124 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 18, 1870. 



however, admissible. In some cases, but not often, a well-developed 

 fringe or frill is also admissible. 



4. Colour. — This mast be bright or pure and decided in self-flowers 

 (that is, flowers of one colour), and clearly -de fined and well-contrasted 

 in striped or laced flowers. 



5. Fixity of Colour is a quality of some importance, and depends 

 partly, but not wholly, on the texture or substance of the corolla. 



6. Proportion of Parts to the Whole is an essential element of 

 beauty, but, as this depends on the actual form, it must be defined in- 

 dividually in the different kinds of flowers. 



7. Size is an advantage, so that it is not disproportionate nor con- 

 ducive to coarseness, but it is very apt to degenerate into coarseness. 



8. Distinctness is absolutely necessary for the sake of variety. 



9. Novelty is a quality always welcome, as it enlarges the field of 

 floriculture ; but to count as a point in judging the change must not 

 be a mere variation, but a decided difference of form or feature. The 

 merit of any novelty of feature, moreover, must always be estimated 

 subject to the higher qualities of form, substance, smoothness, pro- 

 portion, &e. 



§ IV. Cut flowers for competition are always shown in collections — 

 e.g., Roses, Carnations, Pansies, Gladioli, Hollyhocks, Asters, &c. 

 Hence, many of the points advanced under the head of Plants staged 

 in Collections (§ I.), apply to these also; but there are additional 

 points, such as those advanced under New Florists' Flowers (§ III. c), 

 and over and beyond all these come in the special properties of each 

 particular kind of flower. Time will not permit me to enter into 

 detail on these points, and I will therefore merely mention those 

 which are of general application, or nearly so : — 



1. Conformity ivith the Terms of the Schedule. 



2. Freshness, and Unimpaired Condition. 



3. Special Properties of the particular flower under judgment, and 

 more particularly as regards :— Form, substance, smoothness of tex- 

 ture and margin, purity and definition in colour. 



4. Variety. 

 The only strictly accurate mode of judging is by allotting marks to 



each collection or plant in respect of each point of merit, and finally 

 summing up the total. This may seem a tedious method of arriving 

 at a result, but it need not be so in reality ; and it is practically the 

 method under which, by means of a mental process, our best judges 

 arrive at their decisions. When this plan is adopted there is no guess- 

 work, but the sum of the merits of a plant or a collection must come 

 out accurately. I can only here briefly indicate how the method may 

 be applied : — 



In Section I., that is, Plants staged in Collections, the first point 

 settles whether the collection is admissible or not — nonconformity 

 with the schedule means disqualification. The other points must be 

 gone over seriatim, and a decision arrived at whether each plant can 

 be marked as good, bad, or indifferent, in respect to each point. As 

 the points are not all equal I would allow double marks for the points 

 of primary importance, and single marks for the secondary ones. 

 Under the former good would be represented say by 6 marks, in- 

 different by 3 marks, bad by 1 mark. Under the latter good would 

 stand at 3, indifferent at 2, bad at 1. With a little practice these 

 numbers would be soon run out, even in a collection of a dozen or a 

 score of plants, especially if prepared slips with columns for the dif- 

 ferent points were handed to tbe judges previous to their commencing 

 their duties. I should put the points numbered 2, 3, 4, and 5 (health, 

 freshness, beauty, compatibility), in the first category, and 6, 7, 8, and 

 9 (size, variety, facility of culture, rarity, and value) in the second, as 

 regards collections of flowering plants ; and 2, 3, and 4 (health, fresh- 

 ness, beauty) in the first, and 5, 6, and 7 (facility of culture, size, 

 zarity) in the second category, as regards specimen plants. In thiB 

 way the decisions in §§ I. and IL, and even § IV c may be very ac- 

 curately made out, these groups being all competitive. 



In the case of new plants the subjects require a different treatment, 

 the object being to determine their intrinsic, not their comparative 

 merit. Here, consequently, a fixed number, say 100, should indicate 

 the highest degree of excellence, and any lesser number awarded will 

 show the degree in which they approach this highest degree of merit. 

 Practically those plants which gain 75 marks or upwards would be 1st 

 class in merit ; those which gain over 50 up to 75 would be 2nd class ; 

 and those which gain only from 30 to 50 would be 3rd class. In these 

 cases the full number assigned to each meritorious feature is only to 

 be awarded to the perfect condition of that feature, and any lesser pro- 

 portionate number according to the actual degree of merit. 



In reducing this to practice, the following would be the marks indi- 

 cating the highest degrees of excellence in the case of New Flowering 

 Plants:— b 



1. Freeness of habit 15 



2. Profuaeness and display of flowers 15 



8. Healthiness of leaf-development 15 



4. Purity, brightness, or contrast of colour 10 



5. Endurance, Bubetanee, and form of flowers 10 



6. Succession of bloom 10 



7. Size of flower .".".*,* io 



8. Distinctness of character ,\\\ 5 



9. Gratefulness of odour in leaves or flowers " 5 



10. Novelty of a decided kind 5 



Glaring defects amongst new flowering plants would be presented by 

 the undermentioned peculiarities, each of which should reduce the 

 award by 10 :— Straggling habit, flimsy flowers, muddled or dingy or 

 fleeting colours, foetid odour. 



: 100 marks. 



The following is the scale proposed for New Foliage Plants : — 



1. Freeness of habit 15t 



2. Healthiness of leaf-development 15 1 



3. Gracefulness or nobihty of aspect 15 I 



4. Endurance of foliage 15 I inn „„ , 



5. Distinctness of character 15 f = 10 ° marks - 



6. Agreeableness of colouring 10 



7. Definition in markings 10 I 



8. Novelty 5' 



As glaring defects which may occur in this class of plants, may be 

 mentioned the following peculiarities, each of which should reduce the 

 award by 10 : — Straggling habit ; flimsy, tender, rapidly perishing 

 leaves ; indistinct or fleeting colours or markings. 



In the case of New FloristB' Flowers, the points of excellence 

 would bear the numerical ratio indicated below : — 



1. Form 15 



2. Substance 15\ 



3. Smoothness 15 1 



4. Colour 10 



5. Fixity of colour 10 V- = 100 marks. 



6. Proportion 10 I 



7. Size 10 



8. Distinctness 10 I 



9. Novelty 5' 



The most glaring faults in this class of subjects are to be found in the 

 following features, which are in most cases altogether incompatible 

 with a high position : — Open eyes, as they are called, when double 

 flowers show any part of the disc or centre ; split petals or florets ; 

 run or confused or fading colours ; roughness of outline or surface. 



The last paper which we shall give is that of Professor Law- 

 son, which was read on the second day of the Congress. 

 OXFORD BOTANISTS. 



Having been honoured with a request that I would write for this 

 occasion a short paper, I chose for my subject " The History of the 

 More Eminent Botanists and Gardeners connected with the County." 

 But had I written my paper first, and then selected my title, instead 

 of adopting the opposite course, I should have entitled it, " The His- 

 tory of the More Eminent Botanists and Gardeners connected with the 

 University;" for when I came to examine the subject more closely, 

 I found the amount of information that might be given was so great, 

 that to do it justice I should require several papers in which to treat 

 it, instead of one. 



Thus I have to apologise for having departed in some degree from 

 my original intention. 



I will make use of this opportunity, and take the liberty of suggest- 

 ing to the Committee the propriety of engaging, on each succeeding 

 year, the services of some person well acquainted with the history of 

 the city and neighbourhood in which their meeting may be held, who 

 shall undertake to give us a short account of all who have advanced 

 the botany or horticulture of their county. By these means we should 

 gain a vast amount of valuable information that might otherwise be 

 irretrievably lost ; while many a name worthy of being chronicled 

 would also be saved from oblivion. 



The first item of interest connected with this place, to which I will 

 now direct your attention, is the founding of the Botanic Gardens, by 

 Henry Earl of Danby, in the year 1632. 



This event established a new era in British botany ; for, with the 

 exception of a private physic garden belonging to Gerarde in Holborn, 

 none in England as yet had been set aside for scientific purposes. 



Lord Danby obtained from Magdalen College a lease of nearly five 

 acres of ground, which he surrounded with the present noble wall, and 

 built the gateway that adorns the principal entrance tc the gardens. 

 He erected, also, greenhouses and stoves for exotics, and a house for 

 one Jacob Bobart, whom he appointed as the first curator. At his 

 death, also, this generous nobleman added to his former liberality by 

 bequeathing the rectory of Kirkdale in Yorkshire, from the funds of 

 which he hoped to maintain the efficiency of the gardens, and secure 

 the services of a professor. 



Bobart, of whose name I have already made mention, was a German 

 by birth, having been born at Brunswick. On his appointment as 

 superintendent he set himself most industriously to fill the new gardens 

 with all kinds of rare plants, both English and exotic ; and in the 

 year 1648 he published a catalogue in which he enumerates no less 

 than 1600 species as having been grown by him at that time. Of these, 

 however, many were doubtless only varieties ; but even after allowing 

 a liberal margin for them, the number must have been great for one 

 man alone to have collected, in those dayB, in so short a time. Ten 

 years afterwards he republished his catalogue, with the assistance of 

 his son ; Dr. Stephens, then a Fellow of New College, afterwards 

 Principal of Magdalen Hall ; and Mr. William Browne, who was 

 afterwards Senior Fellow of Magdalen College. The number of species 

 in this second list was greatly increased, but owing chiefly, it would 

 appear, to a number of palpable varieties being raised to that rank. 

 The great value of this work lies in the plan which was here first 

 adopted, of quoting the synonyms of other authors, and of giving refer- 

 ences to the pages of their works. 



Jacob Bobart died at his house in the gardens, in the year 1679, at 

 the advanced age of 81. 



Although the gardens were begun in 1632, and Bobart appointed to 

 them, Lord Danby's second intention of establishing a professorship 



