BRIEF REMARKS. 175 



more than at present they appear to do. I recollect seeing the other 

 day in a window in Regent-street, a carpeting with designs of Orchids. 

 It is needless to say how novel and rich was the effect. Amongst the 

 plants claiming notice from their comparative rarity in exhibitions was 

 Lyperia pinnatifida, a mass of rosy-purple blossoms, apparently an 

 ordinary greenhouse plant ; Indigofera decora, a native of China, with 

 beautiful pinnate foliage and racemes of blossom ; Siphocampylos 

 microstoma and Franciscea macrophylla. Amongst the Gardenias, of 

 which there were several, Fortunii must bear away the palm ; a more 

 superb plant it would be difficult to imagine. The petals are of so 

 fleshy a nature as to give the flower an appearance of richness not to be 

 described. A fair admirer, 



" Herself a fairer flower," 



compared them to Roses transformed to marble. Acrophyllum veno- 

 sum, with the foliage of an Ilex and the flowers of a Spiraea, must not, 

 however, be omitted. Signs of a better taste in many climbing plants 

 was exhibited in the specimens of Tropaeolum, by Mr. Stuart. When 

 will the old pudding-shaped trellis give way to something more in 

 accordance with taste and elegance ? And now a word or two on the 

 tendency of such exhibitions, as affecting the gardeners. Unquestion- 

 ably they offer a great stimulus to exertion, and in minds rightly 

 constituted the result must be beneficial. Bringing together, as such 

 exhibitions always do, the best flowers of the best kinds, and in the 

 highest degree of development, they form epochs in the history of 

 gardening, periods at which we can look back upon, and from which 

 we can note the rapidity of our progress. And as a/e7e, a gala day to 

 all the lovers of flowers — and who does not love them?— it affords a 

 means of the fullest gratification, a gratification whicii, unlike much 

 that we extol, brings with it no sting for the raorrov/. The pleasure 

 is purely an innocent one ; it involves no cruelties, it has no immoral 

 tendencies. The secret of this is, it produces no false excitement. — 

 L., in Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Green Centres in Roses. — Last year this defect was very preva- 

 lent, which was caused by the extra moisture of the spring, causino- a 

 super-abundance of sap, which the cold damp nights checked in the 

 leaves, many having then fallen off; wiiilst the absence of the sun also 

 prevented the flower buds from maturing tlie extra quantity of sap into 

 petals, and thus the unsightly excrescence grcAv under their shelter 

 before tlie calyx was disclosed. Tlie plan I adopted was to cut off all 

 such flowers as soon as perceived. 



In such wet seasons it is advisable to lay over tlie roots of any choice 

 kind wiiich is liable to this defect, some asphalte, or similar covering, 

 during wet days or niglits, to shoot off extra moisture. This will check 

 the production of super-abundant sap, and prevent the production of 

 green centres. — Clericiis. 



ViCToruA Ri:gia. — A very small plant was received last September 

 by Mr. Ivison, gardener at the Duke of Nortliumberland's, Sion 

 House, near London, from tlie Royal Gardens at Kew. And in the 

 sport space of tiiree months cultivation in a slate tank, in a small span- 



