174 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 12. 
We have witnessed all the great Horticultural Exhi¬ 
bitions of England, as well as some of those of 
Continental nations, and we have passed years among 
the best collection of plants within the tropics; but, 
remembering vividly all these, we declare, without the 
slightest reservation, that never before did we look upon 
such an assemblage of brilliant, well-cultivated plants, 
as were concentrated within the Crystal Palace on the 
2nd instant. Single specimens, or even single genera, 
we may have seen equal, or even superior, to those then 
at Sydenham ; but the Exhibition, as a whole, had no 
rival within our memory. 
As the Exhibition was superlative in excellence, so 
never before were twenty thousand spectators assembled 
together in one building to look upon “ the stars of the 
earth,” as flowers have been justly called; and never 
before were seven thousand carriages arranged before 
the entrance of such an exhibition. 
In another page will be found a detail of the plants 
and fruits exhibited, from the just and experienced pens 
of Mr. Beaton and Mr. Hogg ; and wo must add not 
only a record of our assent to all their expressions of 
approbation and complaint, but must also expressly ask 
for more decisive directions to be given to the ticket- 
takers and police on future exhibition days, as to the 
privileges to bo allowed to the Reporters for the press- 
We know of several who were not merely delayed, but 
were told to apply to other entrances, where there was 
equal ignorance and similar non-access. Finally, if 
Mr. Beaton had not done battle valiantly, both he and 
others would have been ejected long before they had 
completed their arduous tasks. We thus comment in a 
spirit of entire friendliness; for no one could be more 
courteous that Mr. Grove and the whole of the Secre¬ 
tariat,—but they could not be everywhere; and wo are 
quite sure that the Company are as anxious to consider 
the convenience of Reporters, as they are liberal in 
furnishing them with admission tickets. 
Of course, the mistake of placing a grand piano and 
a precocious child in the centre of the transept, so as 
not only totally to interrupt the promenade, but to 
destroy the noble perspective of the building when its 
space from end to end is unbroken, will not be repeated. 
Nor will the canvass awning, otherwise so preservative 
of the plants, and promotive of their effective appear¬ 
ance, bo allowed to descend quite so low. Had it been 
raised a few feet higher the plants would have been 
better lighted and the view from end to end less interfered 
with. 
We wish that setting aside all betrayal that successful 
rivalry was felt, the Horticultural Society had sent its 
choicest spepimens, not for competition, hut to deck the 
Palace upon such an occasion. Such a contribution 
would have cast a dignity about the Society’s fall, for, 
now, fall it must. The exhibitions at Sydenham will, 
henceforth, be as superior to those of Chiswick as is 
the opera to a penny peep-show, with this extraordinary 
dilfeience, that the Sydenham Opera costs only one 
guinea a year, and the Chiswick minor entertainment 
four guineas. 
We were especially and beyond expectation gratified 
by the appearance of the statuary among this glorious 
embowering of verdure and flowers of all hues. Statues 
so placed in the open air too often look weather-stained 
and comfortless—unsuited, in fact, to our chilly, fitful 
climate. In the Crystal Palace, where there is an 
unfailing atmosphere of genial temperature, they wear 
an appearance of brightness and fitness—they look as if 
they were never chilled by a gust of wind, nor by a 
shower of rain—a freedom from evil in which the living 
shared, and which cannot be secured to them elsewhere. 
Next, let us offer our expression of admiration of the 
fountains in the gardens. The fountains are associated 
in the minds of most Englishmen with some such tame, 
monotonous ejections of water as are given forth by the 
great squirts in the Temple Gardens and Trafalgar 
Square. Let no one imagine that the fountains at the 
Crystal Palace have even the slightest resemblanco to 
such tasteless tossing up of water as these. So far from 
it are they, that the elegant forms given to the water at 
the Crystal Palace are plume-like showers of mingled 
snow-flakes and crystals. Some persons expressed dis¬ 
appointment as to the deficient elevation to which these 
plumes ascended; but those so disappointed were not 
aware that the fountains displayed on this occasion are 
those of smallest power, and are in what are called the 
nine basins of the upper range. The most gigantic foun¬ 
tains, in the lower part of the gardens, will not be ready 
for exhibition until next month. They comprise what 
are distinguished as the great cascades, and associated 
with which are the vast double series of circular jets, 
the centre plume of which will ascend to a height of 
two hundred and fifty feet. 
In conclusion, let us express our hope that the 
Directors will resolve upon more such Exhibitions, and, 
if it could be arranged that one of such Exhibitions 
should extend to two days, so that on the second it 
might be open to all willing to pay a shilling, not only 
would the Company’s exchequer be enriched, but the 
intention of the Crystal Palace—the improvement and 
gratification of the many—be further carried out. 
In reply to a query of a correspondent on Preserving 
Vegetables Green, we recently stated that we knew 
no separate work on the subject, nor did we at the time 
fully comprehend the whole nature of his query. On 
reflection, we recollected that we had a work in our 
possession which bears somewhat on the subject, and 
from which we are enabled to furnish some information 
to cur readers generally. It is written by a French 
author, M. Appert, and is entitled “ The Art of Pre¬ 
serving all hinds of Animals and Vegetable substances for 
several years. Published by order of the French 
Minister of the Interior, on the report of the Board of 
Arts and Manufactures.” The author states that “ this 
method is not a vain theory. It is the fruit of reflection, 
investigation, long attention, and numerous experiments, 
the results of which, for more than ten years, have been 
sh efiirpTrsing,- that notwithstanding the proof acquired 
