76 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 8. 
This brings us to the second point—a general separation 
of the sexes in the Show-room. It will hardly, we imagine, 
be contested, but that such an arrangement would greatly 
mar the eftectof the Exhibition. In the female compart¬ 
ments, the greater brilliancy of the male bird would be 
sadly missed, and the space assigned to the latter would 
again suffer in effect from the loss of contrast with the 
subdued tones of the plumage of the hens and pullets. 
There would be one advantage, it is true, gained for 
any one who required a bird of either sex without 
purchasing either a whole pen, or birds of different 
sexes of the same blood. But we cannot look upon this 
as counterbalancing the drawbacks already alluded to ; 
we would, therefore, provide for it in another manner. 
But when we have to speak of the sales effected on 
these occasions, we would certainly ask for a further 
. consideration of tho rule which enforces the affixing of 
a price, whether prohibitory or otherwise. Such pro¬ 
hibitory prices often lead to misconception on the part 
of the public; for a pen labeled at 100 guineas, or more, 
induces scornful remarks at the absurdity of fancy 
prices, which, to say the least, are far from beneficial 
to the cause of those who have lately encouraged 
Poultry-keeping, under the persuasion of its being a 
branch of agricultural economy hitherto greatly neg¬ 
lected. The owners of such pens, indeed, arc, generally 
speaking, perfectly sincere in this expression of their 
unwillingness to let favourite specimens pass out of 
their possession on any terms; but how much better 
would it be to allow the ticket “ not to he sold ” to 
appear in such instances. The special purpose of the 
rule which states that the object of prices being assigned 
to each lot is to benefit purchasers constantly fails, for 
few really prohibitory-priced pens are then sold, and the 
Society suffers, also, in some cases, by such birds being 
subsequently disposed of by private contract at a lower 
figure, when the five per cent, commission is necessarily 
lost to their receipts. Under this idea, the alteration 
has already been made by the managers of some exhi¬ 
bitions, where “ not to he sold ” is to replace the pro¬ 
hibitory price. At all events, Secretaries will do well 
to secure tho correctness of the sums at which birds are 
valued in their published catalogues, by carefully com¬ 
paring them with the returns of their owners in the 
j forms of entry. Many have been the mistakes from 
| inattention to this part of their duty during tho present 
i year, and, consequently, great the dissatisfaction, with 
I both sellers and buyers, when the error has become 
apparent. 
Prize-lists for the present season are now, with pro¬ 
bably very few exceptions, completed; so that it is in 
good time that the question of what alterations in their 
detail may be generally advisable for another year is 
now mooted. We doubt, at present, whether any great 
changes will be found desirable; but the addition of a 
separate class in each breed for the male birds of all 
ages, to be chosen separately, would not interfere with 
the present system ; while, for tho purposes of tho 
breeder, great advantages would, probably, be thereby 
obtained. W. 
MEETING OF THE HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY.— October 18, 1853. 
Provided it is dry overhead, it matters little what 
kind of weather it is in London, for in London, be it 
hot or cold, sunshine or overcast, you are in a cloud of 
smoke, and dirt, and filth, and all sorts of bad smells, 
as long as you are there, or can bear it; but when you 
get used to it, there is not such another place as London 
in this world for everything you can think of or wish 
for. In every other part of England, the 18th of Oc¬ 
tober was tho finest day we had since the middle of 
August, but in London you could not make out a soldier 
from a policeman across the street. Nothing but smoke, 
and noises, and crowds of people, go where you would; 
yet we had an excellent Exhibition of Fruits and 
Flowers, new things as well, both in fruits and flowers. 
One new fruiting hardy plant was shown to me behind 
the scenes, and I tasted the fruit of it, and relished it 
indeed ; but I was not to say a word about it till next 
year. Of Orchids , there were some large specimens of 
Dendrobiums ; a fine plant of Vanda crcrulea, from the 
Messrs. Rollinson, of Tooting. It was lighter in colour 
than those that were shown last autumn ; but for this 
most of us were prepared, and we heard, in the lecture, 
that many other flowers coloured badly, and that out¬ 
door fruit wanted flavour, owing to tho unusual bad 
season. A letter was read to us from a gentleman in 
Surrey, who sent wonderful fine Onions, of which I 
shall speak by-and-by, in which he said there was no 
summer at all this season in his part of the country. 
Angrcecum hifolium, with several racemes of starry, 
white, waxy blossoms hanging down from the bottom 
of the pseudo-bulbs, looking very pretty. Eriopsis 
hiloha, a strong Eria-looking plant, with a spike of ten 
dull brown flowers. Oncidium varicosum, the very best 
of all tho yellow-flowering Oncids : the flowers put you 
in mind of the large-flowering variety of Epulendrum 
ampliatum, which wc always see at the May shows; 
everyone who grows Orchids ought to possess this 
Oncidium. Sophronitis grandiflora, another gem of the 
first water, in the shape of a little creeping plant, with 
J large crimson flowers of great substance,—“ a charming 
j plant,” as the lecturer remarked. Miltonia Morelii, a 
i plant as much like Miltonia grandiflora as can be, but 
the flowers are considerably larger, and of the same colour 
all over,—a light shade of purple. Lalia Perrinii, a 
well-known old plant, I believe, with beautiful deep 
lilac sepals and petals, and a rich purple lip. A new 
Catleya, at least quite new to me, called Pinelii ; this, 
also, had lilac sepals and petals, and a very rich purple 
lip, the flower under a medium size, but that might be 
owing to the age and smallness of the plant—a very 
pretty thing. All the above Orchids were from the 
Messrs. Rollinson, who also sent other plants, among 
which was the new Zebra-like Aplielandra, which was 
exhibited tho last two summers from Mr. Van Houte, 
of Ghent, only a little morsel last May twelvemonth, 
and a little bigger last summer; but this plant of it 
was from three to four feet high, with a central spike of 
bright yellow flowers at the top. Besides tho white 
stripes on the leaves, Zebra-fashion, this is a very good 
addition to the early winter plants, which come in so 
useful for country gardeners to bring into the rooms or 
warm conservatories which are kept as show houses. 
The right way to grow all these Apliilandras is not 
to begin too early with them in the spring. Any of 
them that are now in flower, or that will be done flow¬ 
ering before Christmas, should have a few inches of the 
tops cut off, with the dead flower-spikes, and then to 
treat them almost like an old Cactus till the middle of 
April, or even to the end of April, in some dry, warm, 
out-of-the-way place; then to be cut down as close as 
an old Geranium, started, and shaken out of the soil, 
