NEW SERIES. 



EXHIBITIONS. 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



November 6th. 



Amongst the perversities of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society's arrangements alluded to in our last number, is 

 that of holding their November Show on the first instead 

 of the third Wednesday in the month. The main features 

 of the Exhibition are Chrysanthemums, and the Inter- 

 national Fruit Show. If it is considered at all desirable to 

 have Chrysanthemums, it is well known by all cultivators 

 that the best period of their blooming season is from the 

 middle to the end of November, and that the best period 

 of exhibiting is somewhere about the 20th, and conse- 

 quently there never have been but a few stands of blooms 

 and a few plants sent for exhibition ; and we believe that 

 the grand exhibition of fruit would have been just as 

 available for the 20th as for the 6th, and so this year the 

 number of the flowers shown was as scant as usual. 

 Amongst those exhibited on this occasion, Mr. Rowe, 

 gardener to Mrs. Lewis, the Rookery, Roehampton, 

 obtained a first-class certificate for Japanese Chrysan- 

 themum Elaine, a pure white, with flat shaped petals of re- 

 markably good shape, while Messrs. Veitch and Sons had 

 some splendid blooms of the well known varieties which 

 always figure in stands of cut flowers, such as Jardin des 

 Plantes, Golden Beverley, Queen of England, Gloria 

 Mundi, &c., &c. The pot plants exhibited were very few 

 and not very remarkable. There were some other very 

 interesting plants exhibited, amongst which we noticed 

 especially Dracaena imperialis, a broad-leaved variety of 

 dense habit, with white and rosy variegations beautifully 

 blended. This was shown by both Mr. Bull and Messrs. 

 Veitch and Son of Chelsea, and also Maranta Makoyana 

 (exhibited by Messrs. Veitch as Maranta olivaris), a beau- 

 tiful dwarf species. These obtained first-class certificates, 

 as did also Mesospinidum Vulcanicum, a pretty small 

 orchid with rosy lake flowers, and the tip whitish. There 

 was also exhibited a very pretty miniature palm called 

 Malortica simplex, and also Calamus ovoideus and Calamus 

 Roxburghii, two Eastern tropical palms with pinnate 

 fronds and stems furnished with needle-shaped spines. 

 Mr. H. Cannel, of Woolwich, had a basket of a very dwarf 

 free flowering scarlet Pelargonium, Payne's Perpetual, 

 said to be a seedling from Mrs. Pollock. Mr. Crowther, 

 gardener to J. T. Peacock, Esq., exhibited some succu- 

 lents from a collection which we suppose, for a private 



[No. 12. 



grower, is unequalled. Several of them received first- 

 class certificates, the most curious amongst them being 

 Mam miliaria Peacocki, which formed a semi-globose mass 

 which seemed to be composed of grey woolly hairs and 

 spines. 



Of the Fruit Show it hardly falls within our province 

 to say anything, but we may notice that for the season 

 it was a remarkable display, and that the presence of 

 pears from the Royal Horticultural Society of Namur, 

 brilliant pears from Jersey, and equally brilliantly coloured 

 apples from Nova Scotia, gave it somewhat more the 

 character of International than is usual on such occasions. 

 We believe that these exhibitions, occurring at seasons 

 not very suggestive of Flora's or Pomona's gifts, are 

 amongst the most beneficial portion of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society's operations, as they tend to keep up the 

 interest in gardening operations, and bring horticul- 

 turists of all grades together. 



ZONAL PELARGONIUMS AS DECORATIVE 

 PLANTS. 



Whatever may be thought of the excessive use of this 

 tribe of plants in the decoration of the flower garden, we 

 think that it is impossible to overrate them as decorative 

 plants for the greenhouse or conservatory. We do not for 

 a moment concede that they are at all comparable to the 

 show Pelargoniums, but then they are summer flowering 

 plants ; while the Zonals come in so usefully at a season of 

 the year when flowers for the greenhouse are somewhat 

 scarce — viz., during the months of September and October. 

 Nor let it be thought that this involves the use of one 

 colour only, scarlet ; they are to be found of various shades 

 of salmon, buff, white, flesh colour, crimson, as well as the 

 dazzling scarlets, which are so numerous. When all the 

 summer flowering plants have been put out of doors, then 

 the Zonals can be brought in to take their place. For 

 this purpose it is best to select young plants of the 

 previous autumn ; keep them singly in pots during the 

 winter, and, when possible, in a moderately warm tem- 

 perature : this is one of the best preventives of damp. 

 They should in February be potted off into large pots of 

 good compost, consisting of loam and a little well-rotted 

 manure; too much of this is injurious, as it is apt to 

 make the growth too gross. After the month of March, 

 when all danger of frost is over, a cool pit is the best 

 place for them, so as to induce a dwarfish growth. 

 They can be removed to the greenhouse when there is 



THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



] DECEMBER, 1872. 



