JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAQB QABDENEB^ 



78 



them ■ and as is often the case in gardening, where a way cannot 

 be found it has to be made, and so a few Boft freeRtono blocks 

 were hewn into shape something like small sngar-loaves, and 

 placed a few inches deep in pans filled with soft water. On one 

 was placed a sicklv plant of PhaUrnopsisamahilis, and on others 

 plants of Airides Lobbii and A. Dayanum. The hrst named of 

 these especially had not a fresh root, and just one leaf, when 

 placed on the cone of stone. Thoy were simply fixed in their 

 places with a piece of matting, and a little fresh sphagnum 

 pUced round their collars. The Phala.nopsis has now three fine 

 healthy leaves of a dark green colour, and is rooting and grow- 

 ing vigorously, and clinging to the stone with immense roots 

 which are covered with a gelatinous substance, the sign of 

 health. The same may be said of the Ai-rides. 



The soft freestone, by capillary attraction, keeps itself always 

 fall of moisture, and it is, moreover, a good absorbent and con- 

 ductor of heat ; and, so far as my observation goes, it appears 

 a material worthv the attention of Orchid-fanciers. Soft free- 

 stone can be cut "into such a variety of shapes that a house of 

 Orchids might be made to look much more picturesque than 

 they are generaUy met with.— D. Thomson (The Gardener.) 



[ jniT at, uae. 



THE MERITS AKD SHORTCOMINGS OF THE 

 ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S 



M.\NOHESTEU SHOW. 



Ik taking a retrospect of past events, there are comparatively 

 few in which some improvement does not seem capable of 

 being made, and however frequently the same thing may be 

 repeated, the same observation often holds good ; for something 

 at one time is different from what there is at another time, | 

 rendering a departure to a certain extent from the former 

 course necessary. The arrangement of horticultural shows is j 

 no exception to this rule : the stereotyped course of those held 

 in the metropolis cannot in all cases be followed out in the I 

 provinces, while a too lax regard to principles entails confusion | 

 and disappointment. But it is thought that experience ought ! 

 to obviate this, those having the management of such gather- I 

 ings benefiting by the practice of former years, yet such is not j 

 always the case, as was witnessed at the late Manchester Show, 

 where a schedule of prizes, liberal to a degree which only a 

 wealthy city like the cotton metropolis could put forth, was 

 expected to bring together the best horticultural produce the ■ 

 kingdom could furnish. Many good things were sent there, | 

 yet the Show as a whole fell short of what it ought to have 

 been, and what the donors of prizes had a right to expect. 

 This, no doubt, is attributed to different causes ; one of which, 

 and perhaps not the least, was the diffidence of many exhi- 

 bitors, who declined showing, under the impression that the 

 liberal prizes offered would call up an opposition which would 

 leave them no chance, and numbers acting on that opinion 

 left the competition in many instances to comparatively few ; 

 consequently, as I heard an experienced exhibitor declare, 

 " Many of the prizes were literally stolen." 



Now, this is not as it ought to be. The patrons of a show, 

 and there were a great many such at Manchester, had a right 

 to expect some compliment paid them. In some classes this 

 was ctrtainly the case, but it was by no means general, and for 

 this exhibitors are unquestionably to blame. Then comes the 

 other side of the question, Did the managers of the Show per- 

 form their duty ? I fear only one answer can be given to this, 

 and that a negative one ; for as one of the local papers ex- 

 pressed it, " The whole denoted roughness, no attempt being 

 made to conceal the fact that it was held in a pasture field ; 

 the long seed stems of the grass remained uncut, embellished 

 at least up to Monday evening with a plentiful supply of 

 shavings and other litter." Certainly some parts of the ground 

 presented the appearance of having been levelled, and the 

 parched character of the sods so thrown down could not be 

 mended ; but why delay the erecting of the vegetable tent till 

 after the time the cards intimated the pnblio were to be ad- 

 mitted? 



Many other delays seemed unaccountable to those who have 

 witnessed punctuality and order elsewhere. An entrance, im- 

 posing enough, admitted the visitor into a square or oblong piece 

 of ground, one side of the entrance being devoted to the stands 

 of horticultural-stincture builders, implement makers, boilers, 

 and the like ; the other side contained the tents for the plants 

 and fruits, while in the immediate front, and that, too, at but 

 a few paces from the entrance, were some empty plant vans of 



no prepossessing appearance ! The arrangement of the various 

 examples of hothouses and the like was all very well, and a 

 spacious refreshment tent was also well placed, but the tenU 

 for plants presented a sad disregard to order and appearance 

 when compared with those in the agricultural department. 



A large circular tent, which might with some propriety have 

 occupied a central position from its height and importance, was 

 placed at one side, while a long narrow one for Orchids and 

 similar plants occupied a sort of valley at one side of the 

 ground— an arrangement not to be complained of, perhaps, einoe 

 shelter and exemption from draughts are so necessary for theee 

 plants. The other tents were also long ones, and certainly too 

 narrow. In one of these the fruits were arranged on a table 

 along the centre, with some other things ; in the others wer« 

 the plants of various classes, as weU as in the large circular 

 tent before alluded to. , . , .u i 



Beginning with the largo tent, it may be explained that a 

 circular stage occupied the middle, on which were placed some 

 of the best plants of the Show, being the collection of mixed 

 flowering and flne-foliaged plants from Mr. Baines, gardener to 

 H Micholls, Esq, of Bowdon. and others; while around the 

 sides of the tent wero collections of Ferns and bandsome- 

 foliaged plants, standing on the grass and without any pro- 

 tection whatever from the intrusion of a crowd, unless some 

 short stumps about G inches higli could be called a guard, bnt 

 they also tripped-up the visitors, and I had the good fortune to 

 save a lady from falling into a very fine Sancbezia which stood 

 near the edge. Surely a rope of some kind ought to have 

 been placed. , ..... n _.j 



The fruit was equally unprotected, the public being allowed 

 close access to the tables. Now, in making this remark, I by 

 no means wish it to be inferred that any inte'tionnl damage 

 was done so far as I saw, because the number of visitors was 

 not great, and to their credit they scarcely touched anything 

 unless it was a card ; but if the crowd had been greater it 

 would have been impossible to have avoided injury to Pome- 

 thing. however careful and well-intentioned the whole of the 

 1 visitors might liave been. A rope at a short distance would 

 ! have been a relief, even to those nearest the variong objects ex- 

 hibited. Witness a bevy of young ladies four or five deep 

 bending over and scanning with critical eye the beauties of the 

 ball and bridal bouquets, while paterfamilias behind them. 

 perhaps more rude in his anxiety also to gratify himself, forces 

 the front lady against one of these fracile beauties, and an in- 

 iury if not an upset, is the result. Are the managers not to 

 blame to leave such tempting objects of inspection so nn- 

 guarded ? A stand of skeletonised plants or foli«ge in the 

 same neighbourhood was wisely enclosed in a_ glass shade. 

 Further on the fruit were objects of equally anxions «!ra.tiny, 

 and the natural desire to ascertain the names of the exhibitore, 

 led, perhaps, to some unintentional damage here by the cards 

 being so frequentlv lifted, and in this case a very B|;ave and 

 serious blunder was committed by the man.^gers of the Show 

 not employing some one to write them whose penmanship 

 would have informed the pafser-by where such things came 

 from at a single glance, instead of necessitating him to take 

 up the card aSd make it out as best he could ; for the hand- 

 writing certainly did not exceed that cf ordinary correspon- 

 dence. Good penmen are assuredly plentiful enough to be withm 

 the reach of the means of the Society, whereas the hand- 

 writing of the exhibitors' cards was. perhaps, the most ^ffi- 

 cult to read that was ever seen at any exhibit ion In '^e vege- 

 table tent, I heard more than one argument held as to whethef 

 the card represented the contribution of one or more dishes 

 the writing and figures being so indistinct, and there were no 

 divisions of any kind between. A dozen or two yards of red 

 tape, much as it is despised fif?"""."'?-- .f 'Sj^ ha^e he«» 

 advantageously used here, by tacking it on the table to dmde 

 the classes, and the same might have been aone amongst the 

 fruit and plants. Perhaps this might be done at a later period of 

 the Show but there is no excuse for the indifferent character of 

 the writing on the cards, which, I believe, were written some days 

 before, but certainly in such a way as would have met with a 

 severe rebuke from the critics of the London shows some 

 twenty or thirty years ago. 



Let us turn to other pleasanter aspects, and as the mam 

 features of the Exhibition have been commented on by others 

 onlv one or two minor matters will be mentioned here, the hrst 

 of which is, that all praise is due to Mr Barron, orjhoevet 

 sent the contribution of Fig trees in pots from he BoJ^l Hor- 

 ticultural Society's garden. I should much ''ke to see the 

 same pots when the fruit is ripening. The pots of \uiesm 



