25 

 HEREFORD HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



CLOSING SHOW FOR THE SEASON (SBPT. 11, 1852), 



The last Exhibition of plants, flowers, fruit, and vegetables, for the second 

 season of this flourishing and useful Society, was held yesterday (Friday). At this 

 late period of the summer, of course, the main portion of every such exhibition 

 consists of dahlias and greenhouse plants. To the former, the weather of late has 

 been by no means favourable ; but before we enter into details on this point, we 

 may with advantage call attention to a department of the Show, which was to a 

 great degree independent of the weather. It will be remembered that in addition 

 to the Society's prizes for collections of wild flowers — to which we have so often 

 with pleasure called attention, as calculated to benefit society by extending our 

 knowledge of the natural productions of this county, many of which are medicinally 

 valuable, while it affords to the young a pleasant and instructive pursuit— prizes 

 were also offered by Dr. Bull for the best collection of dried specimens of Here- 

 fordshire plants. These prizes could of course only be adjudged at the close of 

 the season ; and thus, one of the most pleasing and useful of the classes of objects 

 for exhibition graced the final show. There were four Herbariums sent in for 

 competition, but they were each very extensive, the plants numbering nearly 3G0 

 in the largest, and little short of 300 in the smallest. Considering that it was the 

 first year of competition, this was a highly encouraging fact. It was also pleasant 

 to find that the plants were, with very few exceptions, correctly named ; while in 

 all instances they were pressed and prepared with great care and neatness. One 

 of these herbariums, bearing the motto " Garde I'honneur " (sent by Miss Riley, 

 of Pencraig Court, to whom an extra prize was awarded), although botanically 

 deficient in arrangement and nomenclature, was nevertheless deserving of very 

 high praise for the exquisite taste witli which it was executed. The flowers in 

 the other herbariums were affixed to separate sheets of paper, in the usual mode, 

 which is much more convenient than any other, since each plant is presented dis- 

 tinctly to the eye in all its parts, and its characteristics are more easily apprehended 

 by the mind — the main object of such collections. In this instance, however, the 

 tasteful predominated over the useful ; the flowers were artistically grouped in 

 wreaths, bouquets, letters, &c., upon large, square cardboards, in the sequence of 

 the months, forming pictures well adapted for framing. The names of the plants, 

 botanical and ordinary, with the locality in which they were gathered, were 

 appended to the edges ; while the specimens were all numbered, and the Linnsean 

 classes and orders to which they belong, enumerated at the head of each card. 

 The great defects of this collection, as we have hinted, were the crowding of the 

 plants, which rendered it diflicult even for botanical eyes to distinguish any one ; 

 and the fact that the specimens did not include the roots and stems, which are 

 often the characteristic parts of plants. As the flowers in this Herbarium were 

 arranged according to the months, a list may be useful to the young botanist. 



(Here followed a list of the flowers for the months of April, May, June, July, 

 August, and September, which it is unnecessary to reproduce here). 



