112 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COU 
period at which we of The Cottage Gardener took 
up the practical details of “ halls,” for fruits and flowers, 
without any supports whatever. The head, or ridge 
piece, the wall plates, the four corner posts, and the 
bracing rods of the Homological Society, were engaged 
for the occasion, or rather were borrowed, because the 
fruit committee of the Horticultural Society is not suffi¬ 
ciently “ organised ” yet,—that is, not quite ripe enough 
to come to table. The progress of this great fruit com¬ 
mittee, however, is very satisfactory ; for in the last nine 
months it has raised itself from zero to 32°,—just to the 
freezing point'of our scale ; and the thirty-two stages of 
“private self - organisation ” have been published by 
order of the Council; and after getting out of the ice and 
frost of the excessive legislation, in “rules and regula¬ 
tions,” wemayexpectsoonto hearof the mellowing process. 
Meantime, it is a good sign of the times, that the young and 
vigorous props of the Homological Society give a helping 
hand to get grandmamma on her legs again. We cannot 
yet do without granny’s pockets more than we could fifty 
years back. But that is not all the good resulting from 
this kindness and consideration on the part of the Homo- 
logical Society. Your humble servant has had a a holiday 
at last. Mr. Hogg—as one of the most practical and 
most scientific judges of fruit in Europe, as the founder 
of the Homological Society, and as co-Editor of The 
Cottage Gardener —has been requested to draw up a 
pomological report of this Show, for the use of the Hor¬ 
ticultural Society and its fruit Committee, in its ripening 
progress ; and having very good naturedly undertaken 
the task, which is but child’s play to him, although an 
awful task to most gardeners like me ;—I say, through all 
this kindness, I had a holiday, and this is how I spent it. 
Just as the Judges had the Hall put square for them, 
I was seated in the gallery opposite the organ. The front 
seat there, in the centre of the gallery, is the very place 
for seeing any kind of exhibition in the Hall, critically. 
There one can see, with one eye, the kind of taste which 
is displayed in the disposition of the things which are on 
exhibition, and the kind of judgment with which that 
taste is carried out; and nothing can be put on paper 
more pleasing to both eyes, than to see a perfect arrange¬ 
ment of things according to our ideas of the composition. 
That, then, was the case with me ; and the only thing in 
which an English critic could differ from me, or in which 
a lowland critic, in Scotland, could differ from a High¬ 
lander like me, was immediately on the right and left of 
the organ, towards the very top, or “ back of the stage,” to 
use gardening language. They might object to the plants 
there not being so tall as to give a "face” to the whole 
hanging grove: that objection was the prime beauty in 
my eye, because it was the most natural to it. Instead 
of looking at two overhanging wooded cliffs,—as the face 
system would make them,—I perceived the image of two, 
deep, well-defined carries. But, as there is not a word 
in the English language to give the meaning of the Gaelic 
word corrie, I must refer the reader to any of those 
sportsmen who took down two royal stags, right and left, 
in a highland corrie ; for I had my game and sport in the 
two corries made by Mr. Henderson, the head gardener 
of this Society, on either side of the grand organ, in 
St. James’s Hall; and I was nevermore pleased, or had a 
more settled conviction, that no one with an “ eye ” could 
possibly find fault with anything before him, just as it 
then stood. I have a bird’s-eye drawing, in pencil, of all 
the principals ; and after sleeping over it, and studying it 
over once more, I am sure of the point. Nothing of the 
kind was ever better done; and the whole credit is due 
to Mr. Henderson, and to those who assisted him with 
gratis contributions to carry out his design. 
Those who came out the most handsome on this score 
were—Mr. James Yeitch, of the Exotic Nursery, Chelsea ; 
Mr. Arthur Henderson, of the Bine Apple Hlace Nursery; 
and Edward Boslier, Esq., the gentleman who founded 
the Bosherville Gardens. I had the good luck (but it 
NTKY GENTLEMAN, November 23, 1858. 
was all luck that day) fo get bold of an official list of the 
furnishing plants, from Mr. A. Henderson. Twenty-six 
Dragon trees ! fourteen Draccena terminalis, and twelve 
D.ferrea ! (read that, all ye youths who aspire to the 
spade !) Cyanophyllu,n magnifieum, the most noble and 
most magnificent of all the fine-leaved plants we know of. 
a Melastomad, and a moderate stove plant, with seven 
pairs of leaves, and such velvety, dark greenish-brown 
leaves above, and bright crimson purple underneath, as no 
other family of plants could produce. Soncrilas, Dumb 
Canes, Ardisias , Rh op alas, Yucca aloifolia variegata, Dra¬ 
caena australis, Cupressus Lawsoniana, and Thuja gig ant ea, 
Latania IJorhonica, a pair of the Japan Variegated Pan- 
danus, Grevillea longifdlia, Croton.pictum and variegatum-. 
Aspidistra lurida variegata, Jacaranda filicifolia, and 
several Ferns and others, which are not so easy to be got 
for winter decoration. There was an evergreen belt of 
plants along the centre of the middle table. And next to 
the belt, all round, stood the Bine Apples, in pots ; and the 
cut ones in a row, with two breaks in the row, to let ill 
two assortments of preserved fruits, in sealed bottles, 
glasses, or jars. 
At the end next the door was a large bunch of the 
Cavendish Banana fruit, half ripe. Then Eotter-dam 
Grapes,—not so good as our best out-of-door ones. Then 
English Grapes in earnest, in baskets of 10 lbs. each, in 
dishes of three bunches, and in single bunches ; succeeded 
by the Orange family, in collections of home or foreign 
growth. Then Melons, of which there were eight or 
nine. Then Blums and Brunes,—that is, dried Blums. 
Then Alpine Strawberries, Currants, Baspberries, and 
Bassion-Elower and Eugenia Ugni iruit. After them, 
the beginning of the most glorious-looking Bears that 
England ever produced; and these were continued at one 
half of the end table and one whole side table, which took 
six large dishes across in one row. And in a row behind 
them all stood a noble belt of evergreen, and ever-varie¬ 
gated, and very fine-looking leaved plants (in single speci¬ 
mens), from the contributions aforesaid, and from a fine 
collection from the Messrs. Henderson, of the Wellington 
Boad Nursery,—the principal names of which are lower 
down. 
The third table, on the north side of the Hall, was 
similarly staged with the best Apples; and a bank of 
Bompones and fine-leaved plants behind them. The rest 
of the end tables were filled with Bears and Bine Apples, 
and a bank of Bompones behind them also; and below 
the end gallery were collections of Indian bottle Gourds 
and Squashes; backed with tall Chrysanthemums, and 
flanked with Bompones. 
Under the side galleries was also decorated with 
Bompones, Chrysanthemums, and fine-leaved plants. 
A wide, free passage was left in front of the “ chair ” 
and organ, where Mr. Bivers’ Boses were spoiled in effect 
by cutting his collection'into two parts, to get rid of this 
wide, free passage, in order to suit the florist’s idea of 
comfort. By avoiding the middle passage, the semicircle, 
between the chair and the middle passage, was particu¬ 
larly well done, with the best and best-trained Bompones 
that were ever seen, in three well-matched and contrasted 
pairs; and a pair of handsomely-furnished Rhopalas 
(equally well matched) on each side of the middle pair of 
Bompones, which were in the centre of the half-moon, or 
curve. The two corners, or horns of the moon, were 
filled hi with fine groups of plants ; the front of the 
Bompones richly clothed with Lycopods; and a sub¬ 
dued row of small plants stood between the chair and the 
Bompones. This was exquisitely well done. 
Behind the chair—where the great Bliododendrons, 
from Sion House, stood hi the spring—was a collection of 
trained Bompones, across the slope, so to speak; and, 
flanking this collection, at both ends, were two other col¬ 
lections of large-flowering Geraniums, falling away in 
heights in the distance, until they formed the said corries 
at the top, among some noble trees,—too far up and oft’ 
