Juno 8, 1876. 1 



JOUBNAL OF HORTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



433 



very well to say, " Study liorticnltnrej" but it is hnmau nature 

 to "look at home." The promotere of ebowa know this, and 

 appeal to human nature. " Discriminate," do eome urge '.' 

 Well, we do discriminate. We cannot show everywhere, bo 

 we show where we are likely to obtain the best returns. It is 

 simply a matter of business, and the advancement of horti- 

 culture has very small weight in our deliberations. 



I greatly fear that showing is degenerating into a mere trade 

 for making money. I do not mean a trade by exhibitors so 

 much as by the promoters of exhibitions. It is the tempters 

 rather than the tempted who are overdoing exhibiting ; but it 

 is more likely than not that the almost reckless rivalry will in 

 the end not be profitable. Exhibitions are losing the charm 

 of novelty — they are becoming too common to allure visitors. 

 We want fewer shows and better. There is a too great dividing 

 of power and a diluting of resources to make shows of really 

 great magnitude and worthy of this nation, which, in spite of 

 the glowing eulogies bestowed on Belgium, is, I believe, the 

 greatest horticultural nation under the sun. Time is frittered, 

 plants are jeopardised, and, if money is made on one hand it 

 is wasted on the other. 



Two-day Rose shows have latterly received a rebuff, and 

 not before needed. A one-day Rose show is truly a regal 

 sight — the flower in all its beauty is then seen ; but the second 

 day the same flower is ragged, tattered, jaded, and forlorn, 

 and few are enamoured with the faded petals, and fewer still 

 are induced to become possessors of the flowers which are 

 supposed to be of so transient a nature. 



It is time to speak plainly on the matter of exhibiting. There 

 is enough — too much — grumbling in private. " Too many 

 shows " has become a hackneyed phrase. To enjoy shows we 

 require longer intervening pauses — rests, changes. — A Radical- 

 Conservative. 



ASPECTS OF NATURE. 



MAY. 

 " Now tbo brifiht mol-ning sfar, day's harbinger. 

 Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her 

 The flow'ry May, whit from liis green lap throws 

 The yellow Cowslip and the pale Primrose."' 



Like other capricious beauties May is very often unworthy 

 of the lavish praise bestowed upon her. Fickle April's smiles 

 and tears have become proverbial, but of late May's constancy 

 has been uukindness, for it has given us a wind so cutting 

 that we might indeed believe that it came " brushed from 

 Russian wilds." This season May has not realised many of 

 the charms so abundantly ascribed to her by the earlier poets ; 

 nor can we fancy that the present aspect of the season is 

 entirely due to the new style, which places the first day of the 

 month twelve days earlier than by the old calendar. We have 

 heard it said that the seasons are gradually growing later. 

 However this may be, certain it is that the panegyrics bestowed 

 upon the month are not always deserved. Yet in spite of rough 

 winds that, " dry blowing, breathe untimely frost ;" in spite 

 of clammy mildew and the hosts upon hosts of destmotive 

 insects which sweep 



'* Keen in the poisoned breeze, and wastefol eat 

 Through bud and bark into the blackened core," 



May is still beautiful, still a month of flowers, still the milk 

 month so eagerly hailed by our Saxon ancestors, still the month 

 when pleasure is a duty. 



The Primroses which came in March and lingered with us 

 through April have almost disappeared. The Cowslip reigns 

 in the meadows instead, and the beautiful proudly erect Oxlip 

 may generally be found in close proximity to it ; but while the 

 former plant droops its heavy honey-laden head, the handsome 

 Oxlip perks up its bolder blossom to the sun and challenges 

 the admiration of every passer-by. 



The Cowslip is not only prized by housewives, who concoct 

 a dainty pudding and sweet wine from its fragrant flowers, but 

 it is also said to be so beloved of that entrancing songster of 

 the grove the nightingale, that when he arrives he makes his 

 home in its vicinity, and never quits the spot until cold weather 

 drives him again to summer climes to clieer others with his 

 " pure strains of unpremeditated art." 



Shakespeare has said of the Ist of May that 

 " All the bnddinp girls and boys this day 

 Arc up betimes iind gone to fetch in May." 



But at such an early season few of its pearly blossoms scent 

 the air. At the end of the month our hedgerows indeed show 

 a wealth of bloom, which loads the surrounding atmosphere 

 with perfume and charms the eensea into a perfect enjoyment 



of our English spring, which is unequalled for its freshness 

 and gradual development, and which like a froward girl plea=ie8 

 with its beauty, and only wins us to greater admiration of its 

 smiles by their rarity and fickleness. May and its blos.-oma 

 have furnished almost countless similes for maidens' loveliness. 



" The doHcalc May, 

 With her slight fingers full of leaves and llowert?," 



ia indeed an impersonation truthful in the extreme, but they 

 are not the pampered pets of the parterre. The flowers of 

 May are found in the greatest abundance in neglectr J spots 

 where the wayward wind has carried the seeds of last year's 

 flowers. On common and hedgerow, at the sides of fields, they 

 bloom in free uncultured profusion. Among them the most 

 conspicuous are Lady's Smock, from the number of its star- 

 like blossoms ; and the wild Geraniums, white and pink, as 

 well as their lesser but still more beautiful congener the Herb 

 Robert, which deserves a prettier designation than its common 

 one of Stinking Cranesbill. 



The azure flowers of the Germander Speedwell cover many 

 a bank and patch of ground, and look on bright days like the 

 brilliant reflection of heaven's own blue, or peep in cloudy 

 weather from their leaves like the " angels' eyes " to which 

 the Devonshire folks have so poetically likened them. The 

 beautiful wild Hyacinths carpet the woods, and the waving 

 Ferns bend in graceful homage to their loveliness. The wild 

 Strawberry is in blossom, but amid her taller compeers of 

 hedge and bank we scarcely notice her little white cup, which 

 children refrain from plucking in anticipation of the sweet 

 miniature berries they hope to gather some weeks hence. 



The wild Rose is rich in foliage, but as yet its delicate buds 

 are clothed with their outer garment of green ; their roseate 

 pink is seen only hero and there. June is pre-eminently tho 

 month of Roses. These flowers are all well known to fame. 

 They are indeed household words, in the cottage as in the 

 palace ; but a ramble in bye lanes and unfrequented places 

 shows us blossoms whose very names are unknown save to tho 

 ardent lover of Nature who has time to seek, distinguish, and 

 classify them. The unlettered peasant calls them " posies," 

 and the horticulturist stigmatises them as weeds, but they are 

 sweet flowers nevertheless — Flora's wildings, as wonderful in 

 their beauty, as marvellous in their existence as the most 

 highly cultivated exotic or the most gigantic tree of the primeval 

 forest. 



Among the less appreciated handsome plants are the Blind 

 Nettles, which — white, pink, and yellow — display their flowers 

 in rings beneath their pale green leaves. The Star of Bethle- 

 hem shines in sequestered nooks, but its pretty blooms are 

 seldom gathered, for the bruised leaves and stems emit such a 

 strong odour of garlic. Solomon's Seal has mot with so much 

 favour that it hag become a garden plant, and is getting rare 

 in wild places. 



During this flowery season the river side, the brinks of poolp, 

 and marshy places are not less beautiful with bloom and foliage 

 than the field and copse. The Myosotis palustris under its 

 popular name of Forget-me-not is known over Europe, and its 

 poetical appellation has furnished legends for the folk-lore of 

 every land. Towering far above the turquoise blue of the Myo- 

 sotis the lovely yellow Iris keeps guard, so to speak, at the river 

 side, its pointed lance-like leaves standing clearly out from the 

 surrounding diversified aquatic foliage, only yielding in state- 

 liness and height to the Bullrush and giant Reeds. The honey- 

 laden flowers no sooner bloom than with their opening buds 

 we find whole hosts of insect life. The burly brown cockchafer, 

 for whom no one appears to have a complimentary word, 

 blunders against the wayfarer in his evening walk ; and the 

 keen-eyed dragon fly may be seen flitting about in pursuit of 

 his prey, appearing like the detached petals of some brilliant 

 flower borne on the gentle wind. The drowsy hum of bees is 

 heard on every side, and this is the month when they swarm 

 and form new colonies to furnish man with their delicious 

 highly-prized stores of honey. 



The fresh green shoots of the young corn wave like silken 

 ribbons in the breeze, and give the appearance of a verdant 

 plain to the greater part of the island. The tender green of 

 the Wheat is overshadowed by the rapidly thickening foliage 

 of the trees, which stand around the fields like giant sentinels. 

 Among these the sturdy Oak puts on his summer diess more 

 slowly than the rest, and only at the end of the month does 

 he condescend to develope the full green of his leaves, which 

 until then have kept their own lovely tint of rich warm brown. 

 As the shadows cast by his thickening foliage grow stronger, 

 ihc Honeysuckle and wild Rose which so often encircle his 



