AprU 12, 1877. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



265 



garded by florista as the especial obaraoteristio of the Alpine 



is effective, as it contrasts with a golden ground, and its 

 effectiveness ia impaired as the ground pales successively to 

 lemon or creamy custard white. To a white ground a shaded 

 colour imparts poverty — a quite suificient reason why there 

 may be no Alpine selfs ; though, speaking from my remem- 

 brance of some five years since, I believe to those who will 

 tolerate Alpines at all (many Auricula growers refuse to do 

 this) a goodly number of self Alpines will be most acceptable. 

 Let ns leave this question to be determined by the events of 

 the 24th.— E. S. Dodwell. 



EXHIBITING— LARGE versus SMALL PLANTS. 



TocR correspondent " F. R. H. S." has on page 248 directed 

 attention to an important subject, and one not easy to discuss. 

 No doubt the " principle of temptation," as your correspondent 

 calls it, is an unsound principle; and "appeals to mere cu- 

 pidity" are not "morally educational" in their tendency; 

 yet, on the other hand, small prizes will never command sup- 

 port, except from those who in another manner can secure 

 Bome recompense for the expense incurred in bringing plants 

 to an exhibition. This nurserymen can do, and they are 

 justified in doing it ; but private gardeners cannot, for they 

 have no plants to sell, and have in most oases their owu 

 expenses and the travelling costs of their employers' plants to 

 pay to and from an exhibition, and substantial prizes there- 

 fore become necessary to induce, or, to use a more appropriate 

 term, to warrant exhibitors conveying their plants any con- 

 siderable distance ; but that is no sufficient reason that the 

 prizes be, as a leading exhibitor recently said, " wildly ex- 

 travagant." 



As one who has had a fair share of exhibiting I am bound 

 to admit that " big " prizes are regarded favourably by many 

 exhibitors ; but there ia another matter of as great, if not 

 greater, moment to them, and that is the prompt payment of 

 prize money. I am quite convinced that if the prize money 

 was sent to the successful competitor immediately after the 

 exhibition, that that promptitude would compensate for larger 

 amounts long deferred. I mean that reasonable prizes promptly 

 paid would be more valued than extravagantly large honours 

 withheld for an extravagantly long time. 



When the present directorate of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society decided to dispense the awards with promptitude they 

 at once secured the sympathy of exhibitors, and now the 

 Society has no difficulty in providing superior exhibitions 

 when previously they could scarcely provide exhibitions at all. 

 The Boyal Botanic Society might advantageously adopt a more 

 expeditious "settling" policy; for although the long-deferred 

 system of payment is tolerated, it is still not liked by some 

 who exhibit, and others there are who will not compete under 

 such a lethargic-payment policy. 



Before condemning big plants and big prizes as such, we 

 must remember that it has been tbe large well- cultivated plants 

 which in years gone by have been staged at our great exhi- 

 bitions that aroused a spirit of emulation amongst cultivators, 

 and placed the practical horticulturists of Britain in the high 

 position that they are universally admitted to occupy. Keen 

 competition has been the great stimulator in plant-cultiva- 

 tion, and large plants have rendered our shows so eminently 

 Bnccessfnl. Still, large plants are not everything, and even 

 the hobbyhorse of exhibiting may be ridden too hard. 



If tbe large specimens stimulate on the one hand they 

 sometimes deter on tbe other. Gentlemen are not numerona 

 who will purchase plants and be content to wait half a dozen 

 years before the plants are conaidered worthy of winning a 

 prize. Such patience on the part of ownera of gardens might 

 have been the case once, but it is not fashionable now to wait 

 long for results ; moreover, where there ia one gentleman 

 whose object is the growing of plants for public exhibition 

 there are ten who refuse to exhibit at all, but who will yet 

 patronise and support exhibitions on the supposition that they 

 give an impetus to superior cultivation and render gardeners 

 more proticient in their duties in producing superior examples 

 of culture for private decoration ; comparatively small and 

 well-cultivated plants are therefore more generally acceptable 

 than large specimens, yet the smaller plants, however skilfuUy 

 they may be grown, have little or no chance of recognition at 

 public exhibitions. In my opinion more discretion should be 

 left to the judges, who should have power to award prizes to 

 any number of plants, large or small, which are submitted to 

 them and which are worthy of recognition. There must be 



probably the " sixes" and " twelves" as usual; but there are 

 more good plants in the country outside the pale of these 

 stipulated numbers — these packed groups — than in them ; yet 

 those plants are left at home because there is " no class" for 

 them, and of course no prize. 



Means should be afforded for enabling flower-show judges to 

 reward merit regardless of the mere size of plants and arbi- 

 trary numbers. Prizes should also be provided more freely 

 for " arrangement for effect " — groups which would admit of 

 many more exhibitors competing and render the exhibitions 

 additionally attractive. Possibly the "new" show at South 

 Kensington next week will be suggestive, as no teaching is so 

 good as example, and I am confident that that show will prove 

 that comparatively small plants are yet meritorious. — Ex- 



ESHIBITOB. 



BEAUTY OP GLAZENWOOD ROSE. 



As there has been some discussion in your columns as to 

 the identity of this Rose, perhaps a few lines from me may aid 

 in dispelling some of the perplexity now rife. 



In the first place I enclose you my original painting from 

 the Rose. This you are at liberty to report upon in your 

 columns, or place before the next meeting of the Floral Com- 

 mittee of the Royal Horticultural Society, or do anything yon 

 Uke with. The drawing has been recently seen by Mr. George 

 Paul, who, the moment he saw it, pronounced it to be no other 

 than Fortune's Yellow. 



The drawing represents the Eose exactly as I received it 

 from Mr. Woodthorpe, and no other drawing was made by me. 

 This drawing was sent to the publishers of the plates, and if 

 the plates were afterwards manipulated the alteration was no 

 work of mine. I know nothing about the plates. 



I think yon will agree with me that my picture represents 

 a Rose with yellow petals inclined to buff, irregularly striped 

 with carmine in the bud state, and obscurely striped with 

 blush in the full-blown flower. As to " orange ground," 

 " irregular flakes of vermilion," " golden ground," &o., these 

 terms are foreign to me. I know nothing about them. In 

 my original description I state the Rose (on Mr. Woodthorpe'a 

 authority) to be a Briar Rose with numerous thorns, and 

 believed to be a variety from Japan. As to the foliage — I say 

 " the foliage is not large." 



In figuring new plants an artiat necessarily depends upon 

 the good faith of the raiser or introducer of the plant, and as 

 a rule I have seldom or never been led much astray, and I 

 have no reason to doubt Mr. Woodthorpe's good faith in this 

 matter. 



The striping may possibly be accidental and not permanent, 

 and I specially said in my description that the blooms figured 

 were the first that had been produced. Eosarians will remem- 

 ber several striped Roses, as Triomphe d' Amiens and others ; 

 but I beUeve the striping is in no case permanent. 



Yonr correspondent " Rosakun " says, p. 228, " I have 

 not seen the plate in the English periodical, but I have in the 

 Belgian publication (' Flore des Serres '), and it ie significant 

 that the then Editor, the late accomplished Louis Van Houtte, 

 was careful to place the responsibility in regard to the illus- 

 tration on the English owners of the Eose and the paper in 

 which it was first portraited." I can only say I wish my late 

 friend and correspondent Louis Van Houtte had always been 

 equally careful to acknowledge the sources from which he 

 derived his plates, for anyone who ia well acquainted with 

 English and foreign plates well knows that Van Houtte was in 

 the constant habit of reproducing any good plate iofac-simile 

 without any acknowledgment whatever. Although constantly 

 remonstrated with, both by letter and in print. Van Houtte 

 would seldom or never acknowledge his facsimile copies from 

 my work and that of Mr. Fitch in the "Botanical Magazine." 

 Glazenwood Beauty being a httle doubtful to Van Houtte he 

 made an exception to his rule for once, and acknowledged his 

 plate to be a copy. — W. G. Smith. 



ROOTING PINE SUCKERS. 

 I nAVE often heard it said by Pine-growers that it is moat 

 difficult, if not impossible, to root Pine suckera later in autumn 

 than August or September. I have put in suckers in both of 

 these months and found them to do well ; but from circum- 

 atances over which I had no control I did not put a sucker in 

 last autumn until the first week in December. I took a large 

 batch of Queen and Black Jamaica suckers from the old plants, 



