MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 1S5 



PART III. 

 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



LONDON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



EXHIBITION AT THE GARDENS, JULY 10. 



Among the visitors were their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cam- 

 bridge, the Duke of Devonshire, the Duchess of Sutherland, the Duke and 

 Duchess of Beaufort, &c. &c. The gardens seemed attired for the occasion in 

 their holiday robes ; the turf and trees, owing to the late rains, having again 

 assumed the richest emerald tints, while the flowers displayed all the lustre and 

 luxuriance which a July sun, tempered at intervals with the gentlest of showers, 

 could impart. 



Of *he tribes of showy plants which appeared in the exhibition, the Heaths 

 occupied by far the most prominent position. The collection of these from 

 Messrs. Barnes, Butcher, and May, among the amateurs, and Messrs. Young 

 and Jackson, nurserymen, were particularly admirable. Twenty specimens from 

 Mr. Barnes, gardener to G.W. Norman, Esq., attracted universal attention from 

 the immense masses of flowers they individually and unitedly presented, and the 

 great variety of colours and forms thus collected together. The plants otherwise 

 most noticeable were E. Bowieana, from Mr. Butcher, gardener to Mrs. Law- 

 rence, Ealing Park, five feet high, and literally loaded with its beautiful white 

 blossoms ; E. ventricosa, from the same establishment, a complete mass of splen- 

 did flowers; E. ventricosa superba, contributed by Mr. Green, gardener to Sir 

 Edmund Antrobus, Bart., Chearn, and covered with enormous heads of glowing 

 pink inflorescence ; E. ventricosa purpurea, more than four feet in height, so 

 dense and bushy as to be capable of concealing a bird's nest in its centre, and 

 bedecked with numberless pretty blush-coloured flowers, tipped with purple, 

 from Mr. Jackson, of Kingston ; a pale variety of E. ventricosa, four feet high, 

 and almost as remarkable as the last, from the same grower; E. viridis, with 

 envious dark green drooping blooms, and conspicuous for the size and health of 

 the specimen, from Mr. Bruce, gardener to B. Miller, Esq., Mitcham ; and 

 E. eximia and E. ampullacea, from the nursery of Messrs. Lucombe, Pince, and 

 Co., Exeter, which for the spreading character of the plants, and the abundance 

 as well as loveliness of the flowers, deserve the highest praise. Except one col- 

 lection, of which shabbiness and scantiness of bloom were the chief character- 

 istics, all the Heaths present were distinguished for good culture, which com- 

 prehends compactness of growth, verdure of foliage, with size, colour, and pro- 

 fusion of flowers. In the case of many of the larger plants, the soil was elevated 

 two or three inches in the middle of the pot ; though it should be remarked 

 that this was not effected by burying the roots that much deeper in the spot 

 mentioned, but by gradually raising the bases of the entire body of these above 

 the Burrounding sod. The earth employed, too, had obviously not been deprived 

 of the fibrous matter it naturally contains, by sifting or any analogous process, 

 for the fibre is very properly thought to be instrumental in keeping the soil open, 

 and permeable by water. Fuchsias, including a considerable number of new 

 hybrids, were the next leading objects of attraction : F. fulgens was shown in 

 several states ; those of extreme exuberance and unnatural dwarfuess, with a 

 gtuntedness of growth and yellowness of foliage, being by no means so interest- 

 ing as the intermediate condition, in which healthy leaves and a great quantity 

 of fully-developed flowers were observable; F. corymbiflora, with its tall stems, 



"blong leaves, and singularly lung corymbs of bright crimson flowers, had 

 a very stately aspect, and seems better suited for conservatories than for small 



■ houses; Air. Greeu bad a plant of it in hisprincip.il collection. F. formo.sa 

 elegant is an extremely pretty variety ; it has small leaves, numerous stems, and 

 an extraordinary profusion of blossoms, which have crimson reflexed sepals and 



;> purple corolla; both for habit and flowers it is one of the best kinds now 



cultivat d. an. i was exhibited in great perfection by Mr. Storey of Isleworth. 



ii Towardii, sent by Mr. Stuudish, of Bagshot, appears to be of common 



Vol. IX. No. 102. it 



