THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 5, 1860. 
116 
flowering plants in England, nor even anything like it, as 
I can well declare ; for I had been officially engaged at 
Chiswick during the whole period of the palmy days, 
from 1837, when I went in and found them at logger- 
heads with Nurserymen, Judges, and in interfering with 
Judges and Council, to the end of their prosperous career. 
I was also a witness to the flash of success which shined 
on the botanist-florists in the [Regent’s Park ; and a most 
successful, and deservedly successful, shine it was, but it 
was as nothing to that of the new free-trade system at 
Sydenham. .But I got at the secret of the move—I felt a 
tug at my elbow as I was iu raptures over Mr. Turner’s 
flaming, feathered, and far-fetched Tulips. There was 
Sir Joseph Paxton, the prince of gardeners, with her 
Grace the Duchess of Sutherland on his arm, and before 
they left me I moved a resolution to the effect that I 
should be allowed to mention the chance interview with¬ 
out breach of etiquette or precedent. Sir Joseph seconded 
the motion, which was passed unanimously. 
The whole scheme of the new arrangement is a free- 
trade movement by Sir Joseph himself; the only part of 
the scheme which did not coincide with the same notions 
of The Cottage Gardener was that by which an ex¬ 
hibitor, under the new law, is subjected to the restrictions 
which were considered necessary under the protection 
policy, more particularly the enactment which tied his 
hands and his ambition to a certain fixed period during 
which he must needs have the plants in his possession 
before the day of exhibition. “But,” says Sir Joseph, 
“ I shall tie no man’s hands, or put any restrictions what¬ 
ever upon an exhibitor in future.” “ You,” he went on 
to say, “ may compete for all our prizes.” “ Then,” said 
I, “ you have arrived at a point which cost me a vast deal 
of thought and study to gain access to.” 
This question of free trade in floral exhibitions had been 
privately discussed in the Council-room atChiswiek, before 
Dr. Lindley, Dr. Herbert, J. [Rogers, Esq. (the inventor of 
the conical boiler), several other members of the Council, 
and the principal judges at the exhibitions for the space 
of four years. I was dreadfully against it at first, but I 
was wrong. The Doctor, I think, was for it from the 
first; but it was the end of the summer of 1846, before 
we were all united in the opinion that it was the right 
and best way after all, and I expected, Suffolk-like, the 
Doctor would have made a start at Chiswick in the free 
trade line the year after; but I never heard any more 
of it till I received the schedule from the Crystal Palace 
the other day. So you see Sir Joseph Paxton was born 
to be lucky, which is more than can be said of any of us 
who were in this secret. But, generally, I have had my 
share of good luck at the shows, in meeting good critics, 
and the principal judges of my part of the craft, among 
the country party ; I little expected, however, to meet 
the Queen and Prince of gardening together in the midst 
of flowers. We gardeners consider the Duchess of Suther¬ 
land the highest authority in these kingdoms in flower¬ 
gardening, and in the arrangements of flowers and colours 
for the best effect, and we often say “ our Queen and 
Prince ” were there, at any given show, while all the 
gardeners and nurserymen in the room understand the 
allusion to be to her Grace and Sir Joseph. But our 
“ Queen and Prince ” have a great deal yet to learn 
about florists’ flowers, and about florists’ Tulips more 
particularly. They wanted a leaf out of my book about 
them, and I was obliged to own I knew nothing about 
them; then I told them what I had seen at the Wel¬ 
lington [Road Nursery the other day; but the Duchess 
had seen the bedding Tulips there, probably in the suite of 
Her Majesty, but never such a splendid exhibition as 
that then before her. What they said about mauve, 
ribbons, beds, and terrace gardens, is in accordance with 
what most of the peerage people hold as the apple of 
their eye—the “decorative” portions of their country 
residences. 
The Orchids were the most numerous—over the usual 
quantities seen at one show, there being no less than 
twenty-eight entries of them. There were not many new 
ones of them, but they were all very good. Cattleya 
citrina, Aclandice, and bullosa— three dwarf alpine plants 
not generally seen. Thalia Warneri was the newest to 
me : it is, as it were, a niece to Lcelia purpurea, with a 
different form of labelluni, or great front lip of the family. 
Oncidium Philipsianum was also new to me, and is the 
same kind of improvement on Oncidium sphacelaium that 
ampliatum major was on the elder Oncidium of that 
name. The white variety of Cattleya Mossier from Mr. 
Warner was there; and the history of it is, that it is a 
better grower and a far more free one to bloom than the 
one of that strain which was seen five or six years back 
from Sion House. At the last meeting of the Eloricultural 
Committee it was shown and believed to be all but iden¬ 
tical with the latter kind. Cyrtochilum stellatum, or 
Miltonia stellata, was better in one collection than I ever 
saw it, and is really a fine thing for a specimen plant. 
Dendrobium nobile was never seen finer, nor Trichopilia 
coccinea : one in Mr. Warner’s collection was one mass of 
bloom all round the pot. 
Vanda teres has been subdued at last by Mr. Carson, 
who had it there in bloom after the shape and profusion 
of a Pelargonium, having seventeen or eighteen spikes of 
bloom, and many blooms on each spike. The way is 
most ingenious. A stout block or stem of wood, from 
four to five feet long is placed upright in a large pot. 
Pieces of the Vanda are then planted between the block 
and the rim of the pot all round. The teres, or terete, or 
long, naked shoots, are then fastened upright to the post 
or block ; the steam is put on; the shoots grow amazingly, 
and would soon be up yards above the post, and a few 
flowers might be seen now and then. Not that, however. 
As soon as the shoot or shoots reached the top of the post 
they are trained round and round and crossways into the 
shape of one of the hanging-baskets of the Palace turned 
upside down, a broad and very blunt pyramidal shape, 
and the whole is one blaze of bloom all over, such as 
never was seen in this part of the world before. The 
most lovely Dendrobium liliijlorum, and the most lady¬ 
like of that Asiatic race, was there too in Mr. Woolley’s 
lot. There was one Maxillaria tenuifolia and one of 
aromatica. The former large enough to load an ass com¬ 
fortably ; the other the most wholesome-smelling plant 
among ail the air-plants yet discovered, and worthy of a 
place for cut flowers for the drawing-rooms. Lcelia 
cinnabarina in Mr. Warner’s collection, with six flower- 
spikes, was the best-bloomed plant of it I have seen at a 
show. Arpophyllum giganteum I have never seen better 
than it was grown by Mr. Carson. The Plialcenopses were 
not nearly so fine as they will be in June, nor the Hirides 
or Saccolabiums, and very few Vandas of extra looks. Six 
was the largest number of blooms on a Lcelia purpurea. 
Phaiuses, Dendrobiums, Brassias, Oncidiums, Cypripe- 
diums, Epimediums, Cattleyas, were the other most ex¬ 
tensive genera in Orchids. 
The premium prize, of £20, for the best sixteen of these 
was won by Mr. Gedney, gardener to the Bev. Mr. Ellis, 
Hoddesden. His best were the said Cattleya citrina, 
Lcdia purpurea with six blooms, a good variety of Lycaste 
SIcinneri with sixteen blooms, a noble-looking P/iaius 
Wa.llic7i.ii, a fine Dendrobiumprimulinum and densiflorum . 
The second prize, of £15, to Mr. Bullen, gardener to 
J. Butler, Esq., Woolwich, who had the Cattleya Ac¬ 
landice and the curious Saccolabium curvifolium. 
The third prize, of £10, to Mr. Eobert Warner, Bloom¬ 
field, near Chelmsford, Essex. His collection includes 
the said Lcelia cinnabarina, and the Trichopilium, and 
the Bhubarb-scented Dendrobium macrophyllum — all 
good-sized plants. 
Mr. Bhodes, gardener to J. Philpot, Esq., Stamford 
Hill, had the next prize, of £7, with a next-in-degree col¬ 
lection of sixteen plants. 
The next run was with ten plants in a collection ; and it 
