542 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
June  27,  1901. 
Florists’  Flowers. 
The  Auriculas  will  now,  of  course,  be  in  their  summer  quarters* 
that  is,  in  some  places  facing  the  North,  and  with  a  hedge  at  the 
back  of  the  frames  to  ward  off  the  sun.  Little  attention  is  required 
for  them  except  to  take  care  that  they  do  not  get  dry,  and  that  aphis 
does  not  attack  them  ;  the  best  way  to  get  rid  of  this  when  it  appears 
is  to  close  the  frame,  and  to  fumigate  with  one  of  McDougall’s 
fumigators.  Now  is  the  time  to  get  in  a  good  supply  of  loam  for 
pottiDg,  using  the  top  spit  of  the  pasture  about  2  inches  deep.  This 
will  also  be  a  good  time  to  make  additions  to  the  list  of  varieties.  The 
collection  belonging  to  my  friend,  the  late  Miss  Woodhead,  has  passed 
into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Charles  Turner  of  Slough;  it  contained  fine 
plants  of  most  of  the  choicest  Varieties,  including  those  raised  by  her 
brother  ;  but  collectors  will  have  to  make  haste,  for  they  will  very 
soon  be  snapped  up. 
Carnations  and  Picotees,  whether  grown  in  pots  or  in  the  opeD 
border,  will  now  simplv  require  staking,  bt  t  now  that  the  desire  for 
more  decorative  plants  has  arisen,  and  several  stems  are  allowed  to  grow, 
they  require  more  loose  tying  up.  The  dress¬ 
ing  of  exhibition  bloc  ms  is  most  unnatural; 
but  no  matter  bow  well  a  grower  might 
cultivate  his  plants,  it  is  hopeless  for  him 
to  expect  to  gain  a  prize  except  he  or  some 
friend  had  the  capacity  for  dressing  the 
flowers.  The  zeal  with  which  Mr.  Martin  R. 
Smith  has  followed  their  culture,  and  the 
generosity  with  which  he  lias  distributed 
to  members  of  the  National  Carnation  and 
Picotee  Society  h’s  carefully  hybridised 
seed,  has  led  to  a  complete  revolution,  with 
a  taste  for  more  decorative  plants  for  the 
garden,  and  consequently  we  meet  with 
flowers  of  an  enormous  size,  many  of  them 
very  confused,  and  with  colours  and  mark¬ 
ings  which  shock  the  more  bigoted  adherents 
of  the  old  school. 
Gladioli  have,  of  course,  in  most  instances 
been  planted,  but  it  is  even  now  not  too 
late  to  plant  corms  which  will  bloom  late 
in  September.  I  was  talking  the  other 
day  with  Mr.  Burrell,  the  successful  raiser 
and  grower,  and  he  told  me  he  had  some 
remarkable  flowers  both  for  size  and  colour, 
many  of  them  being  blue  flowers.  To  those 
who,  like  myself,  can  look  back  between 
thirty  and  forty  years,  their  development 
is  remarkable.  The  flowers  are  five  or 
six  times  as  large  as  I  can  remember  them 
of  old,  while  instead  of  a  spike  of  three  or  four  blooms  opening 
at  a  time,  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  twelve,  fourteen,  sixteen,  and 
even  twenty  flowers  o{  en  at  once.  This  has  in  no  way  made 
the  flowers  coarser,  in  fact  there  is  no  florist  flower  that  I  know  of 
that  has  more  thoroughly  shown  the  intelligence  and  skill  of  the 
hybridiser  than  this.  If  only  for  the  sake  of  tidiness  or  the  preserva¬ 
tion  of  the  colour  and  cleanliness  of  the  blooms,  it  is  necessarv  that 
the  plants  should  be  staked. 
“  The  droughty  springs”  that  we  have  for  some  years  experienced 
have  told  most  unfavourably  on  the  charming  Persian  Ranunculuses. 
Like  all  of  the  genus,  the  “Persians”  delight  in  an  abundance  of 
moisture,  and  year  after  year,  if  they  do  not  get  moisture,  the  result  is 
failure.  Wheu  I  took  up  my  tubers  last  year  I  felt  sure  that  the 
blooms  of  1901  must  be  very  poor;  and  so  it  has  turned  out,  and  I 
fear  it  is  one  of  those  cherished  flowers  whose  culture  I  must  abandon  ; 
in  fact,  their  cultivation  in  the  South  of  England  is  most  difficult. 
Ihey  are  not  cultivated  by  any  grower  for  sale  that  I  know  of,  nor  do 
I  know  where,  since  the  death  of  Mr.  George  Lightbody,  who  had  a 
magnificent  collection.  Many  of  the  varieties  were  catalogued  at  half 
a  guinea  each,  and  some  even  at  a  guinea.  I  remember  when  even 
about  London  there  were  grand  collections  of  these  to  be  seen  in  places 
where  now  there  are  rows  of  mean  houses,  from  whose  surrounding* 
everything  pertaining  to  the  country  seems  to  be  banished.  Mr. 
Groom  of  Walworth  had  a  beautiful  collection,  all  traces  of  which 
have  now  vanished.  There  can  be  no  dxmbt,  I  think,  that  the 
taste  for  florist  flowers  has  diminished  greatly  in  the  South  of 
England,  and  even  in  the  North.  Decoration  is  now  all  the  rage, 
and  the  poor  florist  flowers  do  not  afford  that  brilliancy  of  colour 
or  stateliness  of  form  which  seem  now  indispensable  to  garden 
favourites. — D.,  Deal. 
Strawberry  Tlje  Laxton. 
After  a  period  of  eight  years’ successive  watchfulness  and  selection 
the  Messrs.  Laxton  Bros,  of  Bedford  have  been  rewarded  with  a  new 
variety  of  Strawberry,  whose  present  qualities  place  it  in  the  foremost 
rank  and  among  the  select  few,  of  all-round,  meritorious  representatives. 
This  new  variety  has  been  thought  worthy  by  these  Bedford  Straw¬ 
berry  specialists  of  bearing  their  own  name,  for  it  is  called  “The 
Laxton.”  The  party  that  visited  Laxton’s  nurseries  on  Monday  last 
without  one  dissentient  voice  spoke  in  unqualified  praise  of  the  new¬ 
comer,  and  at  the  Drill  Hall  meeting  of  the  38th.  inst.  the  Fruit 
Committee  awarded  a  first-class  certificate  to  this  variety.  As  a 
bearer  it  is  much  above  the  average  in  prolificness.  The  fruits  are 
firm,  and  consequently  will  travel  well  ;  they  are  very  large,  conical 
in  shape,  regular  in  outline,  deeper  in  colour  than  Royal  Sovereign, 
and  have  strong  stalks.  The  flavour  is  very  agreeable,  luscious,  yet 
piquant,  which  sharpens  the  palate.  “The  Laxton  ”  bids  fair  to 
supplant  even  that  excellent  all-round  variety  Royal  Sovereign,  and 
we  have  faith  in  this  prediction.  No  greater  praise  of  its  merits 
could  be  given.  The  parentage,  by  the  way,  combines  Royal  Sovereign 
and  the  tried  Sir  Joseph  Paxton.  It  ripens  ten  to  twelve  days 
earlier  than  the  former.  The  foliage  is 
robust  and  well  held  up.  It  is  probable 
that  the  stock  will  be  reserved  for  another 
season. 
Societies 
Strawberry  The  Laxton. 
^  - 
The  Hoyal  Horticultural. 
''  _  w'  V  •  .JV  ...  * 
*  *  ^  Scientific  Committee,  Jane  18th.' 
Present  :  Dr.  M.  T.  Masters  (in  the 
chair)  ;  Messrs.  Druery,  O’Brien,  Chapman, 
Saunders,  Michael,  Houston,  Gordon, 
Holmes,  Drs.  Muller  and  Cooke,  Prof. 
Church,  Revs.  Engleheart,  Wilks,  Wolley- 
Dod,  and  G.  Henslow,  Hon.  Seo. ;  Visitor, 
M.  H.  Correvon,  Geneva. 
Abies  hybrids. — Dr.  Masters  exhibited 
four  specimens,  all  different,  the  result  of 
a  cross  between  A.  Pinsapo  and  A.  Nord- 
manniana,  and  one  specimen  between  Picea 
Alcockiana  (or  ajanensis  P)  and  P.  nigra, 
var.  Doumeti.  This  is  remarkable  for  having 
the  stomata  on  the  upper  side  of  the  leaf, 
in  correlation  with  the  habit  of  the  leaves 
lying  horizontally  with  the  upper  surfaces 
downwards.  The  paper  will  be  published 
in  full  in  the  Society’s  Journal. 
Cornflowers  diseased. — Mr.  J.  Laws  sent  specimens  of  Centaurea 
cyanus  badly  afflicted  with  “rust.”  Dr.  Cooke  reported  upon  it  as 
follows: — “Plants  of  Centaurea  cyanus,  oovered  with  rusty  spots  on 
leaves  and  steme,  were  sent  to  the  Committee  in  a  deplorable  condition. 
This  fungus,  as  far  as  present  experience  goes,  is  the  same  as  that 
which  attacks  Chrysanthemums,  and  is  called  Uredo  Hieracii.  Plants 
in  the  condition  sent  should  at  once  be  rooted  up  and  burnt.  It  will  be 
well  understood  how  dangerous  it  would  be  to  have  such  a  pest  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Chrysanthemums,  and  probably  others  of  the 
Composite,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Cornflowers  themselves.” 
Potamogeton  crispum. — Mr.  Mark  Webster  described  a  pond  infested 
by  this  Pondweed.  Cutting  it  down  with  a  scythe,  as  practised,  would 
oidy  tend  to  propagate  it  still  more.  Mr.  Correvon  observed  that  the 
only  method,  as  adopted  in  Geneva,  to  keep  the  Water  Thyme,  Elodea 
canadensis,  in  check,  was  to  clear  out  the  pond  once  in  three  years. 
Other  members  suggested  the  introduction  of  water  snails,  especially 
Lymnsea  stagnalis  and  species  of  Planorbis. 
Dendrobium  dimerous. — Mr.  R.  Young  of  Liverpool  sent  a  flower 
having  only  two  petals  and  two  sepals,  a  not  uncommon  form. 
British  Orchids. — Mr.  Bowles  sent  specimens  of  Liparis  Loeselie,  as 
well  as  both  white  and  pale  varieties  of  Orchis  latifolia  var.  incarnata, 
from  Horning,  Wroxham.  The  former  is  interesting,  as  showing  the 
commencement  of  the  inversion  of  the  lip  in  Orchids  generally.  This 
petal  in  Liparis,  at  first  erect  and  posterior,  but  then  lies  flat,  so  that 
an  insect  readily  stands  upon  it.  In  Ophrys  the  lip  becomes  pseudo- 
anterior,  by  the  flower  simply  bending  over  to  the  opposite  side  of  the 
plant.  In  other  Orchids  the  falsely  anterior  position  is  due  to  a  twist 
of  the  pedicel,  as  in  Listera,  or  else  of  the  inferior  ovary,  as  in  Orchis. 
Mr.  Bowles  observes  that  the  “  Liparis  is  still  plentiful  at  Horning,  but 
owing  to  its  dwarf  stature,  and  the  boggy  nature  of  the  ground  in  whioh 
it  grows,  it  is  easily  overlooked.  It  thrives  wonderfully  well  in  an 
artificial  bog  made  of  Jadoo  in  my  rook  garden.  The  white  form  of 
