THE 



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February, 1861. 



She royal HOIITICULTURAL society will take 

 ^ precedence during 1861 in the direction of horticultural 

 energies, and in ministering to the public taste for ex- 

 citement and display. After all its buffetings, mistakes, 

 mishaps, and declensions, there is a vast life in it still, 

 and a great promise of its acquiring more than its original 

 j)restige in the execution of the programme set before us for 

 ) the present season. The success of the new garden as a perma- 

 nent institution is a matter on which we can speculate only as one 

 of probabilities; but there will be so much novcltj'- in the desigti, 

 and it wiU be opened on the 5th of June next under such distinguished 

 patronage and liberal encouragement, that, for the present at least, we 

 may regard it as the centre of attraction to all who are interested in the 

 pi'ogress of gardening as a science and a recreation. On the 5th and 6th 

 there will be a miscellaneous exhibition at Kensington Gore ; on the 10th 

 of July a rose show; on the 11th of September a show of dahlias; and 

 on the 6th and 7th of November a show of fruit and chrysanthemums. 

 We Avill venture to express a fear that the last of these is fixed at too early 

 a date for many of the leading growers of the chrysanthemum, who, it 

 must be remembered, are not all located in warm and forward districts. 

 The revival of the fruit show we regard as the most satisfactory of the 

 features in this programme, for there was never a more instructive and 

 entertaining spectacle got up by the Horticultural Society in its palmiest 

 days than the great autumn exhibition of fruit ; and, now that the Pomo- 

 logical Society is shrivelled up, a great general gathering of pomologists 

 has become a desideratum. All the other shows we could do without; 

 not that we have any misgivings as to their success and usefulness, but 

 simply because good exhibitions of flowers are sure to take place even if 

 the oegis of the Society were not lifted in their aid. The schedules of the 

 shows are published in full in the January issue of the Society's "Pro- 

 ceedings," and on those schedules we will offer a few observations. 



We will first remark, that in the apportionment of prizes very sub- 

 stantial encouragement is off'ered to amateur cultivators, and under this 



VOL. IV. XO. II. c 



