232 THE GARDENER. [May 



or single specimens on the la^^^l, where the character of the ground and 

 situation were favourable. With such a variety of materials at command, 

 the intelligent planter, by judicious grouping and wise distribution, would 

 be able to form scenes of great interest and picturesque beauty. The 

 grouping system, where it could be carried out, was preferable to any other. 

 Dense backgrounds could be formed, and these again relieved by foreground 

 masses of rich variegated shrubs of striking character. These, again, could 

 be "toned down"' by dwarf plants having silent shades of green with 

 tlowers. Boundary belts should exhibit in the garden or lawn side bold 

 curvatures of outline, in the deep recesses of which the ingenious gardener 

 might erect rockeries and grottos, or form lakes, rivulets, and cascades. Mr 

 AVatt did not approve of the annual digging of clumps and shrub borders, as 

 much injury was done to the young roots thereby. All mural decorations, he 

 thought, should harmonise in style with the mansion, as should also the 

 design of flower-garden if seen from the windows. September and October he 

 considered the best months in which to plant evergreens, then deciduous 

 plants. The next best period was from April to May inclusive, but the opera- 

 tion, if conducted properly, would be successful at other seasons, the dead of 

 winter excepted, which he found the worst. 



Mr James Scrymgeour then read a lengthy paper on " Horticultural Exhibi- 

 tions." At the outset he said that, though personally greatly in favour of 

 such exhibitions, it might not be amiss if he recounted some of the objections 

 against them. He had met with those who, though practically favourable in 

 other respects to shows, did not care for their own gardeners becoming com- 

 petitors. They considered that the needful if not monopolising care, attention, 

 skill, and exertion required for special flowers, fruits, and vegetables, for which 

 they expected prizes and honours, proved detrimental to the general interests 

 of the garden. The gardener's heart and affections being set upon certain petted 

 and pampered favourites, to the detriment of all the unschedulable things under 

 his charge, his mantjeuvring with those favourites, among which he saw medals, 

 cups, cash, and honour, and the time and skill spent in forcing certain speci- 

 mens forward and keeping others back for certain shows, were far too much, 

 and the garden suffered accordingly. Moreover, the great bunches of prize 

 grapes, raised at the expense of numerous bunches ruthlessly nipped off the 

 vine without an opportunity of ripening, were not so sweet and pleasant as 

 the ordinary bunches. He had tasted of the great berries of the prize bunches 

 praised in all the newspapers, and found them poor indeed. He had also 

 tasted of berries taken from the biggest prize bunch ever shown in Scotland, at 

 Edinburgh, and found them, as did the fox of old, "sour as crabs." Mr 

 Scrymgeour, after forcibly pointing out the advantages of shows in stimulating 

 horticultural enterprise and promoting a love of flowers as a refining and civil- 

 ising influence, adverted to various of the leading features of shows with warm 

 commendation or denunciatory animadversion. His condemnation of the con- 

 duct of some mere prize-mongers was very severe. In showing the progress in 

 horticulture made by working men, even in large towns, he stated that not a 

 few of them had daringly entered the list with the gardener class, and not un- 

 frequently defeated them in vegetables and flowers. Some of the heaviest 

 specimens of vegetables, and the most splendid Fuchsias, Liliums, Geraniums, 

 and Ferns (British and exotic) ever seen at Dundee shows, were raised by 

 working men. In extolling the working men of Baledgarno, who every year 

 carry such a large and notable proportion of the prize-money at Dundee shows, 

 he gave a brief sketch of their village, and history of their society. From a sad 



