.tanuarj H. 1877. 



JOOBNAL OF HOKTICULTUBE ANli OOTTAGS GAEDEKEB. 



2S 



Again, much monopoly is a great evil. This I have long [ 

 felt to be trno; it dispirits and scares away many exhibitors, 

 and perhaps if a handicap could satisfactorily be dovieed that ' 

 improved resnlte wonld be obtained. I 



I am not a great advocate for mixing Tree and other exotic 

 Ferns together at ehows, beeauee I consider it is wiser to have 

 the former exhibited by themselves ; and when we see, as wo 

 often do, three or four monster specimens with long stems put 

 up in groups of fix, eight, or nine, it is not easy to find others 

 of equal proportions to go along with them, and eo sometimes 

 a very incongruous and extremely uneven lot is staged — giants 

 and dwarfs in close company ! Take as one example a fine 

 PicUsonia antarctici, with a (J-foet stem and a h?ad perhaps 

 V2 or 14 feet in diameter, and a Todea superba not more than 

 3 fret over and a few inches high only from the top of the pot. 

 Tree Ferns are noble and magniticent objects, very stately 

 and imposing. That I readily admit, for I grow many of them ; 

 but from the comparative ease of cultivating them they would 

 not weigh much with me were I judging, and I should certainly 

 award the palm to a tine group of eight or nine evenly-matched 

 specimens, distinct in species (not merely in variety), highly 

 cultivated, fresh, bright, vigorous, and healthy, the perfection 

 of good staging (a point sadly neglected by many now-a-days) 

 in preference to another, though much larger, composed of 

 enormous Tree Ferns and Gleichenias. Give us one good 

 large group, at any rate, limited to one plant of each spe- 

 cies, and the overwhelming advantage at present enjoyed by 

 those who, like myself for instance, revel in a lot of fine 

 Gleichenias, those invincible XeUon-like heroes to a judge's 

 eye wonld be, most properly, done awny with. I once aeked an 

 old juilge how many Gleichenias I ought to put in a group of 

 eight Ferns. " How many V" said he. " Why eight, of course, 

 if you have thei::.'' Now I had them, fine plants, distinct 

 species too. What a wonderful sight they would have been ; 

 they were every one pictures of health and beauty ; but yet I 

 dare not stage them, and if I had done so, greatly as they 

 might have been stared at and admired, it is more than doubt- 

 ful whether they would have been placed first, though perhaps 

 worthy of even the Liudley medal. 



Let me here name twelve exotic Ferns to the notice of some 

 young exhibitor, which I toneider a first-rate selection, and 

 which, if staged thoroughly up to the mark and of goodly pro- 

 portions, would be, I am bold to say, nearly invincible. Each 

 is a distinct species, and the monster Tree Ftrns are left out. 

 Gleicheuia rupestris, Cibotium Sobiedei (not a Tree Fern), Da- 

 vallia Mooreana, Adiantum Furleyeuse, Todea superba, Erainea 

 insignis, Platycerium grande, Lomaria zamiit-folia or cjcadie- 

 folia, Leucostegia immersa, Cheilanthes elegans, Goniophle- 

 bium Bubauricuiatum, and I'teris eerrulata major maguifica — 

 a truly goodly company, gerus of the aristucracy. The last- 

 named ie a Fern hardly known, yet richly deserving the title 

 " magnifica," so broadly and superbly ia it crested. My own 

 plant is some -t to 5 feet high and as much in diameter, and 

 ia a beautiful object just now, as handsome and graceful as 

 need be ; it ia bound to make its mark some day. Now put 

 with these, for the purpose of completing, a tine group of, sny 

 fifteen, Dicksonia antarctica, Cyatbea meduUaris, Dickeouia 

 Bquarroea, Cibotium r^-gale, and Cyathea Burkoi, and I defy 

 any man to find a mi re perfect lot. 



I come now to wa'.rh you stage, say, eight of them. Let 

 Bae here first warn \ou, whatever show you propose going 

 to, invariably to take your best plants. Do not imagine 

 that this or that lot are quite weighty enough for your ad- 

 versaries, inasmuch as Mr. .Jones or Mr. Smith are sure to 

 " turn up " at the last moment with the " big Forleyense" so 

 dreaded by you — the finest plant in the country — as you find 

 to your dismay when it ia too late. Always take your best 

 with you. If yon win easily — a mere walk over — the victory is 

 the more decisive ; if closely run, and you win notwithstand- 

 ing, your quiet satisfaction is of course the more enjoyable. 



Now then, begin your staging ; it ia quite time. Mr. Smith, 

 whom you dread most, has already finished hia lot. They are, 

 of course, " nowhere ;" but, by the way, you notice that he 

 has put a young frcah Gleicbenia, say :) feet in diameter, juat 

 in his front row, making it bis centre plant. He has another 

 () feet through in hia van. A sly dog that Smith 1 You know 

 you hft your best, 7 or 8 feet over, in splendid condition at home, 

 as it would not bo wanted. As soon as your back is turned, 

 and precisely at the critical moment, before tlie judges come in, 

 Smith, finding himself too closely run, quietly trota to his van, 

 exchanges the dwarf for the giant Uleichenia, and you are 

 much surprised when yon return, in order to ascertain the 



result of the judges' fiat, to find that you are " second " only, 

 and your " friend," the artful dodger Smith, " first ! " 



But to return. Come along, and stage your eight. Now, do 

 not be content with simply placing your plants down in double 

 rows of four (as many do), with your best specimen in front, 

 exactly iu the centre, to catch, as you imagine, the eye of the 

 judges, and so insure your being first. They will not look well 

 that way, but, on the contrary, very prim. Take your largest 

 plant, and put it in the centre of the back row on a large pot, 

 so that it may stand rather higher than its right and left-hand 

 neighbours, and leave a moderately wide space between the 

 three. Now, put two more in a second row, between, so to 

 apeak, the plants behind, and to hide the empty spaces. Your 

 front row c;in then be easily managed ; very similar to the 

 back one, only draw iu slightly the two outside plants. Now 

 gently tilt the whole lot, so as to produce one solid graceful sea 

 of lovely green waving fronds, therebyhiding, though of coureo 

 as unostentatiouely as yoa can, the pots or tuba (these must be 

 scrupulously clean), thc-n take your labels, write them in a 

 bold legible band (the plainest and least inexpensive method 

 is always the beet), place them lightly in the alit of the sticks 

 (these too mnet not be clumsy unpninted abominations so often 

 seen, but thin and neat-looking), push each down firmly into 

 the soil at the back (not in the front, or centre, or anywhere 

 you can, which I often see done), adjust your private " number 

 card " in front, and quietly wait your fate. It is not easy to 

 estimate the great importance of each of these minor details, 

 which you perhaps may think inaignificant, but remember that 

 the keen eye of an old experienced judge looks not merely at 

 the plants, but also to aee whether the group is, as a whole, 

 slovenly staged or thoroughly up to the mark ; and when your 

 neighbour's plants, say your friend Smith's if you like, are 

 evenly balanced with your own, and it is found perhaps not 

 easy to decide between them for premium honours, then it is 

 that the (by you) despised details of each lot are weighed 

 deliberately by the judges one by one, Euch as the clean pot or 

 tub, the masterly tying-out, tlie upat stake, the tidy and legible 

 label, and also that somehow or other indescribably wonderful 

 finishing touch to his pete, which the old hand learns by long 

 experience to " put on " at the last moment, with such a fatal 

 result to you ; and whilst the fir-st-prize blue card (taking with it 

 too that long and much-coveted pilver medal) hangs elegantly 

 though modestly from Smith's " despised lot," you are obliged 

 to be content with the, to your mind, humiliating colour on 

 which you find the sickening words " second prize." Nay, 

 further; you must also endure the unpleasant reflection that 

 the plants which could have landed you easily at the goal are 

 snugly at home, some 150 miles away, a fact, too, kncwn per- 

 fectly by your adversary, who is watching you with grim satis- 

 faction round the corner, and laughing in his sleeve at your 

 unmistakeable astonishment, con-tornation, and discomfiture. 

 — T. M. SnoriLEvoiiiu, l/.lt.H,S. 



N.B.—Frum fiitt to last there is not a word in these notes 

 containing a double consonant, except, of coarse, the uamps of 

 the Ferns. I undertoo.k to try and do this to please a valued 

 friend of mine, who thinks that double coueonanto ought to be 

 entkely done away with iu writing tho Anglo-Saxon language, 

 and who rather doubted. I think, whether I could write so 

 long an article as I contemplated without using some few words 

 containing the obnoxious double consonants. — T. M. S. 



Pkoi'oseo Show of CAiix.vnoNS .\Nt) Picotees. — The under- 

 signed desire to state that, in consequence of the uncertainty 

 as to the action of the Koyal Horticultural Society, they intend 

 to promote a Show of Carnations and Picoteea to be held in 

 London during the season (July), and they will be glad of the 

 co-operation of their brother florists in the work. A meeting 

 to arrange preliminaries and commence a subscription for the 

 needed prize fund will be held at the rooms of the Horticul- 

 tural Club, I, Adelphi Terrace, Strand, on Wednesday, -lanuaiy 

 :il6t, at one for two o'clock, when the attendance of all in- 

 tereated will be greatly esteemed. — Chahles Tueneb, Royal 

 Nui:<eni, Sloii'ili : Jaiies Houolas, Loxfonl Hall Gardens; 

 E. S. DoDWLLi., Larkhall llUe, Clapham', S.IV. 



SOME SPECIES OF PRIMULA.— No. i. 



Pi.i.MCLA (outusoides, — The normal species ie a native of 

 Siberia ; it is well adapted for pot culture, and if a mass of it 

 is grown in a shallow pan the numerous umbels of bright 

 rose-coloured flowers have a very pretty etiect. I have grown 

 it out of doois in the neighbourhood of London very auccess- 



