THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. li 



Crystal Palace. — The dates fixed for tlie leading exhibitions are as 

 follows : — National Bose Show, June 30 ; National Hollyhock Show, August 

 6; Chrysanthemum Show, November 15. 16, 17. 



Brixton Hill Amateurs' and Gardeners' Society, May 2. — A 

 meeting of this society was held for the purpose of inducing the resident 

 gentry to give it their support, and also to make its objects known among the 

 gardeners of Brixton, Streatham, Clapham, and Balham. The Bev. J. W. 

 Watson presided at a table in front of which was a stage of exhibition plants. 

 After a few introductory remarks by the chairman, Mr. Hibberd addressed 

 the meeting on the advantages to be derived from association for the promo- 

 tion of horticulture, and incidentally touched on various topics of interest in 

 connection with horticultural practice. After Mr. Hibberd's address, Air. 

 Broome made a few remarks in his own genial spirit, and a vote of thanks, 

 moved by the Bev. W. Baven, was passed to Mr. Hibberd for his attendance. 

 The rev. chairman then read a paper on the advantages of floricultural 

 societies, written by Mr. Monk, one of the committee. J. Hicks, Esq., 

 addressed the meeting, complimenting the members on the tasteful display 

 of plants ; and lastly, F. H, Hogg, Esq., gave a very hearty promise of sup- 

 port. The plants on the table in front of the president's chair were contri- 

 buted by Messrs. Livermore, Monk, Western, Merridue, Harper, Webb, 

 Glover, and others. Among them was a superbly-grown Begonia Bex, 

 some well-bloomed azaleas, Alba and Triomphans being especially good ; 

 Tropceolum Jarrattii, nicely trained on a flat trellis, and in even bloom 

 over the surface ; also a Boronia, a few stove ferns, some cinerarias of rather 

 middling quality, a few well-ripened grapes, and a plant of Annie Salter 

 chrysanthemum in a GO-pot, with two or three plump bloom buds, one 

 nearly ready to expand. This and the grapes were from Mr. Glover. 



Wellington Nursery, St. John's Wood. — Exhibition of Early 

 Tulits. — From the middle of April to the end of May the show-garden at 

 the nursery of Alessrs. E. G. Henderson has presented such a spectacle as 

 was never before seen in this country, and possibly never surpassed, even in 

 Holland, in the show of early tulips. At the time of our visit they had just 

 passed their prime, but the abundance, and richness, and well-planned variety 

 of colours sufficed to prove that in this class of bedding-plants we have the 

 very best of all subjects to precede the ordinary summer display. The bulbs 

 are started early in September, under a light covering of mould, each lot, of 

 course, correctly tallied, so that they make their first growth before the beds 

 are cleared of their summer furniture, thus securing early growth for the 

 bulbs, and continuing the bedding display to the end of the season. After 

 flowering, they are allowed to remain but a short time in the ground, but are 

 taken up in clumps, with some of the soil about their roots, and slowly dried 

 off in a reserve ground with their roots covered, until the foliage is quite 

 dead. This allows the planting-out of the summer stock early in June, and 

 is a decided advance in the art of producing successional flowers. The show 

 garden consists of a series of oblong beds, thirty-two in number. Each bed 

 is seventy-five feet long, edged with box, the edging running across the 

 alleys on the side next the road, but open at the other end for the entrance 

 between the beds for practical operations. There is also a narrow bed next 

 the public road for the trial of selected kinds. This bed measures over 300 

 feet. The thirty-two beds contain ten row3 of tulips each, and the experi- 

 mental bed four rows, ten tulips of a kind in succession all through. Ihere 

 are also seven or eight beds of offsets, which, when taken up, will be good 

 bulb3 for flowering. Altogether, there are not less than 4000 bulbs, and, 

 as to the flowers, coming two, three, and four to a bulb, their number is past 

 reckoning. The majority of the kinds are single, and planted apart from the 

 double ones, the latter being nearest the entrance, for their more showy 

 effect, though, we must confess, that with few exceptions in favour of the 

 double tulips, the single ones give us much more satisfaction, both as to form 



