292 THE GARDENER. [July 



labour will be lessened while the most desired results are at the same 

 time augmented ; there need be no more naked beds during the winter 

 and spring months where spring gardening is not followed ; and where 

 it is, they will assist rather than prevent or retard it. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



Manchester has once more held its great Whitsun Show, and in 

 doing so has demonstrated that in Cottonopolis there is no such thing 

 as a decline in horticultural exhibitions to mourn over; and so no 

 doleful miserere comes from any one connected with its management. 

 The ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' spoke of it as " an exhibition of a first-rate 

 character, equal, perhaps, on the whole, to any of the great exhibitions 

 of ordinary years, metropolitan or provincial, and probably never sur- 

 passed, certainly very rarely equalled, except, indeed, at the Interna- 

 tional of 1866, in the elements of Orchids, which made a thoroughly 

 magnificent display — so numerous were they, and of such generally 

 excellent quality." The June Exhibition at Leeds, which opened on 

 the same day, suffered somewhat, as Manchester did slightly, from 

 the simple fact that it was impossible the same plants could be in two 

 places at once ; but any little drawback of this character was amply 

 compensated for in the fact that the amateur element about Leeds has 

 this season asserted itself, and wrested from outsiders the prizes they 

 have aforetimes borne away out of the district. This speaks well for 

 horticultural enterprise about Leeds, and is scarcely reconcilable with 

 symptoms of decline. The great exhibitions held at the Crystal Pal- 

 ace in May and June, and the great Exhibitions of the Royal Botanic 

 Society in the same months, have been warmly praised, as they deserved 

 to be ; while the large Show of the Royal Horticultural Society, held 

 on the 8th of June, was pronounced to be, by the highest authority, 

 without question "the best show of the season." There were some 

 grand specimen stove and greenhouse plants, some magnificent fine- 

 foliaged plants and superb Orchids shown on that occasion, but the 

 former were crowded together in the hateful arcades, and half their 

 beauty was lost in consequence. This does not look like a decline, 

 and the throngs of visitors at each of these great shows indicated that 

 the popular interest is as well sustained as ever. 



So far, the parallel between the metropolitan and large provincial exhi- 

 bitions holds good. Both have this season been of large extent and fine 

 quality ; but here the parallel ceases. The promoters of the former 

 complain that they cannot be made to pay ; or if they do pay, the 



