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THE FLORIST AND FOMOLOGIST. 



to be known to the raiser at least ten years before I receive it here, and then 

 I grow them privately for one or two seasons before they are publicly exhibited. 

 As a proof of this I may state, that when I visited Haarlem in 1862, I selected 

 amongst the seedlings many that I thought would be grand additions. I 

 asked the question, " When may I expect'to have some of these? " To which 

 my friend naively replied, " Possibly in ten years, but more certain in twenty," 

 so that the only hope I can ever have in these seedlings is that my children 

 will have the pleasure of enjoying them. 



I consider his question, What constitutes a new Hyacinth ? might be easily 

 and satisfactorily settled by adopting the well-known rule regarding other 

 new plants. Take the Royal Horticultural Society for instance, which says, 

 " Any plant that has been exhibited before this Society at a previous Meeting 

 cannot be considered new." Would this rule not equally apply to the Hyacinth 

 as to that beautiful new Japanese Lily, or a Continental Azalea ? One surely 

 would not write to a Japanese to inquire how long he had known the Lily, or 

 to the Belgian raiser of the Azalea ; neither would it, I think, be necessary to 

 inquire of a New Zealander the age of a tree Fern : therefore, what holds good 

 in one case should in the other ; for when once a plant has been introduced, 

 even if not distributed, it can be no longer new if once exhibited. 



I quite agree with " Quo " that Hyacinths are little known ; and I am quite 

 confidant, although with due respect to their abilities in other matters, that the 

 Judges appointed on the 18th of March were very little acquainted with them. 

 If they had been, they must have known that the collection to which they 

 awarded the first prize contained many sorts that had appeared several seasons 

 before. The sorts that received the award were, I believe, 1, Florence Night- 

 ingale (Fabiola), exhibited by ourselves as long ago, and every season since, 

 1857; 2, Snowball, in 1860 ; 3, Koh-i-noor, in 1860; 4, Due de Malakoff, in 

 1862 ; 5, Macaulay, in 1862 ; and 6, Haydn, by Mr. Turner, in 1860. I have 

 given the elates when they were exhibited ; and the Judges, if they profess to 

 be competent, ought to have seen them in the years I quote, although I am 

 now quite convinced they took no particular notice of the subject, or they 

 would not knowingly have committed such a blunder. 



My own experience teaches me that it takes many years to get well up in 

 these matters ; and to understand them thoroughly they must be grown. 

 Neither can I believe any one, however intelligent he may be, is possibly able 

 to obtain a conscientious knowledge of their qualities by means of the much- 

 damaged cut blooms sent over from Holland every year. I say " much damaged " 

 advisedly, for such they really are. New varieties are sometimes sent, but 

 they differ so essentially from those grown in England, that it is all but impos- 

 sible to distinguish them afterwards. I hope my friend " Quo " will not con- 

 sider that I utterly condemn the good people of Holland in sending us their 

 examples of cut blooms, as I only wish to imply that a man cannot make him- 

 self thoroughly conversant with them in this annual examination. 



There are some few first-class judges of these " lovely harbingers of sunny 

 times," in whose hands I should be pleased to place my reputation, but it ought 

 not to be to those who, although excellent judges of Dahlias, Pelargoniums, 

 Boses, and other popular flowers, really know nothing about the Hyacinth. 



Allow me, Mr. Editor, now I have pen in hand, to reply to a correspondent 

 in one of your contemporaries, who writes that he found the ground of Holland 

 very hot to his feet. Though I certainly did not carry a thermometer with me 

 when I went there, and neither did I feel the heat through the soles of my 

 boots, yet from my observation of the character of the whole country, I am 

 quite satisfied that there is more water than caloric in the soil. 



Highgate Nurseries. James Cutbush. 



