COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
November 27. 
of thorn a little longer, and merely give the names, and 
a few other particulars about those which were exhi¬ 
bited at this meeting. Two distinct ways of treating tiie 
plants were exhibited—one was, to train down the shoots 
to near the rim of the pots, then raising the points in, 
or as near to a circle as could be done, and then work¬ 
ing and twisting the rest of the shoots, so as to get 
their points on an exact level within this circle; this 
mode throws all tlie flowers on a flat siiiTace, and you 
cannot see a leaf of some of the kinds, without looking 
in below the circle: generally, there are three plants in 
one pot—No. Hi—to effect the flat surface. 
The second plan is to allow the plant its native free¬ 
dom, but to stop some of the strongest shoots in June, 
in order to make the head more regular, and to use very 
few sticks indeed; the latter is my own favourite plan, for 
I was never one of the tight-laced school; but the judges, 
I believe, gave the best medal to the best flat plants 
at this meeting; but if you had seen them, I am quite 
sure you could not come to any other conclusion your¬ 
self. This collection was from Mr. Wetherel, gardener 
to D. Mc‘Neil, Esq., Hornsey-road, and consisted of the ■ 
following six kinds :— Cedo nulli was above four feet i 
across, and you could hardly see a leaf; nothing but one j 
whole mass of snow-white flowers, larger than the I 
average of Pompones, with the tinge as if from the rays 
of a fine sunset; this is the gayest light-bedder out-of- 
doors of my lot; but it does not come with that soft, 
snowy-whiteness as it does in-doors, and the centre and 
some of the outer petals keep tipped with light brown 
to the last, as when the flower is first opening under 
glass. Drine drine, one mass of yellow, and not a single 
leaf to be seen. It is earlier by a week out-of-doors 
than Gedo nulli, and both belong to the second early 
class of bloomers. Without a single stick, my Drine 
drine throws all the flower on the surface. La Gitana, 
another whole mass of blush-white; it belongs to the 
latest bloomers out-of-doors, and there is not nearly so 
good as in a pot. Bole, a dark Spanish-brown tint, new 
to me. La Sultana, a bright blush, pinky shade, very j 
handsome as a whole, but the individual flowers have j 
the evil eye ; and Requiquo, a handsome, bold, globular 1 
flower, of a reddish-rosy purple, also new to me. } 
The next collection was in twenty-four pots, and sent ' 
by Mr. Shrimpton, gardener to — Doxat, Esq., Putney , 
Heatli. The kinds were Requique, and Drine drine again: 
also Autiimnuni, an excellent, close-habited kind, dwarf, 
and a most profuse bloomer; out-of-doors it is as dark as 
the old Spanish-brown Chrysanthemum, but in pots 
that shade is lighter. Helene, a purplish-rosy tint, in the 
way of Poulcdette, but, as I think, a better flower. De Or, 
an excellent yellow flower, and one of the latest in the 
open air, also a dwarf, compact grower; and Madame 
Rousselon, a decided improvement on Surprise, in a pot, 
as it keeps the rosy-lilacy tint, which Surprise does not, 
but turns to a liglit blush under glass, while in the open 
air no one holds better to the higher tint, or lasts 
longer in bloom than Smprise, which is still my favou¬ 
rite flower of the race; but when my new conservatory 
is done, I must take to Madame Rousselon for the same 
lively tint in-doors. 
The next collection was from Mr. Oulredge, gardener 
to J. Foster, Esq., Stamford Hill. It consisted of 
Madame Rousselon, Cedo nulli, Solfaterre, a bright 
yellow, but a thinner flower than Drine drine or Sacra¬ 
mento ; the latter did not come out on this occasion; 
Bijou de Hortieidture, a blush-white, and Helene. 
Mr. Windsor, gardener to A. Blythe, Esq., Hamp¬ 
stead, had a well-grown collection, and only one plant 
in each, in No. lO-pots; they were Cedo nulli, Bijou de 
Hortieidture, Adonis, a dark, pinkish flower, and a very 
late kind in the open air, Autumnurn and Argenteum, 
the purest white when full blown, with Fenella under a 
wrong name, La Langleur. 
111 
Mr. Slirimpton had a second collection of large 
Clu-ysanthemums, wliich was disqualified for having 
one half-double Pompone in the set called Jtinon, u 
brown flower, with a yellow bull’s eye. He had, also, a 
fine single specimen of Pompone called Kelly, a blush- 
white. 
There was one collection of enormous large plants of 
the largo Chrysanthemums, from Mr. Robert James, an 
amateur, at Stoke Newington; the enormous size and 
perfect training of these plants struck every one in the 
room as most remarkable. The kinds were Defiance, 
a quilled white kind; this plant was five and six feet 
in diameter, and the highest flower on it only reached 
to three feet from the ground, and the pot was nearly 
half the height, and so with the rest; Pilot, a rosy 
flower, with a blush centre; Chevalier Dunnage, a fine 
yellow; Festa, a fine white, with expanded petals, the 
opposite to Defiance: Annie Salter, one of the best 
yellows, and Christina. To hold these six plants tight- 
laced, there might be about 400 sticks made use of! If 
the Stamford Hill Society for the improvement of these 
beautiful plants encourage all this strain and tight¬ 
ness, may I never come within the influence of their 
operations. 
There was a collection of twenty-eight cut flowers of 
these large Chrysanthemums, which were remarkable 
for the incurved position of all the petals, thus forming 
every one of them like the top part of a cone, by some 
artificial process, which I heard variously ex 2 flained; 
but as I do not take any account about the shape of 
flowers, I cannot enter into the merits of this or that 
way of dressing them. 
The Messrs. Rollinson, of Tooting, were large con¬ 
tributors to this meeting; they sent a collection of 
Orchids, consisting of Rapiliinia tigrina, a new kind, of 
which there were cut flowers from Mr. Bateman; the 
plant looks like a Stauhopea, and flowers just in the 
same style, but the flowers are different, and of a 
brownish tint, with lighter bars and markings. A 
Cattleya Perrenii, a ditto lahiata, Angrcecuni hilohim, 
Cymbidium Masterii, with white droo^sing flowers on a 
stand-up spike, and a Cattleya luteola, a dwarf, alpine- 
looking plant. Also a collection of variegated plants, 
such as a fine, striped Yucca, three kinds of Dragon trees, 
and two Crotons, and a most beautiful-leaved plant, the 
Lomatia Australia. They also sent an independent 
collection of jffants, with fine foliage, among which 
were Oldfieldia Africana, some Rhopalas and Aralias, 
with Brexia chrysophylla, and also a collection of 
Myrtle-leaved Orange-trees in full fruit. 
The Messrs. Henderson, of the Wellington Road Nur¬ 
sery, were likewise rich contributors in rare plants, and 
plants with fine foliage, among which were two distinct 
kinds of the prettiest dwarf variegated plants, the lovely 
little Sonerila margaretacea, the beautiful Fern-leaved 
tree called Cupania filieifolia, a Burlingtonia decora Or¬ 
chid, and many more in that style. 
Mr. Clark, of Hoddeston, sent a plant of Sojihronitis 
grandifiora, a dwarf alpine air-plant, with large Vermil¬ 
lion blossoms, from the highlands of Brazil, where the 
frost is often hard enough to make ice. 
I did not see more than two little plants of ASschynan- 
thus fulgens, an upright flowering kind from Mr. Veitch. 
Mr. Maul, of Bristol, sent a splendid nosegay of the 
flowers of Vanda ccerulea, the handsomest we ever had 
in that room. Mr. Ingram sent us also a nosegay of a 
rare Texas Ageratum, from the royal gardens at Windsor. 
An unusual specimen plant of Leschenaultia forniosa, 
in bloom, came from Mr. Rhodes, gardener to J. Phillips, 
Esq., Stamfoi’d Hill. 
There was a large collection of stove and greenhouse 
plants from the garden of the Society, and a collection 
of Pears from their Orchard-house ; also a collection of 
Chinese Primroses, and a second collection from another 
