869.] 



HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS. 425 



•were first with capital plants of Lady Cullum, Princess Teck, finely coloured, and 

 Earl of Shaftesbury, golden-edged ; and Imperatrice Eugdnie, Miss B. Coutts, 

 and Banshee, silver-edged. Mr J. Tomkins, Sparkhill, was second with Lady Cul- 

 lum, Sophia Cusack, Sophie Dumaresque, Beauty, and Miss Tomkins, golden-edged ; 

 and Italia Unita, silver-edged. The open class for six variegated Pelargoniums 

 brought together almost all the forms of vai'iegated Pelargoniums, usiug it in its 

 broadest sense. Mr Tomkins was placed first with Burning Bush, Flower of Spring, 

 Silver Star, Stella variegata, Oriana improved, and Miss Kingsbury. Second, Messrs 

 G. & W. Yates, with Sophie Dumai'esque, Lady Cullum, Sophia Cusack, Countess 

 of Craven, Florence, finely coloured, and Italia Unita. The class for three double- 

 flowering varieties was so well filled (there being six competing groups) that it 

 may be taken as suggestive of the double varieties coming to play an important 

 part in our exhibitions. Messrs Carter & Co. of London were first with three 

 nice medium-sized plants of Madame Lemoine, Wilhelm Pfitzer, and Gloire de 

 Nancy. Second, Messrs J. Standish, Ascot, with Marie Lemoine, Madame Lemoine, 

 and Triomphe. Third, Mr George Edward, York, with Capitaine I'Hermite, Gloire 

 de Nancy, and Triomphe de Thumesil. 



The groups of hardy Conifers competing for the special prize silver cup were 

 objects of considerable interest, and were effectively grouped in the exhibition- 

 field, in the immediate neighbourhood of the great circular tent. Messi's 

 Barron & Son, of Elvaston Nurseries, were first with a fine lot, consisting of 

 Biota elegans, Sciadopitys verticillata, several handsome forms of Retinospora, 

 Cryptomeria elegans, Araucaria imbricata, Arthrotaxus taxifolia, Picea magnifica 

 glauca and P. nobilis, Larix Krempferi, Abies Hookeriana, A. Douglasii, and 

 others ; Thujopsis dolobrata, &c. Second, Mr John Shaw, Manchester. Messrs 

 R. & \V. Yates, and J. Standish & Co., also exhibited, while Messrs Barron & 

 Son, J. Shaw, and Standish & Co., also contributed groups of the rarer coniferous 

 plants, including some new forms of great beauty. Messrs Barron & Son were 

 first with six Hollies in competition for the special prizes given by the proprietors 

 of the Manchester Guardian, The kinds were Ilex aquifolia aurea major, aurea 

 vestita, nana aurea, Donningtoniensis, elegantissima, and medio-picto alba. Mr 

 Shaw was awarded the Manchester Courier special prize for ten deciduous trees 

 or shrubs, having Betula alba pendula, Quercus cerris variegata, Quercus pedun- 

 culata nigra, Deutzia crenata fl. -pi., Ulmus campestris aurea, Acer polymorphum 

 dissectum, fol. var., Cornus mascula variegata, Quercus robur aurea, Quercus 

 robur concordia, and Viburnum Lantana variegatum. Mr John Shaw was also 

 first with a pair of standard Hollies, showing Ilex aquifolia nana aurea, also with a 

 pair of Golden Yews, showing Taxus elegantissimus, and with a pair of pyrami- 

 dal Box-trees having Boxus variegata ; while Mr B. S. Williams, Holloway, was 

 first with a pair of standard Bays. 



Cut blooms of Carnations and Picotees were nearly as numerous as at Leicester 

 last year, though one might have supposed that the Manchester district being to 

 some extent the northern home of the Carnation and Picotee, these flowers would 

 have been much more largely represented. In classes 89, with twenty-four Carna- 

 tions, and 90, with twenty-four Picotees, Mr C. Turner, Slough, had grand flowers, 

 and both in size and substance of the blooms, as well as in their fine colouring, 

 so completely distanced the rival collections as to be without the pale of compari- 

 son. Of the former he had Flora's Garland, William Cowper, Rifleman, Di'ead- 

 nought, Prince Albert, Premier, Samuel Moreton, Anthony Dennis, Florence 

 Nightingale, Nymph, Sportsman, Squire Trow, Princess Royal, Lord Rancliffe, 

 King John, Duke of York, Captain Stott, Eccentric Jack, Brutus, Merrimac, 



