THE PLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 125 



and the assortment so very choice that, irrespective of their irreproachable perfection 

 of growth, it would be hard to beat them as varieties. One of tlie loveliest was 

 Alba rosea, showing like Juno a rich shaded centre, with nearly pure white sur- 

 roundings, and the general character that of a pouting beautj', sleepy and volup- 

 tuous. Louise de Savoio, one of the gems among the teas ; Victor Verdier, brilliant 

 in colour, and very nearly true scarlet, certainly several shades more like best red 

 sealing-wax than the same flower appears in its summer bloom out of doors ; M. 

 Bernardin, fine in form and colour ; Prince Camille de Rohan, Madame de St. 

 Joseph, another gem among the teas ; Beauty of Waltham ; President, exquisitely 

 beautiful ; Adam ; Cliarles Lefebvre ; Princess Mary of Cambridge, this makes a 

 fine show rose, large, bold, plenty of it, the colour clear fresh pinky-rose ; on this 

 occasion it was rather too full out, and did not look so refined as Model of Perfec- 

 tion, which is nearly the same shade of colour, and a very refined and highly-finished 

 flower. Novelties. — Mr. Bull had a collection of aucubas in berry, and various odd 

 ferns, palms, and other useful decorative plants, not the least important of them 

 being a group of orange trees with ripe fruit on them. From the same, Azalea 

 punctulata, iiowers medium size and plentiful, specimens a foot high, having heads 

 of flowers a foot across. Tlie colours vary so much that no two are alike among 

 hundreds; the prevailing colours are white, salmon red, and pink in all degrees of 

 combination, but usually in stripes, spots, and splashes, in every case gay and pecu- 

 liar. From Mr. Wiggins, gardener to W. Beck, Esq., Isleworth, a whole batch of 

 cyclamens with variegated leaves. They were all small bulbs in the smallest 60 size 

 pots. Every plant had a great head of bloom, and there were several shades of 

 colour, and the leaves spread out far beyond the pots, every leaf three inches long, 

 and all marked in the style of Begonia amabilis, or Madame Wagner, the margin 

 having lunulate patches of silvery grey on a fine deep greeu ground. These plants 

 were all one year old. From Messrs. F. and A. Smith, of Dulwich, some new cine- 

 rarias. The best was Model, remarkable for its perfectly circular outline, flat, 

 broad petals, sharply-defined margin of richest niauvy-crimson, clear narrow white 

 ring, and neat grey disc. From Messrs. E. G. Henderson — Primula prenitens, Mrs. 

 Eyre Crab, a very chaste double flower, the petals notched on the edge, the 

 colouring consisting of stripes and patclies of pinky-lilac on a pinky-blush ground ; 

 Steivarti, a large single variety, blotched and striped rose-pink, on a blush-white 

 ground. From Messrs. Paul and ^on—PJdladelphus grandijlorus species issimus, 

 ■A fine large- flowered mock orange, which will be as useful for forcing as for gronpinc 

 with the choicest hardy flowering shrubs ; Diervilla mulUflora, the flowers axillary, 

 in bunches of two to five each, deep crimson, with very conspicuous white stamens 

 peeping out. 



CuTBusH AND Son's ExniBiTioN of Hyacinths at the Crtstal Palace. — 

 Messrs. Cutbush and Son, of Highgate, this year changed their course, and instead 

 of an exhibition at their Higligate nurseries, appropriated a very suitable spot in the 

 great house at Sydenham, and there out of their own resources alone made a grand 

 display of their favourite flowers. Of course hyacinths and tulips took the lead, but 

 with these were grouped Deutzias, Azaleas, Primulas, Cyclamens, Narcissus, forced 

 Solomon's Seal, one of the loveliest things in the show, Amaryllis, Rhododendrons, 

 Epacris, and a hundred other things radiant with colour, and, generally speaking, 

 deliciously odorous. The following is a selection of the finest varieties of hyacinths 

 in the whole exhibition. White, Alba supersissima, pure in colour, and forming a 

 fine, long, graceful spike. Alba maxima is a fine spike, with fine bells. Bridal 

 Bouquet, Crown Princess of the Netherlands, Grande Vedette, Mary Stuart, fine 

 bells : Madame Van der Hoop, very fine, rather distinct, but superb bells ; Queen of 

 the Netherlands, a most elegant style of hyacinth, as pure as driven snow ; Reine 

 Blanche, a strong grower, the huge truss embosomed in broad beautiful leaves ; Ne 

 Plus Ultra, large, elegant bells, each with a distinct purple eye; Virgo is fine in 

 spike, the bells elegantly formed, with the segments well faced. The best doubles 

 in this series are Grand Monarque de Paris, with dark eye ; Jenny Lind, early to 

 bloom, and one of the best to force ; La Tour d'Auvergne, an old favourite ; Prince 

 of Waterloo, large Bells and huge spike, first-rate for exhibition ; Sphajra mundi, 

 large blue centre, one of the latest. Shaded lohite and 5/m.sA classes comprise some 

 very beautiful varieties. Elfrida is an old favourite ; Grandeur a Alerveille, a 

 favourite for exhibition, habit robust, spike large and symmetrical ; Mammoth, very 

 large bells, and a massive spike ; Norma, warm, rosy-blush., robitst, the bells very 



