208 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



contributors. The fact is, all except the paper on grapes are really 

 replies to correspondents, and it happens this month that the questions 

 demanding attention in this way happen to fall peculiarly within my 

 province and range of practice, S. H. 



INTERNATIONAL HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION AND 

 BOTANICAL CONGRESS. 



N tbe June issue of the Floral World we gave a general sketcli of these 

 iS; important undertakings. It is now our good fortune to have to report 

 that complete success crowned the efforts of the promoters and the 

 j xSSg^l! several committees, and that a deep impression has been made upon the 

 public mind in favour of horticultural displays, and of the extension of 

 horticulture as one of the most important of the useful arts. Our space is too 

 limited to allow of anything in the nature of a detailed report, either of the show or 

 tlie proceedings in Congress, hut as we cannot, in justice to our readers, pass the 

 matter by, we shall make a few selections and gatherings of such matters as appear 

 to^have not only interest for the jiresent, but a lasting value, leaving some few 

 special subjects to be treated of at length, as opportunities occur. With no more 

 preface, therefore, we now proceed to pick and choose, and trust that what follows 

 will serve in place of a detailed report. 



Mr. Salter's Fifty Hardy Variegated Plants comprised subjects better known 

 than the gems from Messrs. Hackhouse, but in their way they were equally remark- 

 able for beauty. To give a full list of these would be to reproduce the last few 

 pages of Mr. Salter's catalogue, which anybody can obtain by sending to Hammer- 

 smith, and enclosing a postage-stamp to cover its conveyance ; but the following, 

 selected from the fifty, are recommended as reqiiisite in some way or other in every 

 garden: Arabis alpina and A. mollis, for edgings; Aubrietia deltoidea, for the 

 mixed border and for choice rockeries ; Dactylis glomerata, exquisitely beautiful 

 for edgings. For pot culture : Arum Italicum, a more beautiful plant than the 

 well-known and much-favoured Calla eethiopica ; Aspidistra elatior, Convallaria 

 majalis, one of the most elegant plants known ; it does not flower so freely as the 

 green-leaved Lily of tlie Valley, but it does flower, and that is something ; if it did 

 not we should be compelled to prize it for the delicate veining of the leaves ; Poly- 

 gonatum multiflorum, most graceful and attractive ; Sedum Japonica Fabaria, a 

 very bold and handsome plant, the variegation sulphur-yellow on a pale glaucous 

 green ground ; Sedum Sieboldi, the variegated form of this old favourite is not 

 much liked by cultivators, yet it has its merits, and is well worth a place in a cool 

 sunny house. For mixed borders and rockeries : Ajuga reptans, Artemisia vulgaris 

 (A. argentea should be thought of here ; what a lovely little tree it makes), Funkia 

 cucullata, Japonica, ovata, undulata, all fine, the variegation delicate, and the 

 flowers pleasing ; Lilium candidum, Pulmonaria sibirica, a grand plant, quite 

 rivalling some of the most celebrated variegated stove and greenhouse plants ; 

 Tussilago farfara, Veronica spicata. It is lioped the omission of " fol. var." in this 

 enumeration will not lead to any mistakes ; it is the variegated forms of these plants 

 alone that we have now to do with. 



^Exotic Ferns. — It may serve as an index of the extent of this glorious exhibi- 

 tion, and be particularly tormenting to many who were sceptical and refused to see 

 it, if we commence this paragraph by saying that the specimens shown in classes 

 for ferns numbered in all no fewer than 404 ! Not a few of these were tree ferns, 

 many were stove and greenhouse species of great value and wondrous beauty, and 

 the i5ritishers had all the importance due to them both for their hardiness, variety, 

 and beauty. In the class for twelve stove and greenhouse ferns, the highest post of 

 honour was assigned to Mr. Baines, of Bowden, whose plants were Dicksonia 

 antarctica, Alsophila excelsa, Cyathea meduUaris, Cibotium princeps, Gleichenia 

 flabellata, Davallia buUata, tenuifolia, and pyxidata — the finely-cut fronds of these 

 show well amongst the macrophylla kinds j Pteris scaberula, this fern rivals in 



