PRIZES AT SHOWS. 73 



in almost every aspect, nothing can be more 

 spoiling to the gardener than these flower-shows 

 so constantly are. In the first place, the prize- 

 ticket generally asserts that the prize is adjudged 



to "Mr. , gardener to ." The owner of 



the garden is nobody, and the gardener is 

 everything. The prize is in almost every case 

 regarded as the unchallenged property of the 

 gardener, who has, nevertheless, won the prize 

 by his master's plant, reared at his master's 

 expense, and at the cost of time which has 

 made him too frequently neglect much more 

 important matters. 



Is it any wonder if horticulture in its best sense 

 that is, the culture of the garden as a whole- 

 is not what it should be ? No gardener can get 

 prizes for well-kept beds, for effects of harmonious 

 colouring, for arrangement of shrubberies, for the 

 grouping of herbaceous plants. He is tempted 

 for the sake of a single specimen to sacrifice the 

 beauty of a whole plant, or the clusters of an 

 entire fruit-tree. That it is most important for 

 nurserymen to be able to compare new species, 



