HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 95 



Mr. Editor : — In a late number of the " Country Gentleman," published 

 at Albany, I see a report made by a certain gentleman, delegated by the 

 Albany and Kenssalaer Horticultural Society to visit the annual exhibitions 

 of the Pennsylvania and New York Societies. After a rapid touching upon 

 expectations and disappointments upon his arrival at Philadelphia, a short 

 notice of two varieties of pears, and a query concerning Duchesse d'Augou- 

 leme and dry weather, he " descends to the floral room." Here he is struck 

 with the appearance of several specimens of Manettia glabra, which certain- 

 ly deserved the attention they received; and then he finishes the paragraph 

 by a short attack on props for Achimenes and yard long specimens, winding 

 up with the wrongly named Cacti. 



Now as to those Achimenes, we venture to say that no better specimens, 

 no, or none so good, were ever shown before in this country ; and if any one 

 from Albany or any other place, can show better without sticks, or with less 

 sticks, I should like to hear of it. The "yard longs," and "hop-poles," we 

 hope have had their day — at least in this city. As to the Cacti, the writer 

 of the report under notice knows that in the names of no tribe of plants is 

 there more confusion than in this. 



Then our "committee of one" goes off to New York, where he is indignant 

 at the judges for awarding a premium to some specimens of Verbenas, " which 

 were hideous, supported by a forest of sticks, which, in point of clumsiness, 

 far surpassed those at Philadelphia." Having had a " quantum sufficit" 

 of Achimenes and Verbena, he commends the timber attached to a Lycopo- 



dium umbrosum. 



» 



Next come notices of single specimens — Oldenlandia Deppei, which has 

 been shown here a half-dozen times in the last year ; Schubertia graveolens, 

 which he did not see in Philadelphia, although it was there ; — a handsome 

 fern — there was a collection of twenty species in the Philadelphia exhibition; 

 and several others. But he says nothing of such novelties as Balsamina la- 

 tifolia alba, Amherstia nobilis, Brotvnea grandiceps, andB. coccinea; Tacso- 

 nia sanguined ; Nepenthes Rafflesiana; Pharbitis limbata; Stenocarpus Cun- 

 ninghamii; Medinilla magnijica, and many others. 



We are not at a loss to discover why he concludes his criticism with the 

 remarks that "in quality, not in quantity, the New York exhibition far sur- 

 passed that of Philadelphia." I hope that next fall our Society will depute 

 some persons to visit the New York Society, that we may see how badly we 

 are beaten. Yours truly, John. 



Mr. Editor: — I see that you have also had Cantua bicolor in bloom. It 

 is now two years that I have had it in bloom, on small plants three or four 

 inches high; it is a greenhouse plant which grows freely, the only trouble be- 



