Plates 507 & 508 . 
GLADIOLUS— ORPHEE & HORACE. 
The present season has perhaps brought this beautiful 
autumn flower more prominently into notice than any preceding 
one; the Gladiolus Exhibition at the Royal Horticultural Society’s 
Gardens at South Kensington, and the new Metropolitan 
Floral Society’s Show at the Crystal Palace, having brought 
together a larger number of flowers than were ever before ex- 
hibited at one season in London, and we have no doubt that the 
result will be a greater attention to the cultivation of the 
Gladiolus than it has heretofore received. 
Not the least remarkable feature of these exhibitions was the 
large number of new varieties which appeared in the various 
stands. At present there seems but little probabilit}' of our re- 
ceiving the new varieties of this season from France (although 
the catalogues have already appeared), and therefore those of the 
past season will have the greater interest. Of the large number 
sent out by M. Souchet last autumn, the following seem 
to us the most remarkable : — Armide, a large and well-formed 
flower, light ground, with deep rosy carmine stripes ; Adanson, 
very large rose flower tinted with lilac, somewhat in the style 
of Anais, but finer; Agatlie , light ground, with amaranth carmine ; 
Delicatissima, a very delicately coloured flower, a very light lilac 
tint being suffused over the upper petals, the lower ones being 
nearly white ; Lacepede, long spike of fine flowers, rose-tinted 
with cherry and violet ; Pericles, a very fine spike, carmine 
purple, with white spots on the lower petals ; Robert Fortune, a 
