THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, February 10,1857. 319 
keep till June or July. It appeared to be a variety 
known as Reinette St. Sauveur. 
The following Members were elected :— 
J. R. Nearne, Esq., Rushett, Sittingbourne. 
j . Mr. James Eraser, Lea Bridge Road. 
I 
Those of our readers who have a love for the marvellous 
may have their predilections gratified at an establish¬ 
ment now in London, where it is professed to sell plants 
which produce Pears “ d’un gout exquis,” each weighing 
. 5 lbs.; Peaches weighing 2 lbs., and many other things 
j equally wonderful. We were told by several who had 
seen it that such a place existed, and we therefore paid 
it a visit. In the window we saw our old friend Uvedale’s 
St. Germain, of very respectable size, but not nearly so 
large as we have seen it grown in this country. Here it 
was figuring under the name of “Belle Inexagore,” and 
we were assured it was an excellent table Pear—of 
course it is when stewed. We were asked 6s. each for 
the plants, but we did not give it. There was also the 
Catillac, preserving a respectable incog, as Beurre Nantais • 
but the gentleman who attended upon us could not 
: furnish the names of any of the other specimens, which 
we could have told him were composed of the two 
already named, varying only in size. Ushered upstairs, 
we saw a perfect gallery of coloured drawings of the 
most extraordinary fruits we ever beheld. We made a 
note of a few. Raspberries, white and red, the size of 
a Golden Pippin! and called “ Enorme de Maroc.” 
Currants with bunches the size of those of the Chasselas 
Grape, and berries larger than those of the Hamburgh! 
Cherries produced in bunches like Grapes, and fruit 
larger than any Grape we ever saw! Gooseberries the 
size of Apples, and Strawberries larger than a hen’s 
egg. Sweet Horse Chestnuts called “ Maron Tyroli- 
nienne,” and “ Celestial ” Grapes equaling in size 
\ large Walnuts. * Among the plants there were re- 
’ presentations of Roses which were yellow in the out- 
: side petals, and blue in the centre! Hyacinths dark 
; blue in the outside, and a star of crimson in the 
centre! Scarlet Glycine Sinensis, and a plant of Mag- 
i nolia grandiflora, which we were assured produced 
i white flowers marked with red stripes ! We did not 
| buy anything, because some years ago, when we had 
less experience than we have now, we visited a similar 
I establishment, and were induced, by the representation 
of a coloured drawing and the assurance of the vendor, 
| to purchase a Scarlet Agapanthus, for which we gave 
five shillings, but which, when it flowered, proved to 
be our old friend, Agapanthus umbeUatus, with his own 
blue flower. Need we run the risk of being within the 
law of libel by saying, without reservation, what these 
vendors of prodigies are ? 
MEETING OF THE HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY.— February 3rd. 
A bitterly cold day, with hard frost and north-east 
wind, after a week of the hardest weather we have ex- 
| perienced this winter, prevented people from sending 
up many flowers to this Meeting; but the host of new 
Members and their friends, if only for the novelty of the 
thing, mustered in great force, but not, as great people 
generally do, up to time. More than one half of the new 
people entered the room after the chair was taken, at 
two o’clock, and, of course, disturbed the other half. 
Parliament met the same day, but it would be useless to 
ask them to pass a law for “being up to time” any- j 
where; but it the country party is to be thus disturbed 
you may depend upon it they will leave us altogether, 
and call us by odd names into the bargain. 
The Rev. Vernon Harcourt was in the chair, and he 
gave us very decided assurance that the “resurrection ” 
of the Horticultural Society was now beyond a doubt, 
and expressed a hope that the Horticultural Phoenix 
would not only rise from the ashes, but spread its wings 
farther than ever. All very good if the bird takes to 
the right “ airt,” and the ashes are screened so as to 
leave no hot cinders to singe the feathers. 
The Reverend gentleman put it next to the Meeting 
whether it would not save a deal of bother to ballot 
batches of new members all in a “ lump,” and some of 
us thought, just then, that he was going to put the blame 
of all the failures of the Society on those who balloted ; 
but the truth came out at last. Our ballot-box is con¬ 
structed on a wrong principle, and so let in the wrong 
people all this time, “ without the slightest intention on 
the part of those who balloted;” and then, with the 
hearty assent of the whole Meeting, twenty-five new 
Members, or Fellows, were elected in one throw from 
the chair, and the lecture began under very favourable 
circumstances, beginning with the magnificent Grapes 
from Trentham, which were said to be not only a par¬ 
ticular credit to the Society, but most creditable to 
British gardening. These were so placed that all the 
bunches in a line stood with their lower ends to the 
spectators, the best way of “ showing off” particularly 
fine bunches. There was one bunch of the Barbarossa 
in the centre of the line, with three bunches of Muscat 
of Alexandria on one side of it, and three bunches of 
the true Tokay on the other side—all in perfection for 
table. 
The next were also Muscats, a basket of 15 lbs., from 
the celebrated Vineries at KeeleHall, Staffordshire; and 
Mr. Ingram, of the Royal Gardens, Windsor, sent a 
basket of most beautiful Black St. Peter’s Grapes, 
which were described to the Meeting as “new Grapes.” 
There was only one collection of home-grown fruit, and 
that from Mr. Tillyard, gardener to the Right Hon. the 
Speaker. It consisted of one Queen Pine for the top 
dish, three bunches of fine Black Hamburghs for a 
bottom dish, and six dishes of Pears to match thus:— 
A dish of the finest specimens of the Winter Nelis Pear 
that were ever exhibited to match another of Knight’s 
Monarch, a small round Pear; Glout Morceau and 
Beurre Ranee the next match ; Ne Plus Meuris and 
Easter Beurre making the third pair as they would be 
set on the dinner table. 
The exhibition of fruit “ in collections ” is now 
carried to such a pitch that one could transfer a col¬ 
lection from the exhibition table to that for the “ com¬ 
pany to dinner ” without an odd dish, or any difficulty in 
matching the pairs of dishes as above; and young 
gardeners ought to pay particular attention to that, both 
at home for parties and when they exhibit for com¬ 
petition, for that is one of the grand secrets which old 
gardeners take advantage of for carrying the prizes. 
Judges are picked out from the best gardeners, and the 
more aged exhibitors make great objections nowa¬ 
days to young men being placed “ on the woolsack,” no 
matter how clever they may be. Most of our great 
gardeners dish their own fruit, or rather, have it dished 
and set on the dining or dessert table, or partly on both, 
under their own immediate inspection; therefore, when 
