114 
THE FLORIST. 
STICKS AND STAYS.* 
BY AN EXHIBITOR, 
In one of the papers of the Spectator, Addison makes his inimitable 
character Sir Roger de C'overley tell of an accident that happened to 
him when he was a schoolboy, which was at a time when the feuds 
ran high between the Roundheads and Cavaliers. This worthy knight, 
being but a stripling, had occasion to inquire which was the way to 
St. Anne’s Lane; upon which the person whom he spoke to, instead 
of ansv/ering his question, called him a young Popish cur, and asked 
him who had made Anne a saint. The boy, being in some confusion, 
inquired of the next he met, which was the way to Anne’s Lane; but 
w T as called a prick-eared cur for his pains, and instead of being shewn 
the way, was told that she had been a saint before he was born, and 
would be one after he was hanged. Upon this, says Sir Roger, I did 
not think fit to repeat the former question; but going into every lane 
of the neighbourhood, asked what they called the name of that lane. 
By which ingenious artifice he found out the place he inquired after, 
without giving offence to any party. I heartily wish we poor exhi¬ 
bitors, by some method of the same kind, could find out how to please 
the Vice-Secretary of the Horticultural Society and Editor of the Gar - 
deners Chronicle on the one hand, and the reporters to that paper and 
the judges on the other. After an exhibition, we have read that such 
an one’s plants were perfect specimens of good management, trained 
down close to the pots, and every flower arranged most effectively. 
Well, finding that these plants obtained the prize, we began to try 
what we could do, and had just succeeded by sticks here and sticks 
there to bring down our branches close to the pots, and the branches 
at the back to appear in the front, when out comes a crushing leading 
article in the Gardener s Chronicle against stays both for plants and 
women. Nothing is more true than that these sticks are an abominable 
eye-sore, and cause a deal of extra labour, and, consequently, are not 
used from preference, but from necessity; for without such security the 
flowers could not be conveyed to the exhibitions, unless by a person 
living close by, that could get them there on a hand-barrow. If it can 
be done, why are not the plants brought from the Society's Gardens, 
Chiswick, to 21 Regent Street without them ? Not long since I was 
there on the introduction of a friend, and saw a specimen of Achimenes 
with white and stout sticks enough about it to light the fire in the 
room. All exhibitors know that they have not time, previous to the 
entrance of the judges, to remove the sticks that are placed merely to 
secure the flowers in the transit; and if they did take them away, 
they would require replacing to secure them on their journey home 
again. 
[The entire disuse of sticks is one extreme, their extravagant use, 
both in quantity and size, is the opposite. We prefer the happy 
medium.— Editor.'] 
* Vide Gardener''s Chronicle , March 18th. 
