THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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blossoms. Melastoma Jieteromalla, fine foliage, and long 
spikes of purple flowers. Musa rosacea, Russelia junoea, 
scarlet tubular flowers. The ever-blooming Balsamina 
lalifolia, and its white-blossomed variety. Besides all 
these, and many others of less note, there were in this 
house several Orchids in blossom, brought from the 
Orchid-house. 
The Greenhouses were gay with Calceolarias, Gera¬ 
niums, Fuchsias, Heaths, &c., all attractive and pleasing 
to the visitors to such public gardens. This attention 
to what may be called popular gardening is found to be 
necessary in all botanical gardens dependent for support 
upon the public. Mere botanical objects are, it is true, 
useful to students of botany, and in the University 
Gardens of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, and Edinburgh, 
are proper subjects to be prominently cultivated in such 
numbers as not to leave space for ornamental varieties; 
hut in gardens to be visited by the million, such as 
Kew, the Crystal Palace, Birmingham, Manchester, 
Liverpool, and other largely-populated towns, a display 
of more showy and attractive plants is, as it should be, 
a prominent feature. 
In the grounds, I was pleased to observe that the 
late severe winter had not injured many plants. The 
Conifers were looking remarkably healthy. This ex¬ 
emption from injury arises, no doubt, from the nature 
of the soil and subsoil here. It is a bed of sandy-red 
loam, on a sandy subsoil of sandy rock-stone. This 
causes the trees to grow slowly and robust, and the 
young wood is ripened early. The turf, notwithstanding 
the dry spring and summer, was remarkably green. In 
front of the range of hothouses there are numerous 
flower-beds on each side of the noble terrace-walk, these 
were filled with the plants usually used for such purposes. 
The Verbenas had already covered the ground, and 
were blooming profusely. I was glad to see the Pansy 
filling some of the beds. I think this flower is not so 
much planted in masses of one colour as it deserves. 
Upon the whole, the gardens did great credit to all con¬ 
cerned in their management. 
THE EXHIBITION. 
The Birmingham Garden was more fortunate, in 
respect to the weather, than Chiswick, which took 
place only the day previously. The 12th inst. was 
as fine a day as possibly could be, and a numerous 
company of the elite of the town and neighbourhood 
attended to enjoy a day’s relaxation and pleasure, 
in viewing the fine and useful products of the gardeus 
brought together in one place to gratify them. The 
exhibition itself, as I before mentioned, was above 
the average, in point of merit, of any I have witnessed 
out of London. The arrangement, no doubt, added 
greatly to the effect. Mr. Catling, last autumn, cleared 
away a large space formerly occupied with Rhododen¬ 
drons. This plot of ground, after being well drained, was 
thrown up in banks with rounded projecting points, 
and bay-like recesses with rising terraces in the wider 
parts. In the centre were thrown up smaller detached 
banks, some circular, and others in rounded angles. The 
whole was covered with fine turf, and the walks between 
i gravelled. The space so operated upon is rather more 
than 120 feet long, and nearly seventy feet wide. On 
exhibition days this large space is covered with a tent. 
This mode of arranging plants for exhibition is the 
most effective and pleasing of any; far superior to the 
formal stage of boards, whether round or in parallels, 
even when covered with green baize to imitate grass. 
The tent was, of course, supported in the centre with 
strong upright poles. Mr. Catling conceived the happy 
idea that these might he made useful to enhance the 
beauty of the scene. He had strong cords stretched 
from each down the centre of the tent, and from them 
he suspended baskets (as at the Crystal Palace) filled 
with drooping plants in flower, from his own stores. 
The idea immediately struck me, that if prizes were 
offered for the best baskets furnished with the most 
effective plants in bloom, a new attractive feature would 
be given to exhibition tents. They would be something 
like the last strokes in a fine picture giving a master 
finish to the whole. 
It may, perhaps, be said, that all this arrangement of 
grassy hillocks, turfed terraces, and suspended baskets, 
was but an imitation of the mode at the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Regent’s Park; but is there no merit in imita¬ 
ting a good example? Mr. Catling is the first to follow 
that example, and has combined the attractive feature 
of suspended baskets. The imitation is by no means a 
servile one. The situation chosen for it is superior to 
the one in Regent’s Park. It is in a kind of dell, sur¬ 
rounded by pleasing groups of trees, and is no bad 
feature in the scene, even when there is no tent or 
plants for which it was more especially formed and 
erected. 
The subjects of the exhibition were arranged with 
a view to general effect. On entering the tent at 
the south end, which was the principal entrance, the 
suspended baskets caught the eye first. On the right 
was a bank of the finest grown Fuchsias ever seen any¬ 
where. They were all in the pyramidal form, averaging 
from five to six feet high, and clothed with profusely- 
flowered branches, from the summit to the soil, or even 
below it. Birmingham is justly famous for growers of 
this fine summer - flowering plant to the utmost per¬ 
fection. 
Beyond these was a bank of Heaths, though not such 
large plants, nor in such numbers, as we see in the 
metropolitan exhibitions; yet they were very well- 
grown, especially the set of six from J. Ratcliff, Esq.’s 
garden, which deservedly obtained the first prize. 
These were dwarf, dense bushes, covered with bloom. 
These brought us to the further end of the tent. Right 
across it, the recessed bays were occupied entirely with 
the showy Pelargonium. These terraces were clothed 
with such plants as would not disgrace a Turner or a 
Dobson to have exhibited. They were all well grown, 
perfectly healthy, large, and covered with bloom. In 
the left-hand hay there were placed the collections of 
Stove and Greenhouse Plants. Here I found a deficiency; 
the plants were many of them small; not like such as 
Mrs. Lawrence or Mr. Collyer exhibit; yet they were 
respectable for a country show. In one of them was a 
plant of Mitraria coccinea, three feet high, and as much 
through, covered with its drooping, scarlet blossoms. 
We have now arrived at the end of the tent. Directly 
in front of the end terraces was a low, broad terrace; 
winding round the end of it there came in view the 
Fruit, consisting of Pines (very few), Grapes (in plenty), 
Peaches and Nectarines (a few dishes), Melons (in abun¬ 
dance), Strawberries (plentiful and very excellent), also 
Cherries (good), Currants, Gooseberries (not ripe), and 
Raspberries. The Fruit was backed with low-growing 
plants, such as Verbenas and Coxcombs, and small 
plants of Fancy Geraniums. This bank, or terrace, 
reaches across the tent; and, by the articles exhibited 
upon it being low, formed a beautiful foreground to the 
glowing bank of Pelargoniums. Keeping onwards, with 
the eye directed to the right, there appeared a fine collec¬ 
tion of Petunias grouped in front of a large, handsome 
Rhododendron, one of the denizens of the spot, left to 
grow and bloom there. These Petunias were exceed¬ 
ingly well-grown and bloomed profusely. I never saw 
them so effective before; dense bushes, two feet high, 
and as much in diameter, with flowers, well formed, and 
of various colours. They were quite a feature in the 
exhibition. It is a great credit to the growers here to 
cultivate their plants so well. 
Further on was seen, on a large, central terrace, the 
