380 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[September 18. 
but where there is but one prize, it is hopeless. All 
these things will occupy the attention of the committees- 
The Newbury Horticultural Society, whose meeting 
so recently took place in the grounds of Mr. Graham, 
adjoining the railroad station, has made a considerable 
advance in the short space of only one year; and the 
amateurs, as well as gentlemens’ gardeners, could give 
some of our metropolitan exhibitors a good lesson on 
Fuchsia growing. Many very splendid plants, of large 
size, were exhibited without support, and were well 
furnished and bloomed from top to bottom. 
Balsams, well-grown, were shown in abundance, and some 
Petunias, in pots, were beautiful. Boses were creditably ex¬ 
hibited in all the classes. Asters, of extraordinary size and 
beauty, were in profusion. But the most gratifying part of 
the show was the Cottayers’ Tent. Useful vegetables were 
plentiful, and vied with the best productions of the profes¬ 
sional gardeners; and it was painful to see a vast number 
of industrious people contending for so few prizes, and, con¬ 
sequently, so many going unrewarded ; but this arose from 
the vast increase in the number of competitors since the 
schedule of prizes was drawn up, and which was, at the time, 
supposed to be equal to the probable number of showers. 
Many extra prizes were, however, awarded, and the case will 
be met by a corresponding increase in the rewards for next 
year. Dahlias were an important feature. Mr. Turner, of 
Slough, was the first; Mr. Keynes, of Salisbury, second; 
and Mr. Black, of Clewer, third. In the open class, Mr. 
Berry, of Birmingham, won the principal amateur prize with 
twelve tine flowers, in which Morgan’s King of the Dahlias 
was conspicuous as a model of splendid form. Mr. Turner 
received a certificate for a lakey purple, called Plantagenet, 
and Mr. Keynes, one for Laura Lavington, a dull-coloured 
fancy flower, very novel, and another for Triumphant, a red, 
approaching scarlet. Mr. Perry showed a beautiful seedling, 
too small for general exhibition, but good enough to make 
us wish for a class of small varieties. Mr. Smallbone showed 
six blooms of the King, cut from one plant. We cannot but 
rejoice in the advancement made, at country shows, in the 
exhibition of plants without sticks or other supports; 
although there was, at Newbury, one shown, of Balsams, 
grown on the contrary plan. The leading shoot had been 
taken away, and all the side shoots tied to sticks, destroy¬ 
ing the entire beauty of the plant. The committee, however, 
left them to the mercy of the judges, who placed them 
behind, in spite of their very fine blooms. 
We are right glad to see that the Horticultural Society 
have, in their schedule for 1852, officially denounced 
the un-gardener-like practice of adopting Props and Ties 
to Plants capable of sustaining themselves, and that in 
future the judges’ attention is to he particularly directed 
to that point. Every gardener knows that the discredit¬ 
able practice, so detrimental to the appearance of the 
Roses, Heaths, Geraniums, and many other plants, has 
been denounced by one writer for years, although alone 
in his condemnation. If, however, the leading dealers 
in Roses and Geraniums cannot grow plants capable of 
sustaining themselves, and yet pretend to teach others 
how to grow them, we need not wonder at the amateurs 
following the bad example. 
We have the highest respect for the motives with 
which the dealers in particular flowers and plants give 
Prizes for particular Subjects at horticultural shows; 
but long experience has enabled us to to decide, after 
mature consideration, that such gifts, so given, fail to 
afford either benefit to the Societies, or advantage to the 
science. 
Societies should comprise in their schedules all that is 
desirable. If dealers determine to encourage a flower, let 
them give the committee as much as they please to enhance 
the number and amount of prizes in the classes considered 
to be necessary. But when they give prizes to form separate 
classes, they increase the business, or, rather the labour, of 
the officers, divide the attention of the exhibitors, put it in 
the power of large growers and prize-hunters to make a 
more general sweep, render the arrangement of the produc- I 
tions more intricate, and the duty of the judges more difficult. ; 
We heg those gentlemen who have been the most generous 
to look back upon the result of all they have done. We will 
venture to say they can trace no direct benefit from their 
liberality; they will find that there has rarely been any real 
competition for the prizes. They have been generally won 
by those who already swamp the small growers, and, of their 
abundance, set up everything they can to grasp at rewards, 
given with the best intentions to encourage young beginners, 
or, at least, limited growers. Suppose a Society devotes 
five pounds to any flower—say that the prizes offered shall 
be 50s., 80s., 15s., and 5s.—a grower gives two or three 
pounds for another class of the same flower, the man who 
wins the fifty shilling prize in one will win the best prize in 
the other; but if he gives a forty shilling prize to go between 
the fifty and the thirty shilling prize, and a twenty-five and 
a twenty shilling prize to go between the thirty and fifteen, 
he opens a wider field for young growers, without adding to 
the gains of the two or three leviathans. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
Drooping-feowered, or Box-leaved Cantua ( Cantua . 
dependens, or buxifolia)—Botanical Magazine, t. 4582.— 
This beautiful acquisition to our half-hardy plants has 
been already noticed in The Cottage Gardener, by i 
Mr. Beaton, but the first account we have of it in our 
own language is by Dr. Lindley, in liis report of a 
meeting of the Horticultural Society, held on the 15th 
of last April ( Gard. Chron., 247). “ Messrs. Veitch 
