DIFFICULTIES IN FLOWER SHOW SCHEDULES. 537 



Definition of " A Cottager." 

 The term " cottager " means a person who (a) is, and for the six 

 months preceding the exhibition has been, regularly engaged in manual 

 labour for a wage, and (b) is not, and has not been, a professional 

 gardener, and (c) has not received the assistance of paid labour of 

 any kind in the cultivation of his ground or produce during twelve 

 months preceding the exhibition, and (d) for the six months preceding 

 the exhibition has resided in , and (e) whose cottage is 



not of a higher rateable value than pounds per annum. 



The Groom Gardener. 



The gardener groom or groom gardener is always a difficulty. 

 They should be classed with amateurs if they like to exhibit as such, 

 or as " gardeners," but never as cottagers. 



It is impossible to make rules to suit everybody, and it is not, 

 in my opinion, fair to let anybody show as a " cottager " who works in 

 his employer's garden, and can consequently obtain seeds and plants 

 therefrom, to say nothing of the temptation to show as his own what 

 he has grown (or helped to grow) for his employer. 



If once gardener grooms are let into the cottagers' division it will 

 be found very detrimental to the real cottagers' showing, and it will 

 also not be known where to stop until you find yourselves letting in 

 the gardener who feeds the cow, or the pig, or gets out the coals. 



Stove, and Greenhouse, and Hardy Plants. 



In judging classes for greenhouse plants, it is constantly a difficulty 

 for the judges to discriminate between what are actually subjects 

 of the greenhouse and what should be excluded from such classes. 

 Climatic differences and personal taste for the plants grown are both 

 in part answerable for the difficulty. Similarly, confusion arises 

 between stove and greenhouse plants. 



At one time the difficulty existed with regard to, say, apples, 

 but the R.H.S. drew up a schedule which defined for Show purposes 

 those which are to be shown as " dessert " and those to be considered 

 as " cooking " varieties. The dissection was necessarily arbitrary, 

 but it answers its purpose admirably, and closes all disputes. The 

 R.H.S. lists of dessert and cooking apples, pears, plums, &c. are now 

 in general use for Fruit Show purposes throughout the country. 



Since the Secretary of the R.H.S. has so repeatedly been asked 

 to decide disputes on such plants as Hoy a carnosa and the Campanula 

 pyramidalis, the following lists have been prepared to define plants 

 and flowers, just as fruits have been classified ; but it must be re- 

 membered that the lists are for Show purposes only, and because 

 a plant is classed as " greenhouse " it does not necessarily imply that 

 it cannot be grown in the open air in some parts of the British Isles. 

 The list is to help in Showing, and not in gardening. The Secretary 



