630 Provincial Hort. Societies : — Lancashire, Norfolk, 



Lancashire. 



Lancaster Floral and Horticultural Society. — April 26. The auriculas 

 and polyanthuses, as well as vegetables and fruits, were fine and in good 

 order. Among the hardy plants were, that elegant shrub Rlbes sanguineum 

 in most excellent flower, Gentiana verna, and a large bunch of wild tulips 

 grown in our immediate neighbourhood. As usual, a number of prizes were 

 given. (Lancaster Herald, May 28.) 



May 18. The exhibition of flowers was better than had been antici- 

 pated from the weather. The tulips were in good colour, and very nume- 

 rous. There were several excellent pelargoniums, green-house plants, Cape 

 heaths, hardy plants, and rare natives ; white and black grapes, strawber- 

 ries, pears, apples, and gooseberries. This Society, we hear, intends to form 

 a fund, to be called " The Cottager's Fund ; " the object of which is to 

 enable the Society to grant prizes to the labouring poor not receiving 

 parochial relief, and who cultivate their gardens without hired labour. We 

 need scarcely express an approval of this measure, because but one opi- 

 nion on the subject can be entertained. (Ibid., May 19.) 



June 18. The pinks, though few in number, were very fine; and the 

 ranunculuses both numerous and good. There was but a poor collection 

 of green-house plants, owing, probably, to the extreme wetness of the 

 morning, and the distance from the town at which several subscribers and 

 contributors live, the risk of injury to plants being thus considerably 

 increased. The grapes and strawberries were very fine ; but the most 

 extraordinary production was a bunch of rhubarb, consisting of eight stalks, 

 which weighed 13 lbs. The circumference of one of these stalks was 9 in. 

 (Ibid., June 23.) 



Norfolk. 



Diss Horticultural Society. — April 12. Numerous prizes were given for 

 green-house plants, polyanthuses, dessert apples and pears, and forced 

 culinary productions. A yellow seedling polyanthus was considered by the 

 judges to be a most beautiful specimen. It was raised by Mr. Hort of 

 Wortham, named Hort's Lady Maria Keppel, and purchased at a very high 

 price by Messrs. Bircham and Rednall, florists, Holton, near Halesworth. 

 Numerous cottagers' prizes were given, which we are always, and in all 

 places, happy to see. (Fast Anglian, April 24.) 



June 21. Owing to the backwardness of the season, the exhibition of 

 fruit was small ; there being only six dishes of strawberries, and one small 

 plate of cherries, the last, and two of the former, the productions of cot- 

 tagers ; and a fine melon, sent by Mr. Flower of Eccles. Of the vegetables, 

 those from the garden of Mrs. Harrison of St. John's bore the palm. A 

 brace of cucumbers, a new sort raised by Mr. Girling of Stowmarket, were 

 remarkable for size and quality. A bunch of seventeen stalks of rhubarb 

 was exhibited by Mr. C. H. Browne, which weighed 9 lbs. 2oz., and seve- 

 ral of them measured 17 in. and 28 in. in length. The show of flowers was 

 very good. Mr. Taylor's pelargoniums were splendid ; the Rev. G. R. 

 Leathes sent a very fine specimen of Lophospermum erubescens, two 

 varieties of cactus, and other rare plants ; Sir E. Kerrison, a beautiful 

 cactus and some choice pelargoniums ; and the bouquet exhibited by the 

 Misses Brown of Diss was universally admired, for the beauty of the flowers 

 and the exquisite taste of its arrangement. The ranunculuses were few, 

 but excellent. The cottagers' table was completely covered with excel- 

 lent productions. (Norwich Mercury, June 23.) 



Norfolk and Norwich Horticultural Society. — April 18. Numerous prizes 

 were given for fruits and vegetables ; for Elford rhubarb blanched in 

 decayed sawdust; and for very large leeks grown in trenches like celery, 

 as in France, where the leek is considered an indispensable ingredient in 

 certain soups. The show of flowering plants was particularly brilliant. 



