OCTOEEB. 143 



get the information as to the exact age of the flowers staged ? It were next 

 to impossible to obtain this accurately, in the case where the flowers arc all of 

 foreign production. 



Then, there must not be omitted from consideration the slowness of the 

 Hyacinth to propagate itself. One of my Dutch correspondents thus alludes 

 to this fact : — " Some of the new sorts increase rapidly, and are soon offered 

 to the trade ; other sorts, although not advancing much at first, take it up at 

 once, and now begin to propagate fairly, sometimes even after having been 

 stationary for many years ; other sorts again, and amongst them are very fine 

 ones, never appear to increase at any reasonable rate : hence, it often occurs 

 that Hyacinths, although being older than other sorts, are introduced as new 

 flowers a long while after Hyacinths of a lesser age have got known as leading 

 sorts." 



The best solution of the problem would be, to permit exhibitors to Stage 

 what they please as new kinds ; but those who are appointed to judge the 

 flowers should be selected from the leading wholesale houses in London, who 

 have extensive connections with the Dutch trade, and come into personal con- 

 tact with the heads of the same when here on business matters. Intelligent 

 men who have no mean knowledge of the Hyacinth, and who have been 

 familiar with the Dutch root-lists for years can be found, who receive every 

 year from the Haarlem houses a large quantity of spikes of flowers at the 

 blooming season, and are thus posted-up in all the leading kinds by an annual 

 contact with them. Judges who are quite at home among Dahlias, Pelar- 

 goniums, Hoses, and other popular flowers, are badly at sea when called upon 

 to decide on the merits of stands of Hyacinths, where the age of the flower 

 has to be largely considered. They see them only at our spring shows, and 

 this at long intervals — too long to admit of the memory retaining the im- 

 pressions of the previous year, so short is the term of acquaintance. 



The Hyacinth is a flower that deserves a greater prominence than it now 

 occupies at our spring shows. More generally grown, perhaps, than any other 

 spring flower, it is only in connection with the Horticultural Society that prizes 

 are offered for stands of six or twelve varieties. It surely deserves a wider and 

 larger recognition ; and I trust that this is in store for it at no distant date. 



Quo. 



ROSES. 



(Continued from page 124.) 

 I make no apology for a Rose contribution, for Simonides could not 

 perfect his epigram on Sophocles without introducing them into his chaste 

 panegyric of that great bard : — 



" Wind, gentle evergreen, to form a shade 

 Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid : 

 Sweet Ivy wind thy houghs, and intertwine 

 "With blushing Roses and the clust'ring Vine ; 

 Thus will thy lasting leaves, with beauties hung, 

 Prove grateful emblems of the lays he sung." 



First. Summer Boses Omitted in the Last Article. — Charles Lawson and 

 Triomphe de Jaussens. 



Secondly. Boses Since Proven,— -Olivier Delhomme, scarlet crimson, with 

 thick and smooth petals. Of good form and habit. 



Thirdly. Boses Previously Spohen of that Have Bloomed Lately and Beauti- 

 fully. — Beauty of Waltham, Marechal Vaillant, Le Rhone, Turenne, Professor 

 Koch, and Madame Boutin. 



