THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES.] NOVEMBER, 1872. 



EXHIBITIONS. 



The season we may now say has past. Even the Wed- 

 nesday meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society are 

 only held once a month, and all the grand tournaments 

 of the year are over, and we may therefore now briefly 

 record our ideas of their character and influence. Taking 

 the three great metropolitan centres : the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, the Royal Botanic Society, and the 

 Crystal Palace : we may safely say that the first of 

 these has more than maintained the character of its 

 shows, and that were it not for a perversity that is mani- 

 fested as to some of its arrangements, the progress 

 would be even greater than it has unrpiestionably been ; 

 while the provincial show held in connexion with it at 

 Birmingham has been without doubt the finest yet 

 held. But then we have to remember that the credit 

 of this belongs not to the Society, but to the Local 

 Committee, whose energy and perseverance would 

 achieve the same results without the aid of the Society ; 

 indeed the advantage of thus connecting them is 

 obviously only that accruing from its name and position, 

 and not for any material aid that it affords. The 

 Wednesday meetings, continued as they are throughout 

 the year, are calculated to greatly benefit horticulture. 

 They afford an opportunity for the raisers and producers 

 of varieties or remarkable instances of horticultural 

 skill, to bring them before the public ; moreover it affords 

 a place of meeting to the lovers of flowers, both profes- 

 sional and amateur, which is both profitable in a com- 

 mercial point of view, and pleasing. Improvements on 

 arrangements might still be made, and we might suggest 

 that some other place and time might be found for the 

 Fruit and Floral Committee to lunch than in the room 

 where the flowers are exhibited, and when the public are 

 admitted. The exhibitions of the Royal Botanic Society, 

 we grieve to say, exhibit symptoms of decadence. A 

 prize list largely curtailed, and doubtless of necessity so 

 curtailed, has had the effect of curtailing also the number 

 and importance of the exhibits. This must ever be the 

 case ; not that exhibitors are influenced by the mere 

 money value of the prizes, but the expense of exhibiting 

 is very great, and unless there is a prospect of something 

 like a remuneration, exhibitors will not run the risk. 

 The Crystal Palace has worthily maintained the character 

 of its exhibitions ; the liberal prizes offered, the extreme 

 courtesy and consideration with which exhibitors are 

 treated, the charms of the palace itself, all tend to make 



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the horticultural fetes there the pleasautest in or around 

 the metropolis. 



The influence of exhibitions on horticulture cannot very 

 well be overrated ; the stimulus given to the production 

 of novelties, the competition to produce remarkable 

 instances of horticultural skill, the publicity which is 

 afforded to these results, all act favourably on the pro- 

 gress of the science — and we may see that just in 

 proportion as flowers are encouraged at the exhibitions 

 so do they increase in popularity, and as they are 

 neglected in the prize lists, so do they decrease in 

 general growth. 



Provincial exhibitions are increasing both in number 

 and importance, and wherever we have had the oppor- 

 tunity of seeing them they have been creditable to their 

 promoters, and have, we are assured, tended to the 

 advancement of horticulture. So that reviewing the 

 past season, we may say that it has altogether been 

 a favourable one. 



ROSE STOCKS. 



Considerable sensation has been occasioned this season, 

 by the exhibition of some wonderful blooms of roses, 

 exhibited by Mr. Prince, of Oxford, from plants budded 

 on seedling briars, and the question has been mooted, as 

 to which is the best stock for roses, and also as to their 

 duration. The Manetti has so long held its own for 

 dwarf roses, that it would be very difficult to substitute 

 anything in its place; at the same time we are bound to 

 say that the magnificent roses exhibited by Mr. Prince, 

 will induce many to give the briar a fair trial. The 

 French have for a long time used them, especially for 

 Tea Roses, and we have grown such plants in our own gar- 

 den. Now, Tea Roses are not always easily managed, but 

 we have found the imported plants grow very vigorously, 

 the only inconvenience being that the stock is apt to throw 

 up suckers, but then so does the Manetti, while those of 

 the briar are more easily distinguishable from the rose 

 shoots, and consequently do not run the chance of being 

 left so as to overpower the rose. Its advantages ac- 

 cording to Mr. Prince are very great — he says they 

 are these : " The brilliancy of the colour of the blooms ; 

 its adaptability for all kinds of soil (gravelly soils posi- 

 tively suit them) ; it does not require so much assistance in 

 manuring as other stocks ; it blooms freely, whether 



