96 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 16, 185S. 
people were much too soon for them. Still, as I have 
just said, I never saw so many of them, nor yet one half 
so many, at any one show. 
The large Chrysanthemums were first-rate, hut the ! 
Pompones were hardly up to the same pitch. The 
unnatural way most growers train the Pompones is very j 
much against them. The best trained Geranium and 
Pompone I ever saw were perfect ugliness to my eye. | 
That “squat” system, as Mr. Marnoek named it long 
since, is, or may be, very well for people who squat on 
their haunches, and tattoo their bodies, bnt it is not a 
system to assist nature, or heighten the natural beau I y ; 
of the plants. By the bye, the squat system is a pci feet | 
symmetry, and without symmetry, Dr. Lindley says, there , 
can be no beauty. So there must be a screw loose some¬ 
where in public judgment. 
One thing pleased me very much, and that was, that 
the Crystal Palace authorities have done what the Hor¬ 
ticultural Society had left undone all these years. They 
have undertaken, on their own responsibility, the task of 
exhibiting both tribes of Chrysanthemums, trained just 
as the great ladies all over the country have them trained 
for their conservatories at home; and thus have begun 
the difficult task of reforming a vitiated taste—a low life 
above stairs, as it were. I shall only instance Bob, among 
Pompones, which was the best trained plant of any kind 
I have ever seen. This plant was as natural-looking as if 
it were growing out in the free border : the shoots were 
a little wider apart than they would come of themselves, 
and that allowed the lower side-shoots to bloom as freely 
as the tops of the principals. Every one of the largest, 
as well as Pompones, can be thus trained, and the plants, 
will then bloom half as long again as they possibly can do 
by any kind of twist training. 
Some of the best of the large Chrysanthemums—from 
the collection of the Crystal Palace—were in tubs, and 
as large as two men could move about, with many 
hundreds of flowers on each, and each trained like Bob : 
they can be seen about in the Palace all this month. So 
the right taste, the natural and most economical way, 
will soon be regained. It is really and particularly 
shocking, to see the absolute frights some people make of 
the lovely and most graceful Pompones, by their squatting 
and pothouse training. But if you want to see Chrysan¬ 
themums in true style and magnificence, go to the Crystal 
Palace on purpose, and ask to see Bob, Temple of Solomon, 
Christine, Pilot, Bio Nono, Lucidum, Formosum, and 
scores like them. 
Mr. Salter, of the Versailles Nursery, Hammersmith, 
sent seventy-two kinds of Pompones. They were cut 
flowers, and not for competition. They were in bunches 
of from ten to twenty flowers of a kind. Also, two 
splendid, large new Chrysanthemums (his own lucky 
sport from Queen of England), called Golden Queen of\ 
England, and Prince Albert, the best dark flower yet 
seen, in the style of Madame Poggi (Poshi), “ but twelve 
times better,” as a friend of mine remarked; and also 
three kinds of new Pompones, one of which, Mrs. Dix, 
is the best I have seen: it is in the style of Madame 
Fould, which was the best last year, perhaps a little 
larger, and decidedly a better colour—a light peach 
colour, edged with cherry. That is the natural colour in 
the open air : in-doors it will probably be as light as 
Madame Fould; for every shade of blush, pink, and 
peach among them gets bleached lighter under glass. 
The second, Miss Talfourd, is a large white. The 
third, a Miss Julia, is a dear little brunette, almost 
bronzed from the cradle, after the manner of Alexandre 
Pelee, but a much closer, smaller, and better colour. These 
five new ones are to “ come out ” next spring, and, depend 
upon it, there will be a scramble for them : the Golden 
Queen of England can be dressed to look just like the 
yellow-haired laddie of Scotland; while the Prince Albert 
will be a puce pyramid from the hands of the hair¬ 
dressers. 
Out of the seventy-two cut kinds, I assorted the fol¬ 
lowing, as the best in their colours :— 
Lemon Yellow. — General Canrobert, Aigle d’ Or, and 
Ida. 
Golden Yellow. — Triomphe, L'Escarboucle, Mr. 
Astie, and Ascanie. 
W hite.— Snowjlalce, Marabout, and Argentina. 
Blush. — Clorinde (a quilled kind), Madame Putonr, 
Miranda, and Madame Bousselon. 
Blush White (with a creamy tinge).— Madame Fould, 
fine. 
Pink Shades. — President, Cleobis (a lilliput), Cen- 
drillon, La Carmelite, Durufiet, aud Trophic. 
Purplish Bed. — Pygmaleon, Madame Carnae, and 
Salomon, three exquisites : Salomon is the darkest in the 
family. 
Dark Purples. — Bob, Brilliant, and Bossuet, when 
the latter is opening ; but afterwards it is redder, or more 
amaranth, and fully as large as Boh. If the habit of 
Bossuet is as free as that of Bob, depend upon it Bob 
has a powerful rival in it. 
Fancy Colours. — Minette, very small, and light 
bronze ; Morceau, rosy purple, and silver edged ; Comte 
Acldlle Vigier, mottled pale salmon,—a general favourite, 
and. perhaps, the most curiously coloured in the family. 
The competition for large Chrysanthemums was very 
close, and Mr. James, of Stoke Newington, took the best 
prizes in threes, in sixes, and in single specimens. His 
three lot was— Defiance, Christine, and Annie Salter. His 
six were— Annie Salter, Pilot, Pinto , Vesta, Mount 
Etna, and another. His single specimen was Defiance. 
Another single specimen, from Mr. Arthur Wortley, 
of Stoke Newington, also took, and received most de¬ 
servedly, a first prize. It was a six-feet across plant of 
Annie Salter. Mr. Wortley had the second best prize 
for sixes,— Pilot, Defiance, Annie Salter, Mount Etna, 
Vesta, and Christine; and Mr. Wortley had a second 
prize for a single Trophie, a fine specimen. Mr. George, 
gardener to J. Nicholson, Esq., Stamford Hill, had a 
first prize for a fine single specimen of Cedo Nulli ; and 
a third prize, for a single specimen of Fenella, to Mr. 
Brown, gardener to J. C. Thurem, Esq., Dulwich ; and a 
fourth, also for a single Fenella, five feet across, but 011 I 3 ' 
coming into bloom, to Mr. Cannel, gardener to E. Grove, 
Esq., Tulse Hill. 
There was a difference here in the prize schedule,—a 
class for plants on single stems, and a class for plants on 
many stems. The prizes were awarded accordingly ; but, 
to our sense of the public sight, they were six of the 
one and half a dozen of the other, owing to the vulgar 
taste of training the plants into senseless and unnatural 
shapes. So here, again, for the sixes or the half dozen. 
In them, the first prize for six plants went to Mr. 
Wortley, of Stoke Newington, for Cedo Nulli (on the 
label Ceda), St. Thais, Brilliant, Durufiet, and Dr in 
Drin (with the tally of Bequiqui, in the pot). Second 
prize to Mr. Turner, not of Slough, but of Stoke 
Newington, the cradle of the race, where the best wet- 
nurses for them must be looked for: his plants were— 
Bequiqui, Comte Achille Vigier, Drin Drin, Brilliant, 
and Durufiet. And a third prize to Mr. Walker, Upper 
Clapton, for unnamed plants, which were— La Vogue, 
Bequiqui, Madame Boussflon, Cedo Nulli, and Trophee. 
For ten kinds, Mr. Forsyth, nurseryman, Bectory 
Boad, Shakelwell, was first, with— Bequiqui, Cedo Nulli, 
St. Thais, I.a Vogue, Alexandre Pelee, Bob, Surprise, 
Brilliant, and Madame Celestine Philopel, a very fine 
yellow, which I never saw before. Mr. Bragg, of Slough, 
was second in this class, in which he made a dashing 
entree for Madame Fould, for the first time in an English 
assembly of rare beauties, and her rare anti-pudibundus 
blush carried the day. Mr. Bragg could only get her 
1 Madameship late last spring, unless, hideed, he eloped 
! with her early in the season; yet she is already wide to 
the full stretch of her crinoline. Over three feet across. 
