COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
June 12. 
round, then the first impression will guide his notes 
and his notions for the rest of the day. My first im¬ 
pression was that we should have some “pepperwork” 
before all was done. The different collections of 
plants could not have been better arranged for effect, 
or for being seen to the best advantage with the least 
possible crowding to the visitors; but the time allowed 
for judging was far too short. They may talk against 
“ routine ” to the eud of the war, but routine is the very 
soul and essence of all difficult and complicated works, 
and without routine of the highest order, no great 
enterprise can ever be carried out successfully; and 
where the managers of the Crystal Palace differed from 
the “routino” of the Horticultural Society, they broke 
down as completely as at. Balaklava. The Heaths, and 
more particularly the Azaleas, as classes of plants, were 
weakened most completely, as compared to the Azaleas 
at Gore House. 
The regulations about the “privileges” of Judges, 
Reporters, and their relationship with the police, must 
be altered, and put on the routine of the Chiswick 
shows, before they are complete and satisfactory. I am 
indebted to the authorities of the Crystal Palace for two 
free admission tickets, without asking, so that I might 
now write in the plural, and say “ we ” at every other 
turn, like the rest of them; that is, instead of saying 
my wife and I saw this or that, or think so and so; but 
I rather choose to take all the responsibility of my 
saying on a single shoulder, so that if anything is wrong 
I alone am “ in for it.” Well, I had some difficulty to 
get into the Palace early in the day, and more difficulty 
to get out of it, at twelve o’clock, to get the other half 
of we introduced free. When the police went round 
to clear the Palace for the judges, I had no “ exemption 
ticket ” to show them, and we had to battle it out under 
false colours, but being in possession, and under a liberal 
patronage, they soon yielded the point to me; but when 
we get into a system of routine, our “ pass ” tickets will 
make every turn as free as air. 
Now, for the other side of the cai'd. The managers 
here have introduced a new and grand improvement on 
the former systems of exhibiting plants; the greatest 
improvement, in fact, and the one which was most 
needed in our day. They offered .£30 for the lest 
staged collections of thirty plants, as a gardener would 
say ; that is, for a collection of thirty plants, so placed 
as to give the best effect. Just the very thing which 
The Cottage Gardener has always held forth about 
flower-beds, vases, baskets, and all other accompani¬ 
ments to the flower-garden. One man cuts out his beds 
at random, goes to a great expense to fill them with the 
best plants of the day, and yet fails, for “ want of eye,” 
to give tho right effect to them. Another grows his 
plants into “ specimens ” with the highest degree of 
skill, exhibits them for competition, or “ sets ” them in 
the conservatory, or show house, or in the living-rooms 
of his employer; or, may be, on the dinner-table, before 
“ all the company,” yet, for want of an eye, he fails to 
make the best of them; and although he is the best 
gardener in that part of the country, his employers are 
dissatisfied, because they see such things “ in better 
style ” with common people, who cannot afford to pay 
much for their gardening; the secret being, that the eye 
goes farther than the purse in all such things—dresses 
among the rest. The Crystal Palace, as a school, is 
founded on the principle of teaching by the eye. Its 
Directors have placed all their own collections and 
creations on that principle, and now they offer the 
highest prizes to gardeners, to induce them to learn this 
principle, and to follow it out through the whole range 
of the “ establishment,” even to the setting of two pot- 
plants on the mantle-piece in the drawing-room, or on 
the window-sill. For the second collection, best in effect, 
they offered £1 5. £7 for the third best; and they have 
177 
given something handsome to every one who made the 
attempt, although, to my own clear knowledge, some of 
those attempts were not worth one farthing. 
There were 150 plants placed on this principle by 
five competitors, and I have noted the name and the 
place of every one of them, but as the Crystal Palace 
Company were so liberal in their prizes, I shall not 
criticise any of them, at least not to day, farther than 
by saying that the gardeners seemed to have mis¬ 
understood the meaning of the prize for which they 
competed, and that the nurserymen, the Messrs. Rollison, 
of Tooting, and Messrs. Veitch, of the Exotic Nursery, 
King’s Road, not only did understand, but nearly over¬ 
came a difficulty which was placed in their way, by tho 
arrangement of the standing room for the plants. But 
I shall give a paper on the subject some day, soon; 
perhaps next week. Meantime I shall go on with the 
arrangement of the show, the names of most of tho 
plants, and the prizes. 
The fine large collection of thirty stove and green¬ 
house plants, in or out of bloom, placed for effect, and 
eight collections of twelve stove or greenhouse plants, 
were staged by themselves, in the centre of tho nave 
near to the Crystal Fountain. The plan of these stages 
is the same as is followed in the loug tents at Chiswick. 
There are three steps, one above another, on each side 
of a centre division, which hides one side from the 
other, the steps and the middle division were covered 
with pale green glazed calico, which is a better relief 
than the deep green baize which is used at Chiswick 
and at the Regent’s Park. At the east end, near the 
Bronze Fountain, was a corresponding stage one hundred 
yards long, seventy-two yards of which were filled with 
Orchids,—a grand display. The rest was filled with 
new and rare plants, Anaectochylids, Lycopods, Ferns, 
Gloxinias in enormous numbers, Pitcher Plants, and 
small collections of stove and greenhouse plants; also 
Azaleas, the only tribe which had not justice done them. 
Six rows of people, or six “ abreast,” could pass on 
either side of these stages, so that the room taken up 
by those masses of plants did not seem to be lost from 
the space in the nave; but the want of “ routine ” 
mado an extraordinary blunder between the two groups. 
The whole centre of the “ gangway ” was blocked up 
with a piano, and a hero of a little boy was made to 
play on it, to show that a child can learn and play 
music. It was Balaklava all over; the thousands must 
give up their enjoyment, their rout, and their ideas of 
plants, till all this music was over, or else walk round 
half-a-mile or more to get at the next stage. Why, we 
managed better than that forty years ago at the cattle 
markets beyond Beaulv. 
The centre groups of Plants were canopied with white 
canvass to reduce the glare, and the effect, altogether, 
was extremely good. The rest of the plants, and the 
fruit, were placed in the front galleries throughout the 
whole length of the building, with canvass over them 
also; but here the canvass confined the light to one side, 
and marred the brilliancy of many of the flowers, par¬ 
ticularly the Heaths. I recollect the same thing happen¬ 
ing at Chiswick three or four years since, when the roof 
of the circular iron tent was altered. 
In these front galleries were five large collections of 
twenty stove and greenhouse plants; some small collec¬ 
tions of six ditto ; four large collections of twenty varie¬ 
gated plants ; and three smaller collections of ten ditto. 
Several large and small collections of Azaleas and of 
Heaths, with single specimens of each; collections of 
tall Cacti and Rhododendrons; the Roses, which were 
not numerous; the Calceolarias, which were in great 
numbers ; the Fuchsias, also, in great force; the Pelar¬ 
goniums, which were most beautiful; the Pausies very 
numerous, and were crowded round all the afternoon; 
the Fruit, equally crowded ; and lots of odds and 
