May 7, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
379 
to happen that some—very possibly a large number—differ in opinion from 
the judges ; sometimes, I believe, a protest has been entered against the 
decision—although I have not known any case of such being made—and 
of course where this is the case some unpleasantness is the result. Now, if 
bouquets were judged by some code of laws like that attempted to be laid 
down for judging Grapes, some reasons might be given for the decision. 
Perhaps someone will be good enough to put forth a few ideas bearing on 
the matter, and by way of an introduction I beg to submit the following 
crude notions as to what I think ought to be borne in mind when such 
things are placed before a judge. 
1. A hand bouquet must be made so as to he easily carried in all positions in the 
hand without any ol its parts being disarranged when it is turned upside down; and 
to prove this the judge to be at liberty to swing it sharp’y about in all directions in his 
hand, and if it will not bear this ordeal, to reject it. 
2. The bouquet to be shown without anypaper or other guard or bordering, excepting 
that of flower or foliage ; the handle also not to be too thick, for the reasons given in 
Rule 1. 
3. No flower having a disagreeable smell to he used for a hand bouquet; where such 
exists the bouquet to be disqualified. N.B.—This rule need not be enforced in a stand 
of flowers for the table, unless it be thought advisable to do so. 
4. The quality of the flowers used — i.e., their rarity, not to be taken into considera¬ 
tion unless the arrangement be equally good, or better than where common ones are 
UBed. 
5. No bouquet to be exhibited under a glass shade unless all are provided with this 
appendage, but the exhibitor may be allowed to keep one over his bouquet until requested 
to remove it prior to judging, not afterwards. 
6. Dried and Everlasting Flowers not to be mixed with fresh ones, and the same may 
be said of foliage. 
7. Flowers may he mounted on wire or other substance, but too much wireworlt ought 
not to be used, so as to indicate its presence by the weight of the bouquet. 
It is not assumed that the foregoing rules embody all that may he 
necessary, but I throw them out as a sort of outline to be added to or 
amended as.may be thought proper. At the same time let it be borne in 
mind that they are intended for guidance in judging hand bouquets, and 
not those for the table. The latter may have a more feathery outline, 
as they are not expected to be turned upside down, but the hard usage 
those for the hand have to undergo necessitates their being somewhat 
formal and compact, and the overspreading twig of Maidenhair or other 
Pern which may be merely stuck in amongst the flowers of the table-stand 
ought to be firmly fixed in its place in the hand bouquet, otherwise it 
will be speedily displaced when the latter is brought into use; the judge 
ought, therefore, to ascertain this, and if it or any flower fall out when 
the bouquet is turned upside down, or subjected to such trials as a bouquet 
will in ordinary usage have to undergo, he is not expected to replace 
them, but to lay them by the side of the bouquet to show its defects to 
the public. 
Great size having been already spoken of as objectionable, the other 
extreme must also be avoided ; but much weight ought to be given to 
an agreeable combination of colours, and in general the best effect is pro¬ 
duced by the fewest varieties ; about three, or at most four, kinds of 
flowers with the necessary foliage, be it Ferns or anything else, are suffi¬ 
cient for most nosegays, and I am not certain but one or two kinds of 
flowers only would be better still. Formality, however objectionable in 
other combinations of flowers, is indispensable in a nosegay, otherwise it 
will not endure hard usage, and such flowers only as have stiff stems and 
are otherwise capable of enduring hard usage should be allowed to project 
beyond their fellows ; the same may be said of foliage. The judge should 
be guided by what he would expect the bouquet to be after an hour in a 
ball-room, and not merely by what it is at the moment. 
Perhaps one class of bouquet may be in some degree exempt from the 
rather severe ordeal I have advised for the others, and that is the bridal 
bouquet; for a greater amount of care and gentle treatment is likely to be 
accorded to it, and it need not undergo the five minutes’ gyration I have 
sometimes thought others ought to do on the vanes of a windmill. Still 
I would insist on its veil of Fern, which seems an indispensable accompani¬ 
ment, being fixed so as not to come out when turned upside down ; and as 
custom has established the rule to confine this bouquet to white flowers only 
I will in this instance find no fault with it, but may say that a liberal allow¬ 
ance of green is an improvement. As a censor one must handle the bridal 
bouquet as well as the others, and if any of the contrivances used to mount 
the flowers be visible, or the handle too thick, or the whole too heavy, I 
would be disposed to judge unfavourably of it, for no surroundings of lace, 
be it from Brussels or still further off, can c mpensate for a bad arrange¬ 
ment of Nature’s choicest ornaments.— 0 
SPICATE INFLORESCENCE IN CYPRIPEDIUM INSIGNE. 
At a recent meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences 
Mr. Thomas Meehan referred to a specimen of Cypripedium insigne 
which had a spike with two flowers and other undeveloped buds, the 
normal character being a one-flowered scape. These departures from the 
normal form afforded valuable lessons, though frequently passed over as 
mere freaks of Nature. A spicate inflorescence was a common character¬ 
istic in allied species. From the illustration before us, we might infer 
that the one-flowered kinds were species in which the power to develope 
a proper spike had been arrested. We might expect to see attempts at 
this form of inflorescence in Cypripedium acaule of our own country. 
A very important lesson from these occasional departures had but 
recently the attention given to it that it properly deserved, and that was 
that whenever any particular plant departed from its normal form, other 
characters came into existence, which, in a separate plant would, and 
often did, obtain for the new departure the rank of a species. In this 
instance the second flower on the spike was different from the lower and 
normal one in the upper segment of the perianth (sepals), having a 
regular outline. In the normal form it was so crumpled as to present a 
tri-lobed appearance. In the normal form the labellum was so elongated 
as to be three times the length of the column. In the upper flower the 
labellum was but double the length, giving it a somewhat globular 
appearance. There were other variations that formed a combination of 
characters quite sufficient to mark a species if they were constantly 
produced in a separate state. Why could not this rare occurrence become 
a continuous one, and thus a new species be formed—created, we may 
say—out of an older one ? There can be no reason. We may call this a 
freak of Nature, but it could not have occurred without that combination 
of circumstances which we call law. We have no warranty for saying 
that a law which has operated to produce a departure in a solitary instance 
like this might not have a more permanent power at some other time. 
Nor is there any warranty for believing that a law that has operated as we 
see here on one plant might not operate on a hundred, or on all the plants 
of a district, or even on plants in separate districts widely separated from 
each other. 
In a paper by himself, published in the Proceedings of the Troy 
Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
“ On the Introduction of Species by Sudden Leaps,” as well as elsewhere, 
he had given illustrations of the sudden appearance of identical forms in 
widely separated localities. If we may generalise from these facts, as we 
seemed almost warranted in doing, we need not be always looking for the 
links supposed to be missing, which the belief in the hypothesis of develop¬ 
ment by slow modifications compelled us to search for, nor need we be 
reduced to the only alternative of believing that all new species sprang 
from one parent, which formed a centre of distribution in each particular 
case. A whole species might be called into existenco in the shape of 
hundreds of individuals or in numerous centres if only a law that we 
know from these instances can operate suddenly and exceptionally should 
continue regularly to act. Such a belief would tend materially to remove 
difficulties in the way of theories of evolution that now prevented a full 
acceptance thereef. 
If we can conceive that a suddenly introduced and yet permanently 
act'ng force was introduced to operate on some lower beings, the difficulty 
might be removed. It seemed to him that in some palaeontological fields 
there are evidences of rapid evolution at certain periods, and of greater 
permanency at others, and this could only be by the introduction of a force 
equal to the emergency, as in this sudden case brought to the notice of 
the Academy above. 
It would be an interesting study to endeavour to trace the laws that 
operated in these changes. In this study we must leave behind us 
impressions which we have imbibed from the idea of mere freaks, hybrids, 
a return to primitive forms, and other mere guesses with which scientific 
literature abounds. On the table before us, he observed, are the recent 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, in which is an account of 
a remarkable change in a Potato, a variety brought from Scotland a few 
years previously, known as Patterson’s Victoria, a variety with white 
flowers and round white tubers, which, after a culture of a few years in 
the new climate, produced purple flowers, flat ovate tubers, and these 
tubers with pink eyes. The members of that Society looked at it as a 
return to the original form of some hybrid variety. We here, with other 
facts before us, would rather regard it as the effect of environment 
operating on some innate, and so far unknown, cause of change which 
might lie dormant through long ages till the peculiar conditions of the 
environment called them into active life. There seemed in fact seeds for 
form, as well as seeds for individuals, awaiting the required conditions for 
germination and rapid growth. In the one case we were able to perceive 
and appreciate them, except in some of the lowest organisms. The 
principle that contained the germ of form was, however, yet as wholly 
unknown as that of the supposed disease-germs of the atmosphere. 
MANAGEMENT OF HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
I HAVE noted Mr. Cox’s reply, and as 1 do not think any end will 
be gained by a continuation of this subject, I have done for the present. 
I may, however, be permitted to thank Mr. Waterman for his correction 
of my statement in relation to the Shrewsbury Society. I did not refer 
to the schedule for the present year, as I have not yet seen one, but I 
have been labouring under the impression that for the last and previous 
years—referring to the summer exhibition—two or three classes only were 
open to all England.— NortAerner. 
AMONG THE RANGES OF NEW ZEALAND. 
(Continued from page 357.) 
On Friday morning we turned out at 5 A.M. to witness sunrise on the 
mountain. In front stood Mount Torlesse in all its grandeur, with shiDgle 
slides carved out of its sides by snow and wind ; on the left a spur covered 
with shrubs and herbaceous plants ; on the light bare shingle slopes, and 
in the rear Big Ben with the sun shining on its top. Not a cloud in the 
sky, not a movement in the air ; the tinkle of the creek which ran by our 
tent and the croak of the wekas being the only sounds which broke the 
solitude of the mountains. Breakfasted on porridge, biscuits, and tea, and 
tubbed in the icy water of the creek. With our coats and waistcoats off, 
collecting bags and alpenstocks in hand, we commenced the ascent of the 
mountain. 
On Mount Torlesse and its spurs are to be found a greater number of 
species of the Alpine flora than perhaps on any other mountain in the 
colony. Commencing the ascent from the top of Porter’s Pas 3 , a short 
description of the plants will be given, and the elevation at which they 
were collected. Of the family of Mountain Aster (Celmisia), which forms 
quite a third of the herbaceous vegetation, C. gracilenta has grey leaves ; 
the flowers are white, 1 inch across, and the plant is very much scattered 
between 3 and 5000 feet. The leaves of C. Lyalli are very narrow, 1 fo >t 
in length, the flowers are white, inch across. This sort grows in 
