192 



JOURNAL OP HORTICOLTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( September 11, 1873. 



Una, Bosa, Zeta, and Canova. Mr. WitherBpoon, Chester-le- 

 Street, was a very creditable second, and I would draw especial 

 attention to his collection for several reasons. In the first place, 

 his garden is 2-1 yards square, and yet he managed to show in a 

 collection, and in twenty-fours, besides showing at Bishop 

 Ancklaud last week; in the second place, with the exception of 

 three flowers, his twenty-four were all Mr. Banks's seedlings 

 bought at 20s. per 100 ; and in the third place, he had intro- 

 duced the innovation of putting-in Asparagus foliage to hide the 

 naked stems, and I am free to confess the effect was good. I 

 think he deserves immense credit for the 2eal he has displayed 

 in Gladiolus culture, and Mr. Banks will be surprised at the 

 position his rejected seedlings have taken in Mr. Witherspoon's 

 hands. In the class for twelves, Mr. Kelway put forth his 

 strength, and exhibited some magnificent flowers, all, with the 

 exception of one, his own seedlings. He had Orange Boven with 

 sixteen flowers open, Ovid, Amarus, Mrs. Reynolds, and others, 

 seven of them being awarded certificates. Lord Hawke was 

 second with somegraudly-fiuished flowers — Le Titien,Lacepede, 

 Horace Veruet (magnificent), Marie Stu.art, Legouve, Le Phare, 

 Norma, MadameFurtado,Eloise, Margarita, and Eugene Scribe. 



Next in grandeur to the Gladiolus — probably preferred by 

 some — were the Hollyhocks, and here Lord Hawke was/acj/e 

 princej^s. Probably twelve such spikes were never before exhi- 

 bited, and with one or two excej^tions they were all his own seed- 

 lings. Midnight and Leviathan were the exceptions. The seed- 

 lings were Vanguard, Golden Eagle, Excelsior, Mauve King, 

 Oriflamme, Eleanor, Isabel, Blanche, Talisman, and Lilac Rival. 

 The second prize was taken by Mr. Harrison, of Darlington ; and 

 the third by Mr. H. Minchin, Hook Norton. In twenty-four cut 

 blooms the same exhibitors occupied the same position. Lord 

 Hawke's flowers were Red Cross Knight, Phryne, Harold, Walden 

 Queen, Golden Eagle, Mr. Gates, Conquest, Goldfiuder, Waldeu 

 Princess, Seedling Blush, Talisman, Blanche, M.ijestic, Exhi- 

 bitor, Formosa, Vansruard, &c. In six spikes Lord Hawke was 

 again first, and Mr. Harrison second. 



Dahlias were well exhibited by Messrs. Clark, Walker, &c. 

 The best thirty-six comprised Sir Greville Smythe, Acme of Per- 

 fection, Guardian, S. Naylor, Thomas Hobbs, Ne Plus Ultra, In 

 Memoriam, J. N. Keynes, Mrs. Boston, Chairman, Thomas Good- 

 win, Mrs. Dodds, Fanny Wyatt, Hebe, Vice-President, Criterion, 

 Toison d'Or, Pearl of Beauty, John Standish, James Bennett, 

 Chancellor, Annie Neville, Favourite, Lady Gladys Herbert, 

 Baron Taunton, Yellow Boy, Delicata, Peri, James Cocker, and 

 W. P. Laird. These were exhibited by Mr. Clark, of Leeds; 

 and Mr. Walker, of Thame, was a good second. The two great 

 competitors of late years, having retired — Mr. Keynes, of Salis- 

 bury, and Mr. May, of Bedale, the field is now open for other 

 competitors. 



It was not to be expected that Roses would be very good, 

 nevertheless Mr. Prince, of Oxford, had a very fine box from his 

 cultivated Briar stock, which were exceedingly good for the 

 season. They were Mons. Laurent, Dr. Andre, La France, 

 Senateur Vaisse, Madame Lefebvre Bernard, Charles Lefebvre, 

 Paul Neron, Madame de Ligneris, Comtesse d'Oxford, Annie 

 Wood, Clcmpnce Raoux, Madame Victor Verdier, John Hopper, 

 Louis Van Houtte, Baron Haussman, Alfred Colomb, Emilie 

 Hanaburg, and Fraurois Michelon. He had also a most wonder- 

 ful box of Paul Neruu. 



Asters were also well exhibited, and Messrs. Cole's collection 

 of cut flowers was exceedingly fine, comprising fine bunches of 

 Musa coccinea, AUamanda cathartica, Odontoglossum grande. 

 Erica Austiniana, Miltonia spectabilis, Ixora WilUamsii, Ste- 

 phanotis floribunda, Statice profusa. Erica ^emula, Stanhopea 

 grandiflora, Lapageria rosea, Alirides suavissimum. Erica Jack- 

 mauni, &c. 



BOUQUETS, &c. 



There was in these classes a very good competition, and ex- 

 ceedingly well arranged were some of those which obtained the 

 prizes. The first prize for wedding bouquets was taken by 

 Mr. F. Perkins, Leamington, for one a little too large, perhaps, 

 but very beautiful, in which Pancratium illyricum had been 

 admirably utilised, with white Camellias, i'c. Mr. Turner, of 

 Liverpool, was second, and Mr. Yates, of Sale, third. The 

 latter, however, was first for three ball bouquets, the most 

 exquisitely tasteful I have, I think, ever seen ; there was such 

 delicate harmonising of colour, such absence of vulgarity or 

 lumpiness, that they were really deserving of all praise. The 

 same gentleman took first for three stands for the dinner-table, 

 faulty in some respects — hiding the guests from one another — 

 but yet arranged with so much elegance that it was necessary 

 to overlook these defects. Mr. Cypher was second with three 

 of the stands he generally uses ; they were, of course, well 

 arranged, but there was somewhat of heaviness at the base, and 

 the flowers had been a little too long exit. Mr. Turner was 

 thh'd. Mr. Yates was the only exhibitor of a stand for the 

 drawing-room ; it was, however, marked by his usual good taste. 

 In the plant cases for drawing-rooms, Mr. Ptersdorff, from Paris, 

 took first with a case containing a collection of dwarf succulents, 

 very novel and very effective. I have, I fear, outrun my space, 



but I cannot conclude without bearing my humble testimony to 

 the excelbnce of the arrangements, or without tendering my 

 thanks to Mr. Findlay for the courtesy with which we were 

 treated, and the manner in which all oiu' wants were so admir- 

 ably provided for. — D., Deal. 



THE DINNER. 



As already stated in our introductory remarks, the dinner was 

 held on the evening of the opening day in the Hulme Town 

 Hall. The Earl of Derby presided, supported by the Mayors of 

 Manchester and Salford. After the customary loyal toasts 



The Ch.vieman (Lord Derby), remarked : I need not tell you 

 that ours is not a political gathering [hear]. I need hardly add 

 that it is not a gathering of a very formal or ceremonial kind 

 [hear, hear] , and I hope that fact will plead my excuse when, 

 in compliance with the suggestions of those who are responsible 

 for the arrangements of this evening, I pass over various toasts 

 which, on a more solemn occasion, it is usual and might have 

 been desirable to propose [hear, hear]. I do not think the 

 members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, of 

 the army and navy, and of the clergy [hear, hear], will feel 

 themselves particularly aggrieved because they are not called 

 upon severally and collectively to answer for their healths 

 [hear, hear]. If they are I beg to say in anticipation that the 

 omission does not imply any disrespect to them [hear, hear]. 

 I come, therefore, at once to that which, upon these occasions, 

 is called the toast of the evening ; and before I sit down I shall 

 ask you to drink " Prosperity to the Manchester Botanical and 

 Horticultural Society " [hear, hear] . I can propose that toast 

 the more briefly because that prosperity which I wish for the 

 Society is not now, as it might have been years ago, a thing to 

 be wished and hoped for, but hardly to be expected. It has in 

 a very great degree become, and it is becoming in a still greater 

 degree, an accomplished fact [applause]. The Society has 

 passed through many troubles, and undergone many difficulties 

 — as most of us, whether individuals or institutions, do in the 

 course of our days [laughter] ; but I think that we see land at 

 last, and that there is now before us a reasonable security that 

 we shall not come to failure in the long run [hear, hear], I 

 dare say there may be many people to whom the idea of estab- 

 lishing a botanical society or holding a horticultural exhibition 

 in the very heart of the Manchester district may seem — of course 

 I am speaking of people a long way off — like an attempt to grow 

 Grapes in Norway, or set up a cotton mill in a West India 

 sugar island [laughter], for of course we must allow that the 

 presence within a few miles of us of something like a million of 

 population, nearly all of whom are engaged in tradmg or rnaun- 

 facturing pursuits, mth an accompaniment of more machinery 

 and probably more smoke than is to be found elsewhere in tha 

 same compass anywhere in these islands — that these are not 

 circumstances which would promise well for the success of 

 botanical or horticultural displays. But there are not many 

 things impossible to human energy [hear, hear]. That is a 

 doctrine which is pretty thoroughly impressed upon us in 

 Lancashire, and just in proportion as the display and as the 

 preservation of rare and beautiful specimens of horticultural 

 skill is rendered difiicult for us by the local circumstances of our 

 position, just in the same proportion those who hve in this 

 neighbourhood are the better prepared to enjoy sights which 

 contrast in so striking and marked a manner with those which 

 are habitually before our eyes [applause]. I once heard a friend 

 of mine say that there was one advantage of living in a great 

 town, and that was that you thoroughly appreciated the country 

 [laughter], which, he contended, rural residents never did or 

 could do, because, being used to it, they took all the beauty 

 and all the enjoyment of what was around them as simply 

 a matter of course. Now, I do not go so far as that ; but I 

 think we may see in this case the operation of that universal 

 law of nature which tends, as far as it goes, to lessen the 

 differences of human conditions — the law, I mean, by which 

 all advantages and all sources of enjoyment are keenly ap- 

 preciated, just in the degree in which they are obtained with 

 difliculty, and in which they are rarely available. Well, now, 

 gentlemen, you will not expect me to ai'gue about or to explain 

 the general advantage which arises from exhibitions such as 

 that which we have witnessed this morning. There are some 

 things which are too plain for argument, and which illustration 

 can only serve to make less clear. I suppose we may all take it 

 for granted that the English people, in these days, are coming 

 more and more to be inhabitants of great towns. That is, as I 

 suppose, a necessary condition of our present industrial exist- 

 ence. Under the system of machinery now only beginning to 

 be introduced, rural labour will be performed with fewer hands; 

 the rural population, if it does not diminish, will probably, at 

 any rate, not increase ; and co-incident with that state of things 

 you will have the continual expansion of our great towns with 

 a perpetual increase of manufactures and of trade ; and you have, 

 in addition, the creation of now urban communities, such as that 

 of Barrow, in the north of this county— a process which is pro- 

 ceeding with a rapidity which seems rather to belong to a new 



