July 3. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
233 
right and left; then, in pairs, were Leonora and Painter 
Improved, Conspicuum and Narcissus, Centurion and 
Alderman, Spot and Star. 
In the amateur class for six Pelargoniums, Mr. Nye 
was first; and, for effect, this was the best placed in the 
range; the new one, Fair Helen, at the back, was in the 
centre; it is a fine thing, three-fourths white, after the 
manner of Virgin Queen, and Purple Perfection in front 
of it; then Rosa and Optimum, on one side, and Phaeton 
and Enchantress on the other side of the centre. Purple 
Perfection is a splendid flower, all dark at the back, 
except a narrow crimson fringe; the eye is lilac, and the 
front purple and streaked. 
Mr. Robinson, gardener to J. Simpson, Esq., had the 
second prize for six. He also placed them for effect; in 
the centre he had Magnet in front and Virgin Queen 
at hack, with Roicena and Star on each side of Magnet, 
and Optimum and Alderman on either side of the Queen. 
This disposition had a very good effect. One half of 
the beauty of flowers consists in a proper distribution 
of the plants, or colours. 
Fancy Pelargoniums were in sixes, and Messrs. 
Turner, Fraser, Gains, and Dobson, ran in this order 
with the trade prizes. Mr. Turner had Lady Hume 
Campbell and Charles Dickens, as gay as their namesakes, 
in the centre, with Conspieua and Criterion, on one 
side, and Cassandra with Perfection on the other side. 
These were splendid plants; but it is very difficult to 
make a telling combination out of fancies, as they are 
either too much alike, as the gay ones, or not like the 
strain, as the dark ones. 
Mr. Fraser had Miss Sheppard, a high-coloured Caliban, 
a dark for his centre, Advancer and Reinc de France on 
one side, and Celestial and Empress on the other. 
Mr. Gaines had Perfection and Conspieua for a centre, 
Vandyke dark, and Delicatum the lightest on one side ; 
Lucy and Caractacus on the other side. 
Mr. Dobson had Reine de Fleurs and Chammouni for 
the centre; Perfection and Criterion on one side, and 
Erubescens and Celestial on the other. 
Amateurs stood thus with their sixes: Mr. Weir, 
gardener to J. Hodgson, Esq., Hampstead; Mr- Wind¬ 
row, gardener to A. Blythe, Esq., Hampstead ; and Mr. 
Robinson, gardener to J. Simpson, Esq., Thames Bank, 
rimlico ; and also Thames Bank, Surbiton. 
Mr. Weir stood thus :—Hero of Surrey and Princess 
Alice for centre ; Formosissimum and Fanny on this 
side ; Fairy Queen and Jenny Lind on that. 
Mr. Windsor did not balance his group ; the kinds 
were Fairy Queen, Pride, Madame Sontag, Lady Hume 
Campbell, Celestial, and Erubescens. 
Mr. Robinson had a good eye for effect, for he put 
Delicatum, the lightest, and Richard Cobden, dark, for a 
centre, in strong contrast; Celestial and Fairy Queen on 
one side, with Conspieua and Amelia on the other. 
Mr. Turner showed a group of Queen of Roses, a new 
fancy seedling, in small pots, packed as closo together 
as they could stand, that their heads might show as one 
plant. Verily, Mr. Turner knows the value of “ effect.” 
Mr. Dennis had a lot of his Alma there; and Mr. 
Bullen, of Dulwich, had one plant, called Sir E. Lyons, 
which is of the same breed as the Alma, very much like 
it, but with more purple; and Mr. Gains had a lot of 
his Scarlet Unique, a good bedder, but of the true Ignes- 
cens breed. 
This ends the best lot of Geraniums I ever saw, or 
booked. But, no; there was a white-scarlet and a flesh- 
coloured, both Horse-shoe, from Mr. Wheeler, florist, 
Hendon. The former is after Boul de Niege, and the other 
after Skeltonii\ both are said to be from my Shruhland 
Cream and Tricolor; if that be true, there is not the 
slightest use in following that strain. The ouly two 
which I selected, out of six or seven hundred, are Shrub- 
land Cream and Tricolor, the best two pot plants yet 
of the strain, and none of them are fit for “ planting- 
out” 
No; you must all stick to Sweet’s Zonale album, before 
you can ever hope to make a good bed of white-scarlet 
Geraniums. I am in the fourth generation, rising into 
the fifth, and had eighty-five flowers on a truss; but 
what are they? Why, not fit to present to Uncle Tom 
for his cabin window. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
I see I cannot finish off my saying without lumping 
too much together this week, so I shall slip over the 
Orchids, the large, and not large, collections, and the 
dessert, and turn to the odds and ends. The best new 
plant of the day was a most lovely Tree Phlox, or Lepto¬ 
siphon, from California, sent by Mr. Lobb to the Messrs. 
Witch, who had it here as a specimen plant; and a lot 
of young ones of it from cuttings in bloom, to show 
how free it is. The growth of the “ tree ” is remarkable, 
not bigger than a Tree Violet; little round leaves, well 
clothed, good habit, and a bedding-out plant, at least, 
let us hope so, for I saw one of our highest Peeresses 
bending over it, and asking it audibly, “ Will you make 
a bed?" The flowers are more after the style of a 
Leptosiphon than that of a Phlox ; the size and shape 
much after Linum fiavum, and the colour a delicate light 
lilac. The name given to it was Leptodactylon Califor- 
nicum ; but that name will not do—that name has been 
cancelled long since for Leptosisphon. 
Seeing this, I spent a day after it. I got the benefit of 
a“ walking encyclopedia,” and after that, a good rummage 
among old books ; the result is curious. The plant was 
in bloom in the same garden of Chiswick twenty-eight 
years ago next August! and there was a dry specimen 
of a pure white variety of it placed in Mr. Lambert’s 
Herbarium, in London, forty-four years since ; and a 
specimen of Clarkia pulcliella, by the same hand, at the 
same time, 1811;—although Douglass was then atschool. 
But the story is too long for one week ;—suffice it to say, 
that Dr. Benjamin Baiton, of Philadelphia, out of his 
private purse, paid the expenses of the journey of the 
collector who first discovered this plant in 1808 or 1809. 
The same collector described the white variety of it very 
well indeed, and called it P1 do x specie sum; but whether 
it will be a Phlox or a Leptosiphon, we must wait to see. 
But no lady should wait longer for the plant, now that 
we have it sure, than the day it is let out by Mr. Veitch. 
The next best plant of this class was the so-called 
Linumgrandiflorum, well-bloomed at last, by the Messrs. 
Henderson, of Pine-Apple Place. We were all stretch¬ 
ing our necks after this gem for the last eighteen months; 
everybody had seeds of it in 1851; but none could do 
any good with it. The flower of this Linum is exceed¬ 
ingly rich and gay. It is not just a crimson, but next 
thing to it, witli a darker eye; the word atrosanyuineci 
gives the best expression of the colour. 
Next, a new dwarf species of Hydrangea from Japau; 
by Mr. Veitch, which is after II. Japonica, but different, 
and with the front bract much larger than the rest, and 
fringed. A fine rose-coloured hybrid Rhododendron, 
named Princess Royal; it is a cross between Jasmini- 
Jiorum and Javanicum ; the habit takes more after 
Javanicum in all the parts. It was praised by every 
lady’s lips; but I could not hear if it is on sale. 
It is the produce and property of Mr. Veitch, who had 
also the largest red Gloxinia, called Grand Sultan, a 
purple-leaved Begonia from Peru; for the class of “ fine¬ 
leaved plants;” and Antcclochilus Veitchii, for the varie¬ 
gated class. The leaf is large, dark purplish-green, 
with veins of a lighter green. Mr. Veitch also had the 
Aralia papyriferum, with leaves more fit for the Crystal 
Palace than any house I know; and a large-leaved 
Rhododendron, from Borneo, related to Brookianmn, not 
yet flowered, which he thought was that kind, and he is 
