220 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



HORTICULTURAL AFFAIRS. 



JIHE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S SUMMER SIIOV, on 

 June 4 iind 5, w;is a pnmd affair. Tliere were three large tints well 

 filled. The largest of these contained new plants, stove and green- 

 honse plants, orchids, az.ileas, and the rest of the grand subjects that 

 lead the way in a first-class show in the month of June. Another 

 tent was filled with hardy herbaceous plants, fruits, vegetables, and miscellanies. 

 The third was occupied witli Mr. Anthony Waterer's exhibition of Rhodo- 

 dendrons. As a matter of course, the great tent devoted to stove and greenhouse 

 plants was the main attraction, and it is with great pleasure we record that 

 it was full of pood things, and contained somewhat more than an average of at- 

 tractive and valuaiile novelties. 'This tent was laid out iu the picturesque style, 

 ■with windinor walks and grass mounds, and on these the plants were arranged. We 

 cannot spare the space necessary to give a complete report of this important 

 gathering, but we would observe that our valued coadjutors, Mr. James, of Isle- 

 worth, and Mr. W. Cole, of Ealing Park, were amongst the leading prize- takers in 

 the more important classes. One of the finest thinjrs in all the show was a basket- 

 ful of the new Saxifraga ncj:alensis, from Messrs. Jaclison and Son, of Kingston. 

 This is quite hardy, and one of the pyramidal section, but surpasses that fine species 

 in splendour, and is, without doubt, the finest saxifraga in cultivation. The leaves 

 form a neat rosette; the flower-spikes rise two feet high, are delightfully symme- 

 trica], and show hundreds of neat round flowers of a delicate, pink-tinted, white 

 colour. 



The Royal Botanic Society held its second Summer Show on June 10, and 

 although not quite equal to the first exhibition of summer flowers held on May 20, 

 it was, on the whole, a most satisfactory gathering. Stove and greenhouse plants 

 were, as usual, well represented, as also were orchids, fine foliage plants, and 

 pelargoniums ; several large and interesting grcups of nev/- plants were also con- 

 tributed by Mr. B. S. Williams, and other trade exhibitors. 



The Royal Botanic Society, on the occasion of its special evening fete, to be 

 held on Wednesday, the 8tli inst., offer prizes for decorations for buffets, dinner- 

 tables, and sideboards for hanging and rustic baskets, and for hand, ball, and bridal 

 bouquets. The schedule comprises sixteen classes, six of which are set apart for 

 ladies, and the others are open to all exhibitors. 



The Camdridge Botanic Gaiidex is being improved by the re-arrangement of 

 the collection of herbaceous plants, and the curator has made sufficient progress to 

 justify a hope that the important task will be finished during the year. 



The Giant Puff-ball {L>/coperdon qiganteum), although one of the best of 

 the edible fungi, must be eateu when quite young, for there is considerable danger 

 in eating it when in a matured state. From the Scotsman we learn that Mr. 

 Sadler, while preparing a lecture for the Edinbui-gh Pharmaceutical Society on 

 edible and poisonous fungi, accidentally swallowed a quantity of the spores of a 

 large specimen, and within the space of an hour and a half he was seized with 

 severe illness, accompanied with violint pains, which were not subdued until nine 

 days after tiie first attack. 



The Sale of Specimen Plants at Southgate House, the residence of H. L. 

 Micholl, Esq., comprising 639 lots, realized £1,644 17s. 



The Sale or the Meadow Bank Oiichids, comprising 900 lots, realized 

 upwards of £2,000. 



The Flower SIission, instituted last year by Miss Stanley, for the purpose 

 of supplying flowers to the sick and poor, has, we are glad to learn, proved 

 most successful. We learn that from thirty-five counties in England contribu- 

 tions poured in, in answer to an appeal made ; and a weekly supply of country 

 flowers was given to seven or eight hospitals, besides enlivening the gloomy houses 

 of several hundred poor. It was new life to the dwellers in courts and alleys to 

 see and realize the succession of the seasons by this means; and the flowers must 

 have been a source of great pleasure to them. 



Obituary. — We have to record the deaths of JTr. John Salter, the well known 

 raiser of Chrysanthemums, and late of the Versailles Nursery, Hammersmith, at 

 the ripe age of 77 ; and of Mr. George Glenny, the author of the Froperties of 

 Flowers, and other works on floriculture, at the age of 81. 



