Provincial Societies. 233 



opportunity to display it in defence of such a system. Wishing success to 

 your very valuable Magazine, in objects more worthy of its pages than eulo- 

 gies on the fete at Chiswick, believe me, yours, faithfully, — Philo-Olitorum. 

 London, August 8. 1827. 



Art. IV. Provincial Horticultural and Florists' Societies. 



The Yorkshire Horticultural Society held their first September Meeting at 

 Kirkstall Hotel, on September 5th, and a more magnificent display of fruits 

 and flowers we never witnessed. The Rev. J. A. Rhodes, M. A., was in the 

 chair, and, in addressing the company, said that, since last he had the plea- 

 sure of addressing them from that place, a meeting had been held in York, 

 as was then announced to them, and he believed every expectation that 

 could possibly have been formed of the advantage to be expected from that 

 meeting had been fully realised. With respect to the present meeting, he 

 said, the present display of fruit was the largest and handsomest ever placed 

 upon any table in England, excepting perhaps London or Manchester, and 

 he would proceed to distribute the prizes which the judges had awarded. 

 This was done by the Rev. Chairman for all the different fruits grown in the 

 open air or under glass, and for culinary vegetables, and dahlias and other 

 flowers. 



The thanks of the Society were voted by the Council, to Mrs. Dealtry of 

 Lofthouse Hall, and to the Right Hon. Lord Grantham, for beautiful speci- 

 mens of the Psidium pomiferum, &c, to F. Maude, Esq., Hatfield Hall, for 

 a number of exotic plants ; to W. F. Paley, Esq., Squire Pastures, for a 

 dish of apples grown last year, in very high preservation ; to Mr. Barrett, 

 nurseryman, Wakefield, for eighty-two sorts of apples, thirty-one sorts of 

 pears, and fifteen sorts of hollyhocks. 



The following plants were exhibited from the gardens of Messrs. Back- 

 house of York : a Fuchsia gracilis, grown as a hardy plant, and which had 

 stood two winters in the open air ; a unique French marigold j a ikfalope 

 trlfida ; a primrose of the Primula longiflora kind, and an Athanasic annua. 



From the garden of F. Maude, Esq., a Catalpa syringtfblia in flower, and 

 a Petunia nyctaginiflora, which was considered the rarest plant in the room. 



Messrs. Ponteys of Kirkheaton and Leeds exhibited specimens of the 

 Fungeed(?) from Persia direct ; also the tree variety of mignonette, which, 

 without forcing, will remain in a room beautifully in flower through the 

 winter ; the latter specimen, being considered a great acquisition to the 

 sitting-room, attracted much attention from the company. (Encyc. of Gard., 

 §6487.) 



The ceremony of dispensing the prizes being gone through, the Chairman 

 called the attention of the meeting to the table before them, covered as it 

 was with a rich profusion of fruits. Amongst so many candidates, he 

 observe..!, some must be unsuccessful, but though they lost the prizes, 

 the meeting would concur with him in saying they deserved well of the 

 Society, because the strife had been most severe, and most unusually 

 oppressive. This will fully appear when we state that the fruits on 

 the table consisted of six pines, six melons, eleven dishes of grapes, fif- 

 teen dishes of peaches, seven of nectarines, three of apricots, twenty of 

 plums, one of ripe Guava plums, fifty-two of apples, one dish containing 

 eighty-two sorts, nineteen of pears, one dish containing thirty-one sorts, 

 three of figs, two of cherries, three of gooseberries, two large gourds, four 

 orange gourds, one dish of black American walnuts, a Patagonian cucum- 



