THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, April 14, 1857. 17 
than formerly, and it was a common saying among the 
practicals that Mr. McEwen has a considerable number 
of extra men preparing the garden at Chiswick for the 
grand Exhibition next June, which is to last two days; 
also that stalls are being taken already on a vast scale 
by the inventors and manufacturers of all kinds of 
garden requisites, amongst whom the hot-water engineers 
are said to hold the first rank at present. 
The entrance passage to the meeting-room was lined 
on both sides by the most beautifully-grown and the 
best kinds of Cinerarias which good taste, excellent 
judgment, and a liberal purse could collect together into 
one nursery, that of Mr. Turner, of Slough. One called 
Regalia (Turner’s) is the highest tint of purplish crim¬ 
son, a conservatory plant, a lady’s plant, but not a 
thorough liorist’s flower, as it turns back the petals—the 
very quality to render it of the superlative degree for a 
lied in the flower garden. Ruby is the next tint, and a 
flat flower ; Optimum the gayest—a crimson purple edge, 
and a white ring in the centre; Baroness de Rothschild 
was the best florists’ flower, and perhaps the best that 
was ever seen; it is in the way of Mrs. Hoyle , but very 
superior to it in the qualities. Delight, Prince Albert , 
Lord Palmerston, Prince of Wales , and John Edwards 
were the most striking of the rest, and Sir Charles 
Napier is the best true blue out. 
On entering the room the Messrs. Lee had a collection 
of specimen plants, three kinds of Eriostemons, Boronia 
tetrandra, a good red Camellia, called Due de Bretagne, 
and a most noble specimen of Iiedaroma tulipifera (not 
Hederoma), which was five feet high, by four or five feet 
across the widest part, which was about the middle 
height of a pyramidal plant. Half the gardeners spell 
this name wrong, and the other half mistake its mean¬ 
ing. Its name is not from hedera and aroma, but from 
hedys, anything sweet, as the author, Dr. Lindley, 
himself explained when he first published the genus. 
“ From the exquisite sweetness of the foliage I propose 
to call them Hedaroma. The leaves, or rather, the half- 
ripe fruit of those plants preserve tlieir fragrance so well 
that they might be worth collecting for the use of the 
perfumers, and if so they would furnish a new and most 
agreeable article of luxury to Europe, and a small aid 
to the natural resources of the colony.” * 
Mr. Alnut exhibited a small plant of the true Mar¬ 
chioness of Exeter Camellia, but to see it in perfection 
the plant should be planted out in a conservatory; it is 
of the same colour as elegans, fully as large, and quite 
double. With it were liniata superba and Comte de 
Paris, two light kinds ; also three kinds of Azaleas. 
Mr. Henderson, of Pine Apple Place, sent a collection 
of specimen plants, consisting of Eriostemons, Boronias, 
Aphelexis, Epacris miniata splendens particularly well 
grown, Acacia Drummondii, and Arum dracunculus. 
Mr. Cutbush, of Barnet, followed with another similar 
collection, in which was the delicate rosy Boronia Drum¬ 
mondii and a splendid specimen of Epacris rubra 
grandifiora. 
Mr. Yeitch sent a collection of twelve kinds of Orchids 
in bloom, of which particular mention was made in the 
lecture of Dendrobium Cambridgeanum, a fine yellow 
flower with a dark eye, and Dendrobium Farmerii. A six- 
flowered Cypripedium villosum and a six-spiked Dendro¬ 
bium aggregatum were also very good; and behind them 
he placed, for effect, a fine specimen of Acacia Drum¬ 
mondii. 
The Messrs. Jackson, of Kingston, also sent a collec¬ 
tion of Orchids, among which were a large specimen of 
Lcelia superbiens nearly out of bloom, but it was in 
fine style ail the winter; Dendrobium nobile; Vanda 
insignis, a strong plant with two spikes; a fine variety of 
Lycaste SJdnneri; a Cattleya marginata, and others, 
* Lindley, in “ A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony,” 
39 . 
showing a good example to young gardeners how to 
make the best of the very long flower-stems of some 
kinds of Orchids. First place the flower-stalks farthest 
from the eye, then arch them over to the front till the 
flowers come down to the level of the eye; this is far 
better than twisting them about in training. 
Mr. Parker, nurseryman, Hornsey, sent some novel 
Orchids, the rarest of which were a new Cypripedium 
after the manner of Lowi, but with “ a shaggy beard and 
moustache,” as the lecturer remarked, and Dendrobium 
letuiflorum, a natural sport from the nobile section. Next 
to these stood a lovely little Qriffinia, called Liboniana, 
after some Frenchman, from Mr. Yeitch; it had a six- 
flowered scape, which is hardly as many inches high; 
the upper half of the flowers is of a rich violet blue, 
the bottom is white. Six plants of Camellia Storyi, 
after imbricata, were also from Mr. Veitch ; and two 
kinds of small white Epacris, as if seedlings between 
elegans and ceratjlora. Next to them were three seedling 
Azaleas from Mr. Cutbush, of Barnet, and Cassia jiori- 
bunda ; and then the best grown Orchid that ever was 
seen in that room, a Dendrobium densiflorum , from the 
Bishop of Winchester, with nearly thirty flower-spikes. 
Messrs. Henderson, of the Wellington Road Nursery, 
sent a most rare Brazilian plant, one of Mr. Linden’s 
introduction, called Rudgea leucocephala. It has very 
large, leathery leaves and a dense corymb, or head, of 
orange-like blossom; it is one of the Erva de rata, or 
rat poisons of the country, and will vie with our largest 
stove plants. 
A noble nosegay, or bunch of cut flowers, from Mr. 
Snow, gardener to Earl de Grey, was held up by the 
lecturer as a magnificent example of our very oldest 
plants—the Canna iridijlora and Rosa ochroleuca, the 
first of all the race of Tea-scented Roses, which was 
introduced by the Society through Mr. Parks when I 
was at school, and now there is not a single Rose of the 
kind in Europe which would beat it in competition. 
The plant is in a No. C pot, and there were forty-three 
such blooms on it that morning! The same plant was 
from pot to pot for the last five-and-twenty years, and 
perhaps longer; so you see it must be on its own roots. 
But what took the Meeting by surprise and elevated 
the lecturer to enthusiasm was a new yellow Tea-scented 
Rose from Carolina— a real yellow at last. It was intro¬ 
duced by Mr. Low, of Clapton, who sent it down into the 
country to have it well bloomed, but on coming up to 
the show there was an accident which injured some of 
the flowers, as was stated in a letter from Mr. Low, but 
after such a drawback the lecturer declared he “ could 
compare it to nothing so much as to the old yellow Rose, 
which few can bloom, with the wood and foliage of the 
Tea Roses.” It is a strong, free grower, and is named 
Isabella Gray; and the bachelors amongst us were put 
on their guard “ about two other American ladies ” of the 
name of Gray, but whether it was that they would not 
bloom, or “ were of a certain age,” I could not make out 
from the twitter. The doctor was evidently “taken” 
by Miss Isabella Gray, and, to tell the truth, I had half 
a mind to propose “ going out ” with him that very night. 
There were many cut flowers of Camellias, Rhododen¬ 
drons, and Roses. Mr. Blandy had a box full of Roses, 
and Mr. Paul, of Cheshunt, sent a large collection of cut 
Roses, and the best of them all for colour was General 
Jacqueminot. If the gallant general was as simple as 
a Scotch Rose in all his habits I should prefer him before 
Baronne Prevost for his colour, were it not for her name 
and title. The Geant was the next highest Rose among 
them; then Hybrid Perpetual Madame Tremion, a glossy 
crimson; after that Jules Margottin and Prince Leon, 
both Hybrid Perpetuals. Mrs. Siddons, a yellow Noisette, 
was also very good, and there was another yellow, marked 
B., which was still better. 
The Messrs. Henderson, of Pine Apple Place, sent their 
