PLANTS AND FLOWERS IN 1873. 387 



twelve of any one variety were awarded to C. S. Sar- 

 gent, for La Heine, and Francis Parkman, for Auguste 

 Mie. The pot plants showed that they had been grown 

 by skilful hands. The prizes for the best specimen 

 plants were taken by William Gray, jun., with Aralia 

 pulchra, and Hovey & Co., with Buxus arborea. The 

 baskets of flowers were of more than usual merit, the 

 addition of graceful ferns greatly increasing their beauty. 

 A very interesting and instructive feature of the exhi- 

 bition on the 5th of July was a collection of twenty- 

 two species of native sedges and grasses from Miss M. 

 E. Carter. The magnificent orchids shown from time 

 to time by Edward S. Rand, jun., added largely to the 

 interest of the exhibitions. On the 26th of July Mr. 

 Rand received both the first and second prizes for these 

 plants. Special mention was also made by the com- 

 mittee of the Dendrobium formosum giganteum, and 

 the Acropera Loddigesii, var. aurantiaca or citrina, 

 exhibited by him later in the season. The shows of 

 balsams and petunias, and especially of asters and ver- 

 benas, were unusually fine ; and the exhibitions gen- 

 erally continued to increase in interest until the annual. 

 The exhibitions of dahlias in October were remarka- 

 bly beautiful. That from George Everett, on the llth 

 of the month, was thought the finest display ever made. 

 There were sixty varieties, filling a large stand, and 

 noticeable, not only for the beauty of the flowers, but 

 for the harmonious arrangement of the colors ; the 

 centre of the stand 'being deep velvety crimson, gradu- 

 ally shading down to white at one end, and to buff at 

 the other. The chrysanthemum show on the 8th of 

 November was highly successful, all the prizes being 

 awarded. Finer specimens had never been seen. Of 



