XIXETEEXTH CEXTCRV. 291 



" C. C.'s contribution to the adornment of the house.*' He at 

 once set to work to look for it in the neighbourhood, and at 

 length he found it in a most unhkely place, just as he was about 

 to return home in despair. Such stories could be multiplied 

 ad infinitum, as every year collectors are going through toilsome 

 expeditions in order to procure these plants. One firm alone, 

 Messrs. Sanders, at St. Albans, have often as many as twenty 

 collectors working at one time. In the Spring of 1894 they had 

 two in Brazil, two in Columbia, two in Peru and Ecuador, one in 

 Mexico, one in Madagascar, one in New Guinea, three in India, 

 Burmah, and Straits Settlements. Besides those species sent 

 home from all tropical lands, the numerous hybrids brought out 

 each year by large firms, as Veitch, Bull, or Low, or from 

 private collections, must be taken into account to form an 

 estimate of the numbers of orchids now in cultivation in England. 

 In every branch of gardening the changes have been rapid. 

 The florists' varieties of Begonia, Gloxinia, Geranium, Cyclamen, 

 Cineraria, Primula, Streptocarpus, Carnations, Achimenes, 

 Chrysanthemum, Violas, Dahlias, iVsters, Verbenas, and many 

 such-like things, were unknown during the early part of this 

 century. Donald Beaton, writing his recollections in 1854, of 

 his early life as a gardener, tells how he remembers seeing 

 the first Petunia that ever flowered in this country, at Lower 

 Boughton, near Manchester, and the first Calceolaria in the 

 Epsom Nursery. The institution of Shows and Awards of 

 Merit has doubtless done much to stimulate the energy of 

 florists and promote the production of new varieties. In 

 Thomas Hogg's Treatise on the culture of the carnation and 

 other flowers in 1820, he submits the Rules of two " Societies 

 of Florists," in Islington and Chelsea, which had been started 

 some years previously, for encouraging the cultivation of 

 "Auriculas, Pinks, and Carnations." There were, he says, 

 " several other societies of the same description in the 

 neighbourhood of London, but these two are not only the 

 most numerous in point of numbers, but likewise the most 

 respectable in regard to the members composing them." The 

 Rules of this Society are given at length. The subscription 

 was £1. IIS Gd a year, and the value of the prizes, six in 



ig * 



