May  2r,  19C2. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
467 
in  the  grounds  in  the  grass,  at  the  margins  of  shi’ubbery 
borders,  the  wild  and  rock-  gardens,  affording  an  aspect  of 
happiness  and  quiet  charm. 
Mr.  Crook’s  seed  growing  propensities  are  not  confined  to 
Polyanthuses  alone,  for  Primulas,  Cinerarias,  Gloxinias, 
and  other  plants  all  share  some  patronage  in  their  season. 
His  sympathies  as  a  florist  do  not  find  solace  in  the  newer 
stellated  types  of  either  Primulas  or  Cinerarias,  and  his 
opinion  is  that  the  day  will  yet  return  when  these  starry 
flowers  will  give  place  in  popular  favour  to  the  truer  types. 
Rigid  selection  and  close  breeding  involve  the  keenest  in¬ 
terest  and  anxiety  when,  as  so  often  happens,  the  seed  pro¬ 
ductive  powers  of  these  high-class  and  choice  strains  are  so 
low.  Quite  a  history  is  attached  to  some  of  the  seed-bear¬ 
ing  plants  now  in  hand,  and  sterility,  the  bane  of  the  higher 
bred,  is  in  contemplation  feared.  Mr.  Crook  is  endowed 
with  a  wonderful  memoiy,  a  gift  which  to  the  florist  is  of  so 
much  value  and  importance,  especially  in  dealing  with  stocks 
of  early  origin. 
I  have  thus  far  dealt  with  the  gardener  at  Forde  Abbey  as 
an  ardexit  floi'ist  ;  he  is  scai-cely  less  enthusiastic  as  a  fruit, 
kitchen,  or  landscape  gardener.  The  gi’ounds  of  Forde  ai’e 
very  beautiful,  interesting,  and  vai’ied,  though  they  ai’e  not 
so  extensive  as  the  character  of  the  landscape  would  imply. 
Within  the  past  few  yeai's  intei’esting  points  have  been 
opened  up,  and  fi*esh  featui’es  added,  in  the  removal  of  some, 
and  cutting  down  of  other  common  shrubs.  Bulbs  natui'- 
alised  in  the  grass  have  been  a  fine  featiu’e  for  weeks  past. 
The  choice  of  situation  for  this  xohase  of  flower  gai’dening 
has  been  so  well  studied  that  it  does  not  interfei'e  with  the 
lawn  views  when  the  grass  which  of  necessity  has  to  go  un¬ 
mown  for  some  weeks  into  the  summei'.  On  the  margins  of 
the  shi’ubbery  borders  bulbs  in  quantity  and  variety  find 
congenial  places,  sunshine  and  ^hade  in  the  alternative  posi¬ 
tions  maintaining  a  long  season  of  flowers  for  cutting  and 
floi’al  effects. 
The  Abbey,  itself  a  noble  building,  and  one  of  the  best 
presei’ved  of  early  monastei’ies,  is  sui’rounded  by  beautiful 
aiid  extensive  landscape  pictures,  and  from  almost  every 
window  fresh  features  are  brought  within  I’ange.  A  foi’mer 
custom  of  allowing  the  public  access  to  the  gardens  has  been 
discontinued,  on  account  of  the  delicate  health  of  the  present 
•owner. — W.  S. 
Florists  and  Floriculture  over  Fifty  Years. 
Mr.  Richard  Dean  detailed  his  experience  of  floriculture  and 
the  florists  of  the  past  fifty  years  at  a  meeting  of  the  Battersea 
Chrysanthemum  Society  held  in  Stoi’inont  Hall  recently.  He 
looked  upon  the  period  from  1830  to  1870  as  the  Golden  Age  of 
Floriculture.  In  1851  the  National  Floricultural  Society  was 
formed.  This  aro.se  out  of  the  great  uneasiness  that  yxrevailed  in 
London  floricultural  circles  as  to  the  awards  ixxade  to  new  flowers. 
From  1830  to  1850  George  Glenny  was  at  the  height  of  his  popu¬ 
larity.  Unfortunately,  Geoi’ge  Glenny  was  a  narrow-minded,  bad 
tempered  man,  and  it  was  felt  that  .so  long  as  he  was  leader  of 
floi’icultui’e  in  London  the  awards  would  be  given  not  so  much  to 
the  flowers  on  their  merits  as  to  certain  favoured  owners  who 
chanced  to  bring  them  foi’ward. 
National  Floricultural  Society. 
The  National  Floricultural  Society  was  composed  of  all  the 
most  prominent  florists  of  that  time  ;  and  of  course  Geoi’ge  Glenny 
furiously  assailed  it.  A  Mr.  Foster,  of  Windsor,  was  president, 
and  he  was  famous  as  a  raiser  of  some  splendid  Pelargoniums, 
mostly  possessed  of  shades  of  red.  Charles  Fellowes,  of  Shottes- 
ham ;  Dr.  Lindley,  “  the  director  of  the  Royal  Horticultural 
Society,”  and  Robert  Marnock,  then  superintendent  of  Regent’s 
Park,  were  the  vice-presidents,  and  amongst  names  of  committee¬ 
men  may  be  mentioned  those  of  the  two  Hendersons,  Backhouse, 
E.  S.  Dodwell,  Chas.  Turner,  John  and  Charles  Lee  (two  famous 
brothers,  whose  nursery  in  Hammersmith  was  where  Olympia 
now  stands) ;  with  William  Paul  (the  only  member  of  the  N.F.S. 
still  living).  Tiros.  Rivers,  and  J.  Salter.  There  were  thirty-nine 
members  of  committee  in  all. 
Thirty  censors  were  appointed  to  adjudicate  on  the  new 
flowers,  and  altogether  there  were  nearly  200  members.  It  was 
a  powerful  organisatioir,  arrd  carried  on  a  succe.ssful  course  till 
1859,  when  the  Floral  Committee  of  the  Royal  Horticultural 
Society  was  formed.  The  British  Pomological  Society  became 
established  in  1854  by  the  exertions  of  the  late  Editor  of  this 
Journal,  namely.  Dr.  Robert  Hogg,  a  fact  which  Mr.  Dean  omitted 
to  mention,  but  gave  due  credit  to  Sir  Joseph  Paxton  (president), 
Mr.  Spencer,  of  Bowood,  Thos.  Rivers,  and  T.  Ingram.  Hirough 
the  initiative  of  the  originator  of  the  British  Pomblogicat  Society 
it  became  transformed  into  the  existing  Fruit  and  ^  cgetable  Com¬ 
mittee  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society. 
Coming  to  a  consideration  of  florists’  flowers,  the  lecturer 
mentioned  Auriculas.  The  Alpine  type  was  scarcely  known 
though  the  old  Conspicua  was  grown,  and  may  still  be  seen.  This 
was  the  period  when  those  superb  Show  varieties  George  Light- 
body,  Robert  Headley,  and  Shottesham  Hero  were  raised. 
Calceolarias  were  then  going  through  a  period  of  transition. 
They  were  tall,  lanky,  and  leggy.  Major,  of  Leeds,  and  Con¬ 
stantine,  of  Uxbridge,  were  the  princqial  raisers  of  those  days. 
Varieties  were  named,  and  propagated  by  cuttings.  At  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society’s  Show  and  that  of  the  Royal  Botanic 
Society  in  Regent’s  Park,  London,  specimen  Calceolarias  were 
exhibited  measuring  4ft  in  height  and  of  great  l.readth  as  w'ell. 
The  shrubby  type  then  came  into  .  being,  and  Mr.  Janies,  of 
Faniham,  fertilised  the  herbaceous  forms  with  the  newer  and 
dwarfer  section,  obtaining  as  a  result  the  better  shaped  plants, 
of  which  our  present  day  plants  are  modified  examples. 
Carnations,  Cinerarias,  Cyclamens. 
Carnations  and  Picotees  were  improved  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Morgan  May,  of  Reading.  He  chose:  for  the  names  of  all  his 
Carnations  the  appellatives  of  Shakespoare’s_  male  characters, 
and  for  his  Picotees  (which  were  thought  frailer  aiKUfiner)  the 
feminine  names  from  the  same  author’s  dramas.  Tsoinian,  qt 
Woolwich,  and,  later,  E.  S.  Dodwell,  near  Clapham,  both  dis¬ 
tinguished  themselves.  The  laced  Pink  was  then  veiy  populi^, 
but  is  much  neglected  now,  except  for  show  purposes  in  the 
North. 
From  1851  onwards,  for  the  next  few  years,  the  Cineraria  was 
undergoing  transition.  The  plants  were  then  very  much  like  the 
starry  or  stellate  Cinerarias  of  these  days,  but  under  the  florists 
care  the  corollas  became  rounded,  smooth,  and  enlarged,  ihey 
all  had  a  dark  disc,  and  grey  discs  were  considered  faulty.  A 
light-edged  flower  with  a  grey  disc  loses  half  its  effect.  Messrs. 
Cannell  and  Sons  are  working  on  Cineraria  cruenta,  and  are 
getting  back  to  that  perfection  achieved  by  our  forefathers. 
Cyclamen  latifolium  (C.  persicum)  was  beginning  to  be  grown 
in  the  early  fifties  as  a  florists’  flower.  Division  of  the  conus 
was  the  invariable  practice,  and  the  risk  of  a  number  of  small 
pieces  surviving  had  to  he  encountered,  ^o  one  dreamed  ot  seed 
propao-ation,  and,  indeed,  the  conns  were  planted  out  of  doors 
t^o  be  roasted  and  “ripened”  in  sunny  borders.  This  is  one  of 
the  plants  whose  progress  has  been  progressive  and  is  still  main¬ 
tained. 
Daffodils,  Fuchsias,  Gloxinias. 
The  Daffodil  has  undergone  an  enormous  transformation. 
Mr  R  Dean  was  engaged  in  the  wholesale  seed  trade  in  the 
early  sixties,  and  at  that  time  the  only  sorts  of  Nharcissi  imported 
were  those  then  known  as  Sulphur  IMaid  and  Trumpet  .Major. 
Shortly  afterwards,  however,  Peter  Barr  awoke  to  the  possibilities 
of  the  genus,  and  set  to  work,  with  what  results  everybody 
knows. 
The  aim  among  growers  of  the  Fuchsia  was  to  get  a  variety 
with  white  sepals,  and  the  first  of  this  nature  to  be  seen  originated 
with  a  Mr.  Storrey,  in  1855,  and  was  named  Queen  ^  ictoria. 
Most  of  the  older  varieties  had  a  bluish  or  purple  corolla  and  red 
sepals.  Mr.  Turner,  of  Slough,  introduced  some  meritorious 
novelties. 
Gloxinias  have  been  improved  within  the  ken  of  the  piesent 
o-eueration.  Twenty  or  thirty  years  ago  they  possessed  flat  and 
drooping  flowers.  The  first  erect  flowering  sort  with  tubular, 
round-mouthed  blooms  was  raised  by  Mr.  J.  Fife  a  Scotsman, 
in  1854.  Mr.  Gartoii,  then  of  Sion  House,  took  up  this  new  form 
onrl  I'aisprf  inanv  ffood  sorts.  . 
HollyhockE. 
In  the  sixties  and  early  seventies  the  Hollyhock  was  at  its 
greatest  perfection.  But  then  came  that  terrible  disease  which 
enormously  reduced  the  stocks,  and  since  then  the  flower  has 
scarcely  reached  back  to  full  favour.  Mr.  Dean  recalled  his  own 
first  experience  with  the  disease.  He  was  then  at  Slough,  where 
a  very  large  number  were  grown.  They  w’ere  as  healthy  and 
sturdy  looking  on  the  evening  of  a  certain  day,  but  appeared 
on  the  following  morning  as  though  a  firebrand  had  been  run 
through  and  among  them.  The  English  Pansy  was  affected  in 
the  same  manner.  The  chief  growers  of  the  handsome  Holly¬ 
hocks  were  Adam  Paul,  father  of  the  present  Mr.  M illiam  Paul,  of 
Waltham  Cross;  Roper,  4Vm.  Chater,  and  Ed.  Hawke  (father  ot 
Lord  Hawke,  of  the  Yorkshire  County  Eleven).  These  men  grew 
Hollyhocks  against  each  other,  and  made  their  greatest  effort 
at  the  Bishops  Auckland  (Durham)  shoiv.  Many,  or  all,  ot  the 
spikes  were  shown  with  4ft  of  the  stems  liteially  loped  with 
beautifully  coloured,  symmetrical  flowers. 
(To  be  continued.) 
