THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mat 11, 1858. 
80 
none of us can afford to lose a friend, “ no matter how 
hastily he may have treated you. t here were some 
new Orchids there, and without the aid of my friend, 
Dr. Lindley, I could not got to the bottom of them, 
and X “ stooped to conquer,’ and got all out of him i 
could about them ; but being a bit of a rustic, and a 
cross-grain breeder, and things of that sort having had 
to be decided upon, I was requested to assist the Judges, 
which I did; the Society got the benefit of my crossing 
! propensities in the lecture, and my readers will have 
the benefit of Dr. Lindley’s great skill among the 
Orchids, when I come round to them. So you see j 
that great men may slam the doors, or shake their 
fists, in each other’s faces, and yet be excellent friends, 
and benefit their less-gifted brethren by their united 
power, or knowledge, which is the same as power. 
Mr. Booth, the Librarian, has been elected As¬ 
sistant-Secretary, in the place of Dr. Lindley, and he 
took his place next to the Chairman that day for the ! 
; first time. He read the proceedings of the anniversary i 
meeting, the gifts to the Society, and the rest of the 
routine ; but Dr. Lindley lectured on the plants sent 
for exhibition. Mr. Booth is among the best practical 
gardeners in England, and one of the best practical 
botanists among all the gardeners. He was born a 
gentleman, every inch of him ; one of those rare men 
whom you hear ladies speak of as “extremely civil.” 
If Dr. Lindley had the address, tact, and affability of 
Mr. Booth, the Horticultural Society would have 
every crowned head in Europe on its roll of Fellows; 
and, instead of broken credit, we might have had our 
thousands out at interest, and the finest garden in 
j Europe. 
The lecturer was never in a more humourous mood, 
on such occasions; he began on the merits of the new 
: department, the jardinieres. There was a brilliant 
one from the gardener to the Duke of Sutherland at 
Stafford House, his Grace’s town house ; and a most 
artistic one from Mr. Macintosh, nurseryman, Ham¬ 
mersmith. The artistic was the winner, “ beating the 
Duke hollow,” according to the actual expression of 
the lecturer. It was a wide, shallow basket, perhaps 
four feet in diameter and six inches high, outside mea¬ 
sure ; round the edge was a row of Lycopodium hang¬ 
ing over, and hiding the basket, a vast improvement, 
we were told, on the vulgar taste for showy stands to 
hold flowers; so as to bring the beauty of the stand, 
with, perhaps, its gaudy colours of red, yellow, blue, 
or purple, in competition with the flowers. Inside the 
Lycopod were Mignonette, Fairy Roses, Primulas, 
Stocks, Cinerarias, Heliotropes, Unique and Fancy Ge¬ 
raniums, “ sweet scented Verbena,” Peutzia gracilis, 
Tulips, Heaths, Azaleas, including Azalea amcena, and 
others, rising into a pointed pyramid in the centre of 
the basket, and every flower seemed just in the right 
place. 
The D like’s jardiniere was filled with Pelargoniums, 
three Arum plants ( Richardia cethiopica), Azaleas, ancl 
yellow Cytisus. Phoebe Pelargonium in the centre ; a 
second early white kind after Alba multijlora, but the 
best white of that class is named Phyllis ; the rest 
were more common. 
In Azaleas, Mr. Ivery and Mr. Rhodes, gardener 
to J. Philpotts, Esq., Stamford Hill, were both best, 
and had equal prizes. Mr. Ivery had also six seedling 
Azaleas, and a box of cut blooms of new Azaleas ; also 
three ne>v kinds, which were very handsome ; Flower 
| of the Pay, an improvement on Ivery ana ; Rosy Circle, 
a fine flat round flower; and Pouquet de Flora, in a new 
section. This was mentioned as a seedling from Per- 
ryana, but the father of the cross was Amcena unques¬ 
tionably ; the leaf, the style of growth, and the flower, 
i are amplifications of Amcena; and the lecturer said, 
j that if the flower of Amcena was magnified ten or 
twelve times, it would be the same as the flower of 
Pouquet de Flora, only not hose-in-hose as in Amcena, 
therefore Pouquet cle Flora must be very nearly hardy 
like its hither. Cross this with the pollen of Gem, the 
best seedling in the cut flowers, to give more size and 
substance to the flowers ; then, but not till then, cross 
the second generation with Amcena pollen, the original 
father, and great will be the chances that all the off¬ 
spring are quite as hardy as Amcena, and bloom out of 
doors as freely as the American Azaleas. But to break 
the red colour, and to produce imitations of Exquisite, 
Criterion, and the old Variegata, use the pollen of 
Azalea ovata, a perfectly hardy kind from the north of 
China, sent to the Society by Mr. Fortune, a plant of 
which was at this Meeting, from Mr. Noble, of Bag- 
shot. The habit of ovata is the best of all the eastern 
Azaleas, for the hybridiser ; the flowers, which have a 
delicious smell, come in large close bunches ; they are 
flat, and of moderate substance, but wanting in co¬ 
lour; yet, such as it is, the tint would be called lovely, 
if this was the first Azalea we had seen—it is between 
a pale violet and a French white. 
The Messrs. Fraser, of the Lea Bridge Road 
Nursery, had the next best Azaleas, I believe. From 
Mr. Warner were two kinds of rare Pendrobiums, and 
the large and best variety of Tricltopilia eoccinea. The 
larger of these Dendrobes was figured, last autumn, in 
the “Botanical Magazine,” as P. nobile p alii dijlorum , 
and looks as if it were a cross between nobile and 
cucullatum, and is another lovely thing ; the second is 
also figured lately in the “ Botanical Magazine,” as a 
variety of P. crepidatum, and looks as if between 
nobile and pulchellum, and is a little slender darling. 
The Messrs. Jackson, of Ivingston, sent a new form 
of Ly caste Skinneri, a pure white flower of pearly sub¬ 
stance, and a new Vanda, from Assam, “ to show that 
even Y anda does not always present the finest flowers.” 
Mr. Turner, of Slough, sent three new variegated 
Geraniums, and a scarlet plain-leaved kind, the latter is 
a good-looking flower with a white eye. The next is 
St. Clair, with a cerise colour, and a half-cast of 
the Nosegay shape, it comes next to Jackson’s 
variegated Nosegay ; the other two were at St. James’s 
Hall, Pijou and Perfection, two very good scarlets, the 
latter being one of the best kinds of a white variegated 
leaf. He also sent a large basketful of the very finest 
Proceoli that ever was seen in April or May. It is of 
the breed of Fright's Protecting, as white as curds, 
and as solid as a rock, and as dwarf as any of the race. 
One might take it for an open Cabbage at first, as the 
“heart’ is closely covered with the centre leaves. 
I he lecturer took one of them up, and went at it like 
a man cook, but acknowledged that it was the hardest 
flower to dissect he had ever handled. 
Next came The Pride, without the wedding cake, 
from Messrs. Dobson and Son, oflslewortk. This is 
a charming white Pelargonium, with a crimson-scarlet 
blotch. The marriage certificate said, that The Pride 
maintained the high character she obtained last year, 
at the wedding, probably, and the Doctor said, “he 
was very glad to hear it,” meaning thereby, no doubt, 
that all brides do not as they should during the first 
twelve months, or before they come to “ plain sailing.” 
Another large red Pelargonium, of the market or 
forcing class, was mentioned as a very useful kind, 
requiring little heat to bring it out early, from Messrs. 
Chater and Son, the great Hollyhock growers of 
Haverhill, Essex. 
Mr. Christie, nurseryman, Leatkerhead, sent two 
good seedling Azaleas, which might stand intermediate 
between Criterion and Vangert; they are better than 
A angert, but nearly as good as Criterion, which is the 
best of all the variegata breed. 
There was a large collection of miscellaneous plants 
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