i88i.] R. C. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 233 



experience of the effects of drinking and dancing at country shows, he was led 

 to denounce such practices. Holding flower-shows as being ostensibly got up 

 in the best interests of our humanity, bearing on Christian civilisation, he de- 

 nounced the use of intoxicants among the promoters and servants, and also at 

 the dinners of the judges and committee. Instead of providing the judges of 

 fruit with brandy, as was usually done in their tasting and discriminating 

 operations, he proposed that they should follow the example of many of the 

 great tea-merchants, who had very delicate work in tasting tea samples, by 

 using a few drops of Condy's Fluid in a glass of water, and which would serve 

 the purpose more effectively than brandy, as sixpence- worth of Condy's Fluid 

 would go farther than £100 worth of brandy. 



Both papers were much appreciated, Mr Scrymgeour's remarks giving rise to 

 considerable discussion. Mr Edward Moir, Newport, exhibited a splendid pot 

 of Saxifraga burserianum, clothed with at least one hundred and twenty 

 blooms of delicate white flowers. Two trusses of the beautiful snow-white 

 Rhododendron Duchess of Buccleuch, with richly perfumed flowers, fully 

 three inches in diameter, were also exhibited by Mr William Alison, Sea view 

 Gardens, Monifietb, A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the pro- 

 ceedinsjs. 



ROYAL CALEDONIAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ^ 



The spring exhibition of this Society on the 6th and 7th of last month, not- 

 withstanding the severe weather of the eight days preceding it, and the in- 

 tense frost on the morning of the first day's show, was a very successful one, 

 the tout ensemble being enhanced by the wintry nakedness everywhere out of 

 doors when compared with the brightness within the AVaverley Market on these 

 two days. Some of the classes, as for example those for Hyacinths, were not 

 up to their usual quality; but on the other hand, the Azaleas were finer than 

 have been seen in Edinburgh for a number of years. Picking out the more 

 important features in the prize-list, we must revert to Hyacinths, and find that 

 the twelves were eclipsed by the premier collection of nine sorts staged by 

 Mr Pearson of Beechwood. Czar Peter, Geoeral Havelock, Koh-i-noor, Superb- 

 issima alba. Garibaldi, Charles Dickens, and Von Schiller were very fine. 

 Tulips were gay, of course, but the individual flowers smaller than they are 

 when a limited number are grown in each pot. In the classes for one and four 

 Azaleas, Mr Paul's large cone-shaped specimens were placed before the equally 

 robust though not so shapely bushes of ^Mr Paterson. For the six stove or 

 greenhouse plants, Mr Paterson held his old position ; but here his antagonist 

 followed very closely on his heels. The premier collection was composed of a 

 large Anthurium Schertzerianum, a Tetratheca, two Azaleas, an Erica, and a 

 huge Chorozema. Mr Paul's lot was made up of an extra large specimen of 

 Coelogyne cristata (only thinly bloomed), two Azaleas, a very good Countess 

 of Haddington Rhododendron, and Genetyllis tulipifera. There was nothing 

 noteworthy about the foliage-plants. The table of plants set up by Mr Priest 

 was well balanced, and contained, besides well-flowered examples of Azaleso 

 and other decorative plants, a few good Orchids, notably two very good vari- 

 eties of Odontoglossum Pescatorei, 0. Alexandra, Masdevallia Lindeni, and a 

 distinct variety of Odontoglossum Lindleyanum with shorter and more obtuse 

 floral segments than ordinary varieties, the ground-colour being of a lemon 

 shade instead of a greenish-yellow in ordinary forms. The second-prize table 



