228 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 8. 
show how easily a flower may be revived in a locality, the 
Diss Horticultural Society announced prizes for them, 
and we saw a very pretty competition, and a well-selected 
collection. It was there two or three years ago, that we saw 
first, a fine specimen of Cheetham’s Lancashire Hero , which 
lias completely set aside the old flower of that name, Met¬ 
calfs, and the same might be done anywhere, if a beginner 
could trust a dealer for the supply of a starting collection 
upon reasonable terms, such as would give him a chance in 
the race. However, as we should hardly know ourselves 
where to apply, we need not wonder at the difficulties ex¬ 
perienced by young beginners. 
To our second question, we fear the answer will be in the 
negative, because we know so many, we may say scores, who 
have died without successors, or have retired in disgust from 
the field where honours cannot be won, and who cannot 
value prizes obtained otherwise. 
To the third question the answer is more pleasant. 
Flowers have received many valuable additions. The Gera¬ 
nium has advanced a little, and more especially the fancy 
kind; not but that we have a dozen new ones advertised for 
every one that is an improvement. The Verbena has had 
one or two pretty additions, but, like the Geranium, you 
have to sift them out of scores. The Hollyhock has con¬ 
siderably advanced, some very distinct, and, as compared 
with other varieties, good novelties have been produced; but 
in this flower good seed has been let out, and many persons 
are raising the same thing, as it were—that is to say, varieties 
so nearly like each other, that we have already the same 
colours and qualities under different names, each raiser 
feeling entitled to name his flower, and there not being so 
much difference between them as the self-same flower would 
exhibit in different gardens. In fact, a packet of seed will 
produce anybody an excellent collection. The Tulip pro¬ 
gresses slowly; the greatest advance that has been made has 
been by Mr. Goldham, of Sydenham, who has some very 
beautiful novelties, which, however, will be some time 
before they can reach cultivators, for the Tulip cannot be 
propagated like other flowers, and we have known a variety 
to be grown for years before a second could be obtained. The 
Ranunculus is also moving a little; Mr. Tyso, of Wallingford, 
Mr. Airzee of the Liverpool-road, Mr. Lightbody of Fal¬ 
kirk, Mr. Read, of Dunfirmline, Mr. Groom, of Clapham, and 
Mr. Lockhart, of Fulham, are the only raisers of any account 
whose productions are exhibited, and some of the novelties 
are very beautiful. The Petunia does not budge from its 
flabby character, and it is essentially a flower for the shade,, 
for a quarter-of-an-hour’s hot sun will wither it. The Dahlia 
ought to be advancing when we consider that a hundred 
novelties per annum are advertised for sale, all warranted 
by somebody, or described by the sellers as good show 
flowers; still ninety of the hundred may be set down as 
worse than many of the old and abandoned sorts; and 
there was not, last season, a single stand with six of the 
new flowers which could not have been improved by chang¬ 
ing some of them for old and better kinds. The Polyanthus 
is not encouraged, and the prizes given for it in London have 
only produced a few starvelings that a boy of ten years old 
ought to he ashamed of, but which, of course, served the 
parties to claim the prizes with, as they were confined to 
members; that is, all others must show at greater expense 
than the prizes are worth. The last three that we think 
have been shown as novelties, and worth notice, were Fire 
King,, Lord Morpeth, and the Duke of Northumberland. We 
heartily wish somebody capable of growing them would set 
an example near London, that is to say, within twenty miles, 
and save seed. But a passing lesson, or rather hint, may 
not be amiss. The only show flowers are those in which 
the anthers or thrum stand up above the pistil, those in 
which the pistil stands up prominently above the anthers 
are called pin-eyed. Now everybody saves from the thrum¬ 
eyed, or show varieties, and will not cultivate the others, so 
that every flower impregnates itself. Nor can bees, or any 
other insect, conveniently take from one to the other, so 
that, strange as it may seem, we nuely get anything new in 
character. If those who save seedlings would reverse this, 
and get together a few pin-eyed varieties of striking colour 
and character, and three or four of the best show flowers, 
and plant these away from all others, sowing the seed from 
the pin-eyed varieties only; or, if they are artificially 
crossed, the pin-eyed ones with the thrum or pollen 
of the others, it is true they would not have one thrum¬ 
eyed one out of twenty, but they would have that one 
probably new and good. It is discouraging enough to 
grow two or three hundred seedlings, and have nine¬ 
teen-twentieths pin-eyed and useless; but it is worth 
seven years failure to produce a real novelty in a flower 
so neglected or misunderstood. The Pansey progresses 
slowly, but still we have two or three added every season, 
without that fatal fault, the eye breaking into the border, 
for it ought to condemn a stand as much as a run petal 
in a Pink. We do not agree with many frivolous details 
which some who sell, and write about them, pretend to 
lay down. If the petals be thick and smooth-edged, flat 
and clear in the ground and colours, the markings well 
defined, we have all the different details to make the 
varieties, we care not how the leading properties are made 
up, so they be present, and the faults mentioned are absent. 
The Pink has made a start within the last two or three 
years, but we do not see the best novelties in the stand, 
because the better ones are peril aps as yet scarce. Florists 
who have but a limited sum to spare, are very generally 
allowing the first year’s letting out to go by them, and 
buying the year after at a fifth of the price. The quality 
wanted in the Pink is the smooth instead of the serrated 
edge, and hundreds have been let out as rose-leaved, and 
proved very roughly serrated; we must, however, admit, that 
the best Pink in cultivation, if badly grown, or too late 
planted, will come rough. The Carnation and Picotee 
are both rapidly improving; every year adds novelty, and. 
in some cases, an approach nearer the standard, and 
there are, perhaps, more growers added than there are 
falling off. The Horticultural Society at Chiswick have 
established a mode of showing which wonderfully en¬ 
hances their effect, and bids defiance to the too general 
practice of showing other people’s flowers. A man may, 
and too many do, run about among cultivators, and pick 
up fine flowers, to help out his two-feet box of cut 
blooms ; but when they have to show on their plants, there 
is an end of begging, borrowing, or stealing. Roses advance 
slowly; there are plenty of new ones, and numbers sent out 
under wrong names ; still there are many engaged raising- 
seedlings, and now and then a worthy addition is made; but 
some are strongly recommended that will not even open ; 
others too much like what we have; others are imported 
and the name changed; and one very common trick is 
played off on foreign Roses, by translating the foreign name 
into English, and enthusiasts then get two alike. Mr. Wil- 
lison, of Whitby, and Mr. Burgess, of Colchester, have, how¬ 
ever, raised some perfectly novel and distinct, and some very 
remarkable. The Fuchsia is, unquestionably, moving the 
right way ; and he who would put forth a novelty of which 
the sepals did not reflex, would be looked up to as taking 
an undue advantage of his customer, unless there was some 
novelty so distinct as to warrant it. We have plenty now of 
which the sepals gracefully reflex, and to show that our 
requirements in the properties of flowers, that they should 
reflex completely wrong-side-out, is not looked upon so 
unfavourably, one of Smith’s this year actually reflexes 
as much as the Mar tag on Lily. Nor will any variety be 
tolerated, unless the colours of the corolla and the sepals 
are very distinct. Of course there are many sent out every 
year only to be thrown away, and some, too much like what 
we have already to be shown in the same collection. The 
Antirrhinum, as exhibited hitherto, is a weed; there is not 
one worth the room it would take in a garden. If this flower 
is to be a florist’s flower, it must not be less brilliant than 
the old Pictura; but hundreds of the most indifferent, 
scratchy things, of which the markings cannot be seen two 
yards off, have been palmed upon those weak enough to 
grow them in collections, and the end of it is, they will be 
thrown away. A pure white, or bright yellow tube, with a 
richly contrasted lip, is the only kind that can be tolerated. 
The frightful collections seen at some of the shows would 
disgust anybody, even if he had once wished to grow them. 
In fact, there is enough doing in many flowers to keep 
the science moving, if there were not the awful drawback 
of the vast number of bad ones to frighten people from 
buying. The Chrysanthemum has rapidly advanced in 
quality and culture. Mr. Salter, of the Versailles Nursery, 
i 
