JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 9 
exhibits (and will be in every exhibition throughout the season), 
a most enjoyable and excellent meeting was held, at which several 
new competitors meritoriously came to the front. 
The following are the lists most likely to interest the general 
public:—Messrs. Cranston & Co. swept the board in the nurserymen’s 
open division with seventy-two and thirty-six trebles, and twenty- 
four varieties. Their collection of seventy-two consisted of the 
following varieties—H.P.’s, Hippolyte Jamain, Jeanne Sury, grand 
in colour. Caroline Kuster, Pierre Notting, Marquise de Morte- 
mart, Le Havre, fine; Etienne Levet,MargueriteBrassac,Duchessede 
Morny, Madame C. Wood, Laelia, Exposition de Brie, Prince Arthur 
(Cant’s), most useful; Marie Finger, Mrs. Baker, exquisite; Alba 
Rosea, Jean Liabaud, Victor Verdier, Sir Garnet Wolseley, Marie 
Cointet, J. S. Mill, Alice Dureau, Madame Victor Verdier, Caroline 
de Sansal, La France, everywhere gorgeous; A. K. Williams, the 
finest Rose in the Hall; Capitaine Christy, Charles Lefebvre, Baronne 
de Rothschild, Marguerite Manoin, L’Esperence, Louis Van Houtte, 
Monsieur Noman, General Jacqueminot, Madame Nachury, Sdnateur 
Vaisse. Madame Gabriel Luizet, Dingde Conard, Eugene Verdier, 
E. Y. Teas, Edouard Morren, Maurice Bernardin, Edouard Morren, 
Souvenir de la Malmaison. Messrs. Curtis & Co. took second prize 
with smaller, but fresh, smooth, and very well-coloured blooms. 
Especially noticeable were Pride of Waltham (a new and decided 
acquisition), Penelope Mayo, Camille Bernardin, and Paul Neyron, 
a Rose by no means to be despised when bright and symmetrical. 
This firm also took second prize for twenty-four varieties, and an 
extra prize, £5, for seventy-two varieties open to nurserymen not 
living in Herefordshire, this class not filling to entitle them to first 
prize. Messrs. Dawson & Whiting took third prize in seventy-two 
varieties, second prize in thirty-six trebles, and third prize in twenty- 
four varieties. In class, eighteen varieties, three trusses, there was 
no competition. In twenty-four single varieties the second prize was 
taken by Mr. Wm. Grove, Hereford, the only competitor. 
In Class B, amateurs, open to the United Kingdom, thirty-six 
varieties, single trusses, first prize £5 (with National Rose Society’s 
medal) was taken by Mr. W. J. Grant, Ledbury ; second prize by 
Miss Bulmer, Broadlands, Hereford ; third prize (not taken). Mr. 
Grant’s collection, contained blooms small but fresh and good, with 
a fine sprinkling of Teas. Twenty-four varieties, single trusses.— 
First, Rev. C. H. Bulmer, Credenhill Rectory, Hereford ; second, 
Miss Bulmer ; third prize, Mr. Berrington. The special prize given 
by Cranston’s Nursery and Seed Company, Limited, for a collection 
of twenty-four English-raised Roses not in commerce previous to 
1878, had no entries. We may be allowed to say the wonder would 
be if it had. By the National Rose Society’s useful catalogue of 
Exhibition Roses anyone can easily reckon that about thirteen varie¬ 
ties only could have been staged, and if the special had not been 
handicapped by any limit of time at all, even then only some twenty- 
seven varieties of exhibition Roses could have been staged. 
In the amateur close division the competition was very keen, the 
more so doubtless from Miss Bulmer elevating herself this year to 
that position in the open amateur division, which the prize list shows 
she is so well capable of adorning. The blooms throughout this 
division, except those of Mr. C. Williams, Lower Eaton, were gene¬ 
rally small or coarse, and evidently appealed for more persevering 
and intelligent treatment. Messrs. Cranston & Co. carried off first 
prize for twenty-four blooms of any one Rose, with faultless blooms 
(each) of La France, and Messrs. Dawson & Co. second prize with 
same varieties. 
In Class D for new Roses Messrs. Curtis <fc Sandford took first 
prize with the following varieties as most noticeable—H.P. Mrs. 
Jowitt, very good ; H.P. Pride of Waltham, also excellent; and H.P. 
Ferdinand Chaffotte, useful ; and H.P. Madame Ducher, very promis¬ 
ing. Messrs. Curtis & Sandford also carried off the prize for twelve 
blooms of any new Rose with H.P. Alfred Dumesnil.a new Rose of a 
most useful colour, fine form, and shown remarkably well. A fine 
collection from Mr. G. P. Hawtrey, Aldin House, Slough, arrived too 
late for competition. They were awarded on their extraordinary 
merits and misfortune a special prize. 
The decorative department was unusually large, and carried out in 
the best possible taste and skill. Lord Bute’s first prize was taken 
by Miss M. Berrows, and thoroughly deserved its premier position, 
especially as it was a first attempt in public. Miss Cypher of 
Cheltenham took the chief prizes in bouquets, for which she is so 
justly celebrated. Mr. J. H. Arkwright and Mrs. Arkwright of 
Hampton Court, Leominster, and Mrs. Harry Arkwright acted as 
Judges in this division. Rev. A. J. Williams, Alderminster Rectory, 
Stratford-on-Avon ; Mr. Hall, Birkenhead ; and Rev. C. H. Bulmer, 
Credenhill Rectory, Hereford, in the nurserymen’s division ; and 
Messrs. Cranston and Sandford in the amateurs’ division.— Here¬ 
fordshire Incumbent. 
LiELIA HARPOPHYLLA. 
This has now been in cultivation for about ten years, but until 
quite recently it was very expensive, and could only be ranked 
amongst the curios and rarities of Orchid collections ; now, 
however, Mr. B. S. Williams of Upper Holloway has succeeded 
in obtaining a good stock, and in consequence plants are being 
offered at much more moderate prices that will place a really 
useful Orchid within the reach of scores who would have been 
quite unable to obtain it at the previous high prices. It is one 
of the small-flowered species, but quite unlike any of the better 
known forms, such as L. autumnalis, L. anceps, and others. The 
flowers are star-shaped, with narrow spreading sepals and petals 
of a rich orange vermilion hue, a colour very rare amongst 
Fig. 2.—Lmlia harpophylla. 
Orchids, and correspondingly striking. The neat little flowers 
if cut singly and wired would be admirably suited for bouquets 
or arranging with other flowers in vases for the table, and for 
choice and distinct buttonholes they would also be well adapted. 
Mushrooms. —The idea of using virgin spawn for crops is new and 
interesting to me. There is force in the idea. I may mention that 
the heaviest crops and largest and finest Mushrooms I ever had were 
from beds in which the spawn was spontaneously developed—that is, 
without artificial spawn, the material of the bed consisting of stable 
