200 
from which thirty have been selected for some good 
property in advance, to bo proved by the next year’s 
culture. Mr. Smith, of Witney, has always something 
new and good, and is progressing this year as usual. 
We have to thank him already for two or three of the 
very best. We shall be delighted to recognise any of 
these novelties, if they are at all in advance in quality, 
which we have every reason to believe they are, from 
the experience of our informant, or the specimens we 
have seen, or in some cases both. 
National Floncultural Society, July 10th, E. Foster, 
Esq., the president, in the chair. 
First class certificate awarded to J. Edwards, Esq., Hol¬ 
loway, for an Antirrhinum: seedling; a liower of good form, 
large size, and novel colour; a clear bright primrose. 
Pelargoniums were shown in numbers, but none quite up 
to the mark even of commendation, except one from Mr. 
Ambrose, of Battersea; a fancy variety, named Fine Ball, 
which received a commendation, or third prize, the colour 
approaching a scarlet being its best point. Picotees came 
from Mr. Tinner, of Slough. Dodwell’s Mary received a 
certificate ; had the ground colour been pure white, it would 
have had a first class; form and substance good, and the 
lacing perfect. Another Picotee from the same, named 
Fellow’s Prince Arthur, had a commendation, but was in a 
rough state; it will improve by cultivation. J. Edwards, 
Esq., sent a single bloom of a Pink, named Titus ; a fiower 
possessing many good properties; only one bloom, however, 
was present, and three are, we believe, required. Verbenas : 
Certificates were awarded to that successful raiser of these 
pretty flowers, Mr. Smith, of Hornsey, for one named 
National, and another named Purple Rival, both possessing 
excellent properties. Messrs. Henderson sent their beauti¬ 
ful carnation-striped Phlox, named P. Ma.yii varicyata; 
flowers nearly round, ground colour, white, beautifully 
striped with bright rose; a commendation was awarded. 
Censors: Messrs. Lochner, Neville, Staines, and Ayres. 
The King of the Dahlias lias bloomed with us, and a 
splendid model it was one day, but the eye opened the 
next. While advancing its liower, it is a very common¬ 
looking variety, the petals standing all manner of ways; 
when full blown, they all fall into their places, and 
exhibit more symmetry than any flower we know. 
Nobody will consider it very promising until they see a 
perfect bloom, for it is a vulgar-looking variety in all its 
younger stages. 
There is a talk of establishing an Annual Sale of 
Tulips, to comprise the surplus stock of amateurs and 
dealers, and new flowers, or flowers still scarce. 
As such a sale will bring together a vast number of per¬ 
sons, a good thing will be sure to bring its value ; besides 
which, almost every seller of surplus will want to buy what 
he has not got; a new flower, too, will establish its value. 
Mr. Slater, Mr. Wilmer, Mr. Lightbody, Mrs. Lawrence, and 
several others, have entered their names to send bulbs; and 
everything will be sold under the warrantry of the owner. It 
will be advertised in The Cottage Gardener as soon as 
the day is fixed for 1851. 
The South Devon Horticultural Society has had a 
second show, which came off with great eclat; not only 
were all the productions finer than usual, but there 
were, upon computation, as many visitors at these two 
shows, as there were at the old Society the last nine. 
This rival Society arose out of a question as to out-of-door 
shows, and, before the South Devon was established, the 
Horticultural Grounds were offered to the old Society and 
declined, so that the rivalry has put the original “upon its 
metal,” to the manifest advantage of floriculture in that 
neighbourhood. 
[July 31. 
We have seen some hundred Mimuluses raised from 
seed, how, or where saved, we cannot imagine; but of 
all the weeds that were ever seen they are the worst. 
The seed was purchased at a London seed-shop. 
How anybody can think of obtaining good seed for the 
price generally paid for packets we know not. Those who 
save seed that gives them a chance of a first-rate flower will 
not sell it at any price, because a single seed may be worth 
five pounds ; it is not so with seeds of annuals, because, as 
there are no means of perpetuating a variety, the finest 
specimen in the world goes for nothing, except to save seed 
from. 
The leading people of Chester have resolved on holding 
a grand Show of Horticultural aud Agricultural produc¬ 
tions cultivated out of doors, and the powerful array of 
names which heads the proposal promises the greatest 
success. One of the principal features is the prominent 
station allotted to Cottage Garden productions. It is 
expected that the exposition will be on the most extensive 
scale, and excite the greatest interest. 
All the recent efforts to advance in the quality of the 
Calceolaria seem unavailing, if we are to judge by those 
exhibited at the shows, or brought under our notice in 
other ways. The colours sport well, and give many 
remarkable varieties; but the flowers, whether large or 
small, are nearly all indented like a melon, or are very 
flat on the face, or both. We may say that we have seen 
thousands this year, and scarcely any that we consider 
an advance. 
The best we have seen was one of Grimese’s, called Miss 
Chatteris. This was more inflated than any other we have 
had before this season, but there is no novelty in the colour; 
and where we have had novelty in the colour, there has, 
invariably, been a want of shape. The cause is in the care¬ 
less manner of saving the seed. One gentleman who was 
once rather fortunate in a few seedlings has gone back 
altogether, and why ? Because he saved seed from his 
general lot of seedlings, instead of destroying all but the 
few best; so will everybody who trusts to general collections 
for seed. It is not only with the Calceolaria that seed 
declines; everything saved from the mass will be compara¬ 
tively bad; but people are more tempted to keep a Calceo¬ 
laria than some subjects, because it is a pretty plant. How¬ 
ever, as it is difficult to persuade anybody to throw away a 
hundred or two plants of Calceolaria in bloom, let them pick 
out the really good ones as soon as they flower, and remove 
them to some other part of the garden to a one-light frame, 
and seed them where they cannot be contaminated. The 
same frame will do to seed any thing else in, because 
different families will not hurt each other ; and, in choosing 
those few as the best, recollect that they should be the 
roundest, the most free from indentation, and the best 
colours. E. Y. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
Violet Hebeclinium (Hebeclinium ianthinum ). — 
Botanical Magazine, 4574. — The genus Hebeclinium 
belongs to the Composite Natural Order (Asteracese), one 
of the largest and the most difficult to arrange in the 
vegetable kingdom. Although it has been through the 
hands, and had the advantage of the logical mind of the 
elder Decandolle, it is still considered, by the best and 
most accomplished botanists, as only in a temporary 
arrangement. The subdivisions of the order are, per¬ 
haps, as natural as the materials and our present know¬ 
ledge of the plants would allow of; but it is admitted 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
