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THE FLORIST. 
be on view during the whole of this month. We know no treat to a 
lover of flowers which can surpass a visit to the fine selection here 
brought together as it is with great care ; and we doubt if it can be 
equalled in this or in any country. We most sincerely wish that this 
spirited attempt to cater for the public taste may be as amply rewarded 
as it was on a former occasion, when the fashionable world, including 
royalty itself, amply evinced its appreciation of an effort which was 
then without example. 
Everybody loves scarlet,—of course the lover of flowers whose taste 
is matured loves all colours, including scarlet; but ask the unsophisti¬ 
cated schoolboy what coloured flowers he would prefer, and the odds are, 
that the answer will be, “ Scarlet, sir, if you please.” Well, we say 
to all lovers of scarlet, be they young or old, lose no time in paying a 
visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens, in the Regent’s Park,—always 
worth a visit in June, but now pre-eminently so by the attraction of 
Mr. John Waterer’s Scarlet Rhododendrons. There are other colours, 
rich, gorgeous, most attractive,—but the scarlets we verily believe to 
be unequalled,—they alone are worth a journey from John O’Groats to 
see. We sincerely hope that Mr. Waterer’s spirited enterprise will 
meet with that ample measure of success which it so well merits. 
GLASS PROMENADES. 
We hear of glass promenades and glass walls springing up in every 
direction for fruits ; why has no one thought of applying them for the 
growth of a very ornamental class of plants—namely, greenhouse 
climbers, which are very rarely done justice to, or get what they deserve 
—the full range of a glass roof, without which they rarely thrive well; 
certainly not so as to show their graceful growth, nor yet to bloom with 
that profuseness and continuousness which they will do when their roots 
are allowed to ramble in the free soil of a border, and their tops to 
take their own pleasure under the glass roof? 
With the exception of the conservative wall at Chatsworth, and one 
at Shrubland, I am not aware of the attempt having been made to 
grow these elegant and interesting plants. At the places named the 
plants are trained against a wall artificially heated, and protected by a 
glass framing, which is removed during the middle of summer, when the 
plants have all the advantage of our own climate. But what we should 
like to see is a more permanent structure ; and as great improvements 
have been introduced in glass walls, or fruit promenades, we think the 
principle might be very usefully applied to climbing plants. The 
Trentham fruit cases give us the general outline of construction ; we 
would, however, prefer a circular roof and more ornamental pillars, to give 
them rather more architectural pretensions. The front upright sashes 
should be made to take out, as they would have to be removed during 
the middle of summer, allowing the roof to remain as a protection from 
rain, when the promenade could be used for a walk in wet weather. 
But the great charm of the building would be during winter and early 
spring, as during this period most of the climbing plants would be in 
