236 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
March  17,  1904, 
The  Umbrella  Pine. 
In  the  Journal  of  HorficuJfurc.  February  25,  page  160,  I  read 
of  an  I’lnbrella  Pine  at  Hewell  Grange,  Glos.,  inea.suring  Kift 
higli,  and  which  was  thought  to  be  large.  It  iniglit  interest  the 
writer  to  know  that  in  Ballyarthur,  Co.  Wicklow,  the  residence 
of  Col.  Bayly,  there  is  a  fine  specimen,  and  of  good  shape,  measur¬ 
ing  24ft  high,  with  a  circumference  of  41ft  of  growth  at  the  base, 
which  has  of  late  years  been  exposed  to  the  north  and  east  winds. 
There  are  also  many  fine  specimens  of  other  trees  on  the  estate. 
— J.  McClean. 
- - 
Chrysanthemum,  Winter  Queen. 
The  few  blooms  of  this  Chrysanthemum  M'hich  I  send,  were 
taken  from  a  vase,  after  being  cut  seventeen  days.  When  first 
cut  they  had  stems  from  18in  to  2ft  long,  but  by  changing  the 
water  alternate  days  and  reducing  the  stem  a  little  each  time, 
they  are  now  ojily  1ft  long.  For  some  days  the  vase  of  blooms 
was  placed  by  a  radiator,  and  the  room  was  warm.  This  proves 
that  AVinter  Queen  is  all  that  Mr.  Godfrey  claims  it  to  be.  Per¬ 
sonally  I  think  it  the  most  lovely  late  white  Chrysanthemum 
lhere  is.  The  blooms  last  for  a  A*ery  long  time  on  the  plants, 
and  are  of  the  pure,st  white,  and  of  lovely  form.  The  stems  are 
.stiff  and  wiry,  and  they  are  clothed  with  just  the  right  sized 
leaves,  and  not  too  thickly,  this  being  a  great  help  to  its  good 
lasting  qualities.  The  three  plants  we  had  were  grown  like  the 
ordinary  bush  plants,  and  were  pinched  several  times,  and  up¬ 
wards  of  a  clozeai  shoots  rvere  on  each  plant.  These  were  dis¬ 
budded  to  one  bloom  each.  If  two  plants  were  grown  in  a  lOin 
pot,  and  thirty  blooms  were  produced,  these  would  make  a  very 
profitable  and  beautiful  specimen.  I  still  have  two  vases  of 
Prince  of  Pinks  in  the  house,  of  good  colour,  but  the  plants  are 
not  of  .such  a  good  habit  for  cutting  as  AA'inter  Queen.  If  the 
latter  sports  at  all  I  hope  it  will  give  a  good  light  pink,  which 
will  be  valuable  for  February  and  March.  Mrs.  Swinburne, 
which  sported  last  year  a  beautiful  yellow  colour,  is  named  Mrs. 
George  Beech. — A.  Jefferies,  Moor  Hall  Gardens,  Essex,  March 
12,  1904. 
[Mr.  Jefferies  sent  some  good  flowers  considering  the  late  date 
and  the  long  time  they  had  been  already  cut. — Ed.J 
- - 
The  Vitality  of  Seeds. 
Fnder  this  title  a  number  of  correspondents  have  been  stating 
their  views  in  the  columns  of  the  “  Standard,”  London.  One  of 
the  latest  of  these  was  Mr.  Martin  J.  Sutton,  of  Sutton  and 
Sons,  who  has  also  favoured  us  ivith  his  views  expressed  there.  Mr. 
Sutton,  after  preliminary  observations,  goes  on  to  say: — “Some 
five-and-twenty  years  since  I  read  a  report,  rvritten  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  from  an  Indian  Government  official,  calling 
attention  to  the  fact  that  he  had  had  seeds  raised  by  his  gardener 
in  his  English  country  home  for  his  use  in  India  ;  that  while  some 
of  these  seeds  had  proved  excellent,  others  were  absolutely  worth¬ 
less.  On  inquiry  he  found  that  in  the  one  case  the  pods  con¬ 
taining  the  seeds  had  been  hung  up  in  the  chimney  corner  of  the 
kitchen  of  the  English  mansion  for  some  time,  and  the  seeda 
placed,  while  warm,  in  bottles  and  sealed.  The  seeds  that  had 
failed,  although  dried  in  a  similar  way,  had  not  been  bottled  for 
a  considerable  time  afterwards.  This  hint  was  sufficient  to  start 
me  on  a  long  series  of  experiments,  having  for  their  object  the 
safe  elimination  of  the  excess  of  moisture  which  all  seeds  contain 
as  harvested  in  the  English  climate,  however  dry  they  appear 
when  handled.  This  moisture  has  been  a  cause  of  very  great 
trouble  when  English  seeds,  packed  in  hermetically  sealed  boxes, 
passed  through  the  tropics,  where  the  heat  in  the  ship’s  hold 
caused  the  seeds  to  sweat  and  become  mouldy. 
“  Naturally,  I  found  there  was  a  very  great  diversity  in  the 
amount  of  such  moisture  contained  in  the  different  varieties  of 
seeds,  and  that,  while  some  seeds  could  safely  lose  an  amount  of 
moi.sture  equal  to  10  per  cent,  of  their  weight,  others  could  not 
part  with  more  than  5  per  cent,  without  injury;  consequently 
the  degree  of  dry  heat  to  which  seeds  could  be  safely  exposed, 
and  the  proper  duration  of  such  exposure  before  packing,  varied 
wry  much,  while  some  seeds  required  much  more  gradual  desicca¬ 
tion  than  others.  But  before  the  experiments  were  completed, 
knowledge  on  these  details  was  acquired,  with  the  result  that  j 
there  seems  hardly  any  limit  to  the  period  during  which  the 
germination  of  seeds  may  be  conserved  if  they  are  properly  pre¬ 
pared  by  drying  in  a  suitable  high  temperature  and  hermeGcally 
scaled  in  that  temperature. 
For  many  years  past  seeds  thus  packed  by  my  firm  have  been 
successfull3^  used  in  all  climates,  and  the  box  j'our  correspondent 
mentions  was  one  of  those  which  every  agent  of  the  t'hurch 
IMissionary  Society,  the  London  Missicnar.v  Society,  and  the 
Baptist  Missionary  Society  receives  annualiy,  containing  seeds 
for  his  personal  use  in  mission  gardens  from  the  tropics  to  the 
Arctic  Girclc. — Martin  J.  Sutton,  Reading,  February  23.” 
Gardeners  and  the  Study  of  Botany. 
Clearly  my  remarks  .regarding  above  have  touched  a  sen.si- 
tive  spot  in  “An  Old  Bothy  Boj’’s”  composition.  I  regret 
the  offence,  and  I  assure  him  it  was  not  my  intention  to  create 
a  fire  of  indignation,  or  stir  a  “  hornet’s -ne,st  ”  about  my  own 
ears.  I  am,  however,  amazed  at  the  tone  and  confession  of  hi;-; 
letter.  I  thought  the  days  were  past  when  gardeners  so  stoutly 
denied  the  great  advantages  of  botany  in  gardening.  The 
times  to  which  my  remarks  referred  were  not  yesterday,  and 
I  know  a  mighty  revolution  has  .swept  over  the  gardening 
world  since  then,  and  truly  I  was  very  much  struck  with  the 
last  century  ideas  he  expressed.  Botany  less  essential  than 
any  other  science  or  aid!  to  mj’self  is  a  mo.st  astounding 
assertion.  As  well  say  one  can  .succe.ssfull\’  practise  medicine 
without  physiolog,y.  What  is  botany,  and  what  is  gardening.^ 
Are  they  not  so  intimately  combined  that  separation  is  im¬ 
possible?  If,  of  course,  one  reduces  gardening  to  the  indignity 
of  “earth  grubliing  ”  and  nothing  more,  perhaps  “O.B.B.’s” 
ideas  of  the  noble  art  and  its  relations  to  botany’  may  be 
nearly’  correct.  He  puts  more  stre.ss  upon  the  acquisition  of 
Latin  (why  not  Greek?)  and  geometry  as  aids.  All  that  he 
enumerates  in  this  connection  I  agree  with  as  useful  to  the 
gai'dener,  but  none  more  so  than  botany’. 
Latin,  or  any  other  language,  however,  has  a  higher  pur¬ 
pose  than  that  ascribed  to  it  by  “  O.B.B.”  AA’hat  we  learn 
these  languages  for  is  to  solve  the  riddle  of  the  names.  AA’e 
may  never  acquire  the  proper  pronunciation,  though  we  may 
be  tolerably  good  linguists.  It  is  a  moot  que.stion  what  value 
the  ancients  gave  to  certain  vowels  in  pronunciation.  That 
being  so,  “O.B.B.’s”  pronunciation,  however  defective,  will 
invariably  pa.ss  muster  at  any  time.  There  is  more  in  the 
.study  of  botany  than  “  O.B.B.”  has  yet  been  enabled  to  dis¬ 
cover.  Apart  from  the  instructive  knowledge  it  imparts  of 
plant  life  and  stnicture,  it  spur.s  our  naturally  indolent  minds 
to  enter  into  other  subjects  immediately  connected  with  it, 
very  especially  Greek  and  Latin  and  Celtic.  What  is  in  a 
name?  is  a  question  one  often  heans.  Verily,  I  .say  that  in 
this  particular  field  of  nomenclature  there  is  indeed  a  world 
of  knowledge,  instructive  and  useful,  to  all  who  take  even  a 
tyro’s  interest  in  plants.  Surely  this  is  at  least  partly  known 
to  “O.B.B.”?  If  not,  he  has  got  along  so  far  in  bles.sed 
ignorance  of  the  greater  half  of  the  beauty  of  his'  profession. 
“  O.B.B.’s  ”  reference  to  my  botanical  expeditions  are  made 
just  in  the  manner  that  my  quondam  unbotanical  friends  were 
wont  to  do,  and  he  unblushingly  insinuates  that  bogs,  fens,  or 
dens  would  have  much  less  interest  for  me  if  I  had  more  work 
to  perform  during  the  day.  And  further,  goes  the  length  of 
supposing  that  it  was  I  who  really  hungered  after  the 
“  refreshment  bait.”  AA’^ell,  as  for  the  truth  of  the  latter, 
recent  disclosures,  as  ventilated  in  the  “Domain”  columns  of 
the  Journal,  will  suffice.  And  as  to  the  former,  I  may  inform 
“  O.B.B.”  that  at  the  time  which  I  referred  to  I  was  one  of 
fourteen  who  had  three  hours  at  the  scythe  before  breakfast 
every  morning,  wet  or  dry,  throughout  the  season,  and  equally 
severe  labour  during  the  remainder  of  the  day.  But  then  I 
knew  not  what  to  be  tired  meant,  and  to  go  a  distance  such 
as  I  stated  and  back  for  hammock  somewhere  before  sunrise 
was  never  considered  by  any  of  the  gang  of  us  a  very  serious 
inconvenience.  No  dreamy  indolence  favoured  my  early 
acquaintance  with  the  blue  apron.  It  was,  indeed,  a  most 
laborious  initiation,  so  much  so  that  I  am  doubtful  if 
“O.B.B.,”  had  he  been  there,  would  persevere  through. 
However,  I  must  not  digress,  else  the  editor  will  be  calling 
a  halt ;  but  I  must  say  a  few  words  about  the  bothy  before  I 
close.  “  O.B.B.”  appears  to  have  doubts  about  my  reference 
to  the  bothy  .system  in  relation  to  the  .study  of  botany.  AA^ell, 
if  he  has  seen  the  effects  of  intellectual  development  attributed 
to  the  congenial  environment  of  the  botny  I  have  not.  nor  do 
I  know  any  who  ever  has.  I  unhesitatingly  repeat  that  the 
bothy  system  is,  and  must  ever  remain  to  be,  antagonistic 
to  the  development  of  the  higher  intellectual  powers.  Any 
person  who  has  the  least  pretension  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
matter  could  never  say  otherwi.se.  The  bothy  is  just  good  for 
its  destined  purpo.se — a  .somewhat  convenient  habitation  for 
young  men  whose  service  and  phy’sical  powers  alone  are  wanted, 
without  much  or  any  anxiety  or  consideration  for  their 
