APRIL. 103 



tonia rivers, at an elevation of 5000 feet above the level of the sea ; 

 it will therefore without doubt prove hardy. 



Dr. Lindley has most appropriately named this tree " Welling- 

 tonia," after the greatest of modern men ; and in associating his name 

 with the monarch of the vegetable kingdom, naturalists will feel a 

 just pride in knowing that the memory of the great man is now 

 represented by the most suitable memorial that could possibly have 

 been paid to his greatness. 



HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY'S SCHEDULE. 



A LEADING article in the Gardener's Chronicle^ of the 11th of March, 

 professing to refute the observations made on this schedule in the 

 Florist of last month has greatly surprised me. The words especially 

 objected to are, " that in the present schedule there are great changes 

 and considerable reductions.'^ Let us see whether this is so or not. 

 First as to Fruit: hitherto it has been the custom to offer definite 

 prizes for each kind and variety specified, with fixed classes for it to 

 be shoAvn in ; but in the present schedule no classification is proposed : 

 the exhibitors are to show lioiv and what they please, and the judges 

 are to apportion a certain sum (or as much of it as may be deemed 

 requisite) amongst the exhibitors, " as they may think fit." Now if this 

 is not a " great change," what is a great change ? Then as to prizes 

 offered (1 beg to repeat the word ' offered'): in 1853 the amount was 

 92^, 55. each show, besides the classes left to the discretion of the 

 society's ofiicers; this year the average amount is 60/. (the sums 

 being 50/., 60/., and 101.) Surely this is a considerable reduction. 

 The Editor of the Chronicle says the amount is something more than 

 was ever awarded (observe the word ' awarded') before. That is not 

 the question ; what is now and what has been offered (not aAvarded) 

 is the subject of dispute. The case of A, as put by the Editor in 

 illustration of the presumed advantages of the plan of showing now 

 proposed, is, to say the least of it, ingenious ; that A should get a 

 prize because he can show three kinds of fruit together, each of which 

 might be beaten separately, amounts to this : that inferior productions 

 are to be rewarded, provided there be but enough of them heaped 

 together to make up an exhibition. How fruit-growers may like this 

 they will probably take means to make known. In short, the new 

 plan of showing is so vague, that it need be a matter of no surprise 

 if it should very materially curtail the exhibition of fruit, never very 

 strong even under the best of circumstances. The next statement 

 objected to is "want of liberality ;" and the Editor, in exculpating 

 the Society from this charge, points to the amount now offered for 

 Orchids, which he states to be 261/., instead of 157/. 16s. as in 1853. 

 The amount offered in last year's schedule for Orchids was 178/. 10s. 

 (not 157/. 16s.); but the writer forgets (I will not say wilfully) that 

 subsequently an additional offer was made, amounting to 106/, 



