THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES.] 



APRIL, 1881. 



[No. 112. 



HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS. 



The lengthening days, and the genial weather that 

 characterized the 8th of March, were the means of 

 bringing together at the meeting of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, at South Kensington, a goodly number 

 of novelties of no common order. One of the leading 

 features of the meeting was a flowering specimen of 

 Phaius tuberculosus, to which a First-class Certificate 

 of Merit was unanimously awarded. It came from 

 Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., M.P., Burford Lodge, 

 Dorking. This is stated to be a native of Madagascar, 

 and is one of the most beautiful of its kind, reminding 

 one, in the colour and markings of its flowers, of 

 Alpina nutans. The stem is slender and twisted, with 

 oblong plicate leaves, about one foot in length. The 

 plant exhibited had two erect flower-spikes, one with 

 four, the other with six flowers. Each flower measured 

 about two inches across, with ovate acute snow-white 

 sepals ; the petals of similar form and colour. The lip 

 is large, funnel-shaped below ; its limb three-lobed, 

 the two upperside lobes suberbicular, yellow, spotted 

 with purple, and wavy at the margin, the lower central 

 lobe roundish, rosy at the wavy margins, with a central 

 crest of five yellow erect ridges, standing in front of 

 a tuft of yellow erect bristles at the base of the 

 incurved white, club-shaped column. The whole 

 colouring and construction of the flower is admirably 

 adapted for insect fertilization. The coloured lip 

 would attract them ; the crests on the lip would guide 

 them to their destination ; the bristles would detain 

 them, and cause them in their struggles to remove the 

 pollen from the downward-curving column, and so 

 ensure fertilization. As in other species of this genus, 

 the flower when bruised assumes a bluish tint. Such 

 is the elaborate description of this species given by the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle. Some very fine new forms of 

 Amaryllis were produced by Messrs. Veitch and Sons, 

 Royal Exotic Nurseries, King's Road, Chelsea, viz. 

 Miss Alice Gair, a flower of noble proportions, fine 

 form and striking colour — a rich light scarlet shaded 

 with crimson ; John Heal, the most perfect flower 

 that has yet been exhibited, and quite remarkable 

 for the breadth and smoothness of its petals, which 

 are scarlet tipped with greenish- white ; and Royal 

 Standard, the petals rich deep crimson, conspicuously 

 tipped with white, very fine and striking. In these 



fine forms we note the advance in the stoutness and 

 rotundity of the segments, and the fine shape of the 

 flowers. All three were awarded First-class Certi- 

 ficates of Merit. 



Still more new forms of the Chinese Primrose. On 

 this occasion a well-known grower — Mr. James Tom- 

 kins, Sparkbrook Nursery, Birmingham — was to the 

 fore with Primula sinensis The Queen, a fern-leaved 

 variety, with remarkably large and boldly fringed 

 flesh-tinted flowers of great substance — a great ad- 

 vance as a florist's flower ; and time will show whether 

 it will become popular or not. This was awarded a 

 First-class Certificate of Merit ; and the same award 

 was made to the following two varieties of Cyclamen 

 Persicum, from Mr. Charles Edmonds, Nurseryman, 

 Hayes, viz. Charming Bride, pure white, of large size 

 and beautiful form ; and Miss Lilian Cox, also pure 

 white ; the former, however, in its more rounded petals, 

 coming nearest to the florist's ideal of form and sym- 

 metry. From Mr. J. James, The Gardens, Redlees, 

 Isleworth, come some new Cinerarias, and to one of 

 them, Mrs. Henry Little, a First-class Certificate of 

 Merit was awarded. It is a variety with large and 

 perfectly circular flowers, of great substance, the colour 

 quite distinct from any yet raised, the lips having a 

 broad zone of deep velvety maroon on the outside, then 

 a similar zone of rosy-purple, and a pure white centre. 

 This makes it a tricolor flower of much novelty of 

 character. 



The same award was made to Imantophyllum minia- 

 tum, var. Martha Reimer, a splendid variety, far 

 superior to the ordinary form, being altogether of 

 larger size, more robust, and producing dense umbels 

 of flowers, numbering between two and three dozen, on 

 stout erect stalks. It is said to be of hybrid origin, 

 but whether or no, it is an undoubtedly valuable plant. 

 Also to Asplenium Baptistii, a handsome evergreen 

 fern from the South Sea Islands, growing one foot or 

 so in height, with bipinnate fronds, each division being 

 duplex and sharply toothed. Both came from Mr. B. 

 S. Williams, Victoria Nursery, Holloway. 



Among other novelties were Odontoglossum Rucke- 

 rianum, similar in appearance to 0. Andersonianum, 

 but with purple-tinged blossoms (Sir T. Lawrence); 

 Chinese Primrose alba magnifica, a very fine white 

 variety, of massive proportions (B. S, Williams) ; Azalea 

 Mrs. Gerard Leigh, a beautiful hybrid variety in the 



