248 
THE COTTAGE GARDEN Hit. 
July 10 
Dr. Parkliurst only throws out a suggestion as to its pro- I 
liable liabit when he says, the Hebrew name “ may be 
derived from sillah, to strew on the ground (or, to tread 
down), and so denote some kind of thorn speedily over¬ 
spreading a large surface of ground, perhaps not unlike 
the Dew-briar.” By the “ Dew Briar,” Dr. Parkliurst 
meant the Rubus ccesius, the Grey Bramble, or Dew¬ 
berry; and it is not at all improbable that the prophet 
may have referred to the Rubus sanctus, or Holy 
Bramble, a native of Palestine, and which is a 
prickly trailer, and widely straggling. 
It seems that in the British Isles its wise men are from 
the north. We so say because the only approach to 
accuracy and fulness obtained by our government, in 
reply to their enquiries for agricultural statistics, was 
from Scotland and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Ten 
out of eleven English counties did not give accurate 
returns. 
Such neglect or refusal to give the statistical infor¬ 
mation required is very unwise from whatever point of 
view it is considered. If government do not receive it 
from the farmers themselves, still the information 
sought for can be obtained indirectly, and as indirect 
means are always most liable to error, if the returns 
show a less amount in the annual produce than the 
truth, then the farmer is liable, needlessly, to suffer ; for 
the object of such statistical returns is to obtain a guide 
for the government as to facilitating or checking the 
supply of corn from abroad. 
It is useless to argue that such facilities should not be 
given, for it is now admitted that a copious supply of 
food to the community is a consideration paramount to 
the consideration of any class interest. 
Farming is really a manufacture—the producing of 
food—yet farmers are the only manufacturers who re¬ 
fuse to have all possible information relative to the 
state of the supply of their particular articles of manu¬ 
facture. To justify such wish to be in the dark, can 
any farmer say that he would not be gladdened and 
benefited by knowing how many thousands of quarters 
of Wheat, Barley, and Oats there are in the United 
Kingdom? Would he not regulate his sowings and his 
sales 'by such information ? 
What would farmers say if no returns were published 
of the quantities of Guano imported? Y r et such pub¬ 
lication is just as likely to influence the Guano mer¬ 
chant’s trade as the publication of the quantity of 
Wheat grown in each year is likely to influence the 
trade of the farmer. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S EXHIBITION.— 
June 20th. 
Continuing my notes from where I concluded at 
page 234, I come next to the 
ORCHIDS. 
1 ho display of these was particularly good; and with 
the exception of one show at the Regent’s Park, three 
years since, I never saw them placed with so much , 
effect. Orchids arc now half lost under the large tent at 
the Regent’s Park, and at the Crystal Palace they crowded , 
them too much for effect, besides being on a plain i 
surface, as it were. The Orchid stages, at Chiswick, are 
by far the best that have yet been tried for giving them 
that peculiar charm which all admire. The prominent 
feature in the Orchids, to-day, was singularly curious, 
and before the public were admitted no one could help 
noticing it. This striking effect was from the overflow 
of Saccolabiums and Aerides; their long racemes of 
flowers spread out in front of the plants as regularly, | 
over the whole of the collections, as if the exhibitors 
concerted together to produce this effect. Stanliopeas 
are gone out of fashion, or rather they are not to be 
depended on. Although they are, of all others, the 
easiest to grow, and the surest to flower, their time of 
| flowering is uncertain, and in one week the beauty of 
the plant, for its flower, is gone for a twelvemonth, 
therefore not safe to trust to for a show day; whereas, 
Phalatnopsis , Aerides, Saccolabiums, and a few Den- 
dr ohiums, keep in flower and beauty for months. 
There is nothing to report in the progress of the 
struggle for prizes. Mr. Williams and Mr. Wooly are 
first and second in collections of twenty plants, as 
they have been since Mrs. Lawrence and Mr. Rucker 
retired on their laurels, and Messrs. Veitcli and Rollison 
keep up the spirit for the whole trade. 
In the middle collections of ten plants there is 
little change either. Mr. Gedney and Mr. Clark, both 
from Herts, and Mr. Carson, from Nonsuch Park, near 
me, took the prizes as usual; and for the smaller trials 
with six plants, we have none but old practitioners,—Mr. 
Keele, Mr. Ivison, Mr, Dods, Mr. Gedney, and Mr. 
Green. Mr. Dunsford has appeared again, from Chings- 
ford, in Essex. He, too, used to be successful in this line 
many years ago. 
Although it is but fair that all plants from the 
Nurseries should be mentioned by name, for the good of 
the buyer and seller, that is no reason why I should 
name those of private growers, save in the lump, seeing 
there must be so much repetition if I do. The Gold 
Knightian Medal was given for each of the Nursery 
collections. Mr. Veitcli had first, a single specimen of 
Aerides affine with nine spikes of bloom, then the 
following collection :— Aerides Fox’s Brush, Cypripedium 
barbatum, Oncidium pulvincitum, Dendrobium Dalliousia- 
num, nobile, and formosum, Vanda insignis, teres, and 
! tricolor, Saccolabium preemorsum, and two varieties of 
guttatum, Ccelogync Lowii, Aerides affine, Larpentcc and 
odoratum, Sobralia macrantlia, Plialcenopsis grandiflora, 
Cattleya Mossice and citrina, the latter hanging down 
from a block, with four blooms on it. 
The collection from Messrs. Rollison consisted of 
Plialcenopsis amabile, Aerides affine and affine roseum, a 
more beautiful and a larger species than the old affine; 
j a large Dendrobium moscliatum, and calceolaria , Cattleya 
' Mossice, Aclclandce with five blooms, and Leopoldi, which 
; is new to the exhibitions, and a larger edition of 
| Achlandcc, at least a good deal like it, but very different; 
1 Aerides crispum , Larpentcc and odoratum, Stanhopea 
oculata, the only Stanhopea at the show, Saccolabium 
guttatum and its variety, Brassia brachiata, Sobralia 
macrantlia, Plialcenopsis grandijiora, Uropeclium Lindeni, 
Odontoglossum hastilabium, Sobralia Galeottiana, and 
Cypripedium barbatum. 
Mr. Williams had eleven Aerides and Saccolabiums 
out of twenty plants, while Mr. Wooly had only five of 
them. Mr. Wooly was the richest in kinds of all the 
exhibitors; and his Barltena spectabilis was never 
excelled at an exhibition but once, in 1838 or 1839, and 
that by Mr. Brewster, at that time gardener to Mrs. 
Wray, of Cheltenham. That plant was sitting on a lot 
of little sticks, just like a rook’s nest, and had nineteen 
