tub COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 9, 1858. 
I 348 
edged ; and there were three or four kinds of seifs, or 
one-coloured, which looked rich and very gay. 
Among a liost of single China Primroses, a col¬ 
lection of six from Mr. Turner, of Slough, was the 
first, die had also a fine example of his new cottager’s 
Kale, of which I told at the last meeting, and the 
lecturer told us now, that this is the most delicious 
Greens ever tasted; so I could not be far wrong in 
my estimation of it, without “ tasting.” I forget if I 
ever said that I was among the best cooks in the 
kingdom, to boil “ Greens,” but I am better at cook¬ 
ing Potatoes, and I could almost tell the best kinds of 
Potatoes for boiling, and for roasting, out of scores of 
kinds. Out of twenty-five or thirty kinds of Potatoes 
exhibited by Mr. Turner, of Slough, I would forfeit 
my cookery book, if one called Brocklcy Kidney is 
not the best, both for boiling and for roasting ; and 
another named Surprise, or Early Surprise , a llattish 
kind, but not quite a Kidney, must be a thorough 
o-ood boiler. There was a dish of the Purple Ash-leaf, 
much larger Potatoes than .1 ever saw of that kind. 
The best of the Ash-leaf kinds in this collection, must 
j be the Brighton Kidney, which is of the true Ash- 
leaf breed, but is a much better kind for weight of 
crop. 
There were in the passage leading to the show-room, 
also a collection of specimen Cinerarias, of which 
Regalia, a ruby crimson, is, undoubtedly, the best; 
and Delight the second best; this is a white centre 
and purple edge. Duke of Cambridge, Lord Claren¬ 
don, Ruby, and Prince of Wales, were the next best. 
There was a grand new Azalea, from Mr. Ivery, of 
Beckenham, and called Queen Victoria, a white ground, 
striped, spotted, and blotched with purple. 
Mr. Glenuinning sent again the same plantsof the 
new China Camellia, named Princess William of 
Prussia. The flowers are not very large yet, as the 
imported plant is not strong, but it promises to be the 
best of all the striped Camellias. 
A collection of twenty plants of the different kinds 
of Cyclamens, very gay, from the Wellington Eoad 
Nursery, together with a collection of Ardisias, the 
Ardisia crenulata , and the white-berried variety of 
the same; also plants of Ardisia crisp a, A. cornea 
cardinalis, and a fine plant of Imatophyllum miniatum 
alias Valotta miniata, with a fine head of bloom, 
having seven flowers open, and three more in bud, 
also a spike in seed; also Monochcetum ensiferum, 
again in good bloom; and leaves and cut flowers o± 
Gesnera cinnabarina, and cut Camellias. 
A large lot of cut Camellias from Mr. Turner, of 
Slough—a dozen of them being a new style of Ca¬ 
mellia, a deep red, with a touch of the Waratah in 
the centre, and coming hexangular, with a marbled 
vein up in each angle. Also, from Mr. Turner, a 
small, deep red, Cherry-like Capsicum, from Kertch, 
in the Crimea. 
Cut spikes of Acacia longifiora magnifica, from the 
Pine Apple Place Nursery, showing this Acacia to be 
much better than I reported it to be this time last 
year. It is really a fine thing after all. A fine plant 
of Skimmia Japonica, in fruit and flower, from Mr. 
Noble, of Bagshot, in a Chinese square or oblong 
square pot. This wa3 lectured upon as one of our 
best and quite hardy bush evergreens. 
A Camellia called Florence Nightingale, with mot¬ 
tled blush flowers, from the Messrs. Lee, of Hammer¬ 
smith. Another large plant of Camellia, Prince 
Consort, with large deep coral blooms, from Mr. W. 
Barnes, nurseryman, Camberwell. 
Three Rhododendrons from Mr. Cutbush, of High- 
gate :— Coccineum, Lindsayi, and a new small-leaved, 
and very delicate deep blush flowers, called gemmi- 
ferum. 
A large collection of plants from the garden of the 
Society, consisting of Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Deutzia 
gracilis, Epacrises, Cinerarias, Primulas, Camellias, 
and others. 
Cut Roses, Azaleas, and Camellias, from Mr. Ellis, j 
gardener to Dr. Bunce, Woodford, Essex. The Roses | 
were much admired: the best were Xe Leon des 
Combats, Geant des Rattailles, Adam , and Madame 
de St. Joseph. 
We had, as grand novelties, cut flowers of the 
Rhodoleia Championi at last from Mr. Fleming, of 
Trentham. This is the first time of flowering it in 
Europe, after eight or nine years, from the seed. 
When it comes to the flowering age, and treated like 
a Camellia? it will be a rival to that family, “ and 
gladden the heart of a Tulip fancier,” as we were told. 
A deep rosy hue, something in the style of an Illicium 
flower, and two inches and a half across when fully 
developed. Seven or eight of these come in heads at 
the end of the branches, and each flower looks as if 
half double from the number (18) of petals. 
A most welcome new winter-flowering plant from 
Mr. Watson, florist, of St. Albans. This looks, at first 
sight, like Funkia grandiflora, with large, fleshy- 
ribbed leaves, which are stalked from the roots ; stout, 
thick flower-stems rise from among the leaves. They, 
too, are clothed with smaller leaves, but the leaves 
are not stalked : they clasp the flower-stem. On the 
top is a truss of large, light blue Forget-me-not-look¬ 
ing flpwers; but the plant is a kind of Cynoglossum, 
or something that way. It will be a hardy green¬ 
house plant, very handsome, and as easy to grow as 
Rhubarb. It comes a long way off—from the Chatham 
Islands, if you happen to know wdiere they are. We 
seldom hear of them, but they lie to the east of New 
Zealand ; and this plant will be a Forget-them-not. 
And, last of all, w T e had the most noble of all the 
Vandas fromMr. Veitcli: this is Vanda Loivii, flowered 
for the first time in Europe. A strong, recently-im¬ 
ported plant, sent over by Mr. Lobb from Borneo, 
and so carefully packed as to preserve the incipient 
flower-shoot all the way to London, to astonish us by 
its length and profusion of bloom. The spike is over 
a yard long, aud covered from end to end with large 
purple and brown and yellow flowers. But Mr. Hugh 
Low, the Colonial Secretary at Labuan, who first dis¬ 
covered this noble Vanda, and after whom it is justly 
named, had seen it in Borneo with the flower-stems 
twelve feet long, and coming as freely as those of a 
Gong or a purpurea ; and, if I mistake not, the lecturer 
himself has a specimen of it from Mr. Low, which is 
eleven feet long; but having had to speak of so many 
things, he must have forgotten this evidence of the 
great value of Vanda Loivii. 
J. J. Blandy, Esq., sent a most beautiful specimen 
of the Cyclamen Persicum, in full bloom ; and the 
lecturer told us, most innocently, that he had to pay 
eighteenpence for a forced little plant of the same 
kind in Covent Garden Market at the beginning of 
January, and that it was yet in bloom in his drawing¬ 
room ; therefore, a most desirable plant to have, and 
to force early. But the very idea of the Secretary 
of the London Horticultural Society having to go 
to Covent Garden, and pay for a little plant in bloom, 
to cheer his fire-side in winter, tickled my fancy most 
irresistibly. While I, who am no more than a F.H.S. 
at best, can hardly find room for plants sent gratis, 
and carriage paid, to the Experimental Garden ! 
In fruit, we had new Grapes and new Strawberries, 
one large Pine Apple, and basketsful of old Grapes: 
also Pears and Apples ; but the last were all seedlings 
or new kinds, and were to be referred to the Pomo- 
logical Committee. Mr. Forbes, gardener to the 
Duke of Bedford, had the first prize for new Grapes 
