THE FLOHAL WOKLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 219 



brought a dish of Easter Beurre pears, in excellent condition as to appearance, but 

 ■on tasting them they were found deficient of flavour. 



KoYAi Botanic Society, Second Great Show, June Gth. — This second show- 

 was one of the best ever held at these gardens. The subjects were generally good ; 

 there was an abundance of all needful elements, plenty of colour, plants of rarity 

 and value, many of them of gigantic stature, the arrangement artistic as it always 

 is, and rich beyond the average. The bank usually appropriated to orchids was 

 this time filled with pelargoniums, presenting a grand display of colour ; and in 

 spite of the absorption of pelargoniums by the International, there were at least 

 seventy great specimen plants in the brightest trim, equal in fact to any pelargoniums 

 ever shown — the fancies of course lighting up the mass with their peculiarly delicate 

 and sometimes " foamy" swells of colour. On the great banks all round were fine- 

 foliage plants, azaleas, and mixed stove and greenhouse plants in abundance, 

 presenting on every liaud a glorious combination of green and colour. In the 

 drop-down in the centre were several special compartments ; one was a railed-in 

 plot of zonale geraniums, where Mr. John Eraser had some splendid specimens, 

 Eugenie Mezard, The Clipper, and Beaute de Parterre looking like waxwork 

 .amongst them. Mr.; W. Paul filled up the remainder of the space with 

 the Beaton series, including of course Rebecca, St. George, Waltham Naiad, 

 and Crimson Queen. Another great block was filled by Messrs. F. and A. 

 Smith, of Dulwich, with a pavement of tricolors, and a lot of fine zonales — amongst 

 them Vesuvius, a fine scarlet ; Gipsy Queen, one of the cinnamon-zoned series, 

 and a regiment of reds and scarlets. A raised platform was occupied by Messrs. 

 Veitch with a sublime collection of new plants, including their wondrous 

 Marantas, the delicious Leptopteris superba, the Selaginella-like Retinospora 

 plumosa, the extravagantly beautiful and curious Amaranthus from the New 

 Hebrides, and a host of gems of similar rarity and value, with the noble palm Ste- 

 phensonia grandifolia for a centrepiece. In the "continuation," orchids, fruits, and 

 cut flowers, and beyond that again Mr. John Waterer's exhibition of rhododendrons. 

 Wovelties.—Fetuma Illuminator, from Mr. Clarke, of Brixton Hill, made a distinct 

 and brilliant appearance as a seedling last year. On the present occasion six 

 specimen plants were sent ; they were smothered with flowers from the rim of the 

 pot to the tips of their three feet of growth, and all the flowers tvere exactly alike 

 — that is, beautifully barred with white rays on a rosy-purple ground. All other 

 petunias of this class, however beautiful, as many of them are, have the habit ot 

 sporting to selfs, or of merging all their bars into one petal, or of changing their 

 bars to spots, clouds, margins, and sufl'usions, so that by the time you have grown a 

 fine plant you have lost its character. Mr. B. S.Williams, of Victoria Nursery, Hollo- 

 way, sent three new amaranthaceous plants. Alternanthera sessilis amoena, small 

 narrow leaves, variously coloured light green, buff, and fiery crimson. Telianthera 

 ficoides versicolor, small leaves, the colouring deep olive and carmine. Alternanthera 

 spathulata, long spatlmlate leaves, dull dusty green, bright gr^nss-green, carmine, and 

 creamy pink. From Messrs. Paul and Son, fine bunches of flowers of Pawlonia im- 

 perialis, the result, no doubt, of the hot dry summer of 1865, which thoroughly ripened 

 the wood of this noble tree, and, as in 1857, afforded opportunity for likening its 

 beautiful flowers to lavender-coloured gloxinias. From the same, a beautiful double- 

 flowered thorn, described as scarlet, but rather a deep pinky red. It is a most 

 beautiful variety, and will be much valued for choice collections of flowering trees. 

 Cytisus Laburnum Alkengerii, deep green hard shining leaves like an evergreen, 

 flowers in elegant bunches eighteen inches long. From Messrs. Jackman and Son, 

 Woking, three varieties of Clematis— namely, Alexandra, large indigo-purple ; 

 Velutina purpurea, large, neat in form, piu-ple with maroou shade; Maguifica, 

 very large, soft purple with distinct bars of reddish-purple, forming a four-rayed 

 star. 



Geraniums.— ^evr varieties abounded. The following were noted as the best. 

 —From Messrs. Paul and Son : Picturatum grandiflorum ; this belongs to the oak- 

 leaf section ; the flowers are very prettj', lowest petals a nice tone of rose, top rosy- 

 carmine. From Mr. Turner : Duchess of Sutherland, leaf light green with faint 

 umber zone, fine tiusses of nosegay flowers, colour carmine. A fine variety, and 

 quite distinct. From Mr. Frost, Maidstone : Maid of Lampeter, fine zoned leaf, 

 large flowers, petals overlapping, clear light cerise ; fine. From Mr. Windsor, gar- 

 dener to J. E. Eavenshall, Esq., Walthamstow : Pmk Globe, large dull green leaf, 



