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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



Temple Gardens, and two professional florists, the whole of the productions 

 were from amateur growers resident in the locality — a result far preferable to 

 the crowding of the tables with nursery stock, intended much more to adver- 

 tise trading firms than promote a genuine love of horticulture. The show 

 comprised the leading subjects of the season; dahlias and fuchsias were 

 excellent, balsams better than at many other places this season, asters good 

 in growth and of good strains, hollyhocks equal to the best elsewhere. Mr. 

 Allen, of Stoke Newington, had sent some well-grown fuchsias, and Mr. 

 Wilkinson, of Old Ford, a very fine collection of balsams, asters, fuchsias, 

 and hollyhocks; Mr. Legge, of Edmonton, three stands of dahlias adrnirabfy 

 arranged. The prizes were awarded as follows to the amateurs of the local- 

 ity : — Class 1. Twelve cut blooms of Dahlias — 1st prize, Mr. T. Parker; 

 2nd prize, Mr. Page ; 3rd prize, Mr. Cant ; 4th prize, Mr. Pettegree. 

 Class 2. Six Dahlias, cut blooms (fancies and stripes) — 1st prize, Mr. C. 

 Parker; 2nd prize, Mr. A. Fisher; 3rd prize, Mr. Cant; 4th prize, Mr. B. 

 Pettegree. Class 3. Six Fuchsias — 1st prize, Mr. C. Parker; 2nd prize, 

 Mr. Gurney ; 3rd prize, Mr. Page ; 4th prize, Mr. Eickhoff. Class 4. Twelve 

 Asters, cut blooms — 1st prize, Mr. Gurney ; 2nd prize, Mr. C. Parker ; 

 3rd prize, Mr. Paterson ;~ 4th prize, Mr. B. Fisher. Class 5. Six Balsams — 

 1st prize, Mr. C. Parker ; 2nd prize, Mr. Lupton. Class 6. Three plants, 

 or six cut blooms — 1st prize, Mr. Paterson ; 2nd prize, Mr. Sinclair ; 3rd 

 prize, Mr. Parker ; 4th prize, Mr. Bosenwold. 



THE TEMPLE G-ABDENS AND THE LONDON PAEKS. 



In such a season as this gardens and gar- 

 deners should be dealt with in a spirit of 

 gentlest criticism. We have had almost 

 twelve months' continued winter, for the 

 deluge began in the middle of October, 

 1859, and has had but few and brief in- 

 termissions to this present moment. The 

 consequence is, that while such things 

 as recently-planted conifers, newly-made 

 lawns, American plants of all kinds, and 

 a few other subjects, that need a cool 

 bottom and abundant wet, have made 

 wonderful growth, and are in possession 

 of an abundant and luxuriant foliage, 

 whatever needs sunlight and sun-heat has 

 fared worse than in any season remem- 

 bered by the oldest amongst us. Cab- 

 bages and cauliflowers make leaves like 

 the dome of St. Paul's, but are as desti- 

 tute of hearts as usurers in romantic 

 novels. Fruits have no flavour, kidney- 

 beans no pods ; roses rot in the bud, re- 

 fusing to open their pretty eyes on a 

 wilderness of water ; and the corn lays 

 helpless and prostrate, soddened to the 

 ear, and rank with mildew. What a sea- 

 son for the Temple Gardens, where Father 

 Broome holds perpetual warfare with coal 

 smoke, sulphur fumes, the damp of the 

 river, and an exhausted soil. He grows 

 older in years, but younger in enthusiasm, 

 and in waging incessaut battle with the 

 elements, is always triumphant, and the 

 hero of more than a thousand conquests. 



Thirty years ago, when Mr. Broome first 

 took the Temple Gardens in hand, the 

 atmosphere was comparatively pure, and 

 the venerable trees that had given their 

 leafy shade to the walks of Goldsmith 

 and Johnson were in full health and 

 vigour. Since that time the river has 

 become a liquid railway, and previous to 

 the passing of the Smoke Act, the steam 

 traffic on the Thames and the chimneys of 

 factories in the vicinity of the gardens and 

 on the opposite of the river bred a black 

 cloud, that hung like a curtain of crape 

 over those once classic shades, and death 

 threatened to sweep away the last relics 

 of verdure in the City. It was a terrible 

 ordeal that Mi*. Broome's favourites hud 

 to pass through during the last few years 

 of the unmitigated emission of coal smoke ; 

 but even then he held on manfully, and by 

 perseverance and skill, he kept the garden 

 together, and actually improved it in its 

 general plan, and the variety of plants 

 under culture. The chrysanthemum had 

 been passing through remarkable phases 

 in the hands of horticulturists. John 

 Salter, of Hammersmith, had converted 

 the loose, weedy, but still acceptable 

 autumn flower, into a subject worthy of 

 the most painstaking care, and hundreds 

 of new varieties were from time to time 

 originated, and each better than the last, 

 so that the globular head of incurved 

 petals carried by the Queen, Themis, or 



