120 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ August s, isso. 
must consist of good turfy loam and well-decayed horse manure, 
without straw. Much depends upon the manner in which the 
drainage is attended to. A few broken potsherds should be 
carefully placed in the pots and covered with coarse crushed 
bones, upon that lumps of fibry loam may be placed with a layer 
of soot. In potting, great care should be taken to press the soil 
very firmly into the pots. The following are in my opinion the 
best Strawberries for forcing in the order of their ripening— 
Vicomtesse Hericart dc Thury, Sir Joseph Paxton, President, and 
British Queen.—A. R. P. 
SHREWSBURY ROSE SHOW. 
This most promising and energetic of our lately formed Rose 
exhibitions is a branch of the long-established Shropshire Floral and 
Horticultural Society, which may well be held up as a model to most 
existing sister institutions, inasmuch as she has attained the enviable 
position of reckoning the balance in her Treasurer’s favour by four 
figures at the close of her spring, summer, and autumn exhibitions— 
a most remarkable and almost unique result all those who have to do 
with these matters will be the first, if somewhat sadly, to allow, and 
reflecting the greatest credit both on the executive and on the many 
resident territorial magnates of proud Salopia, who by their purse 
and products lend all the assistance in their power. As usual this 
unpropitious season, those fitful drenching storms which well-to-do 
holiday folk dread so much prevailed all day, and was the only 
disturbing element to an otherwise complete success, though the Exhi¬ 
bition was held in a roomy well lighted and ventilated hall. The 
Hereford Roses carried off most of the chief prizes, and in this respect 
the Society was liberal, as not one class was reserved locally. Messrs. 
Cranston it Co. had splendid blooms, and took first prizes for both the 
forty-eight single varieties and thirty-six triplets. To the latter a 
special condition was attached that each variety should be exhibited 
in three different stages of development—an idea, on so large a scale 
at least, we believe the public will consider more erroneous than 
commendable. Messrs. Dawson were a good second in each of the 
above classes. There was no competition for the third prize. In the 
classes for thirty-six varieties, from which competitors in the two 
former classes were excluded, Mr. Jowitt, Hereford, was first with a 
fine bright collection. Mr. Hawtrey carried off the second prize after 
a very close contest with Messrs. Dickson & Sons. In Class 24, 
single varieties, Mr. Jowitt was again first in order of merit, while 
Messrs. Dickson & Sons and Mr. Hawtrey changed places. In the 
Tea and Noisette class a very creditable competition took place 
considering how adverse the late winter and summer have been to 
these loveliest and rno^t delicate of Roses. Five exhibits, of very 
fair colour and freshness, fa^ed the Judges, Messrs. Cranston taking 
first prize easily with a neat collection. Mr. Hawtrey was second, 
and Messrs. Dawson third. 
In the class for twelve Roses of any one variety Mr. Jowitt carried 
off the first prize with H.P. Alfred Colomb. Your reporter had not 
the privilege of seeing this gentleman’s much-vaunted collection of 
this Rose at Manchester ; but at Shrewsbury it was the general 
opinion that twelve more shapely, bright, and at the same time level 
and immense, blooms -were never staged. Messrs. Cranston & Co. 
took second honours with that vigorous old variety Mdlle. Marie 
Rady, and magnificent specimens they each were, enhancing the well- 
earned triumph of the victor, while Messrs. Davison & Co. secured 
third prize with another collection of fine H.P. Alfred Colomb in a 
remarkably good class. Messrs. Cranston & Co. were awarded a cer¬ 
tificate of merit for their new Rose Mrs. Jowitt, a seedling of which 
this firm has already an immense stock, so highly have they long 
valued its merits. It is a cross between Mdlle. Marie Rady and Due 
de Rohan ; the vigorous foliage and wood of the latter it closely 
resembles, while in shape and substance it may be said to follow a 
well built-up extra bright Alfred Colomb. 
The Rev. C. H. Bulmer and Mr. G-rififiths, Tillington Nurseries, 
Hereford, acted as Judges. All official arrangements were carried 
out by Messrs. Adnitt & Naunton, the energetic and obliging Hon. 
Secretaries, in evidently the most practised and successful manner. 
The system of reversed cards being affixed to each exhibit was followed 
as at the metropolitan exhibitions ; and with the single exception oE 
the Judges being requested to obey the absurd, and it is to be hoped 
the purely local, custom of retiring from the Exhibition Hall until 
their services were required, every detail was most pleasantly and 
efficiently carried out. It only remains to add that if the National 
Rose Society’s Provincial Meeting is not held in Shrewsbury next 
year, from the remarks your reporter heard, transpire, it will not be 
the fault of the Shropshire Horticultural Society, who are most 
ambitious to secure that honour, and are fortunate enough to possess 
an unusually capacious well-lighted Market Hall, admirably adapted 
for the purpose.— The Herefordshire Incumbent. 
PORTRAITS OF NEW AND NOTABLE PLANTS. 
Bignonia capreolata var. atro-sanguinea. —“Bignonia 
capreolata is one of the loftiest climbers in the forests of the 
Southern United States from Virginia to Florida and westwards 
to the Mississippi, where it ornaments the rocks and trees by its 
luxuriant foliage and (usually) orange-yellow flowers. The Ame¬ 
rican name of Cross-Vine is given in reference to the wood of the 
stem, which on a transverse section presents the form of a cross.”— 
{]lot. May., t. 6501.) 
Odontoglossum odoratum.— “A many-flowered sweet-scented 
species of Odontoglossum, discovered in the humid and gloomy 
forests of the Sierra Nevada of Merida, at an elevation of 7000 to 
8000 feet, by Linden. It belongs to the section with O. Hallii, 
Lindl., O. nsevium, Lindl., and others which constitute the genus 
Odontoglossum as first known and described. All have slender 
spreading ears at the top of the column, which sometimes end in 
bristle-like appendages.”— {Ibid., t. 6502.) 
Polygonum cuspidatum.—“ P. cuspidatum is a native of 
Japan, and there is in the Kew herbarium a very similar plant 
from North China, collected by Dr. G. Shearer at Kieu Kiang ; 
the specimens of this are, however, not sufficiently good to pro¬ 
nounce upon, and the racemes from which the flowers have fallen 
are much shorter and more fascicled. This species was introduced 
into England many years ago ; it has been cultivated for a quarter 
of a century at Kew, to which it was, I believe, sent from Holland. 
Like the rest of the half-shrubby species, it flowers very ’ate in 
the season, and is dioecious. It is a tall, glabrous, bushy herb, 
6 feet high, with innumerable stout, branching, angular, red- 
brown leafy stems, rising in a tuft from an underground rootstock 
which sends out innumerable runners.”— {Ibid., t. 6503.) 
Campanula eragilis.— “ Often have we heard travellers from 
Italy expatiating upon the beauty of the spots which are enamelled 
with the bright blue flowers of this interesting stranger, but it was 
never our good fortune to see it alive till we met with it in the 
garden of Mrs. Marryatt at Wimbledon. According to Alphonse 
De Candolle this plant is a native of the evergreen region of Italy 
south of latitude 41°, and struggles through the lower woodland 
region up to the upper limits of the Beech, about 3000 feet above 
the sea, growing in exceedingly dense tufts on limestone rocks. 
However, specimens have been gathered by Mr. Grove at 5000 feet 
elevation, in the valley of Orfenda of the Abruzzi. A glabrous, 
hairy, or pubescent decumbent herb, with slender branches C to 
10 inches long springing from a woody perennial rootstock.”— 
{Ibid., t. 6504.) 
Berjberis buxifolia. — “ Berberis buxifolia ranges from Chili 
to the Straits of Magellan, and probably further south, but in 
Fuegia it is replaced by B. ilicifolia and B. microphylla. It was 
introduced into cultivation by seeds collected by Mr. Anderson, 
the botanical collector attached to Capt. King’s survey of the 
Magellan Straits, which were raised in Mr. Low’s nursery at 
Clapton. It has long been cultivated at Kew. The berries are 
eatable. It is an erect, glabrous, rigid shrub.”— {Ibid., t. 6505.) 
Indigofera Anil.— “ This, the indigenous Indigo of the West 
Indies, is the representative of the I. tinctoria or Indigo of the 
Old World ; but both of these plants having been cultivated for 
some centuries for the extraction of the well-known dye, are now 
naturalised in the tropics of the Old and New World. Of the 
two species, I. tinctoria was known for its product from very early 
times, being in use by the Egyptians and described by Dioscorides ; 
whereas the I. Anil could not have been known in Europe or the 
East until after the discovery of America. An Indigo appears, 
however, to have been used by the natives of the New World 
before it was brought into competition w r ith the plant of the Old ; 
for Sloane (Hist. Jam. vol. ii. p. 37) says, 1 Robt. Tomson ap. 
Hakl., p. 454, found it about Mexico, where it is used to dye blue.’ 
An erect shrub, 3 to G feet high, faintly hoary, with appressed 
hairs, which are attached by the middle.”— {Ibid., t. 6506.) 
ST. IYES (HUNTS) HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
This Show was held in the grounds belonging to Henry Goodman, 
Esq., on Needingworth Road, and it was considered to be the finest 
since the inauguration four years ago. We congratulate the pro¬ 
moters upon the rapid strides made, which is evidenced by the in¬ 
creased number of exhibitors. The productions were arranged in 
three large tents kindly lent by Bateman Brown, Esq., J.P. If the 
Society progresses in the same proportion another tent or two must be 
provided in the future. 
The leading features of the Show were the Rose classes, for which 
the following prizes were kindly given by the Mayor, John Wads¬ 
worth, Esq. For twenty-four distinct varieties the first prize was 
taken by A. G. Soames, Esq., Imam Park, Bourne, whose blooms were 
greatly admired ; the second by Messrs. Paul & Son, Cheshunt; and 
the third by Mr. W. Farren, Cambridge, whose blooms keenly con¬ 
tested for second honours. For distinct varieties open to all amateurs 
Mr. Soames again came first, the Rev. E. L. Fellowes of Wimpole 
Rectory being second. The following celebrities also exhibited— 
Messrs. T$. W. Cooper, House, L. Curtis, J. Smallbones, and Burton. 
For twelve distinct varieties, confined to amateurs members of the 
Society, Mr. T. Seekings, Earith, took first prize, and Mr. R. M. Copley, 
St. Ives, second. The principal exhibitors in the amateurs’ flowers 
