SEPTEMBER. 
267 
winter; while Petunias, Calceolarias, Lobelias, Verbenas, and the like, 
make the neatest plants, and continue in bloom the longest, when struck 
in the spring—so that the stock to be kept over winter need not be 
large. 
1 see by a notice in the Gardeners Chronicle that the shareholders of 
the Crystal Palace have directed an investigation into the management of 
their affairs, frightened, no doubt, by the new loan of £250,000 wanted 
to complete their works. We have not at present time to refer to the 
actual cost when compared with the original estimate, but proceed to 
notice some remarks made by the Editor relative to the “ Flower 
ShowsG which he considers to “exhibit a spirit of reckless speculation 
which could only end in loss.” I am not so sure that this is a correct 
designation. The prizes are liberal, and they must now-a-days be 
liberal to ensure a fine display; and considering the expense of convey¬ 
ance, and the damage done to certain tender plants, I do not consider the 
charge made out. But it is very easy to pick a hole in the coat of the 
managers, for rewarding the hard-working gardener rather liberally. 
Further on, the Editor of the Chronicle^ by way of advice to the 
Company, says that a “ parsimonious direction will not fill the Com¬ 
pany’s exchequer; the Crystal Palace is one of those grand conceptions 
which inevitably involve an enormous annual outlay.” Just so. It is 
• because it is too grand, and the Company’s money has been too lavishly 
wasted—it is because a system of expenditure during its earlier career 
was carried on, which the unfortunate shareholders had no idea of, 
that embarrassment so soon overtook it. All we say is this : let the 
truth be stated—and because a necessary liberality has been shown 
towards our profession, do not let us call such “reckless” in the face of 
facts that cannot be construed into anything else. 
G. F. 
EEVIEWS. 
Trentham, and its Gardens, with 10 illustrations on wood, from 
Original Drawings and Photographs. London : Piper, Stephen¬ 
son, & Spence ; and Allbut and Daniel, Hanley. 
This is a small shilling volume, giving the history of Trentham and its 
immediate neighbourhood, from the earliest times to the present; in 
this undertaking the author (who is one of the under-gardeners at 
Trentham) shows considerable research, and the history of “The Little 
Nunnery of Tricingham,” from its foundation by the pious St. Wer- 
burgh, A.D., 680, to the completion of the now palatial edifice— 
Trentham Hall—by the present Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, some 
dozen years since, is interesting. But we confess to much disappoint¬ 
ment, in finding only one chapter devoted to the gardens, which occupy 
so large a space in modern Trentham, and this impaired by typogra¬ 
phical errors, quite inexcusible. Our advice to the author is, if ever 
“ Trentham ” should reach a second edition, to get some friend conver¬ 
sant with botanical nomenclature to revise the work for him. 
