220 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



its ground. It is not the march of improvement that sends them out 

 of cultivation so much as the fact that they were never worth it; they 

 looked worth it for a moment, as many a pretentious flower has done this 

 season, but the piu'chascrs find themselves deceived, and instead of bujing 

 again when real excellence is offered them, they wait till the variety is 

 proved and cheapened ; and thus the profit, which must mainly be obtained 

 in the first season, is in great part lost altogether. We say, advisedly, 

 that on the present plan there are no definite means of judging the excel- 

 lencies of dahlias but by purchasing and waiting the issue ; the exhibi- 

 tion of dressed flowers and even of cut flowers alone, if undressed, affords 

 no fair criterion for an estimation of their comparative merits. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



HoETicULTXTEAL SOCIETY, Aug. 25. — At a meeting of the Floral Committee, the 

 Rev. J. Dix in the cliair, First Class Certificates were awarded to several new Dahlias 

 from Mr. Turner aud Mr. Keynes. A Verbena named Dr. Sankey, raised by Mr. 

 Edmonds, received a First Class Certificate. It is a large rosy puce kind, with a 

 lemon eye. A handsome Phlox, whife, with a well-defined rosy eye, named Mrs. 

 Standish, came from Mr. Staudish, of Bagshot, as did also some charming cut spikes 

 of new kinds of Gladioli. 



Sejit. 8. — The Floral Committee again met. A flue double Fuchsia, named 

 Marquis of Bath, from Mr. Wheeler, of Warminster, was considered a valuable 

 addition to flowers of its class. Mr. Veitcli sent Caladium Veitchii, a fine foliaged 

 plant, sent from Borneo, by Mr. Lobb. The leaf is peltate, arrow-headed, deep purple 

 on the under side, dark greeu above, with white border and white veins. It is pro- 

 bable it may prove not to be a Caladium, which cannot be determined until it has 

 flowered. A model showing how the ground will be laid out in terraces for the garden 

 of the Horticultural Society, has just been placed in the South Kensington Museum, 

 at the north end, near the entrance to the ornamental art rooms. Between the 

 Kensington Road and Cromwell Road the ground falls about forty feet, and using 

 this fact in aid of a general effect, the ground has been divided into three principal 

 levels. The entrances to the gardens will be on the lower level, iu Exhibition and 

 Prince Albert's roads, and the central pathway, upwards of seventy-five feet wide, 

 ascending through terraces to the third great level, will lead to tlic winter-garden. 

 The whole garden will be surrounded by Italian arcades, each of the three levels 

 having arcades of a different character. The upper, or north arcade, where the 

 boundary is semi-circular in form, will be a modification of the arcades of the Villa 

 Albani at Rome. The central arcade will be almost wholly of Milanese brickwork, 

 interspersed with terra cotta, majolica, etc., while the design for the south arcade has 

 been adapted from the beautiful cloisters of St. John Lateran at Rome. None of 

 these arcades will be less than twenty feet wide and twenty-five feet high, aud they 

 will give a promenade sheltered from all weathers more than three-quarters of a mile 

 iu length. The arcades and earthworks will be executed by the Commissioners for 

 the Exhibition of 1851, at a cost of £50,000; while the laying-out of the gardens and 

 construction of the conservatory or winter-garden, will be executed by the Horti- 

 cultural Society, and will cost about the same sum, the greater part of which has 

 been already raised. 



Crystal Palace, Sept. 7 and 8. — This was the third exhibition of the season, 

 and included flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Fine foliage plants were shown in 

 abundance, flowers were scarce, orchids plentiful, and in excellent condition ; fruit 

 uniformly good, but scarce as lo pines and melons. Among the ornamental plants 

 were Cycas revoluta, some scarce Berberries, several of them in fruit, Dracaenas, Cissus 

 discolor, Crotons, Yuccas, Caladiums, and a new Begonia called Marshalli, the leaves 

 boldly blotched -w ith silver. The exhibitors of these were Messrs. Young, Rhodes, 

 Oubridge, Nicholson, Summers, and others. Mr. Sim, of Foots Cray, had a splendid 

 collection of Fems aud Lycopods, and Messrs. Bimney, WooUey, Milne, Arnott and 



