Plate 222 . 
GLADIOLUS, ELEANOL NOLMAN. 
Although but scant favour has been shown to autumnal 
flowers this season around the Metropolis,—the exhibition at 
the Crystal Palace being the only one worthy of the name, for 
the miserable display at South Kensington did not deserve to be 
called an exhibition,—yet in various parts of the country where 
autumn shows are always popular, fine collections of beautiful 
Gladioli have been staged. We had ourselves the pleasure of 
carrying off first prize at Brighton in a class open to all Eng¬ 
land, and amongst the spikes then much admired was one of 
the very beautiful variety figured in our present illustration, 
one of the numerous fine seedlings produced by the successful 
hybridization carried on by Mr. John Stan dish, of the Loyal 
Nursery, Ascot. 
We have again taken the trouble to compare some of the 
finest of Mr. Standish’s seedlings with those which have come 
to us from the Continent, principally raised by M. Souchet, of 
Fontainebleau, and we do not hesitate to say that the English 
flowers are quite equal to the foreign ones; and as so many new 
flowers are raised every year, we think it is time that there 
should be more discrimination practised as to what should be 
let out and grown than formerly. There can be no question 
that those varieties which produce their flowers on opposite 
sides of the stem are very inferior in effect to those which pre¬ 
sent but one face, and hence, as we have so much variety, all 
these “ winged dowers,” as they have been called, ought to be 
discarded,—a process which we are about to begin in our collec¬ 
tion, they having been simply tolerated at present until the 
same colour was produced in the better-arranged dowers. 
Again has the question been mooted as to the best way in 
