580 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  December  25,  1902. 
Appointment. 
We  learn  that  Mr.  William  Bygrave,  late  of  Rous  Lench 
Court,  Evesham,  was 'appointed  in  May  last  as  head  gardener  to 
H.  Stafford  O’Brien.  Esq.,  Blatherwycke  Park,  Wansford,  North¬ 
amptonshire. 
Royal  Horticultural  Society. 
The  first  meeting  of  the  committees  of  the  Royal  Horticul¬ 
tural  Society  in  1903  will  be  held  as  usual  in  the  Drill  Hall, 
Buckingham  Gate,  Westminster,  on  Tuesday,  January  13.  An 
election  of  new  Fellows  will  take  place  at  three  o’clock.  To 
prevent  misunderstanding,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  com¬ 
mittees  of  1902  do  not  vacate  office  until  the  date  of  the  annual 
meeting,  1903,  and  in  like  manner  all  Fellows’  tickets  of  1902 
are  available  until  the  end  of  January,  1903.  At  a  general 
meeting  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  held  on  Tuesday, 
December  9,  fifty-one  new  Fellows  were  elected,  making  a  total 
of  1,140  elected  since  the  beginning  of  the  present  year. 
East  i!  nglian  Daffodil  Show. 
The  hon.  secretaries  (Messrs.  J.  Andrews  and  A.  E.  Stubbs) 
intimate  that  the  scholars  of  the  Middle  School  for  Boys  and 
Endowed  School  for  Girls  at  Ipswich  have,  through  the  kindness 
of  Air.  T.  E.  Cattell  and  Aliss  G.  Beatrice  Harrison,  been  able  to 
place  amongst  the  scholars  over  1,200  bulbs  for  competition  at 
the  above  show,  to  be  held  in  the  Public  Hall,  Ipswich,  on 
April  22  next.  Each  competitor  has  been  supplied  with  five 
bulbs,  instead  of  three  bulbs  as  last  year,  and  that  is  owing  to 
the  kindness  of  leading  English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  bulb  growers. 
Some  Old  Apple  Trees. 
Seymour  Keyser,  cf  Manheim,  Herkimer  County,  N.Y.,  has 
two  old  Apple  trees  on  his  farm  that  are  record  breakers.  One 
of  them  is  12ft  in  circumference.  It  is  a  Holland  Pippin,  and 
was  brought  from  Holland  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  tree  is  still  bearing  fruit.  Another  tree  fell  to 
the  ground  over  half  a  century  ago  ;  the  body  of  the  original  roots 
have  long  been  decayed.  The  top  of  this  tree  has  taken  root, 
and  receives  its  nourishment  from  the  lower  end  of  the  top  of  j 
the  original  tree.  The  Apples  are  of  the  Rustycoat  variety. 
This  tree  was  also  brought  from  Holland  at  the  same  time  as  the 
first  mentioned,  and  is  also  bearing  fruit. — “Country  Gentleman.” 
Birmingham  Gardeners’  Association. 
At  the  fortnightly  meeting  of  the  members  of  this  society, 
Air.  J.  Udale,  chief  horticultural  instructor  for  Worcestershire, 
Droitwich,  was  responsible  for  an  able  lecture  entitled,  “  Hardy 
flowering  shrubs,  with  relation  to  landscape  gardening.”  The 
essayist  strongly  advocated  the  massing  cf  flowering  and  orna¬ 
mental  foliage  shrubs  of  one  kind,  or  species  and  varieties  alone 
of  one  colour  or  a  combination  of  suitable  blendings  to  produce 
striking  pictorial  effects,  in  preference  to  the  indiscriminate  or 
intermixed  system  of  planting,  where  ample  space  would  allow, 
such  as,  for  instance,  public  parks,  extensive  private  pleasure 
grounds,  of  the  manse,  and  large  villa  grounds,  also,  of  course, 
in  a  most  limited  degree  in  the  small  villa  garden. 
/ 
Formation  of  a  British  Botanical  Association. 
For  the  purpose  of  promoting  a  closer  study  of  the  science  of 
botany,  a  company  is  being  formed  at  York,  and  it  is  to  be  known 
as  the  “  British  Botanical  Association.”  The  intention  is  to  take 
over  the  educational  department  established  a  couple  of  years 
ago  by  Messrs.  James  Backhouse  and  Son  (Limited),  in  connec¬ 
tion  with  their  York  nurseries,  and  to  carry  on  their  investiga¬ 
tions  on  systematic  lines.  The  property  to  be  acquired  consists 
of  an  acre  and  a  half  of  land,  a  suite  of  laboratories,  and  a 
number  of  greenhouses.  The  association  are  to  extend  their 
work  to  practical  agriculture  and  kindred  industries  by  offering 
facilities  for  accurate  seed  testing  and  the  investigation  of  plant 
diseases.  The  scheme  offers  no  speculative  attraction.  There 
will  be  no  share  capital,  the  liability  of  members  being  limited 
by  guarantee  only  in  addition  to  a  small  annual  contribution  to 
meet  expenses.  li^.l  ril 
Chrysanthemum,  Lord  Alverstone. 
Air.  Godfrey  writes  :  “  An  error  has  crept  into  my  letter,  on 
page  566  of  last  week.  I  meant;  in  respect  to  Lord  Alverstone, 
that  I  had  some  very  fine  blooms  on  plants  less  than  2ft  in  height  , 
but  the  three  blooms  I  placed  before' the  II. H.S.  Floral  C  ommit- 
tee  were  not  ‘  past,’  but  were  ‘  passed  ’  (by  the  Committee),  so  I 
supopse  I  over-estimated  them.’” 
Free  Speech  in  Liverpool  Parks. 
Since  the  lamentable  Kensit  affair  the  Parks  and  Gardens 
Committee  have  been  seriously  considering  the  advisability  of 
allowing  meetings  to  be  held  in  the  parks,  but  as  yet  it  does  not 
appear  likely  to  be  fulfilled.  A  bye-law  distinctly  states  that  no 
such  meetings  shall  be  allowed,  and  this  the  committee  do  not 
feel  justified  in  having  altered..  Irom  various  opinions  ex¬ 
pressed,  it  seems  at  present,  all  in  favour  of  the  parks  being  kept 
as  heretofore,  viz.,  a  place  for  quiet  recreation,  where  the  public 
may  find  rest  from  the  turmoil  of  the  busy  city,  and  be  free  from 
any  irritating  consequences  such  meetings  might  probably  entail. 
— R.  P.  R. 
New  Recreation  Ground  for  Seacombe. 
Last  week  there  was  opened,  in  connection  with  the  Urban 
District  Council  of  Wallasey,  a  central  recreation  ground,  situate 
in  Seacombe.  The  position  is  a  beautiful  one,  overlooking  the  River 
Mersey.  For  the  space  at  command,  the  shrubbery  arrangements 
have  been  placed  to  very  great  advantage,  whilst  the  fact  has 
not  been  lost  sight  of  that,  here,  in  this  populous  district,  the 
rising  generation  must  be  catered  for,  suitable'  provision  in  the 
way  of  swings,  &c.,  having  been  carefully  considered.  For  the 
more  mature  members,  bowling  greens  of  large  dimensions  cannot 
fail  to  be  of  great  advantage.  Much  levelling  has  been  required, 
the  whole  reflecting  the  greatest  credit  on  Air.  Rooking,  the 
parks  superintendent,  whose'  work  has  been  well  executed. 
R.  P.  R. 
National  Dahlia  Society :  An  Appeal- 
We  have  received  the  following  letter  addressed  to  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  above  society :  At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  London 
Dahlia  Union,  held  on  November  4  last,  at  the  Royal  Aquarium, 
the  chairman,  Air.  John  Green,  announced  his  intention  of  giving 
a  ten-guinea  challenge  cup,  to  be  competed  for  in  the  premier 
amateur  class  for  Cactus  Dahlias  at  the  annual  exhibition  of  the 
London  Dahlia  Union,  the  cup  to  become  the  property  of  the 
winner  if  won  for  three  consecutive  years.  This  liberal  offer  of 
Mr.  Green’s  places  the  London  Dahlia  Union  in  a  position  to  offer 
a  considerably  greater  attraction  to  amateur  exhibitors  than  the 
National  Dahlia  Society.  Although  the  supporters  of  the  Dahlia 
are  doubtless  united  in  wishing  success  equally  to  both  societies, 
I  feel  sure  that  the  members  of  the  National  Dahlia  Society  would 
regret  to  see  this  society  placed  in  a  position  of  secondary  import¬ 
ance, and  I  therefore  venture  to  suggest  to  my  fellow  members  that 
an  endeavour  should  be  made  to.  raise  the  sum _ of  twenty  guineas 
by  subscription,  for  the  purpose  of  offering  two1  ten-guinea  chal¬ 
lenge  cups,  one  to  be.  offered  i if  the  premier  Cactus  Dahlia  class 
for  nurserymen  and  the  other  in  the  premier  Cactus  Dahlia  class 
for  amateurs,  the  cups  to  become  the  property  of  the  winners 
if  won  for  three  consecutive  years.  The  National  Dahlia  Society 
numbers  160  members,  and  if  each  member  would  be  willing  to 
subscribe  2s.  6d.,  a  sum  of  £20  would  thus  be  raised,  which  I 
should  be  happy  to  increase  to  twenty  guineas,  in  addition  to  pay¬ 
ing  the  expenses  of  the  printing  and  sending  out  of  this  appeal, 
and  acknowledging  all  subscriptions  sent  to  me.  Although  a 
member  of  the  committee  of  the  National  Dahlia  Society,  I  may 
say  that  I  am  making  this  appeal  simply  as  a  private  member  of 
the  society  to  my  fellow  members.  All  subscriptions  sent  to  me 
will  be  duly  acknowledged,  and  handed  over  to  our  hon.  trea¬ 
surer,  C.  E.  Wilkins,  Esq.,  together  with  a  list  of  the  subscribers 
and  the  amount  of  each  subscription.  Alight  I  venture  at  the 
same  time  to  make  another  appeal ;  which  is  that  each  member  of 
the  society  should  make  an  effort  to  introduce  at  least  one  new 
member  for  1903?  If  this  could  be  accomplished,  and  each  new 
member  subscribed  no  more  than  5s.,  the  result  would  be  an  im¬ 
portant  addition  to  the  income  of  the  society,  thus  enabling 
better  prizes  to  be  offered  at  the  annual  exhibition,  which  could 
hardly  fail  to  increase  the  competition  and  improve,  the  all-round 
quality  of  the  exhibits. — P.  W.  Ttjlloch,  “  Sterndale,”  New 
Church  Road,  Hove,  Sussex,  December  11,  1902. 
