106 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDElsER. 
[ August 6, 1885. 
7s. 6d., and I would think seriously about disowning any friend 
of mine who wa3 foolish enough to pay such an absurd sum 
to see a Crystal Palace Rose show, more especially when a 
much more interesting one could be seen a few days later for Is. 
I am now referring to the Show of the National Rose Society, 
which was held at South Kensington on July 7th. This was a 
magnificent show, and worthy of the most careful inspection; 
indeed such a superb show and liberality towards the public 
deserved universal support. 
I am going to be disloyal enough to say I do not think much 
of Her Majesty as shown by Mr. Bennett. It is neither compact 
nor well formed, and much too large to be generally valued as a 
decorative Rose, and is not fragrant. 1 would describe it as an 
immense Baroness Rothschild. Mrs. John Laing is to my mind 
a much better Rose. It is light pink in colour, of fine form, 
great substance, and very fragrant. I felt thoroughly dis¬ 
appointed with A. K. Williams, the blooms being small, a3 a 
rule, and not well formed. Marie Baumann did not get more 
than it deserved when it was awarded a medal as being the 
best H.P. This i3 really a first-rate all-round Rose, and stands 
the teetof time as well as any of them. Its pleasing colour and 
fine form are always attractive. 
Were I growing Roses to supply any of the best London 
florists with good and effective cut blooms, I would grow 
Merveille de Lyon by the thousand. To my mind it is the 
finest white Rose in existence. In size and purity it is superb, 
and its fragrance adds another point to its numerous qualities. 
The position the blooms occupied did not show them off to 
advantage at the National, but for all that there was hardly 
any possibility of getting near to where they were. Amongst 
the scores, indeed I might say hundreds of blooms shown, I did 
not notice a really inferior one, and the general uniformity of all 
argued well for the constancy of this Rose. 
Lady Mary Fitzwilliam is certainly a massive Rose, but for 
many forms of decoration its size is against it. Jt is the largest 
of all Teas, if this is its class. Ulrich Brunner is a capital 
Rose as seen iD the stands, as its colour, a cerise red, is so very 
decided. Tea Comtesse de Nadaillac was very attractive. Its 
colour is a bright rose on yellow ground, large and globular. 
David Pradel was out of the common, being of a peculiar lavender 
colour and very pretty. Other varieties I noted as being of 
special merit were Duke of Albany, Alphonse Soupert, Crimson 
Bedder, Souvenir d’Elise, Marie Rady, Constantin Tretiakoff, 
Anna Ollivier, Innocente Pirola, Madame Welch, Gloire de 
Vitry, La France, Madame H. Jamain, Magna Charta, Xavier 
Olibo, Horace Yernet, and Caroline Kuster. 
All who love to see Rose culture extended should thank the 
Rose Society for offering two such magnificent trophies for 
competition. It is not every day or every year that one finds a 
prize valued sixty guineas offered for garden produce, and no 
wonder they produce keen competition. I never saw Rose 
blooms at any show remain so fresh as did those at the National. 
Probably the free way in which the conservatory was ventilated 
may account for this. The Rev. W. H. Jackson, who won the 
Yeitch Memorial medal for twenty-four distinct blooms in the 
extra classes, is evidently a keen Rose grower. I was suggesting 
to him that he should take Canon Hole’s place in writing on 
Roses for the Journal, and I hope he will do it, as I am sure he 
could tell us much which would be of great value to cultivators 
generally. 1 understood Mr. Laxton to say that it was Mr. 
Jackson’s son who was the Rose-grower, and I took the liberty 
of informing the rev. gentleman that I thought his son must 
be a very good hand at the work, when the medallist quietly 
informed me that he was a “bachelor.” Ah ! Mr. Laxton. 
The early part of July was a thorough Rose time in London. 
I saw tens of thousands of blooms used in table and room deco¬ 
ration in West End mansions. They were numerously displayed 
in all the florists’ shop3. Ladies’ heads and dresses were adorned 
with them, gentlemen’s buttonholes contained many choice buds, 
and men, women, and boys sold them about the streets at a 
wonderfully cheap rate. Their beautiful colour, fine form, and 
delicious fragrance were delightful in all cases, and it is in no 
way surprising that the Rose should be regarded as the queen 
of flowers, or that its cultivation should be so rapidly extending. 
Until lately I had no idea that Roses figured so largely in London 
floral decorations. One firm alone, Messrs. Nieman & Cornish 
of Orchard Street, Portman Square, were using from 5000 to 
7000 bloom3 daily so long as they could get them, and the effect 
they produced when placed on dinner tables or ballrooms was 
charming in the extreme. They buy their blooms from Messrs. 
Paul, Cant, Turner, or others of the large Rose growers, and I 
saw thousands of such kinds as Baroness Rothschild, General 
Jacqueminot, Baron Adolphe de Rothschild, and Charles 
Lefebvre as fine as any at the Exhibition. No inferior blooms 
are used, and many colours are not introduced, scarlet and 
white or scarlet and pink being preferred. Many who go 
through nurseries wonder where all the Roses which they see 
growing can go, but when one sees how very extensively they 
are employed, and how fashionable they are, it is easily enough 
understood why stocks are being increased and so many grown. 
The Journal of Horticulture has always been noted for the at¬ 
tention it devotes to Roses, and if practical notes on the subject 
bulks largely in it until another harvest comes, I am sure they 
will be valued and read with interest by old and young growers 
of Roses.—J. Muir, Margam Park , South Wales. 
DODECATHEON SPLENDIDUM. 
The American Cowslips, or Shooting Stars as they are called in the 
west, have within the last few years increased wonderfully both in 
numbers, size, and beauty, and indeed may now be classed amongst the 
Fig. 18.—Dodecathcon sp'.endidum. 
most desirable late spring and early summer plants we grow for outdoo 
decorative purposes. As found in gardens at the present time the nomen¬ 
clature may be said to be a little confusing, although perhaps not more so 
than is generally the case with plants that are everywhere appreciated. 
Dr. Gray and Mr. Sereno Watson, we believe, are agreed in considering 
them all varieties of D. Meadia, and class them accordingly, but many of 
the forms we know in gardens are so abundantly distinct from that species 
and the names already sufficiently complicated that we rather incline to 
the old regimen, and speak about them as we and everybody else have 
long known them. D. Meadia is a very old garden plant, being among the 
first dozen plants figured in the “ Botanical Magazine ; ” it is well worthy a 
place among the rest. It grows generally about 1 foot in height, carry¬ 
ing an umbel of from six to twenty or more flowers, rosy purple with a 
