556 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
December  17,  1903. 
Modern  Progress  in  Horticulture." 
“  There  never  was  a  period  when  the  .science  of  gardening  was 
so  universally  and  so  ardently  cultivated  as  it  is  at  present.” 
This  statement  is  as  true. to-day  as  it  was  when  Speedily  wrote 
it  in  the  preface  of  his  celebrated  treati.se  on  the  Grape  Vine, 
published  in  ]790 — over  a  century  ago.  We  must  never  forget, 
however,  that  individual  opinions  are  apt  to  be  rosy  or  drab, 
according  to  the  good  or  bad  position  or  circumstance  in  which 
the  individual  wlio  expresses  them  is  placed  for  the  time  being. 
Environment  influences  men’s  judgment,  a.s  it  also  does  many 
other  things.  The  liighest  point  to  which  any  art  or  craft  can 
rise  is  not  altogether  expressed  by  the  highest  and  best  results 
attained  by  any  one  gifted,  individual,  or  even  by  a  small  set  of 
individuals,  but  rather  by  the  highest  average  excellence  attained 
by  the  whole  community.  When  we  try  to  judge  of  horticultural 
progress,  we  must  be  clear  as  to  what  the  main  premises  really 
mean.  We  may  also  ask  if  garden  progress  has  risen  all  along 
the  main  trunk  or  line,  or  whether  some  particular  branches 
have  not  been  improved  and  elevated  to  a  higher  standard  than 
others. 
Well,  on  the  whole,  I  think  that  upward  progress  in  all  ways, 
however  great,  has  really  been  Ic.s.s  than  is  generally  supposed, 
and  that  what  many  call  progress  is  rather  a  wider  diffusion  or 
outspreading  of  good  culture.  In  a  word,  we  have  probably  a 
hundred  good  gardens  to-day  for  every  ten  good  gardens  of  fifty 
years  ago,  this  increase  being  due  to  improved  trade,  better 
education,  and  other  social  and  economic  conditions.  The  richest 
people  in  England  to-day  are  not  all  aristocrats  and  landlord.s, 
and  many  of  our  best  present-day  gardens  really  belong  to 
merchants  and  others  connected  with  our  manufactures  and 
export  or  import  trade.  When  we  look  at  the  particular  branches 
of  horticulture  we  find  that  there  is  nothing  stable  :  everything 
is  in  a  transition  stage  as  the  years  go  by.  Broadly  speaking, 
it  is  best  for  horticulture  that  fashion  and  taste.s,  or  hobbies, 
should  thms  change  from  time  to  time.  It  brings  into  focus 
new  things,  new  interests,  and  affords  opportunities  for  new  and 
able  men  of  all  classes.  In  the  garden  there  are  certain  products 
that  nearly  all  must  have,  .such  as  fruit  and  vegetables  and  hardy 
flowers:  and  then  there  are  things  which  middle-class  people 
uun/  have,  ending  at  the  top  of  the  ladder  with  horticultural 
luxuries  which  only  the  rich  can  afford  to  grow  or  otherwise 
obtain. 
In  ‘exotic  flower  culture  especially,  change  has  been  and  is 
.still  rife.  Gone  are  the  huge  and  more  or  less  complete  collec¬ 
tions  from  most,  if  not  actually  all,  large  nurserie.s,  because  they 
are  no  longer  popular  in  private  gardens — Ericas,  Cape  Pelar- 
gonia,  Ferns,  hard-wooded  plants  from  the  Cape  and  Australia, 
and  many  other  special  things.  ‘‘Bedding-out”  is  much 
modified,  and  the  growth  of  elephantine  exhibition  plants  has 
nearly  ended  to-day.  Even  the  .so-called  “  florist’s  flowers  ”  as 
fltirisf’s  flowers  are  on  the  wane;  so  also  with  hybrid  ijerpetual 
or  ‘‘  show  Roses,”  .so-called,  and  many  other  once  poirular  things. 
Of  course  these  things  still  exist,  and  the  best  of  them  are 
often  grown  far  more  largely  than  before,  but  not  for  exhibition 
purposes.  In  a  word,  gardening  has  been,  and  is,  very  largely 
influenced  to-day  by  a  deep  and  healthy  and  much  broader  public 
taste  than  ever  before  in  our  history.  C’ultivated  and  artistic 
people  do  not  like  to  see  show  Roses  and  Chrysanthemum.s  stuck 
hard  and  fast  into  stiff  wooden  boxes,  nor  Pansies  and  Carnations 
in  paper  collars  to-day.  We  can  most  of  us  remember  how  the 
late  John  Gib.son,  of  Battersea  Park,  modified  the  bedding-out 
arrangements  there  by  what  has  since  been  called  sub-tropical 
gardening.  Then  we  had  the  still  exi.sting  change  in  favour  of 
hardy  herbaceous  and  rock  or  Alpine  flowers. 
The  Narcissus  hobby,  again,  has  occupied  attention  for  years, 
and  still  exists,  even  if  perhaps  a  little  less  fervently -than  a  year 
or  two  ago.  The  Iris,  the  Paeony,  and  the  Viola  have  had  and 
retain  popularity,  just  as  did  the  Auricula,  the  herbaceous  Phlox, 
the  Hollyhock,  the  Anemone,  the  Ranunculus,  the  Pansy,  and 
the  florist’s  Tulip  before  them.  We  had  hardy  wild  gardening 
as  an  improvement  on  half-hardy  sub-tropical  bedding,  and  now 
many  are  practically  expressing  a  taste  for  flowering  trees  and 
shrubs,  for  Bamboos;  indeed,  the  Bainboo  garden,  or  “  Bam- 
booscry,”  the  pergola,  the  water-garden  for  choice  coloured 
Water  Lilies  and  other  aquatics,  and  the  morraine  bed  or  border 
seem  present-day  rivals,  of  the  pinetum  and  the  wire  temple 
roseries  of  other  days.  We  have  had  a  Sweet  Pea  and  a  Dahlia 
revival,  and  now  that  Daffodils,  excepting  the  best,  of  course, 
are  on  the  wane,  we  are  to  have  the  Garden  Tulip  as  a  coming 
flower. 
Plants  of  to-day  mu.st  be  decorative  or  both  beautiful  and 
u.seful  selections,  and  not  merely  formal  or  curious  coUcctions, 
and,  as  often  happened  in  the  past,  both  difficult  and  expen.sive 
to  cultivate.  Owners  of  gardens  to-day  do  not  emulate  the 
botanical  gardens,  as  did  those  at  Woburn,  Chatsworth,  or 
Knowsley  in  days  agone ;  and  for  this  very  reason  our  botanic 
•  A  paper  re.ad  before  the  Horticultur.xl  Club,  London,  by  F.  \V.  Burhi  Ige, 
M.A.,  V.M.H.  Printed  in  Journal  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society. 
gardens,  with  their  full  collections,  hold  an  interest  for  us  now 
that  they  scarcely  ever  held  since  the  early  history  of  botanical 
gardening  began.  Selections  useful  and  beautiful  versus  collec¬ 
tions  curious  and  rare  are  the  order  of  the  day.  Very  few 
country  gentlemen  now  ever  think  of  planting  a  “pinetum,”  as 
so  many  did  fifty  or  more  years  ago ;  and  still  the  best  of 
Conifers  are  sold  in  much  larger  numbers  to-day  than  ever 
before.  This  eclectic  taste  is  true  of  other  things.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  we  have  to-day  better  and  more  catholic  tastes  at  work, 
and  f/ie  niaiij/  have  now  acquired  the  taste  for  planting  and 
gardening  formerly  confined  to  the  few.  Even  the  poorest 
cottagers  and  allotment  labourers  to-day  may  possess  a  bit  of 
garden  if  they  care  to  do  so. 
Amongst  the  mo.st  potent  factors  of  change  and  progress  in 
nursery  management,  so  far  as  imported  Orchids,  bulb.s,  &c.,  are 
concerned,  have  been  the  public  or  auction  .sales  held  in  London, 
Liverpool,  Manchester,  Birmingham  and  other  large  towns.  The 
expenses  and  risks  of  collecting  abroad  and  the  lowering  of  prices 
consequent  on  competition  both  at  home  and  on  the  Continent, 
as  combined  with  the  effects  of  auction  sales,  have  revolutionised 
the  nursery  trade  formerly  done  in  these  exotics  and  other 
plants.  The  price  of  all  nursery  .stock  is  lowered  sooner  or  later 
by  auction  sale.s;  but  in  the  case  of  trees  aird  shrubs,  hardy 
plants,  and  Dutch  flower  roots  the  effects  are  not  so  apparent, 
as  the  wide,spread  public  demand  is  so  enormous.  In  the  case 
of  Orchids,  however,  for  which  ^the  demand  is  comparatively 
limited,  the  effect.s  were  more  immediately  seen.  As  a  con- 
secj[uenc6  Orchid  collecting  has  been  left  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  import  expressly  for  sales  by  auction,  and  one  result  has 
been  that  those  who  can  pay  for  glass  houses  and  fuel,  and  afford 
the  neces.sary  attention  and  labour,  may  grow  Orchids  if  they 
care  to  do  so.  An  enorumus  influx  of  new  and  beautiful  home- 
raised  seedlings  and  hybrid  Orchids  is  another  result  that  has 
been  encouraged  b.y  auction  sales.  In  other  words,  new  Orchids 
are  now  being  raised  by  the  thousand  under  glass  roofs  beneath 
an  English  .sky.  In  this  way  the  nurseryman  can  protect  himself 
and  his  creations. 
Good  and  beautiful  as  is  the  best  of  professional  gardening  in 
private  places  and  nursery  gardens,  I  think  I  may  safely  say  that 
the  greatest  ujiward  horticultural  progress  has  been  made  of  late 
y'ears  in  market  gardens,  and  especially  those  in  which  large 
areas  are  covered  with  glass,  and  having  all  the  modern  “  re¬ 
sources  of  civilisation  ”  in  the  shape  of  appliances  for  hastening, 
retarding,  or  otherwise  gi’owing  and  utilising  finits,  vegetables, 
and  decorative  plants  and  flowers.  These  glass-roofed  market 
nurseries  exi.<t  near  all  our  large  towns,  and  they  extend  fi’om 
the  Landis  End  to  John  o’  Groats.  I  never  look  over  one  of 
those  extensive  glass-roofeid  gardens^ — like  Rochford’s  at  Old 
Turnford — without  saying  to  myself  that  the  demands  of  Covent 
Garden  and  other  large  markets  have  led  to  some  of  the  most 
remarkable  phases  of  horticultural  perfection,  both  practical  and 
economic,  ever  .'<een  in  British  horticulture. 
We  all  know  the  dictum  of  Adam  Smith,  who,  in  writing  his 
celebrated  “Wealth  of  Nations”  in  1776,  said  market  gardening 
was  a  poor  calling,  because  nearly  all  persons  able  to  purchase 
garden  produce  were  also  able  to  grow  their  own  supplies.  This 
was  probably'  quite  true  at  the  time,  but  the  growth  of  largo 
towns  and  manufactures,  the  increase  of  population,  &c.,  have 
altered  things,  and  to-day,  not  only  is  there  a  good  open  market 
for  edible  garden  produce  gi’own  in  England,  but  for  iniported 
fruit,  vegetables,  and  flowers  to  the  annual  value  of  many 
millions  of  pounds  as  well.  To  grow  all  our  own  cereals,  meat, 
and  milk  irroducts,  and  even  our  own  poultry,  eggs,  and  honey, 
may  be  impossible' — I  do  not  say  it  really  is  so,  but  we  certainly 
ought  to  be  able  to  grow'  a  far  larger  pi'oportion  of  fresh  fruit, 
vegetables,  and  flowers  than  w'e  now  do. 
High  and  able  as  is  the  cultivation  in  our  best  of  private 
gardens  throughout  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  it  is  to  the  market 
gardeners  that  we  .shall  have  to  look  for  the  greatest  success  in 
British  horticultural  practice  and  methods.  The  reasons  are 
many,  but  the  main  point  is  that  gardening  is  in  mo.st  private 
places  a  matter  of  taste:  the  personal  equation  of  the  owners 
comes  in  largely,  likes  and  dislikes  being  many  and  varied.  Many 
private  gardens  having  both  ground.s  and  glass  houses  Aveli 
arranged  may  be  economically'  managed,  but  there  is  often  a 
good  cleal  of  sentiment  connected  with  them,  and  they  are  often 
badly  arranged  and  are  kept  up  just  as  horses  and  hounds,  or 
yachts  and  motor-cars,  and  other  luxuries  are  kept  up,  viz.,  for 
per.sonal  rather  than  for  economic  reasons.  With  the  trade  or 
market  gardener  cultivation  is  purely  an  economical  question, 
and  he  arranges  things  so  as  to  save  labour,  and  he  produces,  not 
what  he  likes  best  himself,  but  that  which  sells  best,  or  the 
things  he  can  grow'  at  least  cost  and  sell  for  most  money. 
(To  be  continued.) 
liselia  autumnalis. 
The  pseudo-bulbs  are  much  wrinkled,  ovate,  and  produce  two 
somewhat  linear,  coriaceous  leaves.  Its  rosy-purple  flowers,  nearly 
four  inches  across,  having  a  pale-coloured  or  white  lip,  are  borne  on  an 
erect  long  scape.  Tins  Mexican  species  somewhat  closely  resembles 
L.  crispa.  a  Brazilian  species,  but  is  moi'e  slender  in  all  its  parts. 
