284 BRIEF RKMAKKS. 



ceedings in this instance ; nevertheless, as amateurs like to read about 

 the way such things are actually performed in practice, I shall in my 

 next letter give a detailed account of how every item of the work was 

 carried on, and what is of more import, shall explain the reasons for 

 every particular movement from first to last. Meantime, I woukl urge 

 the great importance of the early removal of large evergreens, and now 

 that no time be lost in preparing for immediate operation. — D. Beaton. 

 The Cottage Gardener. 



Class Showing as a Test for Seedlings. — During the past 

 season this mode of exhibiting many of the so-called florist flowers has 

 been pursued, particularly with Dahlias, Carnations, Auriculas, &c., 

 and it is an excellent test when the showing and judging is honest, and 

 the test is properly applied, but it will mislead worse than anything if 

 there be unfair play — that is, if the thing be not honourably conducted. 

 For instance, if a judge act wrong, either from ignorance or design, 

 and place a new and bad thing before an old and a good one, the 

 public will be deceived into a belief that tlie new flower is an improve- 

 ment on the old one, and it will lead to the disappointment which all 

 have had to deplore more or less ; therefore, the necessity of good 

 judges is as great as if there were stands in competition, and these 

 judges should be the same for given periods when once elected, because 

 they are at once made responsible for their acts, and this responsibility, 

 presuming them to be able, insures a careful and proper award. But 

 class showing may not be a safe test in all cases, even if the judge be 

 able and honest, for a seedling may beat a named flower, because the 

 named favourite is badly shown, and not because the seedling is really 

 better ; hence the danger of trusting implicitly and entirely to the 

 result of a class show. It is only safe when there is a series of shows, 

 and all more or less corresponding, that they may be taken to indicate 

 the true value of a flower. But class showing is useful in other res- 

 pects ; it enables small growers to compete with success, and therefore 

 ought to insure better flowers. Whenever a fine specimen is produced, 

 the owner is encouraged to show it, because it is almost sure of a prize, 

 and wiien the flowers are placed in classes, the young florist obtains a 

 very useful lesson by noting what puts one flower before another ; 

 whereas, in stands of flowers, his attention is divided between twelve, 

 or perhaps twenty-four blooms, and the reasons are not so easily seen 

 by the inexperienced who wish to learn. Upon the whole, then, class 

 showing must be deemed the most useful in promoting the advance- 

 ment of the science. When the best scarlet, the best lilac, the best 

 anything, is entitled to a prize, we have only to look at and compare a 

 single bloom; and there is much less difficulty to judge the points on 

 a single flower than the points in a dozen. However, there is a general 

 desire to show stands of flowers as well as single blooms, and in this 

 case the best plan is to allow the losing stands to be broken up, and 

 the best blooms from each to be shown in classes. It, in the first place, 

 gets rid of the bad stands, and in the next place retains in the classes 

 all the good flowers ; but it is the class showing alone which gives us a 

 notion of which are the best flowers, for ten or eleven good flowers 

 may always take through one or two inferior ; so that the fact of a 



