July 10. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION. 
2 L£) 
flower-spikes. This by Mr. Wooly was on much stronger | 
wood, and had ten spikes. 
In Mr. Gedney’s ten plants, five of them were Aerides 
and Saccolabiums, a splendid Pluilcenopsis and Calantlie 
masuca. Mr. Clark’s ten had six of them in Aerides 
and Saccolabiums. Mr. Carson was more varied in his 
ten, and had only one Aerides, and his plants were 
large. Mr. Iveson had a variety of Cattleya Mossue, 
from Santa Martha, with the tips highly-coloured all 
round, and another Cattleya Mossiie alba with the 
largest flower ever seen of the kind. Mr. Keele had a 
Cattleya citrina with two yellow flowers, and Epiden- 
drrnn verrucosum, so much like a Barlceria. Mr. Dods 
had Anguloa Buclceri aud Dendrobium aggregation as 
his less seeu kinds. The Messrs. Rollison sent a very 
singular Dendrobium, from Amboyna, with clusters of 
small, light purple flowers, more like those of some 
Epidendrum. 
STOVE AND GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 
Collections of twenty. —This is considered the 
highest on the list of prizes ; the winner is thought as 
lucky as the winner of the Derby at Epsom, and any¬ 
body in the three kingdoms may enter on equal terms 
for this prize, which is a large Gold Medal of great 
value; but the value may be had instead if one. likes it. 
Mr. Dods, gardener to Sir John Cathcart, Bart., is now 
the regular winner of the Chiswick Derby. He and 
Messrs. Eraser fight for it, with, now and then, some 
daring spirit besides. Mr. Rhodes, gardener to J. 
Philpotts, Esq., Stamford Hill, was the third entry this 
time. I prefer Mr. Dods’ system of growing plants to 
all who went before him ; aud if he escapes the great 
fault of exhibiting specimens that have passed the age 
of manhood, so to speak, he may keep the lead for many 
years to come. There is now no question that Mrs. 
Lawrence’s sudden downfall was owing to her splitting 
on this very rock, and there was no other collection in 
the country which she could buy to make up for her own 
positive errors of judgment; but now the Messrs. Eraser 
offer their specimens for sale, as a second bait for the 
lady to resume her indulgence in beating foes and 
friends alike. I repeat the warning to Mr. Dods, Mr. 
Rhodes, and to all whom it may concern, and say, let 
them remember, that the best plants in the world, and 
the best gardeners in the world, as well, will never 
triumph at an exhibition after a certain age, however 
useful either the ono or the other may be thought at 
home. 
Mr. Dods’ plants were Epacris miniata grandiflora, 
Pimelia mirabilis, Aplielexis macrantha purpurea, Erica 
Cavendishii, fine; blue Leschenaultia, Erica depressa, 
fine; Azalea Gledstanesii, very fine; Leschenaultia 
formosa, Chorozema illicifolia, Polygala cordi.folia, Vinca 
alba and rosea, Boronia serrulata, Gompliolobium poly- 
morphum, Allamanda cathartica, Clerodendron IC(cmpferi, 
Aplielexis speciosissima, Pimelia Header sonii, Croivea 
saligna, and Azalea lateritia. 
The Messrs. Eraser’s plants were Epacris grandiflora, 
Boronia tetrandra, Aplielexis purpurea grandiflora and 
nivea alba, Allamanda cathartica, Steplianotis floribunda, 
Plixnocoma prolifera, Vinca oculata, Azalea magni- 
flora, Erica tricolor elegans, Clerodendron Kampferi, 
Eriostemon buxi folium, Adenandra frag ram. Azalea 
Prima Donna, a bright red kind ; Erica tricolor Wilsoni, 
Aplielexis spectabilis, Erica nuetuliflora, Dracocephalum 
gracile, and Epacris miniata. 
Mr. Rhodes’ plants were Erica Albertus, fine, but 
getting too big; the rest were medium-sized plants :— 
Eriostemon, Ixora alba, Tetratheca verticillata, Aplie- ' 
lexis, two kinds; Sollya linearis, Pimelia llendersoni, 
Boronia tetrandra, Leschenaultia formosa, Cyrtoceras 
reflexa, Erica depressa, Epacris grandiflora, Statice Hol- 
fordi, Dracocephalum gracile, Bondeleiia speciosa, Sollya 
heteropliylla, and a white Vinca; altogether, a good 
assortment of kinds. 
For a collection of twelve plants, Mr. Green was 
first, with Allamanda cathartica, Ixora cbccinea, Azalea 
variegata, Edates atro-purpurea, Aplielexis macrantha, 
; the light variety; Erica CavendisJiii, Epacris miniata 
grandiflora, Bondeleiia speciosa, the largest in the 
country, and the finest; Azalea coronala, my favourite 
colour; Polygala Dalmatiana, Leschenaultia formosa, 
I and Aplielexis purpurea macrantha ; he had also a fine 
| specimen plant of Erica Cavendishii. 
Mr. Carson followed with Dipladenia crassinoda, 
Clerodendron splendens, blue Leschenaultia, Allamanda 
cathartica, Ecliites atropurpurea, two Polygalas, Pimelia 
spectabilis, and Erica Cavendishii. 
Mr. Roser, gardener to J. Bradbury, Esq., was third, | 
with Mitraria coccinea and Azalea exquisita, as his two ! 
best; Chorozema variurn, Erica rentricosa coccinea ; the 
rest as those above. 
Mr. Cutbush, nurseryman, Barnet, tried the twelves 
also; his best was Erica Cavendishii —not the best 
grown, but the best-flowered plant of this Heath ever 
exhibited; Dipladenia crassinoda, also, very good; and j 
Statice Holfordii. 
In collections of six plants there were many 
competitors, Mr. Dods being first, Mr. Morris second, 
Mr. Taylor third, and Mr. Pamplin next. The best 
things among all these were Erica depressa and 
tricolor Wilsoni, from Mr. Dods; Dipladenia crassinoda, 
Azalea Minerva, and Aplielexis, from Mr. Taylor; a 
fine, well-bloomed Steplianotis floribunda, from Mr. 
Pamplin; Euphorbia splendens, a fine old plant; a 
Kalosanthus allamanda, and a white Vinca, from Mr. 
Morris, whose plants were all large, but not too much so. 
HEATHS. 
Whatever may be the spring which regulates the exhi¬ 
bitor of plants, whether it be a love of plants, or of 
money, or of fame, or merely a spirit of rivalry, we 
cannot tell; all these “ elements” go to make it up, in 
many instances; at all events, the judges are tlie regu¬ 
lators of this spring; and what with firmness, hard 
criticism, or passing by such plants, or collections of 
plants, the regulators have done good to the Eleath 
growers, and Heaths will soon be great favourites again, 
j as they most certainly deserve to be, from their great 
! variety and the facility of improving them by cross¬ 
breeding. 'The Messrs. Rollison are pre-eminent in 
Heaths ; they took the first prize for “ effect,” by their 
disposition of plants, at the Crystal Palace; therefore, 
| we look to them as leaders of the fashion in staging 
plants, but here they completely ruined all effect by 
the way their Heaths were placed; as any one who 
knows Heaths may understand, when I say, that in the 
centre of their group was Cavendishii, their masterpiece; 
on the loft they placed elegans and propendens, both 
dull-coloured; and on the right, mutabilis and ventri- 
cosa magniflea, two of the gayest and richest; one more 
would have made this centre perfect, to put elegans in 
the place of mutabilis, or reverse the two, then mutabilis, 
the highest colour, in front of propendens, to help off 
the dulness of propendens and elegans, in front of the 
tine ventricosa. It must have been an entire oversight ; 
but we cannot afford to lose an inch in the highest 
I regions of plant management. Ventricosa, coccinea, pul- 
cliella, depressa, tricolor, flamea, and Massoni were the 
; rest of this group. 
Mr. Roser had the second prize with another fine 
group, of which j Honda was the most out of the common 
by its looks; its flower is a small, French-white open 
bell. Elis ventricosas were also very good. 
The Messrs. Eraser wore the next with perspicua 
erecta, inflata, ventricosa superba, rosea, alba, oblata 
umbellata, tricolor elegans, densa, a greenish-white flower; 
