MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 91 



so that they would perhaps not carry well ; some advertise they are packed in tin 

 boxes to travel. 



On the Fi.ower-buds of Camellias dropping. — You will much oblige me 

 by informing me if there is any means of preventing the flower-buds of the 

 Camellia dropping off. 



I have a very nice young plant, C. Sweetii, from which, regularly as the buds 

 are about to open, they fall, to my great mortification and disappointment. 



You state, in this month's Numbr of the Magazine, that want of water is the 

 cause, but mine has plenty, and the leaves are regularly sponged. I cannot 

 imagine, therefore, what is the cause. A notice in the Magazine on this point 

 will much oblige A Constant Reader. 



New Bond Street, London. 



[Too great a quantity of water, keeping the soil soddened, will cause them to 

 drop, as well as the other casuality. A free drainage, compost in a rough state, 

 and attention to the other parts of culture as stated in the article mentioned by 

 our correspondent, will succeed satisfactorily. — Conductor.] 



On Floral Exhibitions, &c. — Is there such a thing as a set of directions for 

 judges at floricultural exhibitions published P For example — two gentlemen ex- 

 hibit six plants each ; the six exhibited by A. are plants which have been out 

 some years, and are in finer bloom than B.'s, but the plants exhibited by B. are 

 new ? 



Now both sets being hybrids, the question is, whether A. deserves the prize 

 for his old plants, because they are somewhat more profusely in bloom than B.'s, 

 or whether B.'s new plants make up for their deficiency in bloom by their 

 novelty ? 



Again. — A. grows a plant — Hoya carnosa — in his greenhouse, and exhibits' it 

 with others as a greenhouse plant, but his plants are excluded by the judges on 

 the ground that the Hoya is a stove-plant. Is this a just distinction or not ? To 

 ordinary intelligences a " Stove-Plant" would appear to point out a plant grown 

 in a stove, and a " Greenhouse Plant *' a plant grown in a greenhouse ! 



I instance two Ciises which have occurred at an Horticultural Society's 

 Exhibition the last season, and which have given rise to much difference of 

 opinion amongt the members. The former case appears to be a difficult one to 

 decide. It would be most desirable that a general set of directions should be 

 published, so that the principles of the decisions should be uniform. I should 

 be glad if some reader of the Cabinet conversant with such matters would give 

 a reply to these queries. 



Cornwall. X. Y. Z. 



On heating, &c. — I should be much obliged if you or any of your friends 

 can inform me, at your earliest convenience, of the best method of obtaining a 

 gentle bottom heat in a small stand. I am well aware it is to be procured by 

 means of tan and other fermentable matter, but should prefer it, if to be obtained, 

 by hot water pipes. A few suggestions or directions, as well as the names of 

 any greenhouse builders well practised in the plan I have in view, would be 

 esteemed, if inserted in your next, or next following Cabinet, by 

 London, March 2nd, 1843. An Old Subscriber. 



[We are at a loss to understand what is here intended by a small stand ; if 

 "our correspondent will plainly describe it, an immediate attention to the request 

 will no doubt be paid to it by us or some of our readers. — Conductor.] 



On the Auricula. — In the various papers I have seen on this subject, I have 

 not unfrequently found directions to " shorten the roots if necessary," at the 

 time of repotting. In talking over the various modes of management with a 

 friend, who has a good collectiou, a short time since, he said '•' I never clip the 

 roots." Now the book rule — " shoiten the roots if necessary'' — cannot be ob- 



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