August 28 , 1890 . 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
177 
G. Monro, Covent Garden. 
F. W. Moore, Botanic Gardens, Dublin 
J. O’Brien, Harrow-on-the-Hill. 
E. Orfcgies, Botanic Gardens, Zurich. 
S. Osborne, East Sheen Gardens, Suirey. 
W. Paul & Son, Waltham Cross. 
*C. Penny, Sandringham, King’s Lynn. 
H. Perkins, Greenland Gardens, Hen’ey-on-Thames, 
E. Pidsley, Westbrook Gardens, Sheffield. 
H. M. Pollett, Fernside, Bickley. 
Protheroe & Morris, Cheapside. 
W. Reed, Norbury Gardens, Ashbourne. 
W. Richards, 41, Wellington Street. 
Richardson, Botanic Gardens, Liverpool. 
W. Robinson, 37, Southampton Street, Strand. 
‘Sander & Co., St. Albans. 
C. J. Schofield, Wood Road, Whalley Range, Manchester. 
Baron Schroder, The Dell, Egham. 
-J. Seward, Hawksfold, Fernhurst, Haslemere. 
H. N. Sherwood, Dunedin, Streatham Hill. 
<J. Silver, Wroxall Abbey Gardens, Warwick. 
W. Smythe, Basing Park Gardens, Alton. 
W. Sowerby, Royal Botanic Society, Regent’s Park. 
Stevens, King Street, Covent Garden. 
A. . Tait, Corporation Street, Manchester. 
Sir Joseph Terry, The Mount, York. 
i O. Thomas, Chatsworth Gardens, Chesterfield. 
D. Thomson, Edinburgh. 
W. Thomson, Clovenfords, Galashiels. 
W. Thomson, jun., Clovenfords, Galashiels. 
R- Todd, Woolton Wood, Liverpool. 
H. Turner, Slough. 
'Pynaert Van Geert, Ghent. 
T. S. Ware, Tottenham. 
R. Warner, Broomfield, Chelmsford. 
■J. Watson, Earnoch, Hamilton, N.B. 
J. Wills, South Kensington. 
J. W. Wimsett & Son, Chelsea. 
B. Wynne, 17, Catherine Street, Covent Garden. 
G. Wythes, Sion House, Brentford. 
R. loung, Fringilla, Linnett Lane, Ollet Road, Liverpool. 
Subscriptions, varying in amount from 10 guineas to 10s., have been 
paid or promised, All subscriptions will in due time be publicly 
.•advertised. 
Notes on the Crystal Palace Rose Show. 
The National Rose Society’s Metropolitan Exhibition of 1890 is, I 
think, notable for the way in which the blooms lasted. Never in my 
experience of N.R.S. exhibitions, and it dates from the Show held in 
St. James’s Hall, have exhibitors had such an easy staging time, or the 
public gone home at the close of the Show with such fresh young blooms 
and Sunday buttonholes. It seemed more like a northern exhibition, 
where one expects blooms to stand, both on account of the cooler air as 
well as that later in the month Roses are given and possess more stamina. 
The only day in the past Rose season when we were at all troubled by 
the heat was at Leicester on August 5th ; there the heat was intense, and 
one exhibitor from Scotland was in the larger classes completely driven 
off the exhibition table. 
The Crystal Palace Show was remarkable for another thing, and that 
was the awarding of two gold medals for new Roses, a circumstance 
unique, I believe, in the annals of the N.R.S. Of the best Roses in the 
.Show there was nothing very remarkable ; good, of course, the silver 
medallists were, but there seemed a little uncertainty as to which of the 
two Catherine Mermets of Mr. Burnside was awarded the medal ; for 
lasting qualities those who saw the good condition of one of them three 
-days after at Gloucester will be able to decide. In the trade division 
it was thought by some that Comtesse de Nadaillac in Mr. Prince’s 
stand must have run Messrs. Harkness’s Catherine Mermet very close 
indeed. 
Another thing to be noticed was the number of exhibitors in 
■Class 17, “ open only to amateurs who have never won a prize at an Ex¬ 
hibition of the National Rose Society,” always an interesting class. 
This year there were seven exhibitors, and on the whole good. It is not 
at all improbable that the winners of the first and second prize will be 
heard of before long in the front rank. I hope they will. It gave us 
great satisfaction, although some of us tried our best to prevent it, that 
a new name was ordered to be engraved on the metropolitan challenge 
trophy, amateurs. I cannot help thinking that if the plan of the 
northern Exhibition was adopted here it would lead to greater competi¬ 
tion. At present, in order to compete for the challenge trophy, a man 
must grow largely rather than well and I should imagine there are but 
few exhibitors who do not feel it a strain upon their resources to stage 
forty-eight varieties. This is always the case with us ; indeed, it was 
not until the day before the Show that we had forty-eight varieties 
out, and it seemed we should repeat our performance of 1888 and be 
able to show garden Roses only. If we must have a class for forty-eight 
at the early shows have it, but do not confine the competition for the 
metropolitan challenge trophy, amateurs, exclusively to exhibitors in 
one division only ; let it be competed for in an additional class for 
twenty-four or thirty-six, and call it the trophy class open to all 
amateurs. 
The classes for garden Roses were better arranged this year. The 
first prize stands were very good, and from the interest taken by the 
public in this class it is not the least important feature in the Exhibi¬ 
tion. Would it not be well another year to limit the number of trusses 
to a bunch? Of new Roses I will say nothing now, hoping to send a 
few notes upon them later on ; but this suggestion I should like to 
make. When called upon to award gold medals and certificates for new 
Roses it would, I am sure, give greater satisfaction to both exhibitors 
and judges if those previously appointed to adjudicate could adjourn at 
a stated time to a private room with the blooms and specimen plants, 
and there, seated round the table, go thoroughly into the merits of the 
Roses one by one, without interruption from eager reporters and the 
curious public, formally recording their votes in a systematic way, for 
or against the Roses presented, and decide the question once for all. 
—J. H. P. 
TRUFFLES. 
A FEW days ago, under the shade of some large Oaks here, I found 
what proves to be a fair-sized specimen of the common Truffle (Tuber 
FIG. 23.— TRUFFLES. 
sestivum). Not having seen one before I was somewhat puzzled to 
know what it was. I showed it to several friends, but no one seemed to 
know it ; still I had an idea it must be a Truffle. I referred to 
“ Thompson’s Gardeners’ Assistant ; ” there I found it figured and fully 
described, and this morning (August 20th) I made a further search and 
found eleven more, but all smaller than the one I found first. Some I 
found entirely underground, while others had their upper side exposed. 
The surface of the Truffle is rough, warty, and black ; the flesh is of 
a greyish colour veined with black. When cut through it has a 
powerful smell, but not unpleasant. I cannot hear of any being found 
around here before, though I am informed it is frequently found in 
Dorset. Devon, and Wilts. Perhaps some of your readers may have 
found it in other places, if so it would be interesting to know where and 
under what circumstances. Perhaps I ought to have stated that those I 
found were growing in soil that was moved about ten years ago. 
Thompson says : “ Truffles constitute a much-esteemed luxury seldom 
indulged in by any but the rich. They are used in sauces, gravies, and in 
a great variety of dishes ; indeed it is an axiom with first-rate French 
cooks that the Truffle improves all that it touches. However, there is 
no doubt that they are indigestible and injurious when eaten in large 
quantities.”— John Williams, Whitbourne Hall Gardens , Worcester. 
[The fine specimen of the Black Truffle figured was dug in an Oak 
wood in Berkshire. Truffles are regarded as a choice dish on the tables 
of the affluent. They are generally found in chalky or clayey chalk 
soils. Just as many aerial Fungi only grow on dead wood, and that of a 
particular kind, so the Black Truffle is only met with among the roots of 
trees, and more especially the common and Evergreen Oak and Qcercus 
coccifera. It is among the roots of these trees that the Truffles are most 
abundant, and acquire a perfume that makes them esteemed all over the 
world. Truffles increase like other allied Fungi. When r>pe they con¬ 
tain minute spores not exceeding l-250th of an inch in diameter, and 
when the Truffle decays in the ground, these produce white threads, or 
