THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, September 15, 1857. 873 
good in any one of the classes. General Jacqueminot 
was far superior to any Rose there in looks, which tells 
how it stands wet and dry, dry and drought; and, as per¬ 
petual Roses are not grown for the scent of the Moss and 
Cabbage Roses, I would never care whether they were 
very double or of this or that shape. There is no double 
dealing in General Jacqueminot at any rate ; but would 
or could one believe it? Some people wanted to put 
him down where I shall not say, even in these times 
of trouble. 
Orchids not numerous, and, with a few exceptions, 
not very remarkable. The Hollyhocks few and good; 
Gladioluses extraordinarily good; China Asters, alias 
French Asters and German listers, most superior; but 
the Dahlias were the most exquisitely beautiful of all 
that were there, and the most numerous, there being 
nine exhibitors of fifty kinds each, Just 450, and that 
only a tithe, as it were, of the whole. 
I must now take to my notes, and, as I began long 
before the Judges could decide the prizes, I had recourse 
to the “ ruling passion,” and judged extempore for the 
occasion; therefore do not trust to my hasty conclusions, 
but study the prizes in the authenticated form. 
Beginning at the west or south end near the crystal 
fountain the principal Japan Lilies stood first, and 
Mr. Cutbush, of Highgate, had the first prize; Mr. 
Laybank second with much taller plants; and Mr. Higgs 
third. Gladioluses next, and Mr. Standish, of Bagsliot, 
is the best exhibitor of them in England. His Courantia 
fulgens, Dr. Andre, and Don Juan are the best three 
highest coloured that have yet been exhibited. Penelope, 
Vesta, Hellen, Rachel, and Imperatrice are the best of 
all the softest-coloured Gladioluses that ever yet appeared 
in England. Some would put Rachel before Penelope, 
and even Vesta, and, being an amateur as well as a critic 
in this famil}’’, my predilections may deceive me; but, 
believe me, the whole put together would make the 
finest group of them the world has ever yet seen. 
Hollyhocks in spikes in mossed pots, the only im¬ 
provement on former shows being a less breadth in the 
guard petals. There were more puckering s and open eyes 
than I expected to see, but I am not a good judge of 
them. Verbenas, very good kinds, intolerably badly done 
in cut blooms, after the fashion of the “ button-hole ” 
or monotonous nosegay, so many trusses put together; 
and why not as many again, or half so many? The 
ladies say it must be done on purpose to deceive, and 
they are pretty good judges of men, manners, and 
manoeuvres of that kind. The best two collections of 
quilled Asters came from Berkshire, from Mr. Better- 
edge and Mr. Besley, two new names to me. 
Mr. Turner had the first in Dahlias, and I admired 
the flowers shown by the following very much :—Keynes, 
Barnes (an old Suffolk friend), Kimberly, Sealy, Hoimes, 
Fraser, Parker, Gains, Fellowes, and so forth. Mr. 
Turner’s seedlings, as being the first winner, I took 
down— Marc Antony, brown and orange; Goldfinder, 
largest and best yellow; Canary, shaded yellow; Mrs. 
Church, yellow tipped with cherry; and Miss Pressly, in 
a pretty lilac dress, with purple tips, and others that did 
not take my fancy so much. The best fancy kinds I 
took to be those from Mr. Barnes, of Stowmarket. Over 
these charming cut flowers, facing the north from the 
Gladioli to the end, were placed, in one continuous row, 
several collections of Ferns, giving the florist flowers the 
best chance in the world to “ set off” their pride of birth. 
These Ferns were marked from Messrs. Epps, Gains, 
Halley, Bunny, Cutbush, and Jackson, who were all in 
one row. Roses followed the Dahlias. There were 
thirty-eight boxes of them, with some extras from Messrs. 
Epps, Francis, Paul, Mitchel, Rollancl, Terry, Peed, and 
others. After General Jacqueminot the following were 
the highest coloured :— Gloire de France, Souvenir de 
l Exposition, Lion des Combats (dark), Duchess of Norfolk, 
La Quintin, Lord Raglan. After them the better-known 
kinds stood thus:—Za Rcine, Gloire de Dijon, La- 
marque, Malmaison, Auguste Mie, Alphonse de Lamar¬ 
tine, Paul Duprez, Madame Schmidt, and hosts of 
others. Very few Geant de Batailles, and thos > not 
particularly bright. Vicomtesse de Gazes and Ophire 
were the best two yellows. 
The next in advance were the collections of stove and 
greenhouse plants in twelves, and Mr. Peed took the 
first prize w r ith very fine plants of Ixora, Allamandas, two 
Vincas, Dipladenia crassinoda, Pleroma elegans, Ron- 
deletia speciosa, a Cyrtoceras, and the good old Croxeea 
saligna, with a large Heath. Mr. Taylor followed very 
closely in kinds and in culture, being two Allamandas, 
two Dipladenias, a Pleroma, Crowea, and Heath, a 
Leschenaultia formosa, two Ixoras, and Begonia Pres- 
tonensis. I did not notice a third prize collection; but a 
fourth from Mr. Epps contained three Allamandas, 
Meyenia erecta, Roellia ciliaris, a Vinca, Statice Hold - 
fordi, and a very good-flowered plant of Curcuma 
Roscoeana. * 
In collections of sixes Mr. Ilamp was first with two 
Ixoras, one Allamanda, a Cyrtoceras, Dipladenia acumi¬ 
nata, very near to crassinoda, and an Erica. The 
second, Mr. Raile, gardener to Lord Lovelace, with 
Franciscea acuminata, Dipladenia, Meyenia, Vinca, Alla¬ 
manda, and Clerodendrum Kcempferi. 
The rest of these collections were of similar kinds, 
and the Heaths of the same sorts as last year. 
Achimenes, very fair, gloxinijlorci the strangest looking 
of them—a bleary white, with the mouth, eye, and throat 
densely spotted. Baumannii (not Backmanni), the finest 
purple, and as large as the old blue, or larger. One col¬ 
lection of them was literally smashed with stays much 
longer than their bodies. 
The first prize for Fuchsias w'as taken by Mr. Tiley 
with Pearl of England, Alpheum, red, Coralina, Acteon, 
Glory, and Clapton Hero. The second to Mr. Tegg for 
Grandis, Elizabeth, Duke of Wellington, Autocrat, Venus 
de Medici, wad Banks’s Glory. Mr. Bragg had Wonder¬ 
ful —the first time it appeared near London. It is cer¬ 
tainly a splendid Fuchsia, dark purple inside, very large 
cup, and the sepals reflexed to the last degree; the plant 
a medium-sized grower. 
Here Mr. Flosea Waterer came in with a group of 
Cupressus Lawsoniana and C. blanca, which is near it; 
also C. MacNabiana, an upright, and seemingly as spiral 
as sempervirens; also the variegated Petunia of Mr. Cut¬ 
bush. 
The Cockscombs were very numerous and very good, 
but none of them were trained in stays while young ; 
therefore they were all out of shape—the fashion forty 
years since, but probably all the better for that. 
The best plant grower in England saw with one eye 
what I could only make out with both last year, namely, 
that Balsams growing about London were not worth a 
button, and Mr. Green walked, or rather, stepped across 
the course with his Balsams ; but they were all very good 
as far as they went, and there were scores of them, but all 
one uniform, small, cottage-sized Balsams except the 
first and second collections, the second being from Mr. 
Brown, gardener to G. C. M. Thomas, Esq., Kingswood, 
Dulwich. 
For variegated plants Messrs. Jackson, of Kingston, 
took the first prize with a collection of twenty, some of 
them in flower, and some not; but the whole lot were 
the most uniformly grown, and of the best size for ex¬ 
hibition purposes. Depend upon it some of the huge 
specimens which have been shown in this class, and in 
the fine-leaved plants, have done a world of harm to the 
trade. I know as much, and more too, than I like to 
tell, for fear of offending the “ country party,” whose “ear” 
I have long enjoyed on these subjects. The Kingston 
collection contained two kinds of Dractenas, four kinds 
