1870.] NOTES OF THE MONTH. 389 



writer. When the adjudicators have selected what they consider the best essay, 

 the eDvelopes will be opened, and the unsuccessful manuscripts returned to their 

 owners. The essay to which the prize is awarded is to be the property of the 

 editor of the 'Gardener's Magazine.' The 1st of October will be the latest date 

 on which competing essays can be received. The adjudicators are Mr William 

 Haywood, engineer to the Commissioners of Sewers of the city of London ; Mr 

 Alexander M'Kenzie, landscape-gardener, and director of gardening to the Metro- 

 politan Board of Works ; and Mr Shirley Hibberd, editor of the ' Gardener's 

 Magazine.' " 



The sum was originally stated at ten guineas, but considering the 

 great importance of the subject, and its varied bearings in relation to 

 the drainage of towns, the donors have determined to double the 

 amount. 



What constitutes a Nosegay Pelargonium appears to be just now a 

 pertinent question. At the Pelargonium Show at South. Kensington 

 on the 3d of August several Nosegay Pelargoniums were staged, but 

 so much like the zonal kinds, both in habit and size and shape of the 

 flowers, that the judges were puzzled, and in one instance submitted 

 a variety to the Floral Committee for their opinion. The large truss, 

 with its profuse succession of pips, is still retained ; but the windmill 

 petals, and the somewhat lank habit of growth, have, in what is n o w termed 

 hybrid nosegays, given place to rounded well-formed flowers of fine sub- 

 stance, allied to close-growing compact habits in the plants. The florist 

 has directed his attention to the production of form in the nosegay 

 varieties, and succeeded to such an extent, by crossing them with finely- 

 formed zonal varieties, as to impress the character of the latter on both 

 flowers and habit ; hence the reason for asking, " What constitutes a 

 Nosegay Pelargonium 1 " Would it not be better to abandon such a 

 purely artificial and arbitrary distinction, and class them all in the 

 general category of green-leaved bedding Pelargoniums'? 



Messrs Veitch & Son, Exotic Nurseries, Chelsea, have just bloomed 

 a magnificent specimen of Dendrobium MacCarthise, which had at one 

 time more than 100 expanded flowers ! A truly noble sight. 



A remarkable hybrid Lily has just been exhibited by Mr George 

 Thomson, The Gardens, Stan stead Park, Ems worth, the result of a 

 cross between L. auratum and L. lancifolium speciosum. A bloom of 

 it was produced at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on 

 the 3d of August, white in colour, and handsomely spotted with crim- 

 son ; in build it resembled L. lancifolium, but with rather broader 

 petals and a flatter surface, and while richly perfumed, yet not so 

 powerfully as L. auratum ; the foliage partook more of the character 

 of L. auratum. No particulars were furnished as to how and when 

 the cross was effected, and how long a time expired before the seed- 

 ling plant bloomed. 



