66 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 23, 1885. 
- On a sloping bank near the lake facing the Palm house in the 
Royal Gardens, Kew, an extensive beautiful bed of Spiriea palmata has 
been highly attractive for the past -week or two, and shows to excellent 
advantage the good qualities of this Spiraea as a bedding plant for massing. 
The border is 30 feet long and about 6 feet wide in the centre, the shape 
being a long ellipse, and this is densely filled with plants which are bear¬ 
ing an astonishing number of panicles of bright rose-coloured flowers much 
darker than they are usually seen. At Kew and many other places in the 
south of England this Spiraea is quite hardy, though it is so frequently 
grown under glass for early flowering that its value for outside beds is not 
generally recognised. 
-- Upon each side of this border a circular bed of Ibis Kjempferi, 
which is rarely seen in such fine condition ; the plants are very vigorous, 
and the flowers like large Clematis blooms 6 to 8 inches in diameter, and 
of various rich shades of purple and crimson. The secret of success with 
this Iris is planting it where the roots can revel in constant moisture, for 
the beds named are only a few inches above the water level, and the roots 
have penetrated into the saturated soil, where they are evidently at home. 
This hint has been followed up in several establishments, notably at Cam¬ 
bridge, with equal success. 
- The Essex Field Club will hold a field meeting at "Witham, 
Black Notley, and Terling, on Saturday, July 25th, 1885, under the 
following programme : — The party from London will travel from 
Liverpool Street station by the 9.3 a.m. train to Witham. Arrive at 
Witham about 10.15 a.m. Members from other parts of the county will 
please consult local time-tables and arrange to be at Witham at the hour 
above stated. An ordinary meeting of the Club (the sixtieth) will be held 
after luncheon at the “ Spread Eagle,” Witham, solely for the purpose 
of proposing and electing new members. 
- An Exhibition will be held by the Scaebobough Floeal and 
Horticultural Society in the lawn tennis ground attached to St, 
Nicholas House, Scarborough, on August 5th and 6th of the present year. 
Cut flowers, including Carnations, Picotees, and Boses, are specially pro¬ 
vided for, but classes are also devoted to plants, fruit, and vegetables. 
-The balance sheet of the York Gala and Horticultural 
Exhibition in June last has been already issued, and Mr. John Wilson, 
the active Secretary, and the Committee are to be complimented on their 
promptitude in getting this done, and showing a substantial balance on 
the right side. The receipts at the gates amounted to £1398, and with 
income from other sources the income of the) Society for the year 
was £1794 18s. 7d, The chief items of expenditure are £535 for prizes, 
&c., £263 for tents, £100 for fireworks, £78 for music, £221 for various 
amounts, the total expenditure for the year amounting to £1577 15s., 
leaving a balance in hand on this year’s Exhibition of £217 3s. 7d., a 
goodly portion of which will be handed over to the York charities. 
From a horticultural point of view also the Exhibition was most suc¬ 
cessful, holding its own as one of our greatest exhibitions in the 
country. 
We are requested to state that in the report sent us of the Here¬ 
ford and West of England Bose Show the following meaning was 
intended in the paragraph referring to new Boses. “ This useful and 
interesting class was not shown as the public ought to see it, several 
blooms of the same variety being incomparably better shown in the 
different collections.” 
* The Y ilts Horticultural Society will hold an important 
exhibition of plants, flowers, fruit, and vegetables in the Bishop’s Palace 
Grounds, Salisbury, August 20th, this year. Good prizes are provided 
in all the most important of the sixty-seven classes, especially for plants 
and fruits. To specimen plants two open classes are devoted, in each of 
which three prizes are offered—viz., £15, £7, and £4 ; £13, £6, and 
£3, the former three for flowering plants, and the latter for foliage. 
In other classes confined to gentlemen’s gardeners, the prizes range from 
£3 to 10s’ 
- In reference to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition of 1886 , 
we have received the following letter from the Secretary, Major F. Mason 
“lam desired by the Council of the Boyal Horticultural Society to 
ask you to allow them to make known, through the medium of your 
columns, that they are prepared at the request of and in concert 
with the Boyal Commissioners of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition 
of 1886, to offer their co-operation and assistance to such of the 
colonies as may desire to avail themselves of it. Some of the colonies 
have already expressed a desire to have as a feature of their 
courts illustrations of the indigenous flora in vestibules or plant houses- 
In addition to these the Council believe that collections of ornamental 
and economic plants in a growing state and of fruits would be of much 
interest and value. The Boyal Horticultural Society will be ready 
to give advice and practical assistance in preparing, arranging, and 
carrying out such illustrations to any of the colonies who may apply 
to them. But they desire to point out that it is essential for even a 
very limited display of growing plants that not a day should be lost 
I shall be glad to answer any inquiries. The Assistant Secretary and 
the Superintendent of the Society’s gardens will be ready to meet and 
consult with the colonial Commissioners, and to take forthwith the neces¬ 
sary steps in conjunction with them.” 
- The Sheffield and West Biding Chrysanthemum Society, 
announce that their first Exhibition will be held in the Corn Exchange 
on Friday and Saturday, November 13th and 14th of the present year. 
Eighteen classes are enumerated, and the prizes are substantial in the 
majority, £5 being offered as the first prize in three classes, with second 
and third prizes of £2 and £1 each. In other classes they range from 
£3 to 5s. The Society is under the presidentship of Mark Firth, Esq., 
and a good working Committee has been formed with Mr. A. K. Wood¬ 
cock as Secretary. 
- Mr. B. I. Lynch, Cambridge Botanic Gardens, writes :—“ The 
plant figured at page 41 of last week’s issue Journal of Horticulture , is 
not Oncidium vexillarium, nor is it the one for which my notes were 
written. It is, I believe, a fine variety of Oncidium Crispum, but I give 
this name with reserve, as it was not verified when the plant was in 
flower. The specimen illustrated came from the Cambridge Botanic 
Garden, and the spike of which it formed a part was several weeks in 
beauty. It attracted a considerable amount of attention during the time. 
The flowers are handsome because of the colour and scolloping of the 
sepals and petals and lip. The colour is chiefly deep rich brown, 
indicated by the dark shades of the illustration, and all the parts are 
margined with yellow, as shown by the light shading. O. crispum is a 
native of the Organ mountains.’’ 
- The schedule of the second annual Exhibition of the Hull 
and East Biding Chrysanthemum Society is just to hand, and 
enumerates forty-four classes, in some of which extremely liberal prizes 
are offered. The principal class is for forty-eight blooms, twenty-four 
incurved, not less than eighteen varieties, and the same number of 
Japanese, in which a silver challenge vase, value fifteen guineas, is 
offered by the Chairman, George Bohn, Esq., with the first prize of £10. 
This makes a very handsome prize, the vase going to the employer and 
the money to the gardener, but the conditions require that the vase 
should be won twice consecutively, or three times to render it the 
property of the exhibitor. The second, third, and fourth prizes in this 
class are respectively £8, £5, and £2, and the Hull Society may therefore 
claim to have provided the most important class, as regards the value 
of the prizes, of any society. Another good class for twenty-four 
blooms, twelve incurved and twelve Japanese, nine varieties of each, is 
also provided, the prizes being £5, £3, and £1 10s. A silver challenge 
cup, value five guineas, is also offered for amateurs in local classes, 
several special prizes being offered by friends of the Society. With 
such a liberal schedule the Committee have done all that is possible to 
insure a most satisfactory show. 
HORTICULTURAL SHOWS. 
MONMOUTH COUNTY SHOW. 
The eleventh annual Show of the Newport and County Horticultural 
Society was held at Newport on July 16th. The position selected for the 
Exhibition was Friars Park, Cardiff Road, and it formed a picturesque site. 
The exhibits were arranged in several large tents and had a very charming 
effect. On the whole they were above the average in quality of those 
generally seen at county shows, and Messrs. Lewis & Dixon of the London 
and Provincial Bank, who jointly perform the duties of Hon. Secretaries in 
an admirable manner, as well as the working members of the Committee, 
deserve to be congratulated on the way they have elevated the Society. 
Several new and important exhibitors came out very creditably on the 16th, 
but we missed the excellent specimens of one well-known Newport man, Mr 
Wattie, gardener to T. Cordes, Esq., of Bryn Glas. Last year, and on many 
previous occasions, this gentleman surpassed the finest specimens Mr. Cypher 
of Cheltenham could bring down, and it is a great loss of credit to the 
neighbourhood that Buch splendid plants should have been withdrawn from 
public exhibition. 
Plants .—In the class for eight stove and greenhouse specimens in flower 
Mr. Cypher was an easy first, showing superb examples of Ixora Williamsii, 
Erica Parmentieriana, Allamanda Hendersoni, Anthurium Schertzerianum, 
