154 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 1. 
use ; but I would not use it until tlie beginning of June, 
and then only during great dryness of air, and as early 
j as four o’clock, p.m. As for the argument of keeping 
j down insects, it is all fudge. Talk of expense, indeed ; 
! only compare the number of hours labour thus expended, 
j with the expense of one sulphur or two tobacco-water 
! applications applied in April. Well might gardens in 
those days be ankle deep in weeds. In these times, we 
| have twice the amount of business in gardening, with, in 
! general, a diminished amount of labour. This has 
j sharpened the wits of many a blue apron, and caused a 
great degree of simplification in many gardening pro¬ 
cesses. R. Errington. 
MEETING OF THE HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY.— May 15th. 
(Continued from page 135 .) 
The usual remarks at these great exhibitions, for the 
last few years, were chiefly about the general sameness, 
and the monstrous size of all the plants which were 
staged for the first prizes; the same dishes over and 
over again, and so out of proportion to what the great 
bulk of competitors could aspire, that the expense, in 
j medals, seemed all but lost; and those who looked for 
variety, and for plants which could be managed in our 
ordinary stoves and greenhouses, might ns well go to 
a launch any day, as expect to learn anything new at 
these great Metropolitan gatherings. Two or three 
large growers had managed, or rather mis-managed, to 
run off with all the first and best prizes. They con¬ 
tracted the number of distinct species to the utmost 
limit, and got the few they made use of so old and so 
enormously large, that they would be of little value to 
any one who did not roceive extra remuneration, in the 
shape of medals, to repay the increased house-room 
which such cumbersome hushes require more and more 
every year. The agriculturals fell into exactly the same 
error, by offering their medals so liberally for fat and 
blubber, at their Smithfield competitions, that breeders 
of useful and ordinary stock had no chance before them. 
But the stomach revolted, and the press interfered, and, 
between them, the native dish has been saved to the 
spit from the dripping-pan; and now that Mrs. Law¬ 
rence no longer leads the fashion in growing specimens, 
let us hope we have seen the last of such plants, as no 
1 one else would think of giving up house-room for. All 
I the stove and greenhouse plants, at the present show, 
J and most of the Orchids and Azaleas, were just up to 
I the limits at which 1 would cease to give prizes to pot- 
plants. Instead of more size, I would insist on a 
greater variety of individual plants, that all might par¬ 
ticipate in the prizes, or, at least, might reasonably 
venture on trying their luck, instead of being kept 
back, under a cloud, as they have been by the recent 
practice. Then, if any one’s taste lead him to grow 
a Pimelia, or a Boronia, or any other of that stamp, 
to the size of an apple-tree—why, I would admit all 
| such, by all means, but 1 would not give a prize to 
any of them. I would consider it quite enough to per¬ 
mit the owner to let the rest of the world see what 
a good gardener be must have been, and this would 
reserve the medals to encourage the host which have not 
the smallest chance at present, or under the recent trials. 
) I was so struck with the change for the better, in the 
absence of Mrs. Lawrence's plants and those of her 
usual competitors, that I numbered the Roses open and 
the number of flowers or flower-spikes on some of the 
Orchids, on purpose to show that moderate plants, when 
properly managed, are more showy, and ten times more 
generally useful, than huge plants so many yards round. 
| Thus, in the first collection of Nursery Orchids which 
were staged by the Messrs. Rollinson, of Tooting, Onci- 
dium sphaceldtum had eighteen long-branched flower- 
spikes, full of yellow-and-brown flowers ; Brassia viacu- 
lata, eleveruspikes ; Cattleya Mossite, thirteen fulLblown 
flowers; Epidendrum crastifolium, seventeen spikes ; 
Aerides rirens, seven ditto; Dendrobium fimbriatum 
oculatimi, which was lately exhibited in Regent-street, 
and is an excellent new variety with a dark blotch in 
the eye (the old fimbriatum is all yellow) bad seven 
flower-spikes; and so on with Vanda teres, Phalatnopsis 
yrandifiora, Dendrobium nobile; T). Dalhousianum, with 
its large creamy flowers, and two dark eyes in each; 
SobraUa macrantha, Udontoyhssum niveum, with crisped 
and speckled flowers ; Cattleya Aucklandi, a large plant, 
considering the species; this had four of the largest j 
blooms yet exhibited. 
Mr. Williams, gardener to C. B. Warner, Esq., had 
the best prize for Orchids among private growers. 
Among his best were the following :— Burlinytoniafra- 
igrans , two flower-spikes; Epidendrum aurantiacum, with 
seven spikes; this is very seldom seen from home; 
Cypripedium Bonn, carrying two flowers on each stalk ; 
Chysis bractescens, Cattleya Skinnerii, as full of bloom as 
any of Mr. Dobson’s Geraniums; Phalanopsis yrandi- 
\ flora, five-branched, long spikes, full of bloom; Onci- 
dium ampliation, six spikes ; Aerides rirens, four ditto; 
Tricbopilia coceinea, eight single blooms, lying flat on the 
moss at regular distances all round the pot—these flowers 
are not coccinea, or scarlet, but quite brown; Saccolabimn 
retusum , four spikes; Dendrobium macrophyllum, eight 
long spikes—this plant scented the whole place; Phaius 
Wallichii, nine strong spikes; Cattleya intermedia, eight 
spikes, and from three to six flowers on each ; Cypripe¬ 
dium barbatum, eighteen slippers ; Calanthe veratrifolia, 
nineteen spikes—this is one of the oldest, one of the 
very best, and one of the easiest to manage, of all ground 
Orchids; there might be a thousand flowers on this 
plant, but who could number them !—they are as white 
as snow. Vanda tricolor and Dendrobum nobile superba, 
with ten flowers, close this beautiful group. 
The second large gold medal was given to Mr. Blake, 
gardener to J. H. Schroder, Esq., audjudging as an old 
judge, I should judge that the present judges had nearly 
a tie of it here between Mr. Blake and Mr. Williams. 
There was one plant here of Tricbopilia tortilis, two feet 
in diameter, aud literally smothered with flowers. 
Dendrobium densiflorum album, which I never saw 
before, is a creamy white, and is as softly fringed as the 
old yellow. Delia cinnabarina, with six long shoots — a 
beauty. An immense mass of the “ Cow’s-horns Orchid,” 
of Honduras, called Schomburykia tibioinis; the flower- 
spike of this plant was seven feet long, with quantities 
of flowers towards the end, six of which were full open, 
j Dendrobium Pierardi, the strongest I ever saw, five i 
flower spikes, aud each of them thirty inches long, 
covered with bloom. I counted twenty-six open blooms 
on one of the spikes. Dendrobium densiflorum, twenty 
flower spikes; and eight butterflies on one Oncidium 
papilio. 
After this, the first gold Knightian medal was 
won by Mr. Wooley, gardener to H. B. Ker, Esq., with ; 
a collection of twenty species, and specimens as large as 
nine-tenths of country gardeners would like their own to j 
be. Out of his twenty, the following wore not in those 
above him: —Dendrobium Paxtonii, Warreu tricolor, 
Brassia verrucosa, Odontoglossum citrosinum, aud Zygo- 
petalum rostratruni and crinitum. 
Mr. Oarsqn, gardener to W. E. Q. Farmer, Esq., bad 
the next gold Knightian medal for a score of beautiful 
plants, as above, and with the following addition:— 
Epidendrum longipetalum, with ten long-branched spikes, j 
each having from thirty to forty of its starry brown-and- i 
yellow flowers open ; Camarotis purpurea, full of purple 
spikes ; and Epidendrum aloefolivm, with its large 
