July 17, 18M. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
55 
but no award was made, neither the pale blush Princess of Wales shown by 
Mr. House, nor the striped Pride of Reigate from Messrs. Paul &, Son, 
Cheshunt, being considered worthy of the medal. 
DISTEICT-GROWN ROSES. 
Six classes were devoted to Roses grown in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, 
the first two for those grown within twenty-five miles of the Council Chamber, 
and the remaining classes for those within a radius of ten miles of the same 
building. The blooms were of good quality in all the leading stands, the 
blooms being wonderfully clean, fresh, and of bright colour, but some were 
a little wanting in substance, especially in the smaller classes. For twenty- 
four single trasses Mr. F. Hatch, Salisbury, took the lead, showing Alfred 
Colomb, Frangois Michelon, and Reynolds Hole uncommonly fine ; Mr. F. W. 
Flight, Winchester, and Mr. J. Rawdins, Warminster, securing the other 
prizes with neat blooms. With twelve triplets Mr. J. Smith was the most 
successful, staging Charles Lefebvre, Fisher Holmes, and Xavier Olibo in 
first-rate condition amongst other good blooms. Phillip Grubb, Esq., War¬ 
minster, and the Rev. W. Hickman, Warminster, closely followed in the 
second and third places. J. R. Wigram, Esq., the Lord Bishop of Salisbury, 
and T. H. Staples, Esq., were the prizetakers with twelve blooms, all show¬ 
ing neat blooms, Mr. Wigram’s being remarkably fine. Mr. F. Hatch was 
the premier exhibitor of six blooms, Mr. Wigram and Mr. J. Curtis securing 
the prizes for twelve blooms. 
The premier blooms required careful adjudication, but after a prolonged 
examination the following were selected :—In the nurserymen’s classes the 
Hybrid Perpetual Frangois Michelon in Messrs. Keynes, Williams & Co.’s 
stand already noticed ; the Tea Comtesse deNadaillac from Mr. G. Prince, very 
large and handsomely formed. In the amateurs’ classes H.P. Dupuy Jamain 
of exceedingly rich colour and fine substance from Phillip Grubb, Esq.; the 
premier Tea being Madame Lambard from Mr. Flight, of moderate size but 
very fresh and oven. 
Prizes were also offered for six table plants, the exhibits being very neat 
and well-grown specimens of Adiantums and small Palms ; Capt. Wigram, 
the Bishop of Salisbury, and Sir F. H. Bathurst, Bart., Clarendon Park 
(gardener, Mr. Warden) taking their positions in the order named. The 
not-for-competition exhibits, w’hich were not very numerous, comprised 
several boxes of fine Rose blooms from Messrs. Keynes, Williams & Co., and 
Messrs. Cross & Steer, Salisbury. 
HEREFORD. 
The eighteenth anniversary of the popular West of England Rose Show 
took place on the 8th inst., and, favoured by genial weather, proved a great 
success. The entries in both the nurserymen and amateur classes were 
hardly this year up to the average, as was the case at other leading exhibi¬ 
tions which have already been held; but those who had entered kept well 
up to their engagements, and a grand display of Roses was the result. It 
need not be chronicled that the exhibits generally showed unmistakeable 
signs of the late thunderstorms which have passed throughout the entire 
kingdom, but in this respect the Rose nurseries of Mr. B. R. Cant of 
Colchester were singularly favoured, as, although the blooms must have 
been gathered early the day before for their long journey, so bravely did 
their freshness stand the heat of the hall that they visibly improved until 
far into the evening. 
The exhibits of the celebrated King’s Acre Nurseries (Messrs. Cranston 
and Co.), which carried off both the leading first prizes, were very large and 
level, but showed signs of suffering from the severe hailstorm which passed 
in that direction early on Tuesday morning. 
Messrs. Curtis & Sanford showed also very finely, rivalling Mr. B. R. Cant 
in splendid Teas and Noisettes, which wonderfully lightened up their 
boxes. This firm also took first prize for new Roses (twelve) in a style 
which may be followed with advantage by most nurserymen, as this 
exhibit, perhaps the most important of all (as is well known by both 
rosarians and the public) is shown as a rule indifferently in every sense of 
the word. 
It is interesting to notice that the first and second prizes for twelve 
trusses of any new Rose sent out by English nurserymen, and not in 
commerce previous to 1881, was won by H.P. Merveille de Lyon in so 
grand a style as to stamp this variety as one of the best Roses of late years. 
Mr. Cant and Messrs. Curtis & Sanford were the winners in the order named. 
It was the general remark that the first prize for “ twenty-four blooms 
of any one Rose ” was won by Messrs. Cranston & Co. with Marie Baumann 
in a style seldom witnessed, every bloom in the box being absolutely 
unique as an almost faultless specimen. 
To sum up our general remarks. It will be beyond dispute that the 
present is a bad Rose year. Is it difficult to look for the reason, or, rather, 
succession of reasons ? Surely not! Following on a mild winter, which 
caused Roses to be precociously early in root-growth, came a protracted 
drought, which is always fatally trying to so thirsty a flower as Queen 
Rosa. To this may be added the low night temperature at the 
end of May and beginning of June—frost succeeding frost in the most 
abnormal manner, while the rain, when at last it did set in, has been of so 
tempestuous and prolonged a character as, except in highly favoured 
situations, to damage the blooms and damp the ardour of the most enthusi¬ 
astic of Rose-growers. 
Thus handicapped, it must be satisfactory to find how good the leading 
Rose shows this year have been. The Crystal Palace, and again the West 
of England Rose Shows, leave really but little to be desired, while the early 
fixture of the National would alone account for it not quite this year coming 
op to its past reputation and unique position. 
The following lists will give the leading varieties exhibited, these being 
emphasied in their place as especially worthy of public notice, with the 
name of the exhibitors accoiding to the order in which the leading prizes 
were taken. 
Nurserymen (open to the United Kingdom).—Seventy-two varieties. 
First prize, £8, Messrs. Cranston & Co., Hereford ; second, £5, Mr. B. Cant, 
Colchester; third, £3, Messrs. Curtis & Sanford, Torquay. In Messrs. 
Cranston & Co.’s collection were the following varieties :—H.P.’s Marie 
Baumann, Pride of Waltham, Xavier Olibo, Edward Morren, Mardchal 
VaillanL Elie Morel (grand), Charles Lefebvre, Tea Jean Ducher, H.P.’s 
Pierre Carnot Marquise de Castellano, Reynolds Hole (superb), M. de 
Rothschild, Horace Vernet (exquisite), Madame Montiet, Louis Van Houtte 
(grand), M. Alfred Dumesnil, Senateur Vaisse, Madame Cheveril, M. 
Bernardin, Princess Mary of Cambridge, Duke of Connaught, La France, 
Marie Rady (magnificent). Tea Devoniensis, H.P.’s Etienne Levet, Mdlle. 
Eugenie Verdier, Camille de Rohan, Tea Mardchal Niel, Mrs. Laxton 
(exquisite). Marquise de Mortemarte, Prince Arthur, Duchesse de Morny 
(grand), Jean Liabaud, Star of Waltham (grand), Fisher Holmes, Madame 
Eugene Verdier, Abel Carri6re (fine), Magna Cbarta, Le Havre, Lord Bacon 
(poor), Ulrich Brunner (new. a great acquisition), Mdlle. Mainer, Duchess of 
Bedford (exquisite), Tea Catherine Mermet, H.P. Lord Macaulay, Merveille 
de Lyon (grand), Madame C. Wood (fine), Tea Souvenir d’un Ami, Gloire de 
Bourg la Reine, Madame F. Bruel, Madame Ferdinand Jamin, Madame 
Marguerite Marroin, Penelope Mayo, Sultan of Zanzibar, Pierre Netting 
(fine), Victor Verdier, Duke of Edinburgh (grand), Alfred Colomb, Rosieriste 
Jacobs (great acquisition), Marguerite de St. Amand, Earl of Pembroke 
(poor), Marie Van Houtte (fine), Madame Victor Verdier (Tea), Innocente 
Pirola, H.P. Mdlle. Annie Wood, Capitaine Christy, Crown Prince, Tea 
Niphetos (fine), A. K. Williams, Hippolyte Jamain, Gdndral Jacqueminot 
(grand), Madame Bonnaire. In Mr. Cant’s smaller but more fresh collec¬ 
tion were, notably, the following exquisite Teas among others—Niphetos, 
Madame Angele Jacquier (superb), Comtesse Nadaillac, and Souvenir d’Elise 
(fine). 
Thirty-six varieties, three trusses, first prize, £6, Messrs. Cranston di Co.; 
second, £4, Messrs. Curtis, Sanford A Co.; third, £2, Messrs. Davison and 
Co. The trebles of H.P. Reynolds Hole in one of the first-prize boxes, 
admirably staged for contrast, was a sight not easily forgotten. Twenty-four 
varieties, single trusses, first prize, £2, Messrs. Curtis, Sanford & Co.; 
second, £1, Mr. Cant; extra, Messrs. Cranston it Co. 
Eighteen varieties, three trusses, first, Mr. Griffiths, Tollington ; second, 
Messrs. Harkness, Betterby, Yorkshire; third, Messrs. Je&riea & Son. 
Twenty-four varieties, single trusses, first, Messrs. Harkness; second, Mr. 
Griffiths ; extra, Messrs. Jefferies. 
Seventy-two varieties, single trusses (open to nurserymen not residing in 
Herefordshire), first, £10, Mr. B. Cant; second, £6, Messrs. Curtis & Sanford. 
Amateurs (open to the United Kingdom).—The first prize of £5 given 
by Messrs, Cranston & Co., which carries with it the honour of winning the 
N.R.S. medal, was won by Mr. W. J. Grant with a finely set-up collection of 
thirty-six blooms as follows H.P. Senateur Vaisse, La France, Marie 
Baumann, Merveille de Lyon (rightly named, grand everywhere), M. 
Bernardin, Victor Verdier, Louis Van Houtte, Hippolyte Jamain, Mons. E. Y. 
Teas, Pride of Waltham (fine), Pierre Netting (grand old favourite), Lord 
Bacon, Mad. Castellane, M. A. Dumesnil (fine), M. de Rothschild, Mrs. 
Baker (exquisite), Mdlle. E. Verdier, Earl of Pembroke, Marquise de Mont¬ 
martre, Star of Waltham, Marie Van Houtte (grand), H.P. Mrs. Laxton 
(superb). Marguerite de St. Amand (grand), Mrs. C. Wood, Mdlle. Marie 
Cointet, Reynolds Hole (grand). Noisette Marechal Niel, H.P. Vicomte 
Vigier, Mdlle. Cheviot, Fisher Holmes (exquisite). Second, £4, Mrs. Bulmer, 
Hereford ; third, £2, Mr. Tanner, Ludlow. 
The classes restricted to Herefordshire were keenly contested, as also the 
cottager classes. If the maximum amount of prize money was restricted in 
the latter class to 15s., the amount of the first prize a larger and more healthy 
because genuine competition would be the result. 
In the floral decoration division Lord Bute’s two prizes of £3 and £2 for 
arrangements suitable for the drawing-room, were won by Miss E. M. Tomson, 
Hampton Court, and Miss Watkins, Wilcroft, respectively. In opera bouquets 
Miss Cypher was first and Messrs. Lewis & Son second. In the dinner table 
decoration the £5 prize given by Joseph Pulley, Esq., M.P., was won by Miss 
Berrow, Westhide; Miss Isabel Dew, Hereford, being second, and Miss Atlay, 
The Palace, highly commended. 
While some of the specimens in this division were all that could be desired, 
we venture to suggest to the majority of the fair competitors, that while 
undoubtedly it is a sound technical maxim to let “ art conceal art,” it is quite 
possible for there to be no art at all to conceal. The “ unstudied ” result of 
allowing their own sweet will to purposely and wildly run riot, untrammelled 
by any fundamentally recognised rules, and uninspired by any ideal either 
original or borrowed. 
It only remains to notice that the Judges in the various departments were 
—In the nurserymen’s classes. Rev. C. H. Bulmer, Credenhill Rectory, and Mr. 
Grant, Hope End, Ledbury ; in the amateurs’classes, Mr. Sanford and Mr. 
B. Cant’s foreman; in the open and decorative departments, Hon. and Rev. 
J. T. Boscawen and Mr. T. Jowitt, Mr. Henry Leslie, and Miss De Winton.— 
Herefordshire Incumbent. 
OXFORD.— July 10th. 
The privilege was granted, by the Rev. Warden and Fellows, to this 
Society to hold its thirty-third annual Exhibition in the delightfully secluded 
gardens of the New College, which, by the way, was founded more than 
500 years ago. Approaching it from a point in the High Street, a short 
distance above Queen’s College, from whence may be beheld “the finest 
sweep of street architecture which Europe can exhibit,” the University 
church of St. Mary-the-Virgin is passed, the contiguous colleges of 
All Souls, Brasenose, and Hertford, as well as the Radcliffe Library 
and the Old Schools, opposite to which a narrow street leads to the 
“lowly portal” of one of the grandest foundations of Oxford. Passing 
through the quadrangles we entered the gardens, and were at once en¬ 
chanted with the picturesque surroundings. It is there that most of what 
remains of “ the old city wall ” are to be seen, and it is with satisfactien we 
note the evident care bestowed on its preservation. This wall forms the 
boundary of one side of the gardens, and shelters a tastefully planted border 
and a broad terrace walk. There, as in the other college gardens that we 
visited, and which we purpose to notice fully in the future, the lawns were 
in a high state of perfection, fitly demonstrating what can be achieved by 
application. The most interesting trees that we noticed in this garden were 
a very fine specimen of Catalpa syringmfolia and nine noble Limes. 
During the time that the public were admitted to the Exhibition the rain 
fell fast and almost continuously—most refreshing to vegetation, but to the 
fair visitors it was a source of disappointment. 
Turning to the exhibits the classes open to all first attracted attention, 
the leading class being that for forty-eight varieties, three trusses of each. 
In this Messrs. Curtis, Sanford & Co. of Torquay succeeded in gaining the 
