1871.] HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS. 231 



for a more extensive use of herbaceous and alpine flowers, and points 

 out the advantages to be derived from so doing. He treats compre- 

 hensively and clearly of their general culture, their propagation, and 

 the positions for which they are most suitable. The rest of the vol- 

 ume, extending to more than 300 pages, he has devoted to a descrip- 

 tion of over a thousand of the best species, which he arranges, very 

 properly we think, in their natural orders. His descriptions are thor- 

 oughly popular, and well calculated, as the author thus puts it, " to 

 impress on the mind of the reader the general character and value of 

 the plants from an ornamental point of view." And while he has thus 

 aimed at practical usefulness in his descriptions to those who wish for 

 showy and interesting selections, these descriptions are at the same 

 time so comprehensive that they are eminently calculated to assist in 

 identifying species. Peculiarities in culture required by particular 

 genera and species are pointed out while treating of each that could 

 not well have been embodied in his introductory and more general 

 remarks. We regard the work as calculated to be of great use to those 

 who wish to learn all that is possible, in a popular and decorative point 

 of view, of hardy herbaceous and alpine flowers ; and to young gar- 

 deners and amateurs who wish for the most substantial and reliable 

 assistance in this very interesting branch of gardening, there exists no 

 better book that we know of. It cannot fail to become a standard 

 work on the culture of the plants of which it treats, and it deserves a 

 wide circulation. 



HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS. 



The Royal Horticultural Society, April 5. — Cyclamens and Cinerarias were 

 the principal subjects invited at this meeting : it is too late in the season for the 

 former, and the latter were shown in second-rate order only, so that they were of 

 minor importance to the numerous fine collections of Orchids and other plants, 

 and to the magnificent groups of Roses in pots sent for exhibition. Also growing 

 in a large tub, and placed in the centre of tbe Conservatory, was a grand specimen 

 of Rhododendron arboreum, upwards of 20 feet in height, and covered with fully- 

 expanded trusses of its striking deep blood-red flowers. Roses were sent for ex- 

 hibition by Mr W. Paul of Waltbam Cross, Messrs Veiteh of Chekea, Paul & 

 Son, and Lane & Son ; all of them had healtby well-grown plants. Messrs Paul 

 & Son sent their new climbing Rose, Victor Verdier, and the first-class award 

 given to it at the Royal Botanic was confirmed here. Of varieties which ought 

 to be universally grown I noted the following :— Marquise de Mortemart, delicate 

 flesh, shading to white. Mr W. Paul had it very fine, but it is not generally of free 

 growth. Madame Creyton, very beautiful ; Francois Treyve, dark shining scarlet ; 

 Madeline Nonin, a fine globular Rose ; Marie Ducher, extra fine Tea; Pjincess 

 Christian, an immense rosy peach flower, with great breadth and substance of 

 petal; Souvenir de Poiteau, Hippolyte Flandrin, and Paul Neron, a fine dark 



