Plate 482. 
HYACINTH— LORD MELVILLE. 
The past season has not been so favourable for Hyacinths as 
the preceding one, and although the bulbs as imported from 
Holland appeared to be, as usual, sound and good, yet they did 
not produce the same grand blooms as in the preceding year. 
It was fortunate that the year when the Dutch growers offered 
such liberal prizes was a good one, as it enabled them to see 
what success attends the culture of the bulb in England. 
While, however, we say this, we do not mean to intimate that 
the blooms were indifferent ; it is only by way of comparison 
we note it. Those exhibited by Messrs. Cutbush and Son, of 
Higligate, maintained the supremacy that this firm has obtained 
in the culture of the Hyacinth. For a few years Mr. W. Paul 
tried to come into the foremost place, but his complete defeat 
last year was the signal of his retirement from a hopeless con- 
test, and this year he did not appear as a competitor in any of 
the classes, and no other grower had any prospect of coming 
near Mr. Cutbush. 
The classes for new Hyacinths did not produce any more re- 
markable flower than that which we have figured, differing 
very much as it does both in the form of the flower and shape 
of the spike from many others. It is not so densely crowded 
as in such flowers as Lord Palmerston and others which we 
have figured ; but as it is quite new, higher cultivation may 
perhaps cause the flower to fill up more. The colour is of an 
intense deep purplish black, with a decided black stripe down 
