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HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S JULY EXHIBITION. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S JULY EXHIBITION. 
f F there is one thing more than another to which the late summer metropolitan exhibitions bear 
evidence, it is that the process of retarding in Horticultural matters is as important in its way, and 
nearly as well understood, as that of accelerating the development of growth and bloom. To the 
greater degree than formerly to which this process is now carried, is partly attributable the freshness 
and vigour evident in the objects of a July exhibition, notwithstanding the battle that has to be fought 
against the heat and glare of summer. A good example of this occurred on the 13th of July in the 
garden of the Horticultural Society, where was provided for the enjoyment of the visitors, a splendid 
assemblage of gay vegetable forms, added to the attractions of the Duke of Devonshire’s pleasure 
grounds and flower garden. We have said that the freshness of the July exhibitions of the present 
day is partly attributable to the cultural process just referred to; it is only fair to add that it is also 
in part attributable to the greater variety of plants which are grown to an “ exhibition” state of per¬ 
fectness, and to the especial selection of such kinds as best endure the heat of summer—in fact, exhi¬ 
bitions like other matters, prove to have been benefited by experience. 
As a wdiole, the exhibition under notice was quite up to the mark, though certainly not beyond 
what we have lately seen elsewhere. The miscellaneous collections were good—generally very good; 
the Orchids less fine and numerous 
than usual, but still abundant and 
beautiful; Heaths showing stereo¬ 
typed perfection of growth; Roses 
gay as summer should produce them; 
Pelargoniums less bulky than before, 
but in some instances equally well 
bloomed; Carnations and Picotees 
attractive as they always are; and 
Fruit—that great test of superior 
cultivation—abundant, and for the 
most part indicating good growth, 
and produced in a well-ripened con¬ 
dition. The Royal Water Lily, sent 
from Syon, again occupied the first 
position in point of interest, and 
probably few, if any, of the assembled 
visitors failed to do homage to the 
Queen of Flowers. 
Three large collections of stove 
and greenhouse plants were staged, 
ixora javaxica : exhibited by Mrs. Lawrence. the exhibitors being Mr. Cole, gar¬ 
dener to H. Colyer, Esq., Mr. May, gardener to Mrs. Lawrence, and Messrs. Fraser; the collections 
of the two former were about balanced in respect to merit, and an equal award would, we think, have 
done no injustice on either side. Mrs. Lawrence had fine plants of Stephanotis, of three species of 
Allamanda, and of Clerodendron paniculatum; an Ixora javanica of gorgeous beauty, with plants of 
I. coccinea and crocata, in rather an inferior condition as to freshness; a large Tristania, too natural 
in its unrestrained growth ; and a small gay bush of Relhania speciosa, the nursery name of a brilliant 
yellow shrubby composite, of the distinctness of which from the old forgotten R. squarrosa, we 
entertain some doubt. This collection was spoiled by the really beautiful, but there ineffective Sollya 
linearis, placed by the side of a large, dull looking Phoenocoma. Mr. Cole’s collection, which was 
more uniform in growth, contained three excellent Allamandas—cathartica, Schottii, and grandiflora; 
Dipladenia crassinoda, one of the gems of the exhibition ; D. splendens; a brilliant Kalosanthes; 
Clerodendron Ksempferi; and two very fine Ericas, eximia and ampullacea, scarcely enough in bloom. 
Messrs. Fraser had Sollya linearis, Rhyncospennum jasminoides, Dipladenia crassinoda, and Tristania 
neriifolia, in an attractive form. Two fine and nearly matched collections of fifteen came from Mr. 
Green, gardener to Sir E. Antrobus, and Mr. Carson, gardener to W. F. G. Farmer, Esq., the former 
of whom had a splendid bush of Pleroma elegans, and a very fine Lisianthus Russellianus, most com 
spicuous; while the latter had an admirably bloomed iEschynantlius Lobbianus, and Lemonia specta- 
bilis in a state rarely seen, with Medinilla speciosa, and other good plants. The most prominent 
plants in the collections of ten were, a large Kalosanthes coccinea, and a good Allamanda cathartica, from 
