June 10. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 199 
to-day were the best grown plants yet exhibited. They 1 
were from Mr. Bousie, and in six distinct kinds. Three 
of the kinds, however, were “near alike"— Vallecheur, 
Othello, and Vanguard. They might have come out of 
the same berry, by the same cross, but they were most 
beautifully grown and flowered, and from five to ten 
feet high. The fourth plant was a red flower, Alpha, 
and the next two were white, Miss Hawtry and Queen 
of Hanover. 
Mr. Carol had the second prize, and Mr. Dobson the 
third. After them there were two extra prizes given. 
There was no expense spared for Fuchsias, nor for 
any other tribe; and it was athousand pities that people 
should take advantage of this liberality, and “ send in” 
rubbish, such as was in almost all the rest of the groups 
which I have not yet touched upon ; but as I said 
before, I must have high game, before I can utter a 
murmur, and here it is. On the next corner, a col¬ 
lection of Variegated Geraniums, not big enough to 
plant in a bed which might be covered with a Indy’s 
parasol. Golden Chain, Dandy, Lady Plymouth. , and 
Variegated Prince of Orange, which Mr. Gaines bought 
from a neighbour of mine, when I was in Suffolk, and 
turned the good old name to Odorata variegata, Mountain 
of Light, and Silver King ; and who do you suppose 
would send such little bits of things, from such old 
kinds, to handsel the Crystal Palace with? Not Lee 
and Kennedy, certainly, nor suckers from the old stools ; 
but offsets of the said firm, which are now getting so 
variegated, as to forget themselves at times. ' 
AZALEAS. 
There were enough of them to make a graud show, if 
they had been placed all together, as they were at Gore 
House, which was the finest show of them ever seen 
anywhere. A half standard plant of Ivenjana was the 
most admired of all that were there; then Exquitita, 
and Variegata, with Decora. 
Mr. Green, gardener to Sir E. Antrobus, Bart., had 
£20 for the best twelve Azaleas. The Messrs. Fraser 
had .£15 for the second best; and Mr Clark, nurseryman, 
Brixton, had £10 for the third best. Mr. Carson, Mr. 
Taylor, and Mr. Keele, had the first, second, and third 
prizes for sixes. The sums were £10, £7, and £4 
Mr. Ivery, of Dorking, bad a number of light and 
spotted seedling Azaleas, one of which, in the way of 
Exquisita, and called Crelenon, was the best, <aud is 
really a very superb kind. Mr. Ivery was asking two 
guineas a piece for little plants of it. 
CALCEOLARIAS. 
These were very numerous, and there were some very 
good kinds among them. Mr. Henchman, of Edmonton, 
came out very strong in them. Mr. James, gardener to 
W. F. Watson, Esq., Isleworth, had the first prize of £6 
for the six best Calceolarias; the kinds were named Cali¬ 
fornia, yellow ground, dotted with brown spots ; Maria, 
brown and spotted ; Virago, dark and spotted; Rosa¬ 
bella, black and spotted; William the Conqueror, yellow 
and spotted ; Duchess of Northumberland, perhaps the 
best of them, a pimrosc-grouud-colour, spotted all over. 
It will thus be seen that one distinct ground-colour, and 
that dotted over with small dots, are the favourite kinds 
at the present day. 
Mr. Gaines had a very good lot also, and five or six 
more prizes were given for them, beginning with £6, 
as just mentioned. 
PANSIES 
were very numerous. Mr. Turner, Mr. Dobson, and Mr. 
Bragg, took off the tvade prizes. Cut Tulips were also 
numerous, but I do not happen to know one Tulip from I 
| another. I began and finished my Tulip fancy in May, 
1852, at a show in Manchester, where four or seven 
hundred blooms were staged, and I think Mr. Mowbry, 
of the Botanic Garden there, aud I, had to pay 5s. each, 
or between us, to get in to see them. When I reached 
Chatsworth next week, I told Mr. Paxton about our 
entrance fee, and he told me “ the greater fools,” &c. 
Of odds and oddities I have a long string; but 1 hesitate, 
or rather I tremble, at the sight; but I saw a Funebral 
Cypress (Cupressus funebris) ten feet high, and as open 
in the branches as the freest Cryptomeria, and the sido 
branches from the main ones drooping just as Mr. 
Fortune said. It will make a splendid thing after all. 
Twenty-four bulbs of Hippcastrum, of various sorts, 
and some of them very good indeed, from Mr. ITamp. 
There were three kinds of bedding Geraniums from 
Mr. Ivinghorn, one like Flower of the Day in leaf, the 
rest as if raised from Unique Cerise. The latter, I should 
like to see growing in a bed, as if it “ throws up ” 
as high above the leaves as this one did it will be a 
good hit. 
FRUIT. 
Some of the fruit was excellent; but of all the things 
there, the fruit was the worst arranged. All our Fruit 
Shows, however, are in the same way. We do not seem to 
have one person connected with these shows who under¬ 
stands placing two dishes of fruit on the table; and the 
Crystal Palace people are no exception. I would ask 
any one, who has been at a London Show, no matter 
where, if lie had ever seen as much arrangement there 
as would teach him or her how to place a dish of apples, 
a dish of pears, aud some nuts and raisins, with nut¬ 
crackers, on his own table, or on the table of a charity 
school, for the children’s “ frolic ?” Nothing of the sort 
has ever been attempted. Now, if I were engaging a 
gardener for myself, the very first point on which I 
would examine him would be on the dessert. I would 
name so many dishes, beginning with six, and on to 
forty, and ask him bow he would place each set on the 
dinner table. Hundreds of gardeners grow the most 
costly fruits to the highest perfection, and yet one out 
of a hundred of them hardly know the common routine 
of the dessert table. Meantime, if I was rich enough to 
afford it, I would offer three good prizes for the best, 
second, and third best arranged dessert, at one or other 
of our national shows. As much taste and nicety might 
be shown there as in planting a flower-garden; and for a 
first desigD, I would lay down a skeleton thus:—Take four 
pots of the best bush or tree-fruit—one kind of fruit in 
a pot—or two pots of one kind, and place them close to¬ 
gether on the very centre of the table; no steps or stages 
should ever be had for fruit; all ought to be on a level 
after dinner. Call these four pots your centre piece, 
and “flank” them on each side across the table—not 
lengthwise,—recollect the flanks need not necessarily bo 
of fruit at all, any fancy tiling will do; two pots of 
Adiantum, set in two fancy jars, will do; then think on 
your top and bottom dishes, at the very extremity of the 
table, and place them also exactly in the very centre at 
each end; for the top I would take the best or scarcest 
fruit at the show,—the Mangostono for instance; the bot¬ 
tom dish need not correspond with the “ top,” except in 
size; but for a very large dessert you may have two 
tops and two bottoms, then both ends of the table are 
“ tops,” and the two bottoms come in next to your 
centre, then you see one reason for having a ceutre at 
all. Now you want four corner dishes, or eight, if you 
have two tops and two bottoms; but let us say four, 
for the simplest ; the four corner dishes should 
be exactly of the samo size and height, but there 
should be two kinds of fruit in them at least, and 
four kinds will do better; after them, smaller fruit on 
lower dishes come in at regular distances between the 
