SOME DIFFICULTIES IN FLO WEE-SHOW SCHEDULES. 503 



First as to the Montbretia. Eule 184 describes herbaceous as 

 " Plants with flower-stems which die down to the ground yearly, but 

 having rootstocks remaining alive through several winters. For 

 garden purposes ' rootstock ' includes all bulbs, corms, and tubers." 



Now, the rootstock of Montbretia is a corm, and therefore is clearly 

 eligible for the class, the only specially excluded plants being 

 "bulbous." 



Seedling Pinks were, on the other hand, irregular. Eule 185 

 includes Pinks among suffruticose plants, and they certainly do not 

 agree with the habit of grow^th required by the word " herbaceous." 

 Eule 186 says: " Such plants as Carnations and Pinks are open to 

 disqualification under ' herbaceous.' " They certainly do not die down 

 in winter, but are evergreen — -and are, in fact, dwarf, hard-wooded, 

 shrubby plants. 



8. Saladings. The following is a very badly-worded class : " Collec- 

 tion OF Salads — six distinct kinds." 



This is what was meant: "A Collection of Vegetables used for 

 Salads." As the class stood it might have been interpreted to require 

 an exhibition of a cook's art — six prepared salads — though even then 

 the words " distinct kinds " are not clear, unless Lettuce salad, Potato 

 salad. Onion salad, Cucumber salad, Fruit salad, Asparagus salad, and 

 suchlike kinds are meant. 



Note also in passing that unless the Schedule distinctly allows them 

 to be exhibited as fruit, Tomatos, though fruit, are accounted as 

 vegetables, being used nine hundred and ninety-nine times as such to 

 once as fruit. Vegetable Marrows, Pumpkins, Cucumbers are the 

 same. If it is desired to account any of them as fruit, the Schedule 

 must distinctly say so. 



Broadly considered, any vegetable produce may be used as salading, 

 according to the skill of the cook in preparing it and the taste of the 

 consumer. Potato salad, for example, is a great favourite with many; 

 so too are Asparagus salads with all who have tasted them, and fruit 

 salads are commoner than either. But it is more than doubtful whether 

 any judges would allow Potatos and Asparagus, and certainly not 

 Easpberries, Peaches, Pineapples, and Plums, to be shown as " salad 

 plants." It might possibly be v/ise in future for Schedules, instead of 

 asking for salad plants or saladings, to be worded, ** vegetables 

 ordinarily used uncooked as salads"; this would exclude Potatos, 

 Asparagus, and Fruit, though it would leave a difficulty with regard 

 to Beet, which is ordinarily cooked before being put on salads. In 

 Show-salads, however, the Beet need not be cooked. 



9. Similar and Dissimilar. 



Some Schedule-makers love to use words that are indefinite. "What, 

 for instance, does the word " dissimilar," so beloved of many, mean? 

 I take the following at random: "Twelve Herbaceous Plants 

 T)ts similar, " and " Nine Asters Dissimilar." 



