90 PICTORIAL PRACTICAL ROSE GROWING. 
appliances early. It is dangerous to leave the duty of pro- 
curing shades for the flowers until they are being battered and 
blown and burnt by shower and sun. It does not conduce to 
ease of mind to discover, forty-eight hours before the show, 
that although the box is ready the tubes are missing. Boxes 
and tubes should be prepared in winter. 
Exhibition Boxes. 
Fig. 40 will give some very useful information about show 
boxes, and it may be briefly supplementéd. The following 
table gives the standard sizes :— 
Number of Height at Height in 
: back. 
flowers. 
Collections of thirty-six, forty-eight, and seventy-two may, 
of course, be made up from the foregoing sizes. It will be 
seen that the boxes are uniform in breadth and height. The 
lids should be 6 inches high at the back and 8 inches at the 
front, making a uniform height, when the boxes are closed, of 
13 inches. The material used may be 2-in. yellow pine painted 
green. 
Perhaps the commonest form of stand is that in which holes 
are provided for the reception of the tubes. An alternative 
plan is the employment of laths, which have the advantage 
that the flowers may be spaced laterally. Moreover, the lath 
stand is lighter than the other. The laths are fitted length- 
wise, and accommodate three parallel rows of flowers. Thick 
brown paper is spread over them, surfaced with fresh green 
moss. 
Cups and Tubes. 
The support for a Rose in an exhibition stand is usually in 
two parts, a cup and a tube, the former open at the bottom, the 
latter closed, and holding water. The cup being of slightly 
smaller diameter than the tube, fits in it, and may be pulled 
up, or pressed down, as required. Both are of zinc. 
he ordinary cup-and-tube combination is usually 44 inches 
long and 2 inches wide at the top. It is cheap and handy, but 
there are several improved forms on the market, which, though 
costing rather more, are desirable, because they are steadier 
