THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN aUIDE. 



125 



compact and rounded trusses of flowers [ 

 stand erect above the foliage, and the bios- i 

 soms are of a bright orange-tinted scarlet 

 on the upper surface, and rosy-scarlet be- | 

 neath. Each truss contains from fifty to ! 

 sixty blossoms, which are retained upon 

 the flower-stem until the wliole are ex- '< 

 panded, a feature which is of great value ; 

 in all flowers intended for groups or for 

 vase culture. Its prolificacy of bloom, its 

 brilliant colour, and the globular outline of 

 its flower-heads, distinguish it from all 

 existing varieties. These properties, and 

 its adaptation to occupy a conspicuous 

 position as a background bed or group in 

 the flower-garden, give it a special value 

 for decorative purposes, where grandeur of 

 distant eff'ect is sought. [Messrs. E. Gr. 

 Henderson and Sons. Price 3y. 6d. each.] 



SAURAMATUM GUTTATUM. 



An ornamental greenhouse tuberous- 



rooted herbaceous plant, with very richly 

 spotted leaf-stalks, pitted or spotted with 

 brown-red upon a green ground tint, the leaf- 

 blades rising into large terminal spreading 

 divisions with pedate lobes. The flower 

 spathe generally appears before the leaves 

 unfold, of an oblong-lanceolate strap-shaped 

 outline from twelve to sixteen inches in 

 length, elegantly spotted with orange at the 

 base, and gradually merging into greenish 

 yellow and opaque brown spots towards the 

 extremity. Though said to be native of a 

 warm climate, it is found to adapt itself 

 to the open borders during the summer 

 months, where its robust leaf-stalks form a 

 very pretty object. The tubers require to 

 be taken up in late autumn and preserved 

 dry in pots or a greenhouse until spring, 

 and after being well started in growth and 

 gradually exposed, may be planted out in 

 flower borders. [Price 2s. 6d. and 7s. Gd. 

 each.] 



THE NEW aAEDENS OF THE EOTAL HOETICULTTJEAL 



SOCIETY. 



Ths immediate and unquestioning support 

 afi'orded to the Council of the Horticultural 

 Society, when it became known that it was 

 their intention to construct a show garden 

 at South Kensington, and devote hence- 

 forth the ground at Chiswick to purposes of 

 experiment, has neither been betrayed nor 

 trifled with. Fighting against a thousand 

 adverse circumstances — a bad season in 

 1860 for preparing trees for removal, a 

 dreadfully severe winter, the almost utter 

 extinction of many species of evergreen 

 shrubs, which would have been of immense 

 value for immediate eff'ect — the council has, 

 nevertheless, kept close and faithful to its 

 onerous duty, and the gardens already be- 

 gin to assume an air of finish sufficient to 

 enable any spectator, versed in horticul- 

 tural practice, to form a decisive opinion 

 as to their future permanent aspects. The 

 society has acquired but a small plot of 

 ground, and landscape eff'ects are out of the 

 question. Nor, indeed, would such be pos- 

 sible, even if twenty acres were laid out 

 after the ideas of Price and others of the 

 picturesque school, for there is no natural 

 scenery with which to blend, and in which 

 to lose a park-like disposition of irregular 

 planting. We shall have at Kensington 

 Gore an example of the application of high 

 art principles, and a very complete amal- 

 gamation of the French, Italian, and Eng- 

 lish schools, Mr. Nesfi eld's object being the 

 production of a finished picture replete with 



elaborate details, highly coloured, symme- 

 trical in geometric outlines, and inclosed 

 in a framework of bold architectural de- 

 design. That the gardens will be opened 

 on the 5th of June there can be no doubt, 

 but it is next to impossible that they will 

 then be completed, even as to the necessary 

 determination of the several features which 

 constitute the whole. Entering from Exhi- 

 bition Road, and passing the vestibule, we 

 reach the garden by a flight of steps, and 

 have before us the walk bounding the 

 two large spaces marked off" for floral exhi- 

 bitions. This walk divides the ante-gar- 

 den, and is intersected midway of its length 

 by the main walk, a space being left at the 

 point of intersection for a tank, in wliicli 

 hardy aquatic plants will be grown. From 

 this intersecting point we obtain a fair view 

 of the whole of the grounds, which lie be- 

 fore us northwards, and one eff'ect of this 

 disposition will be, that as the visitor pro- 

 ceeds step by step, the colouring of the 

 flower-beds will be seen to perfection, with- 

 out, at the same time, having to endure the 

 full glare of the sun. To look south upon 

 a flower garden is to see it under a disad- 

 vantage as regards light, and to lose alto- 

 gether the full eff'ect of flower masses and 

 contrasts ; in this respect the society has 

 been favoured by the fall of the ground, as 

 well as its position, and has judiciously 

 made the best- of favourable circumstances. 

 Looking round from the green turf, now 



