AUGUST. 
241 
We alluded just above that plants in the same collection should be 
trained as near alike as their habit will permit. By this we must not 
be misunderstood as advocating a mere formality; but we object to 
plants trained in three or four different styles being classed together; 
we have seen plants trained on globe trellis, balloon ditto, upright ditto, 
some trained with stakes in a mushroom shape over the pot, and others 
growing in nearly their natural form, in the same collection ! Now we 
submit whether a collection, however admirable in other respects, does 
not lose immensely in the eyes of the man of taste by combining such 
dissimilarly trained plants in one group. Now we are on the subject 
of trained plants, we confess to a disappointment in the usual form in 
which trellises are manufactured. The general appearance of plants 
trained to pot trellis should be graceful and elegant, and we cannot see 
why trellises combining the suitable support for climbing plants should 
not be made of tasteful, if not artistic outlines. Stove climbers are 
among the most beautiful plants in creation; .but the graceful forms 
which they assume when growing in a natural state are in a great 
measure lost when they are tortured and twisted about, to bring them 
into a form the reverse of natural. We would sooner see a Dipladenia 
or an Echites tied to three stakes than trained in the form we some¬ 
times see them. 
We hope one or all of our leading societies will give prizes for old or 
neglected plants. There is a number of really good things scarcely 
known to our exhibitionists, or, if known, unheeded ; but once let liberal 
prizes be offered to them, and the nurseries will be brushed up for 
some hitherto neglected plants. We scarcely ever see Acacias exhibited; 
nor do we ever remember seeing such things as Beaufortia decussata, 
Enkianthus quinqueflorus, Metrosideros crassifolia and floribunda, 
Nerium splendens, and one or two others—fine old things—now seldom 
seen, but which in our estimation are superior to many exhibition 
plants of the present day. As a proof that such plants only require 
being known to command admiration, we may advert to that very old 
Cape plant, Heemanthus coccineus, shown the other day in Regent- 
street, by Mr. Blandy’s gardener—a plant unknown to nearly all the 
trade. 
Want of space forbids us noticing other plants which might form 
subjects on which to exercise the plant-grower’s skill. We conclude 
for the present, therefore, with laying our ideas before your readers. 
Far be it from us to throw a damp on exhibitions, than which nothing 
shows so clearly the great skill of our horticulturists. Let us only add 
taste in selection and arrangement to our exhibitions, and they will be 
unequalled. 
Observer. 
With these preliminary remarks of our correspondent’s, in which we 
quite concur, we will now proceed to redeem our promise made in a 
former number to give, in a tabular form, at the end of the season, a list 
VOL. X., NO. CXVI. 
R 
