THE FLORAL MAGAZINE 
NEW SERIES.] MARCH, 1877. [No. 63. 
FLORAL EXHIBITIONS. 
The Royal Horticultural Society’s meeting held on 
the 14th ult. was a most interesting one, thanks to 
Messrs. Yeitch, Bull, Williams," and other public horti¬ 
culturists by whom these semi-official exhibitions 
are rendered most attractive and enjoyable. We 
should, however, like to see private horticultuiists 
and their employers take more interest in these dis¬ 
plays; and if the afternoon meeting, at which the 
awards are announced and observations made on the 
more striking objects exhibited, was convened, say, 
half an hour earlier, it might be possible to have a 
short paper or lecture of, say, fifteen to twenty minutes’ 
duration, on some interesting subject connected with 
horticulture, and a short discussion might advantage¬ 
ously follow. It would thus be possible to open-up 
questions of great interest to gardeners or botanists, 
and more definite information on practical subjects 
might be obtained than could be got at in any other 
way. The present Council does not, we presume, 
claim the slightest credit for these meetings, since 
the plants and arrangements are mainly carried out by 
the combined efforts of the principal nurserymen, who 
can always make a show worth seeing. Indeed they 
have frequently done this much for the South Kensing¬ 
ton Society at their own expense ; and what seems 
especially desirable at the present time is some attempt 
on the part of the Council to aid the horticulturists 
in making these meetings more attractive to those 
amateurs who visit them. What a dreary performance 
must one of these gatherings appear to any stranger 
or country fellow who perchance drops in to see what 
is going on ! Cannot something be done to attract 
the lady and gentleman amateurs who used to fill the 
front seats at these afternoon meetings at the time 
when Mr. Bateman, Major Trevor Clarke, Rev. M. J. 
Berkeley, Mr. W. W. Saunders, and other gentlemen 
had always something to say at these meetings worth 
the hearing ? Among the more remarkable plants 
certificated at the last meeting for the first time were 
the following’ : — Calanthe vestita rubro-oculata 
gigantea, exhibited by Sir Trevor Lawrence, is the 
most stately and desirable of all the Calanthes, with 
the exception of C. Veitchi. It is robust in growth, 
and produces stout, arching spikes from three feet to 
four feet in length. The individual flowers are larger 
than those of any other Calanthe, and are of a soft 
creamy-white colour, with a deep Roman-red blotch in 
the callosity between the column and base of the lip. 
Undoubtedly in every way a first-class plant. Odon- 
toglossum Cervantesi decorum, also shown by Sir T. 
Lawrence, is a great improvement on the old 0. 
Cervantesi or O. membranaceum roseum, which it re¬ 
sembles in colour and in the concentric bars on the 
sepals and petals, but the flowers are at least twice the 
size of those of the type, and the markings on the 
broad, crisped petals and heart-shaped lip are much 
richer. Masdevallia chimeera, var. Wallisi, exhibited 
by Messrs. Yeitch and Sons, is a form of the weird¬ 
looking, spectral Masdevallia, from which it differs in 
having darker markings on the flower. It is a free- 
grower, and, like some of its congeners, it, after the 
manner of Stanhopea, pushes its flowers through the 
compost of the basket in which it should be grown. 
Cycas media latissima, sent by Mr. Bull, is a stately 
variety of C. media, having feathery foliage produced 
from a stout stem four feet in height. It promises to 
be a useful conservatory plant, being more graceful 
than its allies, C. circinalis and C. revoluta. Croton 
Mortei, also contributed by Mr. Bull, is a distinct form, 
having broadly-ovate, lanceolate foliage, of a dense 
green colour, veined and blotched with golden yellow. 
Having evidently a robust habit of growth, and being 
distinct in its markings, this plant will doubtless prove 
useful for decorative purposes and for exhibition. 
Amaryllis Princess of Teck, sent by Messrs. Yeitch, 
is a shapely variety of a vivid Roman-red colour, and 
one of the best of a beautiful group of hybrids, which 
show great variety in their local colour and markings. 
Belonging, as it does, to an easily cultivated class of 
bulbs, this plant will be welcome for decorative pur¬ 
poses. Cydonia japonica albiflora, also contributed by 
Messrs. Yeitch, is a slender-habited variety of a well- 
known winter and spring-flowering plant, bearing pure 
white flowers and buds on leafless branches. It is so 
distinct from the better-known crimson-red and blush 
forms, that it will doubtless prove an acquisition. 
Special prizes were offered by Messrs. Yeitch for their 
new double Poinsettia, and three growers competed, 
Mr. Ollerhead carrying off the premier award with a 
well-coloured example in which the central branchlets 
were well developed. Several plants of Eurycles 
australasica were exhibited by Messrs. Yeitch, and ex¬ 
cited considerable attention. It is a bulbous species, 
bearing dense clusters of pure white Hgemanthus-like 
