320 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, Februaky 10,1857. 
judging fruit, the “ ruling passion" for tops and bottoms, 
corners, centres, and matching, carries them a long way. 
Of Pines one specimen from Her Majesty was the 
most perfect fruit most of us had ever seen. It was the 
royal winter favourite, the Smooth-leaved Cayenne. It 
weighed Gibs. 12ozs., and had a very small crown. 
Another very beautiful Pine, weighing Gibs. lOozs., 
came from Mr. Jones, gardener to the Dowlais Iron 
Company. It was the Black Prince, and is said to be a 
most excellent kind, and very little known yet, except 
among a few of our best gardeners. Another 4lb. Pine, 
called the Trinidad; but it was not the true old 
“ Trinidad ’’ of twenty years since, though a very good- 
looking Pine. It came from Mr. Williams, gardener to 
A. Fairre, Esq., Aigburth, near Liverpool; and there 
was a long specimen of the Black Prince Pine from Mr. 
South, gardener to A. H. Davenport, Esq., Capesthorn, 
near Congleton, Cheshire. This had a second prize. 
The very finest specimen we ever saw of the bunch 
of fruit of Musa Cavendishii, the Banana or Plantain, 
was exhibited by Mr. Young, gardener to W. Stowe, 
Esq., Dulwich. It weighed 10 lbs., and every fruit on 
' the bunch was perfectly ripe for table, a very unusual 
thing with Bauanas. 
There was a collection of splendid French Pears and 
Apples, and some excellent vegetables and salads, from 
Mr. Solomons, of Covent Garden. 
The next subject referred to was said to be the most 
important plant that had been introduced for many 
years. This plant was removed up to the chair, and was 
described as a true double Camellia reticulata, which Mr. 
Fortune sent from the north of China to Mr. Standish. 
When Mr. Fortune spoke of this Camellia some years 
since doubts were entertained about the existence 
of such a plant; but here it was, and no one could mis¬ 
take the leaves and buds, which are different from those 
of all other kinds of Camellias; and Mr. Fortune was in 
the room, looking better than ever he did, and had the 
satisfaction to hear his account verified to the letter. 
We have the true double reticulata Camellia at last, in 
colour more in the way of corallina than the old one; 
but the plant being very small the flower was not so 
large as that of the original. Plowever, there is no 
reason to doubt but a large plant will produce a corre¬ 
sponding size in the flowers. 
The next subject for remark was a fine specimen 
plant of Erica rnutabilis, sent by Mr. Roser, gardener to 
J. Bradbury, Esq., Bedford House, Streatham. This 
plant “ took four men to carry upstairs,” and was beau¬ 
tifully in bloom. 
A collection of cut flowers from Mr. Williams, gar¬ 
dener to A. Fairre, Esq., Aigburth, Liverpool, was next 
adverted to. This consisted of a fine specimen of Lcelia 
superbiens, an excellent deep purple-eyed variety of Ca- 
lanthe vestita, an Indian ground Orchid ; a good bunch 
of Ccelogyne cristata, a fine white-flowering Orchid; 
Azalea amcena, the “ hose in hose” kind, and in higher 
j colour than later in the season ; Labiclicea diversifolia, a 
j greenhouse, yellow-flowered kind from Australia; Diosma 
ericoides, with starry white flowers like au Eriostemon. 
This is the Buck u or “smell divine” plant of the Hot¬ 
tentots, who relish its powerful, offensive odour as much 
as we do our scented oils and pigments. A good spike of 
Oesnera zebrina, and several other kinds, all of which 
were very carefully packed, and looked as fresh as when 
they were cut. 
Another plant that was much spoken of is Cupressus 
; Macnabiana, alias glandulosa, and the country party 
were told to be on their guard against the last name, 
which is also applied by some to Cupressus Ooveniana, 
an old and very different kind ; but no oue will mistake 
Cupressus Macnabiana after once seeing it, on account, of 
the habit, which is very stiff, and yet of slender growth, 
and is particularly glaucous. This was from the garden 
of the Society, together with several other kinds of rare 
Conifers, as Thuiopsis borealis and plicata, two distinct 
kinds, which look much like Thuja plicata or Warreana ;■ 
Cupressus Sinensis, a fine-looking kind, with a strong 
habit and light green aspect, inclining to glaucous; Cu¬ 
pressus elegans , from Sikkim, which has a touch of 
funebris, or between that and torulosa about it; Cupressus 
sempervirens Indica, apparently a more slender kind than 
the European form of it; Cupressus torulosa nana, 
another dwarf, which, if it keeps so, will be a favourite 
with many, as all the race are most suitable for the 
greatest number of gardens — those of ho great extent; 
Taxodiurn Mexicana, in the way of sempervirens; Finns 
Roylei , with the aspect of P. inops; Pinus Jefl'reyana, 
which looks, “ to all intents and purposes,” like a young 
ponderosa! Surely the modem Athenians have not 
made such a botanical slip as that; but it is most diffi¬ 
cult to distinguish these things in the young state, and 
I may be wrong; but I once bought a ponderosa and 
two Abies Bouglasii for half a crown each when the lat¬ 
ter were selling at five guineas in the same nursery. 
That was in 1831, and one of the said Bouglasii is now 
the third, if not the second, highest tree of the kind in 
England, while ponderosa is only a gouty, heavy-look¬ 
ing, stupid tree of no symmetry or any kind of beauty. 
Pinus abschasica, which looks like a very slender form of 
some variety of Pinaster; Pinus osteosperma, a good- 
looking kind, half way between cembra and maritima ; 
Retinispora ericoides, alias Juniperus ericoides, and a 
small seedling of Chamcecyparis thurifera, alias Cupressus 
thurifera and Juniperus thurifera, and the white Cedar 
of Mexico, where it makes a large, lofty tree; Araucaria 
Ridolflana, with much the aspect of A. Braziliensis, but 
this is said, by the Marquis di Ridolfi, to be much more 
hardy than the common A. Braziliensis. On that ac¬ 
count it must be the more valuable in this country, and 
from what one reads of “ Travels in Brazil,” there ought 
to be many more hardy kinds of this tree than the old 
one. 
There was also a collection of six kinds of Epacris: - 
onosmaflora, all white; impressa alba, blush white; 
densiflora, ditto; delicata, much the same; and so with 
Attleana. A Correa and an Acacia lophantha, together 
with a dozen of very good kinds of Primula Sinensis, 
more particularly the white and lavender kinds, and a 
plant of Eugenia Ugni, to show the right way of pruning 
it, which some good gardeners do not yet understand” 
It is this—all the strong leading shoots are cut to oue 
half or two-thirds of their length, and all the very small ■ 
ones are cut away quite close, so as to see no more of 
them, in order not to crowd the head like that of a 
1 specimen plant, but to keep it open freely for the 
suu and air to reach the fruit, which is best from the 
moderately strong shoots which are not touched till 
the fruit is gathered, when they may be cut away if they 
are not required to “ fill up.” 
I here was a box of cut Camellia flowers from Mr. 
Ingram, gardener to J. J. Blandy, Esq.; also very 
good Sea-kale, Mushrooms, and Rhubarb ; and Mr. Tegg, 
gardener to A. Prior, Esq., Eoehampton, sent a dish of 
the best-looking sample of early Potatoes we ever had 
at a February Meeting, and a dish of our true English- 
grown Asparagus. The Potatoes were the Walnut- 
leaved Kidney. Mr. Judd sent from Althorp six plants 
of Brussels Sprouts, taken “ promiscuously ” from what 
the “kitchen boy” left after cutting away at them for 
the last three months. They were accompanied by a 
letter to say that he saved all his own seed of it for the 
last sixteen years, and that his father first put him 
“ U P ” , to the way, after proving it a much longer time 
than sixteen years; thereiore, that the old prejudice in 
favour of the foreign seed is “ a fudge,” as lie hoped 
the specimens he had sent would prove to the Meeting. 
They were certainly six good specimen plants, all but 
