THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. —July 1, 1856. 237 
from the side of each gross shoot. These may be suffered 
to ramble until nine inches in length, when their heads 
should be pinched, and they will ripen tolerably well, 
and may, in the succeeding training season, he laid in 
as permanent wood. I do not think that under any 
circumstances it is expedient to attempt to gain more 
than this in one season; but it may be here observed, 
that the gross shoot will produce another leader besides 
the two pairs at the sides ; this may be allowed to 
ramble another foot, and then be pinched. Thus it will 
be seen that one gross shoot, properly handled, may be 
made to cover a considerable amouut of wall in one 
I season. 
The disbudding, as it is termed, will have been 
! looked well to, doubtless, by this time; and I recorn- 
| mend that a final handling of this kind be carried out 
in the end of June. My practice is to remove every 
shoot uot required for the ensuing year. Of course, it 
is difficult to determine on every one; but I approach 
this principle as near as I can. Whenever any doubt 
exists in the mind of the operator as to whether a 
certain shoot, or shoots, should be removed, such may 
at once be retained, simply pinching off the point. At 
that period, when the fruit commences the last swelling 
towards ripening, say the last week in July, I com 
mence pinching the wood in general. Now, this is not 
everybody’s practice. Be that as it may, I have found 
immense benefit from it; indeed, how could it be other¬ 
wise ? and I lay claim to be the originator of the plan 
as here explained. This pinching is best done at thrice; 
and if we say the first at the end of July, the second 
in the middle of August, and the third in the first week 
of September, we shall be as near the point, according 
to my idea of principles, as possible. I go over first 
and pinch all the very strongest shoots, be they where 
they may: those, of course, are not what I before 
termed the gross shoots; they were pinched or disbudded 
long before; they are the next in order as to strength. 
The second operation takes hold of a second series, and 
the third is of a similar character, only it may be 
noted, that the second is a much lighter duty than the 
first, aud the third much lighter than the second. One 
thing must here be observed : I never pinch any shoots 
that are considered too weak, especially those in an 
inferior position towards the bottom of the trees ; these 
are allowed to ramble to the end of the season un¬ 
molested. R. Errington. 
CRYSTAL PALACE.— June 25th. 
A sultry, hot, hazy day, without wind or sun, was as 
favourable a day for an exhibition in the Crystal Palace 
< as the managers can ever expect for a J une Show. They 
i made another arrangement of the exhibition stages for 
this Show, which is a still greater improvement than the 
last. 
In the very centre of the building, where the cross 
stages met last May, there is now an immense circle, 
twelve yards in diameter, and five stages high, in the 
form of a great cone, which is flat enough on the top to 
hold a splendid tree of the Norfolk Island Pine in a 
box. The large collections of stove and greenhouse 
plants were staged up and down, and all round this 
central mount, as you might call it. 
The key-note for the rest of the arrangement is struck 
from the centre of this central mount: after a wide pas¬ 
sage, long straight stages run into the great transept, 
north and south. These stages were “high backed,” so 
that plants could be arranged on both sides without 
being seen across. Orchids occupied one side of both 
these long stages, and Ferns the other side; then the 
east side and the west side of the north end of the tran¬ 
sept, and the west side and east side of the south end, 
were laid out in stages, amphitheatre fashion, with all 
the ends rounded off from the centre, which had a very 
excellent effect. 
On the left-hand side as you entered from the north 
end of the great transept stood the variegated and fine¬ 
leaved collections, the right being filled with Heaths. 
The left side of the south end was filled with collections 
of Pelargoniums, which were divided in the middle by 
a collection of Roses in pots (Mr. Lane’s plants), the 
“ rounded off" end being occupied with Azaleas, and the 
other “ rounded off” end with Pelargouiums. This is the 
best hit that has yet been adopted to relieve the “ awful 
reality ” of a huge bank of florists’ Pelargoniums. The 
stages for the Roses which divided these groups ad¬ 
vanced circularly from the straight edge, and, with the 
“ rounded off" ends, also advancing, threw back the 
parts for the Pelargoniums into great recesses. On the 
opposite side, or west side of the transept, the fancy 
Pelargoniums were similarly arranged in two great 
recesses, with Mr. Francis’s Roses in pots dividing 
them; and the “rounded off” ends of this division 
were occupied with amateurs’ Roses in pots, and with 
some of the smaller collections. Here, then, my idea of 
staging Pelargoniums for effect has been adopted suc¬ 
cessfully for the first time. Since 1852, I hammered in 
vain on the cast-iron hinges at Chiswick, and on the 
polished knockers at the Regent's Park, for this very 
change; but all the world over, the old Adam comes 
out whenever you propose improvements to any one of 
his children who may happen to be in authority at the 
time, and you must allow him or them a sufficient time 
to make believe that the real improvement is the off¬ 
spring of their own free-will. Meantime, the “ new 
blood ” at Sydenham has stolen a march on the stolidity 
of the old stagers of plants, and the result is a most 
happy relief to the eye, which wearies on nothing so 
soon as on an endless bank of specimen Pelargoniums. 
Besides, to place another endless bank of fancy Pelar¬ 
goniums before or behind the old ones seemed to me 
such an act of suicidal folly, that I often blessed the 
stars that the “force of circumstances” kept me 
from enjoying the pleasures and anxieties of a true 
florist. 
On the whole the show of fruit aud flowers was a 
good average one for June. The Messrs. Rollison, of 
Tooting, and the Messrs. Henderson, of the Wellington 
Road Nursery and of Pine-Apple Place, with some others 
of the older exhibitors, did not contribute on this occa¬ 
sion, and it fell to the lot of my next-door neighbours, 
the Messrs. Jackson and Son, of Kingston, to fill up 
their places with splendid collections of Ferns, Heaths, 
and variegated and fme-leaved plants, for which they 
very successfully competed. 
Mr. May, gardener to J. Colyer Esq., of Dartford, was 
first, with his huge specimens, in the large collections of 
stove and greenhouse plauts. Mr. Turner, of Slough, 
sweeps everything before him, now-a-days, in the Pelar¬ 
gonium classes, including seedlings. Orchids, Heaths, 
aud the smaller collections, are more evenly balanced 
among a host of first-rate growers. Mr. Lane will soon 
have the field to himself in Roses, but will not listen to 
a word against bis less fortunate rivals. The ladies will 
be delighted to hear that Mr. Rowland is at the top of 
the list of “ private growers ” of Roses. 
To Mr. Veitch we look for the greatest novelties; 
but Mr. Glendinning is now pushing close on his 
heels in that line. Mr. Dobson is most praiseworthy 
in his efforts to keep up the laurels of Isleworth 
for seedling Pelargoniums; and Air. Kiughoru lias 
“come out” for beds and the French alliance. His 
GeneralPelissier was there in full uniform; his Countess 
of Warwick in silver lace aud “ fine purple,” and his 
Annie in jvhite, and all white; but his Prim is the most 
extraordinary seedling he ever raised. It is after the 
