MISCELLANEOUS. 
189 
Wandsworth. The ground-colour of the inflores- 
cence is pale green, deeply marked with a rich 
orange-brown, the same colours extending over the 
labellum nearly to its base, where it becomes white. 
Also from the same gentleman's matchless collec- 
tion of orchids, the new Phalcenopsis roseum ; a 
pretty and interesting species of this beautiful 
genus, with somewhat clouded pink petals, and a 
rosy-crimson lip ; the central portion of the flower 
being finely delineated with yellowish lines or spots. 
y Those who are in the habit of regularly attending 
' the great reunions of Flora at Chiswick, and the 
Koyal Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park, cannot have 
failed noticing (notwithstanding the admirable 
culture and dazzling array of beauty, which at the 
moment all but exclusively arrests the attention), 
the somewhat clumpish monotony of form which 
predominates in the training of Pelargoniums, &c., 
for exhibition specimens. 
It may be considered an incontrovertible axiom in 
the taste displayed in such matters as Specimen 
Plant culture, that variety of shape and outline in 
the specimen itself is just as great a desideratum 
as variety of colour in the flowers, and would be 
just as acceptable to the flower-loving public who, 
although they cannot at all times see these things 
for themselves, are not the less ready to appreciate 
and do justice to improvements when suggested 
and adopted by those accustomed to observe more 
closely such matters. We are aware that an 
opinion is prevalent with cultivators of the Pelar- 
gonium especially, that the present general method 
of growing them is of all others the one most 
adapted for producing remarkably fine trusses of 
large flowers ; and doubtless this opinion is, to a 
great extent, substantiated by many practical 
realisations of its correctness ; still, admitting this 
to be the case, we firmly believe that if the interest 
at present manifested in these public exhibitions 
of plants is to be maintained as it should be main- 
tained, something must be done to compensate for 
the existing absence of novelty in a more conspicu- 
ous and decisive manner, than the mere introduc- 
tion of a new plant to public notice, howsoever 
intrinsically attractive it may be. And where a 
more extensive field for experiment than that at 
present open, with respect to the training and 
formation of plants into specimens ? 
These observations are intended to apply to 
exhibition-plants generally, although they more 
immediately refer to Pelargoniums and plants 
usually grown upon trellises. As regards the 
former, we have been led to make these remarks 
from several opportunities we have been favoured 
with during the present season, of watching the 
progress of some pyramidically-growTi specimens 
in the Royal Botanic Society's great conservatory, 
in the Regent's Park. These Ave consider to be " a 
step in the right direction," and to sufliciently 
indicate that pyramid Pelargoniums six or more 
feet in height, and a yard or more in diameter, 
uniformly clothed from the base to the apex with 
healthy foliage and flowers (without the conspi- 
cuous appearance of artificial props) are obtainable, 
although the flowers in this instance, it must be 
confessed, are somewhat smaller than we could 
. desire to see them ; which, however, we strongly 
suspect may be remedied by the judicious applica- 
tion of liquid stimulants when once the flower- 
buds are apparent. 
One of the specimens alluded to (if we remember 
rightly, named Prince Albert), is a most successful 
instance of what may be accomplished in Pelargo- 
nium training, being 5 or 6 feet high and a yard 
through, composing a compact conical mass of 
short branches, and good foliage on all sides to the 
rim of the pot— thus presenting a greater extent 
of surface than usual, in addition to variety of 
form, over which trusses of flowers are plentifully 
enough distributed ; but, as before hinted at, infe- 
rior in size to what a florist would have them to 
be ; which, we repeat, we believe may be remedied, 
although we are not so sure that the flower-loving 
public are so over-fastidious as not to be prepared to 
make a slight sacrifice in this respect, when addi- 
tional variety and beauty of form is the compensa- 
tion for the defect, if it be one. From a minute 
inspection of this specimen in the conservatory of 
the Royal Botanic Society, we infer that the object 
of forming it into a pyramidical shape, has mainly 
been attained by the selection of a sturdy young 
plant, and at once inserting it into a pot of large 
dimensions, at the same time closely stopping it 
back, to induce the protrusion of vigorous shoots, 
as near to the base of the plant as possible ; which 
to have preserved in a horizontal direction, pegging 
them down pretty closely to the surface of the pot, 
must have been resorted to ; whilst one of the 
most vigorous shoots appears to have been selected 
from stage to stage (as a repetition of the stopping 
process became requisite,) for training perpendicu- 
larly to form the main stem, supported by a stout 
stake quite concealed in the centre of the specimen 
when fully grown. A sufficiency of laterals would 
of course be produced to form the pyramid, as the 
natural result of pinching back the more vigorous 
shoots, and these during the increasing height of 
the specimen, appear to have been induced to grow 
with some degree of horizontal regularity, by tying 
them in position to a few flower-sticks inserted for 
the purpose, until such time as the branches situate 
lower down become sufficiently rigid to admit of 
the uppermost shoots being trained out, by tying 
from branch to branch, instead of employing 
flower-sticks for the purpose. In the absence of 
precise information, we may be rather incorrect in 
some of the above-given details, but the result is 
certainly pregnant with promise of further im- 
provement ; and it will be obvious that the adop- 
tion of some such treatment we have been attempt- 
ing to describe, is indispensable in the formation 
of pyramidical specimens of Pelargoniums, which 
although we by no means desire to be understood 
as altogether undervaluing the present method of 
training (we rather complain of the exclusive pre- 
ference given to it), are admirably adapted in that 
form for the decoration of large houses like the 
Royal Botanic Society's, and we opine there can 
scarcely be a difference of opinion as to the supe- 
rior effect a few such specimens would produce, 
intermingled with the monotonously beautiful 
groups — of course we refer to the outline of the 
specimens only — which adorn the Pelargonium 
stages of our great Metropolitan exhibitions. The 
