JULY, 
207 
garden, contained the collections of Azaleas, Stove and Greenhouse 
plants. Ferns, Orchids, new plants, and some other classes. The 
grouping, generally speaking, was good, but in one or two instances an 
improvement was suggested by a friend in the method of arrangement. 
But in reference to this, when we consider the unfinished state of every¬ 
thing, and even with work progressing up to the very hour of opening 
the gardens to the public, the surprise to every practical mind was how 
everything got into its place so quickly, and with less confusion even, than 
we have many times witnessed to accommodate a tenth part of the 
articles sent on that morning to Kensington. The getting up of the 
exhibition must have entailed a vast amount of labour and anxiety on 
the general superintendent, and it is therefore with no ordinary pleasure 
W'C add our testimony to that given already by our contemporaries to 
the great exertions made by that gentleman and his staff to satisfy 
every one connected with the exhibiting body, and to congratulate the 
society and Mr. Eyles on the unmistakable success of the day’s 
proceedings. 
The present opportunity seems to us a favourable one to notice briefly 
that part of the society’s operations on which its future success and 
position, as the first horticultural society in the world, will hereafter 
have to be measured. With the special support and countenance of 
Royalty and the Aristocracy, besides a long list of Fellows elected from 
nearly every class in society—(a proof how universal is the feeling 
which inclines Man to interest himself with the art of cultivation and 
production, whether the objects sought to be realised belong to the useful 
or beautiful in nature)—the success of the Horticultural Society 
may now be considered unquestionable, and Kensington must there¬ 
fore become a popular place of resort for the fashionable world ; 
and as its contiguity to the Great Exhibition Building of 1862 will 
enable the thousands visiting the Exhibition to see the Gardens at the 
same time, of course a large income will be realised thereon; and it 
is with the funds which Kensington will produce that we look forward 
to the development of the science of horticulture at Chiswick, where 
we hope the practical part of gardening will receive that amount of 
support which will enable Chiswick to become equally the exponent 
of cultivation, as Kensington will be of pictorial gardening. On this 
point we mention with satisfaction the two Committees on Fruit and 
Flowers, which are working admirably under the management of their 
respective secretaries, whose names are of themselves a guarantee to 
horticulturists and florists that the duties of each department will be 
most efficiently conducted. 
The fruit arranged under the eastern arcade was of itself an 
exhibition, not that all was perfection—far from that; many new 
exhibitors have evidently to wait until they reach these exhibitions 
before they find out what good cultivation consists of, or w^e should not 
soTrequently see the inferior productions which in some respects mar 
the general appearance of the whole. In collections, Mr. Ingram, of 
the Royal Gardens, and Mr. Henderson, of Trentham, were the only 
competitors. The former, who took the first prize, had a well varied 
collection—the most noticeable of which was a dish of nicely ripened 
