THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
141 
| May 26. 
i these shows, were from our friend and fellow-labourer, j 
j Mr. Appleby—six standards of the beautiful Deutzia 
' gracilis, and I hope he has sixty scores of them, and that 
! he will have no rest day and night until he sells and | 
j packs off every one of them. Two or three years back 
! I wanted people to make such stands of many kinds 
of evergreen and deciduous shrubs, because I am quite 
sure they would be just in character and style for all our 
villa atid cottage-gardens, and also for the terrace-gar- 
dens of our high nobility. There is nothing that I know 
of for this time of the season more gay or suitable than 
these standard Deutzias for placing among crowded 
plants in a show-room, whether it were a conservatory, 
or a greenhouse, an exhibition tent, or a crystal palace ; 
and for this reason—they would not take uji an inch of 
room, as the stems are small, and from thirty inches 
to four feet high. The pots could be pushed in any¬ 
where, and the plume of flowers would rise above other 
plants, and vary the outline, and also set off other 
colours better than can be done by standard Roses. If 
these standards from Mr. Appleby had been placed 
among the Chinese Azaleas, the effect which I mean 
could be seen at once. 
These Azaleas were never in such profusion before, 
nor larger plants of them, nor the plants better flowered. 
Accustomed as I have been for so many years to these 
exhibitions, and having seen many of those noble speci¬ 
mens in the seed-pans, as I am sure I have seen some 
of them, I must confess that I was as much surprised at 
them as were some of my next-door neighbours who 
saw them that day for the first time. After all, I think 
Mirabilis, one that I mentioned last week at Bank 
Grove, is the best coloured of all the race; and I know 
it would be the first colour that nine ladies out of ten 
would point out first. One called Parsonii is of the 
next best telling colour, but of a different shade—a very 
light purple. Macrantha purpurea comes next; then 
follow a dozen, at least, of equal merit; but those with 
the copperg-red tints have been going down in the esti¬ 
mation of ladies for some years, and the double-red is 
one which few of them can bear to look at; as to what 
lords, or gentlemen, think of colours in flowers, it is 
neither here nor there, for the ladies can always turn 
them with a little coaxing and reasoning. 
After the Azaleas, we had some fine tree. Rhododen¬ 
drons, from Sion House; from Mr. Gains, ot Battersea; 
and from Mr. Lane, the great rose-grower. In the latter 
group were the best three yellow Rhododendrons, and 
two of those between yellow and lilac : their names are 
in my last June or July report. 
Aphelexis is another genus of Everlasting flowers, 
which is now brought up annually in collections. They 
look exceedingly gay when brought together. Macran¬ 
tha purpurea, and spectabilis, are the two best purples 
among them, and sesamoules rosea is, perhaps, the best 
light one. 
The Hoya imperials, as it gets old and well-confined 
in large pots, makes really a free-flowering, noble-look¬ 
ing plant without taking up so much room as one would 
think. Last year I mentioned a morsel of a variegated 
Aphelandra, from Ghent. There was a large pot of it 
to-day, and it really is a fine plant, for the zebra ma.rk- 
in«’ on the leaves, long white bars across, but I question 
| its°being an Aphelandra, but the habit is very good for 
an Acanthus. 
The fairy flower from Mysore, Hexacentris Mysorensis, 
was there from Mr. Veitch, but not out in bloom so 
much as this time last year; the plant, however, is a nice 
I free grower, without any coarse rambling, and is, pro¬ 
bably, the best pot-climber one could put in a stove. 
The Magnific Medinilla was there most gorgeous; one 
or two fine Ixoras ; also Hoya Paxtonii, a rather new 
thing in the way of H. bella ; but, generally speaking, 
there were but few stove plants of that stamp. 
The immense specimens of greenhouse plants were 
really beyond the Azaleas in splendour. There is 
nothing now on the face of the earth like such things as 
Pimelea spectabilis, Oxylobium Pultenece, Gornpholobium 
barbigera, Adenandra (Diosma) speciosa, Adenandra 
fragrans, with pretty rose-coloured flowers, Eriostemons 
and Epacrises in abundance. Of the latter, was the 
best seedling'I have yet seen from Mr. Veitch, it was 
called Eclipse, a large, bright scarlet flower, with clear 
white tips. Pultenea stipularis, like some bushy conifer, 
and every branch ending in heads of yellow pea-flowers. 
Hovea Celsii, covered down to the pot with flowering 
j branches, quite an unusual sight with this straggling 
plant. Chorozema varium nana, one sheet of yellow 
blossoms. Polygala • Dalmaisiana, the best of this 
race. Borronias, Leschenaultias, with Eriostemon buxi- 
folium and nereifolium, were all most conspicuous along 
the tents, and, as I thought, better placed with regard 
to the general effect than is usual. 
Orchids were in such numbers that one can hardly 
find room for the bare names. The true Vanda suavis 
was as good in Mr. Veitch's group as any that were 
there—it had four long racemes of flowers, each of which 
had a dozen of full open flowers on it; the lip is deep 
purple, and the sepals and petals were marked leopard¬ 
like, with brown bars on a white ground ; tricolor is 
very different, and there were several varieties of it. A 
variety of Aerides crispa, called Warnerii, was one of 
the best there of that family. Aerides virens was also 
very fine, with the tips of all the parts marked with a 
purple spot; a lovely thing. Several plants of Cattleya 
Skinneri, the very richest of this rich family, and in 
| better colour than I ever saw it before. Cattleya 
Mossice, with three enormous large flowers on every 
spike. Cattleya intermedia violacea, a better variety 
than tbe common one. Dendrobium vnoniliforme, literally 
covered with its handsome purple flowers. Dendrobium 
\ macrophyllum, bowed down with the weight of flowers, 
; which perfumed the air with its light rhubarb scent. 
Saccolabium curvifolium, with four spikes of purplish 
flowers, not often seen; one densiflorum, with no less 
than fifteen spikes of its soft yeliow flowers. Lycaste 
(Maxillaria) Harrisonii, with at least one hundred 
flowers open, from Mr. Rollison, who also sent the rarely- 
flowered Dendrobium speciosum, and also a beautiful 
plant of Leptotis serrulata, in the way of bicolor, but 
much finer; the sepals and petals of ivory-like substance 
and whiteness, and with a rich purple lip. Saccolabium 
guttatum and ampullaceum, with deep purple flowers. 
Phalccnopsis grandiflora, with sixteen open flowers on 
one spike, and more on branchlets lower down from the 
same spike ; a sight never before seen. A more pinkey 
variety of Adontoglossum citrosmum than the common 
one. Phaius Wallichii finer than usual, with its cinna¬ 
mon-coloured flowers. Cypripedium barbatum and 
Loivii, in full bloom. Epidendrums and Oncids, with 
nonsuches of all colours and shapes, enough to bewilder 
one, and, what was much better, not a bad grown plant 
among the whole lot of them. 
The Roses were crowded by the company all day long, 
in fact, a regular feast of Roses, worth all the admission 
fees. Before you could say Jack-the-Giant-Iviller, after the 
gates were first opened to the Fellows and their friends, 
the Rose tent was swarming with the first comers, and for 
very shame, I was obliged to give way to strangers, and 
I was more than obliged to keep at a respectful distance. 
Every attempt was in vain I made through the day to get 
near the tallies, to see a few new faces that I wanted to 
get the true names of; at last I got hungry and out of 
patience, and were it not for the police, and more parti¬ 
cularly for their head superintendent, who always accosts 
me in the Gaelic language, I should have made a distur¬ 
bance. Coupe de Hebe, with its bright-pink or peach 
blossoms, Paul Perras, Barron Prevost, Chenedole, Geant 
