166 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[July, 
GAEDEN GOSSIP. 
® HE Metro}-)olitan Slioics of the present season have been quite up to average 
quality. That at the Eoyal Aquarium early in May, saw the finest pot- 
Roses ever staged in competition; while at the show at the same place 
later in the month there was the best display of Orchids witnessed in London 
for many years. Another fine collection of Orchids ^Yas to be seen at the Whitsnn-week Show 
of the Royal Manchester Horticultural and Botanical Society. Good general shows have been 
held by the Royal Hortioultural Society at South Kensington, by the Royal Botanic Society 
in the Regent’s Park, and by the Crystal Palace Company at Sydenham; but these London 
shows have become far too numerous, so that they prove exhaustive to the plants, and weari¬ 
some to both exhibitors and visitors. 
- Attention has recently been called by the Messrs. Weeks and Co., of 
Chelsea, to their Improved Slate and Stone Fonndations for hothouses and green¬ 
houses. The annexed cut shows how this is carried out in a lean-to house built 
recently for F. Tagart, Esq., of Old Sneed 
Park, Bristol. The back is a brick wall, 
as usual, but, as will be seen by the figure, 
there is no brick wall or foundation in 
front, but a series of iron standards, rest¬ 
ing each on a block of concrete, the spaces 
between below the sashes, representing 
the usual front wall, being in slate. Each 
of the iron standards has a flange at top 
and bottom, and is placed beneath one of 
the mullions, so as to take the direct 
pressure. The top flange is screwed to 
the wood-plate, while the bottom rests on 
the block of concrete. The slate panels 
may be plain or perforated at pleasure, 
and may serve as hit-and-miss, or flap 
ventilators. The advantages of this mode 
of construction are said to be fourfold, 
namely, lightness and elegance of con¬ 
struction, economy of space and cost, in¬ 
creased facilities for repairs or I'emoval, 
and greater accommodation for the re¬ 
newal or renovation of borders when 
the structures are devoted to fruit- 
culture. 
—— iliJR. E. S. Rand, of Boston, U.S.A., has just publislied an elegant and 
useful Manned of Orchid-Cidturef wliicli may be taken as an indication that the 
taste for the cultivation of these aristocratic plants is spreading in America. 
The object has been to render the book one of ready reference, both for cultural directions 
and descriptions of species, and this seems to be well accomplished. Aboiit 140 pages, 
divided into nineteen chapters, treat of the general subject, including the history of Orchid- 
culture in America. Tlie . cultural instructions are framed with special reference to the 
American climate, those contained in English works—Avhich are freely laid under contribu¬ 
tion—being, it is said, not suited to the former country. The rest of the work (pp. 140-413) 
is mainly devoted to popular descriptions of species, the genera being arranged alphabeticall}^ 
and references to figures being cited Avhere practicable. Then follows various lists, selections, 
and a glossary, in which wo note a few errors of personal names, as Acklaudiae, instead of 
Aclandiae, McMarland instead of McMorland, Chaillianum for Chailluanum, &c. As a garden 
book of reference, this will no doubt be found extremely usefiil, but we still want a synopsis 
of the Orchidaceae showing their botanical distinctions. 
* Orchids, By Edward Sprague Rand, Jun. New York: Hurd and Houghton. 
