672 Provincial Horticultural Societies : — 



Sept. 28. This was the extra, or dahlia, show of the Society. Notwith- 

 standing the cold and ungenial weather this season, there was a much finer 

 display of this flower than what we could have expected : in fact, the va- 

 rieties were far more numerous than at the corresponding show of last year; 

 evincing that the spirit of emulation has not slumbered in this quarter. As 

 usual, the rich collection of this flower, from Henderson's Nursery, Brechin, 

 added greatly to the display. We noticed a very beautiful dark seedling 

 dahlia, raised by R. Trail, which gained an extra prize : it was afterwards 

 named the " Duke of Montrose." The most successful competitors in this 

 Society, for the season, were George Ramsay, Esq., Craig, and Mr. James 

 Reid, Old Montrose. {Montrose JRevieio, Oct. 1.) 



Lanarkshire. — Glasgow Horticultural Society/. — June 15. The immense 

 variety, but minute beauties, of the pansies brought forward on this occasion 

 by fourteen competitors, attracted the attention of all ; and, when the room 

 was thrown open to the public, much anxiety was manifested to get a peep at 

 the prize pan ; but, we regret to say, as usual on such occasions, the most 

 favourable situations for viewing their beauties were occupied, during most of 

 the time the exhibition remained open, by the practical members and their 

 friends, to the almost total exclusion of the fair visiters. Now, we do not in 

 the least wish to quarrel with this praiseworthy curiosity on the part of 

 either amateur or practical horticulturists ; but we must enter our protest 

 against this practice in the public exhibition room. We would therefore 

 seriously advise all competitors, in future, to bring duplicates of the articles 

 competed for ; and, after the judges have given their decision, let them retire 

 to the Society's committee-room, or to any of the other apartments attached 

 to the place of meeting, and then and there discuss, to their heart's content, 

 the respective merit or demerit of the particular articles under review. This 

 disinterested advice they should henceforth act up to, if they do not wish 

 to see the gradual falling away of the number of visiters, and, consequently, 

 a gradual diminution in the value of the prizes given, the fund for which 

 purpose arising, in a great measure, from them as the price of admission. We 

 cannot conclude our remarks without adverting to the ver}' splendid display 

 of upwards of sixty fully expanded blossoms of that beautiful flower, the 

 Cereus speciosfssimus, from Woodhall, which occupied a great portion of the 

 fruit table ; nor of expressing our unqualified regret at the accident which 

 occurred in the transfer of several very rare and showy exotics and green- 

 house plants from the Botanic Garden ; thus counteracting the generous zeal 

 of its curator, Mr. Murray, in adorning the room, and making the exhibition 

 more complete. In consequence of a very general dissatisfaction having been 

 expressed with the decision on the shrubby calceolarias, it was considered 

 expedient, in order to maintain the harmony of the Society, to refer the 

 matter to the united judgments of the whole number of flower judges pre- 

 sent, to decide, first, as to whether a revision of the judgment should take 

 place ; and, secondly, to declare to whom the first prize ought to have been 

 adjudged. This arrangement having been concurred in by the original section 

 of judges, it was, first, unanimously agreed that a revision should take place ; 

 and, secondly, it was decided, by a majority of four to two, that Mr. Turn- 

 bull, of Bothwell Castle, was entitled to receive the first prize. Among the 

 fruit, the first prize was adjudged to Mr. James Hardie, for some finely pre- 

 served apples (Ribston pippin). Second, to Mr. George Shiells ; cherries, 

 from an open flued wall : 76 lb. have been gathered, from one tree, since May 

 10., and about 30 lb. remain. Among the flowers there was a cream-coloured 

 broom, found in Bute, from Killencourt ; 28 named sorts of ranunculuses, 

 and numerous other flowers, from Hamilton Palace ; 270 varieties of hearts- 

 ease, from Keir; 12 varieties of seedling pelargoniums, from Gilmore Hill; 

 and a grafted pelargonium, and other flowering plants, from Woodlands. Mr. 

 Green, of Sheffield, produced to the meeting one of his double-action garden- 

 pumps, for which he has taken out a patent. (The Constitutional, June 18.) 



Stirlingshire. — Auchenbowie and Plean Hoiiicultural Sociefi/. — Sejit. 17. 



