218 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Jury 3, 1860. 
So, as time rolled on, we find in every age and amongst almost 
every people, gardens were cultivated. Every nation that boasted 
civilisation, elegance, refinement, and taste, had shown ever a love 
for gardens and for gardening. Let us look at the Greek nation, 
for instance, with its garden of Adonis—still a household word, even 
in the 19th century. But the Greek notion was not our notion of 
gardening; for there the Yiolet and the Lily grew beside the Onion 
and the Leek. But we might gather a useful lesson even from that— 
how it might be treated allegorically that good and evil were often 
found together in this world, and how the perfume of the good 
almost invariably overcame the odour of the bad. It teaches us 
another practical lesson. I, for one, protest against the practice 
of separating the kitchen garden from the flower garden, and 
placing it at a distance, as though it had no connection with it. 
My notion is that they should work together—hand in hand 
with each other, as it were—the one affording beauty and the 
other usefulness. It is the truest poetry of life when beauty and 
usefulness arc mingled in equal proportions. Now let us glance 
at what the Roman gardens were. We can even see them now, 
with their flower-beds edged with Box, their terraces, their 
sloping banks trailed over with evergreens and creepers, their 
hedges cut into all forms, shapes, and devices, in many an English 
gentleman’s garden. Perhaps, then, we have caught some of the 
spirit of those to whose notions of gardening our own bare so 
strong a resemblance. Looking now to our own times, there is 
not a year passes over but every country in the world is searched 
and ransacked in order that new plants and flowers and seeds 
might be brought to this country. The warm shores of the 
Mediterranean send us their productions. Our colonies are laid 
under loyal contribution to supply us. The Indies and the 
Himalayas—thanks, by the way, to the indefatigable skill and 
perseverance of Sir W. Hooker—send many a rare and valuable 
specimen. California, China, Japan, and innumerable other 
countries have sent us their rich treasures, and thus it is that we 
are able to congratulate ourselves on the advanced state of our 
gardening in these days. We ought, then, ever to feel grateful 
for the science, the skill, the enterprise, and the knowledge which 
have all been brought to bear in order to produce these splendid 
effects, and to arrive at the present high position which horti¬ 
culture enjoys. To the gardeners of England we are very much 
indebted for the position that horticulture now occupies in this 
country. The life of a gardener is one of pleasure and enjoyment; 
but the gardener is entirely dependent on health for livelihood : 
and although his pursuits are of a healthy description, he has to 
contend with circumstances as arbitrary as the Scandinavian 
wizard, who at one time heaped upon his victim the burning 
heat of a great furnace, and then enveloped him in a mantle of 
ice. Erom these circumstances they are exposed to many personal 
privations, and this Institution has been formed to relieve them 
from a position to which old age and ill health have brought them. 
I have now much pleasure in proposing to you “ Success to the 
Gardeners’ Benevolent Institution,” whose anniversary we are met 
to celebrate, and through whose aid pensions of £16 to men, and 
£12 to women are distributed. There arc now forty-nine on the 
list—forty-one men and eight women. The present might truly 
be called an age of Societies; and this particular one deserves a 
distinguished place amongst them, for there is not one more 
valuable or which does more good according to its means.” 
Mr. J. E. C. Koch proposed the health of the noble Chair¬ 
man ; and his Lordship in reply concluded by proposing the 
health of Mr. Robert Wrench, the Treasurer of the Institution, 
to which Mr. Wrench replied. 
His Lordship then proposed the health of Mr. Cutler, the 
Secretary; who, in replying to the toast, stated that the sub¬ 
scription papers showed an amount collected in the room of 
upwards of £300, which far exceeded his most sanguine expec¬ 
tations. 
The noble Chairman then proposed “ The Horticultural and 
Botanical Societies of London," coupling with the toast the 
name of Mr. Spencer, so well known as being associated, not 
only with these Societies, but with the noble and venerable Lord 
Lansdowne, who had done so much for the advancement of the 
science of horticulture. 
Mr. Spencer replied by sajdng that he felt highly flattered by 
having his name mentioned in such an assembly as this in 
conjunction with the Horticultural and Botanical Societies, and 
especially in conjunction with the name of his noble employer, 
the Marquis of Lansdowne. He was proud to say that he had 
now served that esteemed nobleman for a quarter of a century, 
and they were better friends to-day than they were when he 
(Mr. Spencer) entered his Lordship’s service. He was not now 
so intimately connected with the Horticultural Society as some 
gentlemen present who were now on the Council of the Society', 
and therefore did not know what their plans were ; but he would 
say, that from the altered circumstances in which the Society 
was now placed, it was bound to do a greater amount of good 
than it had ever done. Gardening is the pioneer of Agriculture; 
and when he looked to the colonies of this great empire, and 
saw the field there open for improvement and enterprise, he 
thought the Horticultural Society had it in its power to benefit 
our colonial possessions by keeping up the standard of horti¬ 
culture in this country, so that gardeners going out to those 
distant parts might carry with them all the experience and skill 
with which a thorough training alone can furnish them. 
His Lordship, before vacating the chair, proposed the health 
of Mr. J. E. C. Koch, who then took his Lordship’s place, and 
proposed “ Prosperity to the Nursery and Seed Trades;” which 
was responded to by Mr. Turner, of Slough, and Mr. Bolton, of 
the firm of Noble, Cooper, <fc Bolton. After “ The Health of 
the Ladies,” the Meeting separated. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S ELORAL 
COMMITTEE. 
A meeting of this Committee was held at the rooms, St. 
Martin’s Place, Trafalgar Square, W.C., on Thursday last; Rev. 
Joshua Dix in the chair. 
Mr. Turner, of Slough, sent a collection of eleven varieties of 
now seedling Pelargoniums, the finest of which wero Ferdita 
(Foster) and Arabella Goddard. The former is a beautiful 
thing, of dwarf bushy habit of growth, throwing the flowers well 
up from the foliage. The truss is good, and the flowers large; 
the upper petals entirely covered with vclvety-black purple, 
edged with deep rose, the lower ones deep rose veined and mottled 
with darker colour ; throat of pure white. Received a First-class 
Certificate. Arabella Goddard is a fancy variety, a profuse 
bloomer, with pale lilac flowers. This received a First-class 
Certificate. 
Mr. George Smith, of Hornsey Road, exhibited a seedling 
Verbena Fairest of the Fair. It has a fine compact truss, pure 
white flowers with purplish-rosy eye. Received a Label of Com¬ 
mendation. Also, Calceolaria Canariensis , a bedding variety 
producing a profusion of rich yollow flowers. This also received 
a Label of Commendation. 
Messrs. Veitch & Son, of Chelsea, sent a variegated Gardenia, 
which appears to be a variety of Gardenia radicans. It has the 
same compact bushy habit of the species, and numerous double 
white flowers; but the leaves, which are long and narrow', are 
beautifully variegated with white margins. Whether in bloom 
or out of bloom this is a beautiful plant. 
Messrs. Milne & Co., of Vauxhall, sent a collection of eight 
seedling Gloxinias, all of which were upright-flowering varieties, 
one of which, named Gem , was requested to be shown again at a 
subsequent Meeting. 
Messrs. Stansfield & Son, of Todmorden, sent a fine plant of 
Athyrium filix-feemina, var. plumosa, a beautiful variety of Fern, 
which received a First-class Certificate. 
Azalea Magnet, from Mr. W. Barnes, of Camberwell, received 
a Label of Commendation, as a decorative plant. It is a dwarf 
grower, a late and very profuse bloomer, the flow'ers being large 
and iu the way of Stanley ana. The plant exhibited, which was 
not above a foot high, was one mass of bloom. 
Messrs. Carter & Co., of Holborn, sent two new Annuals, Gilia 
acliiUecefolia alba purs and Linaria macroura splendens. The 
former is a very pure white variety, and received a Label of Com¬ 
mendation ; the latter is very dark purple. 
Mr. Standish, of Bagsliot, exhibited a large plant of the beauti¬ 
ful Dracaena indivisa, which has a fine bronzy foliage, and a rich 
orange midrib. To this a First-class Certificate was awarded. 
A seedling Pink, Mrs. Turner (Maclean’s), was exhibited by 
Mr. Turner, of Slough, and received a First-class Certificate. It 
is heavily laced with deep purple. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Hose Petals Stunted {M. A .).—The cause of your Rose petals being 
so dwarf as to form no more than a ring -within the calyx, probably is the 
coldness of the season, as well as poverty of soil. We have seen a Rose 
