122 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 18, 1870. 



of flower, and rather a strong grower. So I retain but two as 

 firat-clase, Viator and Marie Lemoine, and Madame Lemoine 

 and Gloire de Nancy where more height is wanted. Growing 

 these varieties in a window they are apt to draw a little, which 

 prevents the flowers being too closely packed, so they open 

 much better, and have a finer effect, and being in a cool 

 atmosphere last in bloom a very long time. — Harrison Weir, 

 Weirleigh, Kent, 



HORTICULTURAL CONGRESS AT OXFORD. 



(Continued from "page 104.) 

 The following paper by Mr. Thomas Moore, F.L.S., was read 

 on the second day of the Congress, and is of much interest to 

 those who have to act as judges, as well as to exhibitors. 



ON JUDGING PLANTS AND FLOWERS. 



The object of this paper is to bring out as briefly as possible, and 

 rather in a suggestive than an exhaustive manner, a few practical 

 thoughts iu reference to the more important of the laws which should 

 regulate the judging of plants and flowers at horticultural exhibitions. 

 The subject is one of the greatest importance, and it is ako so exten- 

 sive that I can do little more than touch upon some of the more 

 salient points. To do this effectually, it will be necessary to treat 

 separately of : — I. Plants staged in collections ; II. Plants staged as 

 individual specimens ; III. Plants and flowers staged as novelties ; 

 IV. Flowers staged in the cut state. 



§ I- — As examples of the subjects which fall under the head of 

 Plants staged in Collections, the groups of Pelargoniums, Heaths, 

 Hoses, Orchids, miscellaneous stove and greenhouse plants, &c, may 

 be cited. In judging groups of this character, the following points 

 should be carefully estimated, and their true value credited to the 

 several collections, in the following order : — 



1. Conformity with tlie Terms of the Schedule under which they 

 are shown. This, it must be evident, is the first and most important 

 point to be decided, since, if the group, as a whole, or in respect of 

 any of its component parts, does not meet the terms under which it 

 has been invited, it is at once removed beyond the pale of competition, 

 and must be set aside or disqualified. On this account it is of the 

 utmost importance that prize schedules should be explicitly and clearly 

 worded. Moreover, in making up a schedule, undefined groups should 

 be avoided. They are fair neither to exhibitors nor judges ; the 

 former are uncertain what to stage, the latter cannot possibly compare 

 and adjust the points of merit between objects which are not com- 

 parable. 



2. Health and Vigour, — Plants which are in an evidently sickly or 

 moribund condition are not likely to be often exhibited, but when they 

 are, they are to be regarded as blots and blemishes. What are more 

 likely to be seen at exhibitions are old, worn-out, debilitated specimens 

 — plants which have served a good purpose in their day, and which 

 still have, it may be, the recommendations of size, and of producing 

 abundance of blossoms, but beneath which the experienced eye can 

 detect the signs of decrepitude. Such plants as these should not be 

 preferred before younger and more vigorous specimens merely because 

 they happen to be larger, if the younger plants are fairly over what 

 would be known as half-specimen size, and are otherwise good ex- 

 amples of cultivation as to growth and bloom. In other words, young 

 vigorous growth, with its robust, high-coloured flowers, is to be pre- 

 ferred to stunted growth and starved flowers, even though the plants 

 may be considerably smaller. This is equally true in respect to plants 

 grown for their foliage ; vigorous youth must here also come before 

 stunted old age. 



3. Freshness and Unimpaired Co)idition. — The foliage of exhibition 

 plants should not only be well-developed, but fresh and in an uninjured 

 state ; the flowers should be perfect, and without blemish. Such plants 

 come decidedly before others that from any cause may have become 

 bruised, broken, or disfigured, as regards either stem, leaves, or flowers. 

 Injuries of this sort chiefly occur in packing and transit, but all such 

 defects must count as decided blemishes. 



4. Intrinsic Beauty. — This may be of two kinds, floral beauty or 

 leaf beauty, and both may sometimes count in the same group. Thus 

 in a collection of miscellaneous flowering plants, while flowers are 

 essential, and the floral display may carry high marks, yet where 

 elegant or ornamental foliage is associated with these handsome 

 flowers, still higher marks must be allowed. In florists' subjects, 

 Pelargoniums or Fuchsias for example, on the other hand, the floral 

 beauty of the subjects has mainly to be considered, the foliage being 

 similar in all, while any differences it may present will have been 

 estimated under the heads of health and "freshness. Singularity of 

 form may sometimes compensate for want of colour beauty. There 

 may also be subjects whose beauties, such as they are, are of a plain 

 or ordinary character, and which are not therefore effective ; and such 

 plants count rather as blemishes than otherwise. 



5. General Compatibility. — In all collections there should be an 

 evident fitness of plant to plant, a general resemblance, though not 

 necessarily a rigid uniformity of character, especially as to size, 

 quality, and style. Sometimes in marshalling his forces an exhibitor 

 will bring into his collection some one or two magnificent specimens 

 as a makeweight against sundry inferior ones, and with inexperienced 



judges the artifice now and then succeeds, since they cannot free them- 

 selves from the impulse to reward the superior plant or plants. This, 

 however, should always be discountenanced, and a certain average 

 amount of merit throughout the group, higher or lower according to 

 circumstances, insisted on. The whole of the plants in the group, 

 whether many or few, should fit into their respective places as though 

 they had been prepared for them. There may be some larger to 

 occupy the back or centre of a group, and some smaller to take the 

 front places ; but there should never be one or two very large plants 

 mixed up with several very small ones, nor one or two small plants 

 associated with several large ones. If there cannot be an approxi- 

 mate equality of size, there should be a gradation, and that not too 

 sudden. As to the form of individual plants, that must vary to some 

 extent with the subjects, especially in miscellaneous groups, but the 

 contrast even here should not be too violent ; and in the case of collec- 

 tions of particular flowers, as Pelargoniums, Hoses, &c, there should 

 be an approximation to symmetry and uniformity of outline, as well 

 as of size. 



6. Size should only count where other conditions are equal. In urg- 

 ing this point, it is not intended to depreciate fine, large, and really 

 healthy specimens, since these, of whatever kind, are the pride and 

 glory of our plant shows, but only to insist that mere size is never to 

 be preferred to perfect health and irreproachable condition and finish. 

 The old proverb comes in very true here — the biggest not always the 

 best. Size is of course comparable only between different classes, 

 some subjects naturally attaining larger dimensions than others. 

 ' 7. Variety is an element which must be allowed to have weight 

 after the few first and most essential points. There must be some 

 variety, and the greater the variety after the essential points are met 

 the better ; but beyond the avoidance of positive sameness too much 

 importance must not be attached to the mere circumstance of a group 

 being highly varied. This is one of the points upon which schedules 

 should be made especially clear, so that it may be thoroughly under- 

 stood if distinct species or varieties are required, and whether or not 

 duplicates are admissible. 



8. Facility of Culture. — The least weight should be attached to 

 the plants which are most easily cultivated, other points being equal, 

 though, as a considerable amount of skill is necessary to bring any 

 plant into a state fit for exhibition, too much importance should not 

 be attached to plants of difficult culture. An easily grown plant, 

 thoroughly well done, perfect in every point, may even be better than 

 a moderately good plant of a more difficult subject, and is certainly 

 better than an inferior one of that class. 



9. Rarity and Intrinsic Value take about the same position as 

 facility of culture and variety. All these may be, and should be, 

 taken iuto account, but they are scarcely essential, and certainly not 

 of primary importance. Rarity is the least important of them all, 

 since it may add nothing to the beauty of tho show ; and the money 

 value of the objects is not the ground upon which the plants are 

 brought into competition. As auxiliary points in collections that 

 come near together in merit, these may be fairly considered ; but 

 certainly too much importance should not be attached to them. Hor- 

 ticultural exhibitions are held for the display and reward of cultural 

 skill, not for the appraisement of the objects shown, The latter is a 

 consideration more suited to an auction-room than a flower show. 



§ H. The considerations which give importance to the several points 

 of merit in the case of plants staged as Individual Specimens, and 

 which may include such subjects as Azaleas, Heaths, Pelargoniums, 

 Orchids, Palms, Ferns, or any of the plants included in miscellaneous 

 collections, are almost, if not exactly, the same as those already 

 advanced, and therefore need not be repeated. They should be taken 

 in the order indicated, and perfection in each should in these cases be 

 insisted on. 



1. Conformity with the Terms of tlie Schedule. 



2. Health and Vigour as opposed to weakness and infirmity. 



3. Fresh?iess and Unimpaired Condition as opposed to decay and 

 mutilation. 



4. Intrinsic Beauty, which must here include, so far as they pro- 

 perly attach to the particular kind of plant under examination, such 

 points as free and symmetrical habit, profusion of well- displayed 

 flowers, pure or pleasing colours, firm and enduring flowers, and suc- 

 cession of bloom, — points which will be more specially noticed under 

 § III., New Plants. 



5. Facility of Culture. 



6. Size. — The comparison in respect to size must not be absolute 

 but relative, in those classes where mixed subjects compete together. 



7. Rarity and Intrinsic Valve. — "Where specimens of one particular 

 kind of plant — say Azaleas or Heaths — are .brought together for 

 adjudication, there is comparatively little difficulty in arriving at a 

 correct decision by such stages as those indicated by the foregoing 

 points ; but it is not so easy to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion in 

 the case of miscellaneous specimens when shown together in the same 

 class, since the consideration of the value of the plant will obtrude 

 itself, and will affect different minds in a different manner, according 

 to peculiar tastes or fancies. Hence, at least special subjects, Orchids 

 for example, which generally bear a high money value, should have 

 separate classes assigned to them, and should not be left open to com- 

 pete with such plants as Fuchsias, or even such as Ixoras, Alla- 

 mandas, &c. 



§ III. The considerations which should govern the award of prizes 



