224 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[July 10. 
market gardener, but my route prevented, as it then lay 
into the south of France. 
A new strawberry , so called, was exhibited at the 
Surrey Gardens. It was a fine berry, so much like 
Wilmot’s superb, that we felt inclined to pronounce it 
such. The flavor was good, but the larger berries 
hollow. It had a certificate of the first class, but we 
think it no better than Wilmot’s superb, and too much 
like it to be a favourite. 
The Surrey Zoological Gardens have a strong claim 
on the good-will of florists’ in general. It was almost 
the first place of exhibition in the open air, having been 
the original exhibition ground of the Metropolitan 
Society, which started public shows the same year as the 
Horticultural Society. The Metropolitan Society, how¬ 
ever, withdrew on account of some misunderstanding, 
and the South London Floricultural Society was esta¬ 
blished to continue the shows there; and from that time 
to the present the proprietors of the gardens have given 
more than two thousand pounds towards the prizes. 
Had the Society been well managed, the shows might 
have equalled those at Chiswick and the Regent’s Park. 
Cut flowers in Covent Garden are at length a drug. 
It is little use taking up a quantity, and even the very 
best from stove and greenhouse plants will sell for but 
little; not that there is any diminution of the demand, 
on the contrary, there are more sold than ever, hut the 
supply has been over-done. 
There was a time when the flowers on a plant would 
bring as much as the plant was worth, but everybody is 
producing and taking to market, everybody driving at a sale, 
and the retailers have all their own way. Moss roses in 
bunches of eight or ten have been sold at twopence per 
dozen bunches. The flowers of orchideous plants, and of 
expensive stove climbers may be seen in all the shops in the 
middle row. 
Every arrival of Pines from the West Indies seems 
better than the last. Whether they are gathered in a 
better condition for keeping, or the voyages are made 
quicker, we know not, but they are brought over in 
passable order, and their cheapness sells them ; but the 
best are no more to be compared with an English-grown 
pine-apple than a turnip to a fine melon. E. Y. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
Large-flowered Thibaudia (Thibaudia macrantha ).— 
This most beautiful warm-greenhouse evergreen shrub, 
belongs to the Natural Order Whortleberries (Vacci- 
niacese), and to 10 -Decandria 1-Monogynia of the Lin- 
naean system. The genus is now formed of species once 
endeavoured to be raised into a separate genus, under 
the title of Agapetes, beloved ones; and though this 
well expresses the feeling created by their beauty, yet 
there is no sounder reason for detaching them from the 
older name of Thibaudia ; so this has been retained and 
Agapetes has been abolished. Thibaudia was so named 
in honour of M. Thiebaut de Berneaud, author of several 
j botanical memoirs, and Secretary of the Paris Linn lean 
j Society. 
Thibaudia macrantha is the most beautiful of this most 
beautiful genus; for its five-sided flowers of Avhite and yel- | 
low, with their crimson tracery, hang like Chinese lamps 
amoDg the smooth, bright-green foliage; and these flowers 
well entitle it to its specific name, for they are often two 
inches and a quarter long, and one inch in diameter. 
Messrs. Veitch and Son, of Exeter, raised it, in 1849, from 
seed received from their collector, Mr. T. Lobb, who gathered 
them in Moulmein, upon the Kola Mountain. It flowered 
in the December of 1850. The bark of the shrub is very 
light brown, and smooth; leaves on thick short stalks, wil¬ 
low-shaped, and smooth; flowers, two or three together, hang 
down from the bark between the joints ; stalks red near the 
calyx which is yellowish; corolla china-white, marked with 
crimson zig-zag lines, five-angled, angles yellowish, mouth 
five-lobed; with stamens and pistil projecting beyond the 
mouth.—J. 
THE ER.UIT-GARDEN. 
Espalier Fruits. —Whatever course may have been 
pursued previously to this period, a thorough revision 
of the trees is absolutely requisite in the early part 
of July; and this applies to the whole of our hardy 
fruits in course of training, even extending the opera¬ 
tion to untrained trees, if time can be spared. 
Thinning out progressively has been recommended 
at various times through the spring, but even where 
this has been tolerably well attended to, much re¬ 
mains to be done. This is the period in which 
almost every gardener, of any standing in his profes¬ 
sion, seeks to “lay in” the young wood of his peaches, 
nectarines, and apricots; that is to say, to train either 
by nailing or other mode, all the longest shoots, both 
to prevent their being broken by the wind, and to 
enable the future bearing shoots, or spurs, to enjoy 
the full benefit of sunlight; without which, for many 
weeks, dating from about Midsummer, it is vain to 
expect a fruitful habit, or properly ripened wood. In 
order to be well understood on this subject, we had 
better take the fruits separately, heginning with the 
most needy, and following with the rest in order. 
The Vine, Out-doors. —No fruit more needs every 
glimpse of sunshine in our changeable clime than this, 
whether for the sake of present, or prospective crops. 
If the dressing has been neglected in any degree pre¬ 
viously, the trees will be in a confused state; which, 
