July 15, 1880. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER: 
51 
indicated. Mr. Wrench the Treasurer responded appropriately, 
and the Lord Mayor then proposed the health of the Duke of 
Connaught. In acknowledging the toast His Royal Highness 
stated he had always taken great interest in horticulture, and it 
afforded him great pleasure to witness the products of the gar¬ 
deners’ skill as collected at exhibitions. 
“The Secretary, Mr. Cutler,” being proposed by the Chairman, 
that gentleman responded, and compared the dinners held at the 
commencement of the Society, when about £50 were collected, 
with the one held on that occasion, when the subscription was the 
largest ever received. His Royal Highness the Duke of Con¬ 
naught had given them 300 guineas ; Mr. H. J. Yeitch 259 donors, 
or £269 2s. 6d .; twelve life members, £126 ; and 149 annual 
subscriptions, £158 18s., making a total of £554 Os. Gd. • and 
through Mr. Tate of Messrs. Brown & Tate, Manchester, they had 
received the sum of £110. The sum total of the subscriptions 
amounted to over £1400. The Chairman proposed “ The Royal 
Horticultural Society ” and “ The Royal Botanic Society,” to which 
the Duke of Teck and Sir Trevor Lawrence replied in appropriate 
terms. Other toasts were also given and responded to, and the 
meeting then terminated. 
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At a General Meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society 
held on Tuesday last, G. T. Clarke, Esq., V.P., in the chair, the 
following candidates were duly elected Fellows :—viz., Mrs. Fir¬ 
man, Francis Henry Hogg, Sidney Howard, Dr. I’Anson, Mrs. 
Keane, Robinson Kendal, Douglas Kingsford, Rev. H. Dalgety 
McCheane, J. B. Sharpe, Yilliers Stuart, M.P., James Waddell, 
Charles Westendarp. The Rev. George Henslow afterwards 
delivered a most interesting lecture on the plants which were ex¬ 
hibited, and for a report of which we regret we have not space. 
- The usual monthly dinner of the Horticultural Club 
took place on Tuesday last, when the following gentlemen were 
elected members—Sir Richard Wallace, Bart., M.P.; Messrs. C. H. 
Hawtrey, J. P. Hawtrey, E. P. Francis, and E. P. Wollaston. 
- Mr. T. Riches of Lower Tooting has sent us umbels of 
the pretty and useful hardy bulbous plant, B RODIA2A congest A. 
The flowers are of a clear purplish blue tint, and are borne in 
compact umbels, somewhat in the style of an Allium. It is quite 
hardy, and succeeds in any ordinary light garden soil, and con¬ 
tinues in flower for a considerable time. 
- In the old Lily house at Kew a beautiful aquatic plant— 
namely, JussleA natans, is now flowering freely. The blooms 
are large, of a bright yellow colour, and suggestive of some 
CEnotheras in shape and colour. 
- “ J. U.” writes in very high terms of praise of the Melon 
William Tillery, which he considers to be a variety of great 
excellence in the form, colour, and flavour of the fruit. 
- A correspondent writes that “ Petrocoptis LagAs- 
CiEANA is one of the best alpine plants I know. It is remarkably 
floriferous, and continues in flower for a long time, how long I 
cannot yet say, as this is the first season I have grown it, and it 
is now as bright as it was six weeks ago. The flowers are rose 
colour.” 
-We have received a very rich collection of spikes of 
Delphiniums grown by Mr. Joseph L. Stevens of Grasmere, 
Byfleet, Surrey, which illustrate in a remarkable manner the 
beauty and decorative value of this genus of herbaceous plants. 
In some instances the flowers are intensely double, others are 
semi-double, but the great majority are single flowers. The 
latter are doubtless the most beautiful ; the large spreading sepals 
being of almost every hue of blue, purple, and lilac, approaching 
red, and shaded with two and occasionally three shades of colour. 
In some cases the petals are quite white, forming a clear bright 
eye in the centre of the flower, in others they too are striped and 
shaded. We can only say they are very beautiful. 
- We draw the attention of our readers to the fact that 
the Evening Fete of the Royal Horticultural Society 
will be held on Wednesday next the 21st inst., when the Gardens 
at South Kensington will be illuminated from 8 until 12 p.m. 
The bands of the Royal Horse Guards (Blues), and the 2nd Life 
Guards will be in attendance, and should the weather prove 
favourable the gathering will no doubt prove an extremely 
brilliant one. 
- We learn from Nature that the collection of Mosses 
of the late Professor Schimper of Strasburg has been purchased 
by the Baroness Burdett Coutts, who has presented this valuable 
and well-known collection to the Royal Gardens, Kew. 
- As an example of the way in which window gardening 
is being encouraged in the great metropolis, we may state that 
the fourteenth summer Exhibition of a Society instituted for that 
purpose at Westminster was held last week, and proved very 
successful, except as regards the weather. The President of the 
Society is the Dean of Westminster; the patronage of the Duke 
and Duchess of Northumberland, the Earl and Countess of Pem¬ 
broke, the Earl and Countess of Brownlow, and the Hon. Alfred 
Talbot being also generously accorded. Under such powerful 
support the Society may well be expected to obtain some good 
results. The prizes were delivered to the winners by the Earl 
of Shaftesbury. 
-A correspondent states that the annual Exhibition of 
the Ipswich and East of England Horticultural Society 
which was held last week in Christchurch Park, Ipswich, proved 
very successful as regards the number and. quality of the exhibits, 
notwithstanding the unfavourable weather that prevailed. Plants 
were well shown, Messrs. J. Gilbert & Son of Ipswich being 
the principal prizetakers. Cut flowers, particularly Roses, were 
very good. The special prize for forty-eight distinct varieties 
offered by Admiral Sir G. N. Broke-Middleton, Bart., was gained 
by Mr. B. R. Cant, Colchester. Other winners in those classes 
were Mr. B. F. Cant, Colchester ; Rev. H. A. Berners, Harkstead 
Rectory, Ipswich ; Mr. G. L. Rushmore, gardener to Sir Charles 
Rowley, Tendring Hall, Stoke ; and Mr. G. Palmer, gardener to 
T. H. Powell, Esq., Drinkstone Park, Bury St. Edmunds. Fruit 
was numerously and well shown, the principal exhibitors being 
Mr. T. Blair, gardener to Admiral Sir G. N. Broke-Middleton, 
Bart., Shrubland Park; Mr. W. Allan, gardener to'Lord Suffield, 
Gunton Park, Norwich; and Mr. J. Mill, gardener to Lord 
Rendlesham, Rendlesham Hall. 
- There is now a grand display of NymphasAS in the 
Oxford Botanic Garden, where the tropical aquatics generally 
are also in excellent condition. Among the species of Nymphseas 
especially noticeable are N. Cyanea, N. odorata, N. devoniensis, 
N. Daubeniana, and N. Lotus rosea ; but many others are also 
well represented, for the Oxford collection is a remarkably 
fine one. 
- In the same house the charming Eichornia AZUREA is 
flowering most profusely, and thriving as well as could be desired. 
This plant, it will be remembered, flowered last year at the Regent’s 
Park Botanic Gardens, whence it was distributed to both Kew 
and Oxford, and strangely enough the latter was the only place 
where they succeeded in preserving it through the winter. 
- We have received the following relative to the Straw¬ 
berry season —“ The produce of Strawberries, from what 
a few years ago was common waste land in the neighbourhood 
