THE ELOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 43 



lates in the dark, or offers things known to be worthless as improvements 

 on existing kinds. Before a new esculent or exhibition flower comes into 

 the market, it has undergone a system of proof, for the very act of raising 

 stock is in some sort a guarantee of goodness. The ultimate trial is a 

 matter of time. In a few years such roses as Isabella Grey, Eugene 

 Appert, President, and Madame William may be put out of cultivation as 

 worthless, but they may, and very likely will, be in the enjoyment of a 

 fame equal to that which encircles the General, the Giant, and Devoniensis, 

 each of which have had to endure their share of abuse from those who 

 failed to make anything of them, or who attempted to proscribe them as 

 useless innovations. If there were not some adventurous spirits to give 

 encouragement to botanical travellers, raisers of hybrids, importers of 

 foreign productions, and the venders of things not yet in history, there 

 must be an end to progress in horticulture ; and, cater is paribus, as the sphere 

 of encouragement is widened, so the first prices of novelties will be re- 

 duced, and thousands may have a good rose, or a good chrysanthemum, or 

 a good grape or melon in its first year, instead of waiting until the first 

 hundred j)urchasers have made their vague reports. More than this, there 

 would be less excuse for extravagant panegyric in offering new plants, and 

 we should have a better chance of getting descriptions true to the letter, 

 and the sale of a few subjects of real worth would pay better than the sale 

 of many in which a large proportion had no value at all. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



The exhibition of Camellias at the Vauxhall Nursery of Messrs. Milne and 

 Co., has attracted very large numbers of visitors. The plants are in unusually 

 fine condition, and still remain so ; therefore,, those of our readers who are 

 growers of this best of conservatory plants, and who have not yet made their 

 pilgrimage to Vauxhall, may yet enjoy the pleasure of an inspection of the best 

 collection in London. At the Highgate Nursery, arrangements are making 

 on a more extensive scale than last year for the annual exhibition of Hya- 

 cinths. The show will be at its best about the second week of this month, 

 and will be worth a visit any time from this date to the beginning of April. 

 Messrs. Cutbush are large growers of all the hardy flowering bulbs, and have 

 always given considerable attention to the best modes of displaying them in 

 the open ground ; so that, in addition to the exhibition in the hyacinth-house, 

 visitors will see the best varieties of early tulips, and other spring flowers of 

 the same large and important class. The arrangements for the exhibitions of 

 the Horticultural Society, the Pomological, the Crystal Palace, and the Royal 

 Botanic, are all completed, and intending exhibitors may obtain schedules on 

 application, The gardens at Kensington Gore are progressing with good 

 speed. Mr. Eyles has been fully occupied since his appointment in preparing 

 his programme, and in completing the preliminaries to his active assumption 

 of the important duties of his position. For the first time during many years, 

 the Horticultural Society has a sound exchequer ; money has not merely been 

 raised, it has flowed into the society's coffers ; and the great project of an or- 

 amental garden cannot possibly fail for lack of funds. The Chiswick Garden 

 is to be wholly retained for Experimental Horticulture, and the proving and 

 comparison of garden varieties. We cannot but again wish success to the 

 enterprise ; the council have heavy responsibilities upon them, and the future 

 of the society must wholly turn upon the issue of its present undertaking. 



