180 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 12. 
from Mr. White, gardener to A. Kcmvick, Esq., West 
Bromwich, which ought to have had an extra prize, if it 
were only for his Oncidium bifolium, with niue spikes of ] 
llowers of the finest yellow in the genus; the largest 
number of llowers, by many odds, which was ever ex¬ 
hibited on hi folium, which no one could grow fifteen 
years ago but Mr. Loddiges. 
Mr Kcele, gardener to J. Butler, Esq., Rectory Place, 
Woolwich, had another of these collections, in which 
were a line Brassia verrucosa major, a Lcelia cinnabarinci, 
and a Phams Waliiehii. 
NEW PLANTS. 
There were several other exhibitors, and some single 
specimens of Orchids, at which I could not reach for the 
crowd; as it was, my sides suffered severely. I never saw 
such a push to see Air-plants before. As luck would have 
it, there were thousands there who knew not of Welling- 
tonia, which was shown by Mr. Veitch, so that one 
could see his new and rare plants better than any others; 
and for the best newest plants in flower he had the 
first and second prize; two of these were very rare and 
very beautiful. A clear yellow, shining Rhododendron 
from Borneo, with leaves like an Oleander; and Em- 
botlirium coccineum, which is hardy, or nearly so, and 
the flowers of a crimson scarlet. A Rhododendron Gali- 
fornicum, more in the style of older kinds, and a 
Weigelia amabilis, a far better flower than rosea. For 
his newly introduced plants, not in bloom, he had all 
the prizes. Here were Lomatia feruginea, and Sonerila 
Margaretacea, which is called maculata, in one of my 
reports of last spring. The Lomatia I described last 
summer; Anmctochilus Veitchii, a Saracenia, a new variety 
of Maranta rosea lineata, called elegans, and Aralia 
papyrifera, which 1 mentioned two weeks back. 
The Messrs. Rollison had a most lovely new stove- 
plant, called Meyenia erecta; the accent is on the 
second e ; it was loaded with large Gloxinia-looking 
flowers, or rather between that and the shape of a 
Maurandia flower, of soft blue-lilac colour, tinged 
with purple, with a light bottom to the tube. The 
plant is a stiff grower, with small opposite leaves, like 
some old stove Jasmines. It belongs to the group of 
Thunbergias, and was named after Meyeu, a celebrated 
botanist, by Nees Yon Esenbeck, the great authority for 
Acanthads. 
Mr. Ayres, gardener to Lord Southampton, is the 
only private grower who sent “ new or rare plants ” 
in bloom. He had a large specimen of a Bland- 
fordia, with twelve upright spikes, loaded with droop¬ 
ing, orange-yellow flowers, and Impatiens Jerdonw, 
Sonerila Margaretacea, not in bloom, and IBjdrolea 
azurea, with only one liower open. Mr. Ayres missed a 
chance of distinction by showing this plant in such a 
deficient state. It is one of the finest plants of that 
style in the Mexican Flora, and would have been the 
lion of the day if it had been covered with bloom, as all 
showy plants ought to be when they “ come out.” The 
same pains which are taken with young ladies, for their 
first appearance at court, should be taken to issue a 
really fine plant into our gardening world. This very 
plant made a sensation all over the continent this 
time two years. It had the first prize at Brussels for a 
new plant, in July, 1853, and so everywhere else abroad. 
Our amateurs, and our trade, paid a high price for it, 
and now it is, or has been, murdered by “ indiscretion;” 
and it is ten to one if one in ten thousand had taken 
the least notice of it at the Crystal Palace. It might be 
called a soft-wooded greenhouse-plant; but it gets 
woody, with slender branches, and very small leaves, 
and when covered with its elegant light blue llowers it 
must be one of the prettiest plants anywhere. The 
exact tint is halt-way between tho blue Nemophila 
and our own Veronica chammdrys, with starry white 
stamens, and the flower is two sizes larger than those 
of the said Veronica. Every body must have this 
plant, when it comes to so many pence. It belongs to 
the same order of plants as the Nemophila, Eutoca, and 
such like. 
Messrs. Standish and Noble sent a fine standard 
plant of Rhododendron Dalhousire, a grafted plant, seven 
feet high, having had six trusses of blooms, but two of 
them had fallen off This extraordinary Rhododendron 
blooms like a large Lily, with the scent and colour 
of Magnolia grandijlora. Also Azalea crispijlora, a 
unique kind, from the north of China. It is, by nature, 
a July-flowering plant; but this one must have been 
forced on purpose for exhibition. It seems to be a 
natural species, an evergreen, with large rose-coloured 
flowers, which arc crisped on the edges like a frill; 
the habit is dense, tho leaves good, but the quality 
for which I take so much notice of it is as a father, 
mother, and nurse, to an entire new race of evergreen 
Azaleas, which will bloom out in the open garden 
just as well, and as gay and prolific as the present race 
do in the greenhouse. This is only a question of time. 
Then Azalea amccna comes in to keep down gross habit, 
and to give the right form, as Azalea variegata lias done 
for the present race. 
The same firm sent cut flowering-branches of the 
new Spiraea grandijlora, another hardy plant for the 
British garden. They also exhibited, but not in bloom, 
four species of Evergreen Berberis, from China and 
Japan, and all of them are as hardy as our old ones. 
B. Japonica intermedia, and Beattii, stood the last 
I winter unprotected, but I believe trifurcata, which is 
| from a different part more westwards in China, was not 
; exposed to the frost. Mr. Fortune told me, when this 
Berberis was first shown at Chiswick, that it would be the 
best of tho race, and that ho believed it would be hardy 
in England. Messrs. Standish and Noble also exhibited 
a species of Lomaria, from Valdivia, after the manner of 
Magelianica, but with paler and broader leaves, not to 
use the fashionable but most erroneous word , frond, for 
a Fern-leaf; and my own most favourite evergreen, the 
Weinmannia tricosperma, also from Valdivia, and, there 
fore, likely to be hardy. You might pass off the leaves 
of this beautiful plant for so many Ferns among 
ordinary mortals, by calling them fronds. They are 
I compound and pinnate, just like so many Fern-leaves, 
the wings or little side leaves are opposite, and the 
stipules between each pair of leaves are leafy, and 
! sawed, just like the rest of the leaves; in fact, a frond 
| to all intents and purposes. I do not recollect, even 
among Mimosas, a more beautifully-leaved plant for the 
Crystal Palace than this; and if I were rich enough, I 
would buy the largest plant of it at Bagshot, and 
i present it to the Palace Company, in commemoration 
of their first exhibition of plants, although they did not 
give me sufficient time to tell of it. 
I could not get to the Ferns, nor could I have done 
much if I coidd; and the same must be said of 
Gloxinias, which were very numerous. The Lycopods I 
have often told of, and so of the many kinds of Ancec- 
tochilus, and the variegated, and many of the fine-leaved 
plants, all of which are very numerous, but there were 
some trumpery things among this miscellany which 
ought not to have been admitted at all. There is no 
quality much better than “good nature,” but you 
may abuse it, in conducting shows, to your own pre¬ 
judice. 
Heaths. —The Heaths, like the Azaleas, were in so 
many places that the effect was entirely lost. The 
Messrs. Rollison had the first prize for the best ten of 
them (HI0), and they really were splendid plants, and 
very showy kinds, as follows— E. ventricosa coccinea, Yen- 
tricosa magnijica, Propendens, Cavendishii, Vassijlora, 
