722 Summary View of the Progress of Gardening, 



this is passing through the press, we have observed, with much 

 regret, a catalogue of trees and shrubs published by Mr. 

 Rivers, in which species and varieties are confounded in such 

 a manner as to render the confusion which already exists in 

 nurseries greater than ever. We are particularly sorry to see 

 this ; because, in so far as this catalogue may obtain circulation, 

 it goes to counteract all the efforts that we and others have been 

 making to clear and simplify the subject. In short, instead of 

 advancing with the improvements of the present day, it attempts 

 to carry on and perpetuate the faults and errors of the last 

 generation, which we had hoped were about to be completely 

 exploded. Under these circumstances, we consider it our duty 

 to state, both for the benefit of country nurserymen and ama- 

 teurs, that in Messrs. Whitley and Osborn's nursery, Fulham, 

 the trees and shrubs are more correctly named than they are 

 in any other in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. In this 

 nursery alone, the genera Crataegus and Pyrus are named exactly 

 as in our Arboretum Britannicum. 



Floriculture. — The Stafford House Flower-Hall, erected by 

 Mr. Glenny, has been noticed (p. 422.) as the best structure for 

 the exhibition of flowers in the neighbourhood of the metropolis; 

 and we trust it will be patronised by the public in such a man- 

 ner as to answer the expectations of its very spirited and liberal 

 proprietor. A highly scientific article on the growth of flowers 

 under glass covers in rooms, by Mr. Ellis' and Mr. MacNab, 

 will be found in p. 481. ; and the practice begins to be adopted 

 in London, not only in rooms, but on the sills of windows, 

 where the glass case has the great advantage of preserving the 

 plants from the soot continually floating in the atmosphere of 

 the metropolis. Mr. Bowdery, a bookseller in Oxford Street, 

 whose family have been long noted for their taste for flowers, 

 has, during the whole of last summer, had cases which filled the 

 lower half of his windows, in which he has had roses, pelar- 

 goniums, mignonette, and many other green-house and hardy 

 plants in flower all the summer. In the higher districts of flori- 

 culture, the Orchidaceae and Cactaeeae continue to «be the fa- 

 shionable orders, and some excellent papers on both will be 

 found in the present volume. An article by Mr. Beaton (p. 522.) 

 on the management of orchidaceous plants, and on the gather- 

 ing and packing of them for long voyages, we consider to be 

 the best that has yet appeared on these subjects. Among hardy 

 flowers, the taste for annuals and bulbs has considerably in- 

 creased, more especially since it has been found that by sowing 

 many kinds of annuals in autumn, in the beds or borders where 

 they are finally to remain, they will endure our ordinary winters 

 without any protection, and come into flower as early in spring 

 as the earliest indigenous plants, such as the daisy, the hedge 



