Plate 243 . 
HYACINTH, THORWALDSEN. 
Although we have not had the opportunity of visiting the 
two great spring exhibitions of the Royal Horticultural and 
Royal Botanic Societies this season, we have enjoyed that 
which, to the lover of the Hyacinth, is perhaps the greatest 
treat to be had in or near London,—the exhibition of Hyacinths 
and other spring flowers which Mr. James Cutbush annually 
provides for the florists of the metropolis, at his well-known 
nurseries at Highgate, and it was there that we selected for 
illustration the very beautiful Hyacinth which forms the sub¬ 
ject of our Plate. 
The annually increasing interest in the culture of spring 
bulbs, both for the open air and the greenhouse, is manifested 
in the immense demand made on the growers in Holland for 
the supply of bulbs, oftentimes leading, we fear, to the supply 
of immature and enfeebled roots, while the craving for novelty 
leads to the bringing forward of many worthless varieties. This 
was seen at the Great Horticultural Exhibition at Amsterdam 
during the present season, where, we are told by credible wit¬ 
nesses, “ the prizes awarded for seedlings new to commerce were 
given, in the case of double Hyacinths, to a dirty-white variety, 
so utterly wretched, that how the judges could possibly have 
awarded it we are utterly at a loss to understand ; the second 
went to a semidouble red, of good colour, but also a very poor 
flower.”* “While of all those shown as new,” the writer adds, 
“ we were much disappointed at the Hyacinths shown in these 
two classes, as there were none worth introducing into Eng¬ 
land.” The same writer observes that the Hyacinths exhibited 
were by no means so well grown as those seen in London, grown 
* ‘ Journal of Horticulture.’ 
