession  of  its  columns  to  a  matter  so  vital  to  their  interests. 
As  a  looker-on  is  said  to  “  see  most  of  the  game,”  will  you  allow  me, 
as  one  who  has  been  beside  the  fray,  to  state  the  conclusions  to  which  the 
correspondence  has  carried  me  ?  The  first  thing  which  is  apparent  is  the 
absolutely  one-sided  character  of  the  correspondence  ;  indeed,  so  over¬ 
whelming  is  the  predominance  of  opinion  expressed  on  the  one  side,  and 
so  limited  and  really  insubstantial  the  pleas  put  forward  by  the  other, 
that  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  facts  are  not  seriously  in 
dispute.  What,  then,  are  the  essential  facts  ?  They  appear  to  be  these. 
Tor  over  twenty  years  the  National  Society,  having  under  its  special 
charge  perhaps  the  most  generally  popular  and  widely  cultivated  fiower 
in  existence,  has  carried  on  its  exhibitions  in  alliance  with  the  Royal 
Aquarium.  The  N.C.S.  has  the  largest  number  of  members  of  any 
special  horticultural  society,  and  in  those  twenty  years  it  has  accumulated 
a  reserve  fund  of  £100  (£5  a  year),  an  annual  increase  for  such  purpose 
that  has  been  far  exceeded  by  a  local  suburban  horticultural  society. 
The  holding  of  the  Society's  exhibitions  at  the  Royal  Aquarium  has, 
even  from  the  first,  proved  very  objectionable  to  a  large  and  influential 
class  of  admirers  of  the  Chrysanthemum,  and  is  probably  responsible 
for  the  conspicuous  absence  from  the  Society's  managing  body  of  any 
substantial  number  of  amateurs  of  position.  Some  persons  may  be 
attracted  by  the  menu  provided  by  the  Royal  Aquarium,  but  certainly,  to 
put  it  mildly,  as  many,  and  those  at  least  as  influential,  are  repelled.  As 
a  place  of  exhibition,  apart  from  merely  moral  or  aesthetic  considerations, 
the  Royal  Aquarium  has  never  provided  those  essentials  of  fair  com¬ 
petitive  exhibition — space  and  light  sufficient  to  permit  of  a  due  estimate 
by  the  judges  being  made  of  the  relative  values  of  the  exhibits  staged — 
the  wonder  being  that  exhibitors  having  reputations  to  sustain  should  be 
found  willing  to  jeopardise  them  by  competing  under  such  conditions. 
How  many  are  deterred  we  can  never  know.  Nor  have  there  been 
adequate  facilities  for  the  inspection  of  the  exhibits  by  the  public. 
But  bad  as  have  been  these  conditions  in  the  past,  they  have  become 
by  degrees  immeasurably  worse  as  the  patience  of  the  Committee  of  the 
N.C.S.  has  become  more  and  more  plainly  inexhaustible  ;  and  as  its 
Secretary  has  more  and  more  emphatically  and  publicly  announced  his 
opinion  that  the  Society  cannot  possibly  exist  but  by  the  kind  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  Royal  Aquarium,  until  in  November  last,  to  the  unbiassed 
spectator,  there  was  presented  not  a  thing  which  by  any  standard  could 
be  considered  a  show  worthy  of  a  National  Society,  but  so  gross  a 
travesty  of  what  such  a  show  should  be — and  this  in  face  of  all  that  an 
experienced  and  energetic  Secretary  could  do  with  the  materials  at  his 
disposal— that  the  patience  of  most  members  of  the  Society,  if  not  of  its 
Committee,  was  exhausted,  and  the  ^correspondence  in  your  columns 
followed. 
The  Royal  Aquarium  authorities  appear  to  have  decided  to  try  the 
experiment  of  reaching  the  “  irreducible  minimum  ”  which  the  N.C.S. 
would  put  up  with,  and  to  weight  the  cord  of  the  Society’s  patience 
almost  to  the  breaking  point.  The  question  is  whether  they  have  not 
broken  it. 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  comment  in  detail  on  the  arguments  pro 
and  con  which  have  turned  on  the  financial  question.  Briefly,  the  Secre¬ 
tary  contends  that  although  show  after  show,  resulting  in  brilliant 
financial  success,  has  been  held  in  provincial  towns,  the  great  metropolis 
of  London  cannot  be  relied  on,  even  with  a  National  Society,  to  do  what 
Edinburgh  has  done,  and  what  Birmingham  has  done,  with  merely  local 
effort  and  prestige.  Figures,  purely  fanciful,  and  without  any  stated 
authority,  have  been  quoted  in  opposition  to  those  appearing  in  his  own 
Society’s  published  balance-sheet.  He  pleads  for  the  Royal  Aquarium 
that,  for  recompense  for  its  generosity  towards  the  N.C.S.,  it  has  to 
depend  on  “  the  uncertain  takings  at  the  gates,”  and  almost  in  the  same 
breath  points  out  that  so  great  is  the  attractive  power  of  the  Chrys¬ 
anthemum,  that  it  “  attracts  to  the  Aquarium  yearly  thousands  of 
persons  ”  to  see  it  in  its  “  fullest  glory.” 
Scarcely  consistent,  perhaps,  but  can  any  reasonable  being  seriously 
doubt  that,  given  a  covered  building  to  keep  the  rain  out,  in  a  fairly 
accessible  situation,  this  immense  metropolis  will  ever  furnish  its 
“thousands,”  good  weather  or  indifferent,  to  support  a  really  typical  and 
national  show  of  so  universal  a  favourite  as  the  Chrysanthemum  ?  Does 
anyone  think  that  a  serious  financial  disaster  is  really  possible  ? 
The  “  last  ditch  ”  of  those  who  uphold  the  present  condition  of  affairs 
is  that  there  is  absolutely  no  alternative  place  to  the  Royal  Aquarium. 
Truly  there  may  be  no  place  quite  so  central.  But  there,  surely,  all 
advantage  ceases.  No  place  can  be  more  unsuitable  in  every  other 
respect  ;  in  fact,  if  we  are  to  believe  that  the  provision  made  by  the  Royal 
Aquarium  authorities  at  the  late  November  Show  is  to  represent  that  to 
be  accorded  in  the  future,  then  it  seems  that  the  question  of  departure  is 
already  settled,  and  the  only  point  remaining  is  which  of  the  alternative 
sites — Earl's  Court,  the  Agricultural  Hall,  or,  possibly',  some  other  place — 
shall  be  selected  for  the  holding  of  the  show,  or  shows,  of  the  National 
Chrysanthemum  Society',  freed  from  the  taint  of  its  music  hall  asso¬ 
ciations,  but  supported  by  the  numberless  lovers  of  its  special  flower. 
But,  then,  we  are  told  by  the  gentleman  himself — the  Secretary  of  the 
N.C.S. — that  if  this  should  be  done  he  will  instantly  resign  his  position 
as  officer  of  the  Society.  Mr.  Richard  Dean  has  done  good,  very  good, 
service  for  the  N.C.S.  So  had,  before  him,  the  late  Mr.  W.  Holmes. 
■When  the  latter  died  there  were  many  who  thought  that  his  loss  would 
prove  irreparable.  It  was  left  to  Mr.  R.>  Dean  to  prove  anew  the  truth  of 
the  adage  that  “  there  are  as  good  fish  in  the  sea  as  ever  came  out  of  it,” 
and  he  must  not  be  hurt  if  it  be  suggested  that  the  example  which 
he  himself  supplied  has  not  exhausted  the  application  of  the  adage. 
'Well,  is  “the  tail  to  wag  the  dog,”  or  “the  dog  the  tail  ?”  That  is  the 
real  question.  If  the  National  Chrysanthemum  Society,  represented  by 
its  elected  Committee,  should  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the  good  of 
the  Society  requires  the  removal  of  its  exhibitions  from  the  Royal 
Aquarium,  then  its  will  must  prevail,  and  must  not  suffer  influence  by 
any  such  considerations  as  that  suggested. 
There  are  some,  as  the  correspondence  shows,  who  evidently  think 
that  the  Secretary  holds  the  Committee  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand — and 
the  Royal  Aquarium  the  Secretary.  This  probably  is  not  the  case,  but, 
anyway,  the  members  of  the  N.C.S.  have  it  in  their  power  to  compel 
obedience  to  their  behests,  and  the  responsibility  rests  with  them. 
It  has  been  suggested  by  some  that  the  Society’s  exhibitions  might 
be  more  strictly  confined  to  the  Chrysanthemum,  and  that  financial 
considerations  might  require  that  two  shows  at  most  should  be  held  by 
the  Society  ;  while  others  propose  that  one  great  metropolitan  show,  and 
a  provincial  show  in  alliance  with  local  societies  in  affiliation  (as  in  the 
case  of  the  N.R.S.),  would  best  serve  to  render  financial  disaster  impossible, 
and  to  erect  the  Society  upon  a  really  sound  foundation  of  Nationality. 
There  is  much,  it  seems  to  me,  in  this  last  suggestion.— Spectator. 
[Beyond  this  review,  which  is  the  more  weighty  because  of  the  evident 
desire  of  the  author  of  it  to  be  strictly  impartial — while  recognising 
“essential  facts” — we  are  unable  to  afford  space  for  other  communi¬ 
cations  on  the  subject  this  week.  At  the  same  time  we  do  not  absolutely 
shut  the  door.  We  have  letters  in  hand  and  one  in  type,  though  it  is 
not  for  these  the  door  is  left  ajar  ;  but  rather  because  if  even  yet  an 
impartial  and  unbiassed  defender  of  the  alliance  of  the  National  Chrys¬ 
anthemum  Society  and  Royal  Aquarium  Company  should  desire  to  set 
forth  clearly  the  advantages  to  the  N.C.S.  of  such  alliance,  we  should  not 
like  to  deny  him  the  opportunity.  As  the  matter  now  stands  the  alliance 
is  admitted  and  deplored  in  more  than  twenty  letters  which  have 
appeared,  because  the  several  writers  have  been  given  to  understand  by 
one  of  its  defenders  that  the  Aquarium  is  the  dominating  partner.  The 
initial  note  which  called  forth  such  a  remarkable  expression  of  feeling 
and  opinion,  and  which  led  to  the  reasonable  ventilation  of  a  public 
grievance,  appeared  in  our  issue  of  November  5th,  and  the  discussion  has 
been  continired  in  the  nine  consective  issues  to  the  present  date.  We 
yield  to  no  one  in  the  sincerity  of  our  desire  for  the  prosperity  of  the 
National  Chrysanthemum  Society,  and  the  stronger  and  more  widely 
representative  it  can  be  made  by  a  far-seeing  Committee  the  greater  our 
satisfaction  will  be.  It  has  often  been  necessary  to  amputate  a  limb  to 
save  a  life.] 
An  International  Chrysanthemum  Audit  in  France. 
To  the  majority  of  English  cultivators  and  admirers  of  Chrys¬ 
anthemums,  the  result  of  the  above  election  will  hardly  commend  itself 
as  being  of  value.  The  position  occupied  by  Madame  Carnot  will 
commend  itself  to  all  lovers  of  the  flower.  If  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a 
“  best  ”  Chrysanthemum,  Madame  Carnot  surely  has  a  strong  claim 
to  the  honour  ;  but  when  we  come  to  Le  Colosse  Grenoblois,  which  occu¬ 
pied  the  second  place  in  the  audit,  it  is  rarely  seen  in  England,  much 
less  admired.  Mrs.  C.  Harman  Fayneis  regarded  as  being  much  too  coarse 
to  find  favour,  and  is  being  last  ousted  from  whatever  high  position  it 
once  held.  Madame  Ed.  Roger,  the  new  green  flowering  variety,  is  placed 
fourth  on  the  list,  actually  in  front  of  Viviand  Morel,  Australian  Gold, 
Phoebus,  and  Chenon  de  Leche.  At  the  best,  Madame  E.  Roger  can  only 
claim  its  tint  of  green  to  captivate  on-lookers,  and  I  am  at  a  loss  to 
