THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
Vou XE. AUGUST, rott. [No. 224. 
OUR NOTE BOOK. 
THE great Olympia Show is over, and we confess to a feeling of disappoint- 
ment. It may have been partly the weather, for the opening day was hot, 
and the great hall was unshaded, so that the poor plants were exposed to 
the pitiless rays of a scorching sun which soon left its mark upon them- 
Had the weather been cool or wet the result might have been different, but 
surely something might have been done to make the building more suitable 
for such a show. 
‘Olympia is a building,” the Journal of Horticulture remarks, ‘‘ that is 
best and most truthfully compared to the inside of a big railway station— 
something like King’s Cross, with both ends closed in. On the occasion of 
the annual International Horse Show the magnificently grim iron framework 
roof is draped with tenderly tinted muslin, or similar fabric, while hugh 
festoons of Wistaria and Roses, and vines—artificial it is true, but quite 
becoming—screen the walls. Borders of shrubs and gay flowers outline 
the arena, which has also its parterres at suitable places. At each end 
there are towering banks of palms and roses, and one end is formed into a 
monster rock garden. Those who have seen Olympia beautifully draped 
and decorated like that have seen a palace of loveliness.’’ Such an arrange- 
ment would have made an enormous difference, and if the experiment is to 
be repeated we think that, at all events, some suitable shading should be 
provided. 
Another comment on the great R.H.S. Medal question, to which we 
alluded last month, has appeared. A writer in The Garden, commenting on 
the letter of the Council to the Chairman of Committees, remarks that he 
felt constrained to count the Medals stated to have been granted, not by 
the Committees, but by the judges, with the approval of the Council, at the 
Temple Show. The number represents many more than any one 
Committee, perhaps all the different Committees, award all the year round. 
In his opinion it is such diffuse awards as these which, if anything, tends 
to make Medals too cheap. At the Temple Show more Gold Medals were 
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