108 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[May 22. 
■wards. We say this advisedly—speaking of what we 
know, and of what we have seen; and, lastly, these 
; Societies do not agree in their decisions upon the same 
■ flowers. This arises from there being many judges, all 
j more or less differing in taste,—all subject to various 
J prejudices, and none hound down by any admitted laws 
i of floral beauty. 
This is a great evil, and we have resolved to do our 
! best to correct it; for we feel, that having the largest cir¬ 
culation of any gardening paper, and being totally un¬ 
connected with any Society or dealer in flowers, we have 
! the power to provide a remedy. 
We have resolved to have every award of the Flori- 
j cultural Societies supervised and criticised by the best 
i living authority on such matters—Mr. Glenny, and his 
criticisms shall be published, week by week, in our pages. 
Mr. Glenny has published a code of floral law's in his 
Properties of Flowers. All florists, therefore, know the 
statutes which he admits, and, if he decided contrary to 
them, he would be convicted by his own pre-published 
authority. 
To carry out our intention of being more useful to the 
cultivators of Flotusts’ Flowers, w r e mean to enlarge 
this department, not only with relation to judgments 
upon such flowers, but also as to their culture. Any 
person desiring to obtain Mr. Glenny’s opinion upon a 
flower, must send it directed to him at our Office, 2, 
Amen-corner, Paternoster-row, and the opinion will be 
published in our columns under the head of Florists’ 
Flowers. Let us warn all parties wishing for such 
opinions that it is useless to send them, except in a box 
so strong, and packed in damp moss, as neither to suffer 
from the Post-office punches nor from dryness 
The Royal Botanic Society’s Show in the Regent’s Park, 
on the 14th instant, was the most beautiful floral exhi¬ 
bition we ever witnessed. Never, under one tent, were 
there ever arranged together such splendid and admir¬ 
ably grown hosts of Orchids and Indian Azaleas. The 
Pelargoniums were magnificent specimens; but the 
backwardness of the season forbade them being in full 
flower, and they w'ill be still more striking a week hence. 
We shall give more details in a future number. 
On the following day we were favoured with a private 
view of what we believe to be the finest bed of Tulips in 
Europe. It is at Mr. Groom’s, florist, Clapham, and is 
now in perfection, and open to the public. No one 
delighting in flowers, being now in London, will have 
an excuse for returning home without seeing it, since he 
can be put down at the garden gates by an omnibus for 
fourpence at any quarter of an hour he pleases. Mr. 
Groom's Tulip bed is one hundred and fifty feet long, 
and is enclosed by what may be best described as a 
house with walls of canvass. The Tulips are in seven 
rows, and in number above two thousand. When the 
house is entered, the eye will be somewhat disappointed 
by the absence of dark colours to relieve the preponder¬ 
ance of white and yellow grounds, which prevail alike in 
the Bizard, Byblomen, and Rose classes; but this dis¬ 
appointment, if it deserves so strong a term, passes away 
when each flower is examined in detail, the form and 
the feathering of some not being surpassable. We have 
not space to enumerate many, but we will particularize 
a few of the best, with their prices, to show that there 
are some for all purchasers; indeed, the prices vary 
from eighteen-pence to ten guineas. One, Dr. Horner, 
is nominally priced at one hundred guineas; hut this is 
only to show the high qualities it possesses; and when 
it has been propagated more largely it will be purchase- 
able at an average price. Among the Rose class of 
Tulips we would direct attention to Gatalani, 7s. Gd.; 
Countess of Wilton, £2 2s.; and Duchess of Sutherland, 
15s. Among the Byblomen class we would especially point 
out Imperatriceforum, 10s. Gd.; Louis XVI., from 30s. 
to £5 5s.; Michael Angelo, 10s. Od.; and Victoria regina, 
£3 3s., which Mr. Groom considers the best Tulip which he 
ever raised. Among the Bizard class, Dulce of Cambridge, 
£10 10s.; Duke of Devonshire, £4 4s.; Duke of Suther¬ 
land, £3 3s.; Everard, £10 10s.; Marshal Soult, 15s.; 
Nourri Effendi, £3 3s.; and Prince of Wales, £5 5s., 
are especially excellent. The flower last-named has a 
peculiar orauge-coloured ground. 
GARDENING GOSSIP. 
Floriculture has suffered much from the practice of 
sending out worthless novelties at a high price, and we 
are glad to see the gentlemen who have been most 
guilty quarrelling with each other. One dealer has ven¬ 
tured to publish in his catalogue this pointed rebuke of 
his brother dealers: “ The following varieties of 1850 
can always be had, but are not recommended as show 
flowers, from their inconstancy, similarity, or other 
defects." Then follows the condemned list which impli¬ 
cates all the principal dealers. Whether they will retort 
or not is doubtful; but it is the common conversation of 
the floral circles, who point to the writer’s own list of 
unfortunates and ask, why he did not insert them also ? 
The rebuke has no effect on the present year’s novelties, 
for these are more numerous than ever, and the majority 
■worse than ever. 
If we were asked to point out the best Dahlia of each 
florists’ batch, we should say Turner’s best is Barmaid; Bragg’s 
best , Admiral ; Barnes's, George Glenny; Mitchel’s, Queen of 
Beauties; Sealey’s, Queen of ilie West; Keynes’s, Baltic; 
Hales’s, Sir Charles Napier; Hansard’s, Mrs. Hansard; 
Gunning's, Yellow Gem; and Morgan’s, King of Dahlias. 
We do not say they are all good, but they are the best sent 
out by the respective growers. 
The National Florists' Society met on the 8th, but 
there were very few novelties deserving a notice. An 
Azalea grafted on one of scarlet kind mixed its white 
and purple flowers with those of the stock, and may be 
considered an acquisition to that interesting family, 
because it was really new, and, though rather a flimsy 
petal, it was pretty. A tall Amaryllis, dark red, with a 
black shade in it, was only remarkable for being worse 
than some we possess already; the petals were very 
narrow and pointed. 
How people can be so much behind hand in taste as to 
send some of the miserable things there were there we can- 
