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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



obtain an immediate effect. There is a certain amount of monotony in 

 seeing so many rows of Albizzia Lebbek, and it would have been better 

 to have made more use of the Poinciana regia, Jacaranda mimoscefolia, 

 and those Palms which do well in Egypt even if some years were to 

 intervene before the avonues attained any appreciable size. 



Financial difficulties made it impossible for Ismail Pasha to continue 

 the improvements he had undertaken, and when he ceased to be Khedive 

 the expenses had to be considerably curtailed. Many of the plantations 

 were neglected, and some of the finest trees which were planted by 

 Ismail Pasha's orders in the Public Gardens at Alexandria were cut down 

 as being of no value. 



When I first came to Egypt, in 1N82, most of the gardens at Kamleh, 

 the principal suburb of Alexandria, were in a very poor state. The 

 owners seemed to care nothing for flowers, and left things generally to 

 the Arab gardeners. Now the native's idea, unless he is guided, is to lay 

 out a garden witli a number of small beds and paths so narrow that two 

 people cannot walk abreast. The beds are always surrounded by a 

 border of Altemanthera (a haven for snails) ; all the large trees and 

 shrubs are placed close to the path, and the small plants in the middle of 

 the beds. 



As no money, or hardly any, was spent, the only way of filling a 

 garden was by taking the overstock from one's neighbours, and the result 

 was that every garden contained the same varieties and the same flowers. 

 'La France,' * Gloire de Dijon,' ' Marechal Niel,' and ' Cramoisie 

 Sup6rieur ' Hoses were seen in profusion. All gardens contained 

 specimens of Albizzia Lcbbek, Tamari.v arborea, Melia Azcdarach, with 

 now and again a Cithare.vylum qiiadrangulare, a Pom&kma regia, or 

 a variety of Ficus. The principal climbers and shrubs were Ipomim, 

 Luff a oylmdrioa, Acalyphu, and Pittosporum, To those, if the owners 

 were English, were added a few annuals. 



The private gardens in Cairo contained a certain number of Palms 

 and other rarer plants, though they were not to be compared with their 

 beauty of to-day. 



So tilings continued with but slight improvement until the late 

 Lady Cromer suggested in 1895 that something might be done to farther 

 the interest in horticulture, and proposed that the native gardeners, 

 who make their living by selling flowers in the winter to tourists and 

 othors, should be encouraged to grow more and better varieties. With 

 this object in view it was decided to hold a flower show at Cairo in 

 January 1H0G. The show, which was opened by H.H. the Khedive, was 

 a great succoss, and was followed by another at Alexandria in the 

 following April. Two small local shows had been held in previous years 

 at Alexandria, and the Alexandria Horticultural Society is the senior 

 society in point of existence, but it must be admitted that without the 

 initiative from Cairo, the patronage of 11.11. the Khedive, and the support 

 of H.H. Prince Hussein Kamel Pasha and of the late Lady Cromer, 

 very little would have been done in Alexandria in the way of horticulture. 



These shows, both in Cairo and Alexandria, have increased in im- 

 portance every year. When they were first started, few of the exhibitors 

 knew the difference between a Tea Rose and a Hybrid Perpetual, and they 



