70 THE FLORIST. 



gave higher prizes for the last year without any corresponding advantage. 

 To this I answer, that it came too late. Distrust and discontent had 

 taken possession of the exhibitors, the managing powers were unpopular 

 with them, and it became evident that Chiswick must fall under such 

 management. It is falling fast, and nothing but a thorough change 

 and a searching inquiry into the Society's affairs wih restore it to its 

 former level of success. 



However, a Select Committee is appointed ; and although I forbear 

 saying anything as to its constitution, I shall content myself by 

 waiting to see what they can suggest. I, however, caution the Com- 

 mittee, and your readers too, not to be led away by anything contained 

 in the very plausible report which the Council have published in vindi- 

 cation of their reasons for abandoning the gardens at Chiswick. Here 

 is an instance : — " It is needless to say with what extreme reluctance 

 this conclusion was arrived at. Upon public grounds, indeed, the 

 abandonment of the gardei s was less important than it would appear to 

 be, now that the magnificent Royal Garden at Kew, which is so much 

 more accessible by water and railway, has gained its present complete- 

 ness, &c." Permit me to ask, what there can be in common between 

 a public botanic garden and an institution founded for objects in a great 

 measure different, and supported from a different source ? What ! are 

 the noblemen and gentlemen who have founded and supported the 

 Horticultural Society at a liberal expense, to be told that their property 

 has become valueless, and the promoters' objects useless, because a 

 public botanic garden is become (as theirs should have been), a model 

 of good keeping and usefulness ! — and that therefore it will be better to 

 throw it up altogether ? No doubt, it would have been expedient for 

 those who have brought about so deplorable a result, to abandon the 

 gardens by giving up the lease, with the hope, perhaps, that all trace of 

 their incompetency would thus pass into oblivion. Why did not the 

 Council cite the Glasnevin Botanic Garden, or the Experimental 

 Gardens at Edinburgh, as bearing upon the subject ? They might have 

 done so with equal show of reason. 



Let the Committee appointed make a close scrutiny into all the past 

 proceedings of the Society, and give in their report on the past, and 

 suggestions for the future ; and when the proper time comes, I hope 

 means will be forthcoming for making this noble and useful institution 

 instrumental for carrying out the well-meaning intentions of its 

 founders. 



F. H. S. 



Lapageria rosea var. albiflora. — Tn the Jardin des Plantes 

 at Paris, a fine healthy plant of this has produced large white flowers 

 — approaching, indeed, to cream colour — with a tinge of rose at the base, 

 the flower stalks being each two to three flowered. The blossoms of 

 this important variety are stated to be larger than those, of the species 

 with which it forms a striking contrast, and it is altogether well worth 

 attention. It is figured in the " Botanical Magazine" for January last, 

 where it is reported to bloom freely in a cool moist greenhouse or 

 temperate Fernery. 



