364 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
| March 13. 
appears. Natural gardening, when treated upon an extensive plan, when 
employed with judgment, and conducted with art, is perhaps as superior 
to all other sorts of culture, as heroic verse is to every other species of 
writing; but there are many occasions, where neither the one nor the 
other can, with the least propriety, be employed; where they would only 
serve to give a ridicule to the whole composition ; and where different or 
less elevated modes of expression are, on all accounts, preferable.” 
We are not aware that Sir William was employed elsewhere as a garden 
designer, but he continued in extensive practice as an architect, Somerset 
House in the Strand, and several other mansions being erected from his 
designs. Among other honours he was invested with the Swedish Order 
of The Polar Star, was Comptroller General of Works to the King; 
Architect to the Queen and Princess Dowager; and Treasurer of the 
Royal Academy. After a long illness he died at his house in Norton- 
street, on the 8th of March, 1/96, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 
He died, says a contemporary, leaving a considerable fortune, acquired 
honourably, and enjoyed with hospitality, bordering on magnificence ; but, 
what is far better, quitting life with the regret of all those with whom he 
had been connected, and esteemed, loved and lamented by all with whom 
he had intercourse, either as an artist, or as a man. 
Meteorology op the Week.-— From observations at Chiswick 
during the last 24 years, the average highest and lowest temperatures of 
these days is 51.1°, and 35.1°, respectively. The greatest heat, 69°, 
occurred on the 19th, in 1835, and the lowest cold, 16°, on the 17th, in 
1845. During the time there have been 110 fine days, and 58 on which 
rain fell. 
The time has arrived when our Horticultural Shows 
are commencing; and we cannot do them disservice 
by recommending societies to draw the attention of the 
Judges they select, to some points which are essential 
to be regarded for the sake of those societies’ prosperity, 
as well as for the advancement of their general object, 
the improvement of gardening. In the first place, we 
would advise the council of every country society to 
inform the judge of the strength of the society’s 
finances, that he may apportion his awards accordingly. 
This is but justice to the society and justice to the judge; 
for we have known the latter groundlessly blamed for 
extravagant awards, when in reality his proportionate 
distribution of rewards was strictly just, but he really 
was in total ignorance of the amount of the society’s 
income. It is quite true that there are certain fixed 
prizes in all societies, but it is always in the power of 
the council to say our funds are in such a state, that it 
is advisable to award to all a lower rate of prizes than if 
our funds were stronger. For instance, where a society 
has three prizes—a silver medal, valued at 15s.; a Ger¬ 
man silver, at 10s.; and a bronze, at 5s.; it is no breach 
of faith to award the lower ones only, or to withhold any 
of them, unless extraordinary merit in the specimens 
exhibited forbids. But it is by forbearing from awarding 
extra prizes that the judge may always husband a so¬ 
ciety’s resources most satisfactorily; and, therefore, if he 
is told that economy is desirable, it is here that he should 
exercise the most abstinence. 
We had prepared some other notes pursuant of our 
theme, but we withdraw them for the present, to afford 
space for the following suggestions, in which we fully 
concur—suggestions which are from the pen of a flori¬ 
culturist of good judgment and long experience:— 
“ A few suggestions to the managers of shows may be 
worth attention, and of those here given some might he 
published in the judge’s instructions. Especially we would 
recommend they should be instructed, first, in all plant ex¬ 
hibitions, to consider size a secondary quality; and if the 
lower portions of the plant be at all bare of foliage, to con¬ 
sider it a great fault. Secondly, to look well to the training 
of all the plants, and to consider all props, and ties, and 
supports, except to climbing plants, so many blemishes, and 
to place them lower accordingly. Thirdly, to estimate duly 
the proportion of bloom which a plant carries, and to lower 
those which have too little for the size and foliage of the 
specimen; and not, as we have seen at country shows, to 
give prizes to plants five feet high, in bushel pots, with only 
two or three flowers to show what they were. Fourthly, to 
lower very much in the scale of prizes, or exclude altoge¬ 
ther, all plants which are drawn and weakly; this being the 
strongest proof of bad gardening. Fifthly, to remember 
that in plant growing the foliage should be either close down 
to the pot,- or raised on a single stem for a standard ; the 
former being desirable for all shrubby plants, the latter by 
far the best adapted for plants of weakly or pendulous habit. 
Let us take, as examples, two plants of the same family. 
Eriostemon buxifolium is a splendid shrub, as strong, and as 
handsome, and as easily grown as the common box; but E. 
cuspidatum would require props to all the side shoots, and is 
best grown with a centre stem, which will require support for 
a time, to two feet or even eighteen inches, and then allowed 
to form a head; its pendulous habit is shown to the greatest 
advantage, and the two objects are beautiful in contrast of 
habit and style, independently of the difference in their 
foliage. Sixthly, gardeners ought to be able to discover 
what should be done with every plant to show it off to advan¬ 
tage ; and he who fastens up a trailing plant as if it were a 
climber, or allows a plant to trail which ought to climb, or 
grows into a bush a plant naturally pendulous, or does any 
other act which opposes the natural habit of a plant, has 
only half learned his business. At the Surrey Gardens, we 
have seen a plant of JEschynanthus, which should have hung 
down all round the pot, tortured into a climbing plant, by 
tying up the branches to a kind of bird-cage, with three- 
fourths of the leaves exhibiting the under part only, and the 
two or three blooms dragged to one side, lest anybody 
should overlook them. On the other table, there was a 
Torrcnia Asiatica, a plant quite as much a trailer, made to 
climb over a wire frame, with the backs of the foliage more 
seen than the front; and, which we consider the worst 
aspect of the errors, instead of being the mistakes of one 
man, they belonged to different cultivators. Let judges un¬ 
hesitatingly reject such things at once. Seventhly. In cut 
flowers, such as Eases, Dahlias, Pansies, Pinks, Carnations, 
Picotees, Verbenas, and other subjects generally designated 
“ florists’ flowers,” look to form and not to size; and never 
give the preference to size unless two stands are, in all other 
respects, equal. The Dahlia shows have begun to assume a 
disgusting coarseness. Judges who have either no eye to 
symmetry, or uniformity, or brilliancy, now too often merely 
look to size; and we all know that those who live in a good 
air, and cut in their plants, and give unlimited dressing, can 
always command great blooms; but there is always; a corres¬ 
ponding coarseness which, in the eye of a connoisseur, 
destroys the value and the beauty of a specimen. Judges 
are too apt to fancy there is a great merit in monster grow¬ 
ing, but there never was a greater mistake. There is no 
skill required to grow plants or flowers large ; any boy can 
be shown how to do it in a month ; and one of the best cor¬ 
rectives to such a vulgar taste, or want of taste, which calls 
for monster plants and flowers, would be for the societies to 
limit the size. In a stand of Dahlias, the back row of flowers 
should not exceed five inches in diameter, the middle row 
not more than four inches and a half, and the front not 
more than four. Plants or pots to be shown in collection 
should not exceed a certain height and breadth, nor occupy 
a pot above a certain size—single specimens only excepted. 
There are some cultivators who fancy that all the merit of 
cultivation lays in the size they can bring anything to; and 
last year’s exhibitions at the Park and Chiswick, and else¬ 
where, were conspicuous for some of the large, ugly, ill- 
grown specimens, with bare legs (as carefully concealed as 
possible with plants in front), and awkward straggling 
growth ; some past bloom, others half bloomed, nothing but 
the size to pass them ; but such is the vitiated taste, that it 
did carry them through against better plants and infinitely 
more meritorious productions. These remarks may be 
resumed, but we hope the managers of shows in the coun¬ 
try will set an example to those of the metropolis, and begin 
to correct a most prevailing error—the error of mistaking in 
what the real merit of gardening consists—the error of 
