DcSoetn^er  21,  189S 
626  .lOmKrAL  Of'  mRTTGtJLTURE  AND  VOT'D AGD  GAltDENDR. 
‘vacated.”  It  would  not  be  diffijult  to  write  down  a  long  list  of 
such,  but  it  would  serve  no  good  purpose,  many  are  well  known,  and 
the  glory  of  their  past  still  remembered.  The  surprise  is  great  when 
the  crash  first  comes,  bat,  like  the  man  who  fails,  they  are  soon 
forgotten.  Hardly  so  with  those  more  closely  connected. 
One  gardener  meets  a  friend,  perhaps  at  a  show,  “  Have  you 
heard  about  So  and  So  ?  ”  “No.”  “The  establishment  is  being 
reduced,  family  going  abroad,  and  -the  grounds  are  let  to  a  market 
gardener.”  “  What  has  become  of - ,  the  gardener  ?  ”  “  Had 
to  clear  out,  poor  fellow  ;  hard  linos  after  nearly  twenty  years’ 
service.” 
“  Clear  out.”  It  does  not  seem  much,  but  means  a  great  deal 
in  these  times.  He  may  be  successful  in  obtaining  another 
appointment.  Pleasant  it  is  when  such  is  the  case,  but  how  often 
does  it  mean  long  months,  perhaps  years,  of  weary  waiting,  hard 
struggles  when  the  shoe  pinches,  ending  perhaps  in  the  acceptance 
of  an  appointment  of  much  less  importance  than  the  old  one,  and 
as  is  often  the  case,  poor  So  and-so  is  spoken  of  as  being  unlucky, 
and  after  a  time  the  man  once  well  known  in  gardening  circles 
drops  from  the  ranks  and  is  heard  of  no  more.  We  like  to  look  at 
successful  men  and  point  to  them  as  being  examples  for  those  who 
are  younger  to  follow.  Quite  right  and  proper  it  is  that  we  should 
do  so,  as  “  nothing  succeeds  like  success,”  at  the  same  time  we 
should  remember  the  uncertainty  of  life,  and  bear  in  mind  that 
successful  men  can  fall,  and  often  do  when  the  vitality,  means, 
and  capacity  for  rising  again  have  gone  beyond  recall. 
To  a  gardener  there  is  nothing  more  depressing  than  an  establish¬ 
ment  under  the  ban  of  misfortune.  Again,  take  the  highway  and 
note  the  entrance.  Where  are  the  flowers,  the  bright  curtains,  and 
the  neat  appearance  ?  Gone  !  and  in  their  place  is  the  plain  word, 
though  unwritten,  “  Vacated.”  Pass  through  the  gates,  which  now 
creak  on  the  hinges  with  rust,  and  up  the  carriage  drive,  overgrown 
with  branches  and  thick  with  leaves  and  rnbbisb.  On  to  the  front 
of  the  mansion,  the  blinds  of  which  are  all  drawn,  and  you  look  in 
vain  for  the  appearance  of  homeliness,  once  so  apparent.  The 
solitary  housekeeper  endeavours  to  keep  the  place  in  airing,  and 
beyond  that  there  are  no  signs  of  tenancy.  Where  are  the  flower 
beds,  once  so  gay  ?  Grown  over  with  weeds  ;  and,  like  Goldsmith, 
you  stand  in  a  place  where  “  Opce  a  garden  smiled .”  The  work¬ 
men  have  now  dispersed,  with  perhaps  a  few  exceptions,  and  if  not 
in  the  hands  of  a  tradesman  the  houses  are  practically  empty  and 
rapidly  going  to  ruin.  You  meet  someone  eager  to  talk  and  tell 
you  of  the  misfortunes — an  o’d  labourer,  perhaps,  who  lovingly 
speaks  of  the  place  in  its  former  days  and  deplores  the  changes 
that  time  has  brought  about. 
What  has  become  of  the  gardener  ?  Little  has  been  heard  of 
him  since  he  had  to  leave ;  perhaps  got  another  situation  ;  we  hope 
so.  He  may  be  still  doing  his  turn  in  the  nursery,  or  got  a 
“single-handed  ]ob.”  No  one  seems  to  know;  he  went,  that  was 
all,  at  the  time  when  the  place  became  vacated,  and  of  course  had 
to  take  his  chance  with  the  rest. 
We  need  not  go  far  to  find  establishments  that  were  once 
prosperous  under  such  conditions,  and  it  is  especially  depressing  if 
we  knew  them  in  their  palmy  days.  Perhaps  comparisons  are 
odious,  but  there  is  many  a  gardener  to-day  who  knows  to  his  cost 
the  meaning  of  that  word  “  vacated.” — G,  H.  H. 
PRESERVED  PALMS. 
These  are  now  employed  to  a  considerable  extent  for  room 
decoration,  and  under  some  circumstances  may  be  considered  a  boon 
to  gardeners  having  extensive  decorations  to  carry  out.  Their 
employment  for  such  purposes  will,  I  feel  sure,  never  seriously 
affect  the  demand  for  growing  Palms  of  all  descriptions,  as  the 
preserved  ones  will  be  principally  used  in  positions  where  fresh 
Palms  would  be  quickly  ruined,  or  where  the  difficulty  of  getting 
sufficient  top  growth  to  a  plant  restricted  to  a  proportionately  small 
pot  becomes  almost  insurmountable.  To  clearly  illustrate  my 
meaning  let  me  give  a  few  examples.  The  plant  decorator  knows 
well  that  the  position  he  has  to  assign  to  various  plants  ia  regulated 
by  the  way  in  which  the  furniture  of  each  room  is  disposed. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  often  happens  that  the  exact  position 
in  which  a  large  Palm  ia  required  is  so  unfavourable  that  it  means 
little  less  than  speedy  ruin  ;  yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  to  the 
artistic  eye  the  position  selected  is  ilie  one  when  the  gc  neral  effect 
ia  considered. 
In  entrance  halls  or  reception  rooms  the  very  position  in  which 
a  Palm-  is  required  is  often  cold  and  draughty,  and  therefore  in 
winter  inimical  to  its  health.  In  other  instances  it  may  be  a  dark 
corner,  whe'e  old  fronds  soon  begin  to  turn  brown  and  young  ones 
yellow.  The  moat  fatal  of  all  positions,  however,  is  one  near  a 
firs  in  a  hot  room.  Here,  under  the  best  of  management,  the  fronds 
of  a  fine  healthy  Palm,  which  has  taken  half  a  dozen  years  to  grow. 
may  be  ao  completely  dried  ap  in  a  few  weeks  that  it  will  take 
years  to  nurse  it  into  health  and  usefulness  again.  Here,  then,  I 
would  place  a  preserved  Palm,  which  will  last  for  years  and  look  as 
natural  as  a  growing  one. 
Let  us  tai:e  another  example — when  we  have  a  costly  marble 
pedestal  or  vase  to  deal  with.  Either  of  these  is  perhaps  placed  in  a 
large  and  lofty  room,  where  it  ’  ^  necessary  to  have  a  tall  and  well 
furnished  Palm,  yet  the  space  allowed  for  pot  room  is  altogether 
disproportionate.  Place  here  again  one  of  these  modern  rootless 
Palms,  and  you  will  find  suflBcient  space  to  arrange  beneath  it  a  nice 
little  group  of  flowering  plants,  which  is  a  distinct  gain  so  far  as 
effect  is  concerned,  for  the  pot  room  required  for  a  growing  Palm 
would  leave  little  room  for  flowering  plants  around  it.  Many  similar 
instances  such  as  these  might  be  enumerated  ;  bat  those  given  will, 
I  think,  suffice  to  show  that  the  Palms  indicated  by  the  heading  of 
this  note  may  often  be  the  means  of  helping  us  out  of  many  diffi¬ 
culties. 
Preserved  Palmp  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  artificial 
ones  that  have  long  been  manufactured,  but  have  not  as  yet  been 
much  used.  The  only  artificial  parts  about  the  former  are  the 
steins  of  the  larger  specimens.  These  are  made  in  sections,  which 
can  be  easily  fitted  together  upon  arrival.  The  height  of  the  Palm 
can  also  be  regulated  to  suit  the  position  assigned  to  it  by  adding 
or  removing  one  or  more  of  these  sections.  The  fronds  are  those 
of  well-grown  Palms  without  blemish.  These  appear  to  have  been 
dried,  bleached,  pressed,  and  then  painted  an  extremely  natural 
green  colour,  and  when  fitted  into  the  stems  they  form  such  models 
as  we  look  for  in  perfectly  grown  Palms. 
Those  that  have  come  under  my  notice  are  specimens  of 
Thrinax  elegans,  Arecas,  and  Cycas  revoluta.  The  latter,  I  notice, 
usually  has  thin  strips  of  wood  neatly  fastened  over  the  back  and 
front  of  the  midrib,  so  I  assume  from  this  that  the  pinnate  leaves 
when  dried  are  liable  to  become  brittle  and  break  away  from  the 
midrib  unless  this  precaution  is  taken.  Fitting  up  a  plant  of 
Thrinax,  Phoenix,  or  Chamaj-'ops  would  be  a  rather  puzzling 
business  for  anyone  not  having  previously  seen  it  performed,  as 
the  stems  are  covered  with  film  exactly  ai  are  the  natural  stems  of 
these  species,  and  indeed  it  ia  almost  impossible  to  detect  that  they 
are  not  natural  stems.  The  difficulty,  which  speedily  becomes 
apparent,  is  to  know  how  to  fasten  the  leaves  in  position ;  but  when 
once  the  secret  is  pointed  out  a  few  minutes  will  suffice  to  master 
the  work  of  rapid  Palm  construction.  Underneath  the  fibre  holes 
have  been  made  exactly  in  the  right  places.  These  have  afterwards 
been  quite  covered  with  fibre  ;  one  ha®,  therefore,  only  to  use  the 
point  of  the  knife  or  scissors  to  first  find  these  holes,  then  cut  the 
fibres,  and  insert  the  ends  of  the  Palm  fronds  in  them,  and  they 
remain  quite  secure.  It  is  also  easy  to  see  that  when  fastened  in 
this  way  the  leaves  appear  to  be  really  growing  out  of  the  stem. 
Although  Palms  of  this  description  do  not  require  to  be 
BjSonged  frequently  to  preserve  them  in  health,  they  nevertheless 
require  periodical  cleaning,  as  dust  will  accumulate  upon  them. 
The  cleaning  process  is,  however,  a  simple  one,  as  the  lea  /es  have 
only  to  be  removed  one  at  a  time  from  their  sockets,  sponged,  and 
placed  in  position  again. 
I  fear  there  are  some  “  croakers  ”  who  will  resent  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  preserved  Palms,  and  will  look  upon  it  as  an  ominous 
sign  of  decay  in  that  flourishing  horticultural  industry — Palm 
growing.  I  do  not  in  the  least  share  their  fears,  as  the  preserved 
Palms  have  in  the  first  place  to  be  grown.  This  may  of  course  be 
done  more  cheaply  in  warmer  lands,  but  the  same  remark  applies 
to  Palms  growing  in  pots,  as  the  British  trade  is  dependant,  to  a 
large  extent,  for  their  supply  of  these  upon  the  large  numbers 
their  agents  annually  procure  from  the  Continent.  "What  I 
predict  will  happen  is  that  Palms  will  be  far  more  largely  used 
than  heretofore  for  room  embellishment,  as  there  is  nothing  that 
so  much  improves  the  appearance  of  a  well- furnished  room  as  a 
large  and  well-placed  Palm.  At  the  present  time  there  are 
thousands  of  British  homes  which  lack  this  coup  de  grdee,  although 
those  who  preside  over  them  could  well  afford — and  would 
willingly  give — the  first  cost  of  a  Palm  to  secure  so  good  an  effect. 
The  only  thing  that  deters  them  from  so  doing  is  the  amount  of 
skilful  attention  that  a  large  specimen  requires  to  prevent  its  ruin 
in  a  short  time.  Here  then  is  the  chance  for  these  to  have  what 
they  require  without  further  outlay  than  that  of  first  cost.  A 
preserved  Palm  should  be  looked  upon  as  a  necessary  piece  of 
decoration  for  every  well-appointed  room,  and  will  be  ordered 
as  inevitably  as  a  suite  of  furniture  wherever  furnishing  is 
contemplated. 
At  this  festive  season,  when  the  grand  old  British  custom  of 
bestowing  gifts  stirs  our  hearts  to  acts  of  generous  kindness,  it 
is  not  always  easy  to  settle  upm  appropriate  gifts,  I  fancy  that 
many  might  do  worse  than  present  to  the  head  of  the  household 
possessing  artistic  tastes  a  good  specimen  of  a  preserved  Palm. 
-H.  D. 
