174 BRIEF EEMARKS. 



upon them would gather but a slight gratification from a description. 

 All I wish to do is to offer a few remarks from jottings made at the 

 exhibition, and such as possibly will not form part of the official 

 report. Of course the queen of the exhibition was the Victoria regia, 

 flowers and leaves of wliich were exhibited ; novelties which few of us 

 had previously the good fortune to behold. The chaste beauty of the 

 flowers forcibly reminded one of the exquisite lines which Mrs. Hemans 

 has addressed to our own less attractive but no less elegant " queen of 

 the lake :" 



" Bright lily of the wave, 

 Rising with graceful form at every swell, 

 Thou seem'st as if a spirit meekly brave 

 Dwelt in thy cell." 



The large drawing afforded a good idea of the habitat of this wonderful 

 flower. The exclamation of an enthusiastic foreigner as lie entered 

 the grand tent, and caught a perspective view of a combination of 

 floral beauty not to be described — " Superb ! superb !" will convey 

 as full a description as is possible. And superb indeed it was. If 

 the shades of some of our old gardeners who have " slept with their 

 fathers for lialf a century, could again have tenanted their clay," and 

 mixed with the busy scene, what exclamations would have escaped 

 them, and how would they have extolled the industry and skill of 

 gardeners, and the enterprise of gentlemen and ladies, by which sucli 

 scenes are produced ! Here, in one galaxy of beauty, were collected 

 the minute and hardy denizens of the Alpine heights — regions of snows 

 and storms, the Papilionaceous plants of New Holland, and all the 

 beauties of the Cape. From the woods and plains of the tropics. 

 Orchids of every hue and fragrance, exhibiting forms as indescribable 

 as their beauty. From every latitude, tropical, temperate, and frigid, 

 the industry and enterprise of man had borne some trophy of his 

 perseverance, and bade them blossom in a foreign climate beyond their 

 natural wont. As one stood amid such a scene, and allowed the mind 

 to wander beyond the mere glittering surface, beautiful as it was, and 

 in fancy beheld the toils and anxieties, the hopes and fears, the proud 

 satisfactions which claimed their birth from circumstances connected 

 with it, how was the mere ocular gratification augmented by a higher 

 and nobler one, a mental gratification ! To particularise the Orchids 

 would be next to impossible, suffice it to say they were magnificent. 

 Stanhopea tigrina was unquestionably the iqueen. As one wandered 

 along, the eye was caught now by the chaste Calanthe veratrifolia, the 

 quaint spider-like Brassia maculata, or the Weeping Scuticaria Steelii ; 

 Phalsenopsis amabilis, resembling nothing earthly but a quantity of 

 white butterflies perched on a slender twig ; the singular Acanthophip- 

 pium bicolor, and the no less so Acineta Humboldtii, with the Vandas, 

 Oncidiums, and Saccolabiums, presented themselves in such rapid 

 succession, that each vegetable beauty seemed to give place to a greater. 

 The remark of a lady when examining this department of the exhibi- 

 tion was a just one. It was to the effect, that our artificial flower 

 makers and designers for fabrics would do well to study from them 



