376 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 18. 1860. 
one may be of a dusky rose colour -with grey scales, another 
white spotted with red, a third marked with a star of red or 
yellow, whilst a fourth may be almost black. The rays or arms 
are usually white or grey with bright pink bauds, often of a 
deep blue with spines of rose colour, or banded with gold, or 
speckled with brown or orange. This is the most brittle of all the 
Brittle Stars, separating itself into pieces on the slightest touch, 
flinging away its arms and reducing itself to the plain disc in an 
incredibly short time. 
The Common Brittle Star seems to he equally abundant on all 
parts of the coasts of Britain and Ireland, frequenting Oyster and 
other shell-banks in considerable quantities. They are, in many 
places, particularly on the western coast of Scotland, and in 
some parts of the east of England, found upon the shore at low 
water. It is to be looked for in rocky places ; rarely frequenting 
sandy localities. It is said to attain a larger size off the Shetland 
Isles than anywhere else. Its prey consists mostly of little Crabs 
and other shellfish, and seems itself to be a favourite food of 
the Cod, great numbers having been found in the stomach of that 
fish.—W. (To be continued .) 
TE.ITOMA UVARIA OFFSETS. 
Haying a few plants of Tritoma uvaria, they have each sent 
up three or four young shoots from the roots. I suspect these 
plants are not hardy enough to remain out in the open border, 
and will require to be lifted, and potted, and placed under pro¬ 
tection before winter. Should I take away the young shoots, or 
allow them to remain attached to the old plant ?—J. M. 
[We cannot say if Tritoma uvaria is hardy enough for your 
garden, as you do not say what part of the world you live in. It 
is hardy enough on sandy soil that is not liable to be flooded 
about London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Last winter destroyed 
numbers of it at Kew, where the ground was flooded when the 
frost came ; but in the cottage gardens about Kew Green, and 
from there to Richmond, we have seen it in fine bloom lately, 
and could hear of none having suffered by frost. Unless your 
plants have been down three or four years we would not attempt 
to separate the suckers. The end of February is the best time 
for amateurs to divide it. As a Russian frost could be kept from 
a few square yards of ground, we would never remove such plants 
as this Tritoma for protection in-doors. Such plants are more 
liable to harm under the stage of ordinary greenhouses than in 
the open ground with some coal ashes over them all the winter, 
and something extra over that during severe weather—that is, 
where they are liable to be caught in the frost. Ours never need 
covering, and we grow many of them.] 
TOWCESTER HORTICULTURAL FETE. 
What a drab-coloured world this would be if the dismal- 
minded folk had it all their own way ! If a picture has two 
sides, a bright and a dark, the dark is studiously kept before you. 
The sun may shine, it is true ; but if you cannot see dark 
lowering clouds, you are told prophetically that they are sure to 
come. All the beauties of creation, and the benevolence these 
reveal, are to them shrouded in mourning and woe. It is not 
enough to meet evil and disaster half way—they woo and court 
their advances. They receive not in the matters of their creed 
“ Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.” They lengthen their 
long faces at the enunciation of the good old proverb, “Sad, sad 
is the heart that never rejoices.” 
So think not and act not the good people of the little town of 
Towcester, situated some five miles from the station of Blisworth 
on the North-western Railway. In the days of coaches the town 
presented a scene of busy active excitement. The rail and the 
train took traffic in other directions ; and the town, like many 
another town and private establishment, was left to feel that few 
great public advantages can be realised without entailing some 
loss on individuals and lesser communities. Did the Towcester 
folk content themselves with wringing their hands in unavailing 
regrets, allow their houses to moulder and decay, and turn their 
once-busy streets into sheep-walks and cow-pastures? Not they. 
They believed that good Fortune had many stores left to bestow 
on the bravely active and the industriously energetic. By various 
means they let the world know there was still a Towcester; and 
among the last, though not the least of these means, has been the 
establishment of a floral and horticultural fete, that from the first 
has taken no secondary place among provincial exhibitions, and 
chiefly owing to the fact that a united township had resolved it 
should be a success. 
The first of these fetes was held two years ago, contempor¬ 
aneously with the meeting of the Northamptonshire Agricultural 
Association at Towcester; and after a night and morning of 
drenching rains, the sun shone brilliantly for most of the day, 
and the large meadow, given for the occasion by Mr. T. W. 
Gurney, scarcely allowed moving room for the mass of visitors. 
Last year the Show was even better than the first, and the last 
on the 30th of August best of all. Never was there a better 
example in our changeable climate of “ work, and then expect.” 
St. Swithin, unsatisfied with his six weeks’ copious tear-shedding, 
gave us several extra days of regular downpouring ; and many a 
gardener and amateur got regularly soaked on the morning of 
the 30th, in preparing and taking his favourite produce to the 
great rendezvous. All was forgotten when the sun shone out 
brilliantly before mid-day, the harbinger of the fine harvest 
weather that has succeeded. His cheering presence gave a richer 
zest to the flags and floral wreaths with which the town was 
decorated, made the two smart corps of volunteers that came from 
Northampton to greet in social brotherhood the equally smart 
corps under Lord Pomfret look all the smarter and prettier, caused 
the splendid music of the full band of marines to sound more 
mellow and enchanting, and lightened up with joyous smiles the 
countenances of from four to five thousand visitors, embracing 
all ranks from peer to peasant—from Lord and Lady Southampton, 
Lord Pomfret, Sir Charles and Lady Wake, and the aristocracy 
of the district, to the tradesmen of the town, and the lads and 
lasses from the villages aud farmhouses in the neighbourhood. 
In this mixture of rank, composing such a scene of general 
joyousness, there was something more pleasing than even Chis¬ 
wick presented in its palmy days. There was there, at least, the 
attempted cordon of exclusiveness. It was even mooted at one 
time, that the gardeners whose skill made the exhibitions should 
not be admitted until a late hour in the afternoon. It is true, at 
Towcester there were different hours and different prices for ad¬ 
mission ; but if the aristocracy were the earliest to enter, they 
were anything but the earliest to depart—mingling with affability 
and courtesy among their humbler neighbours, furnishing in¬ 
dubitable proof that such condescension never lowers but raises 
in rank and esteem, whilst its manifestation seldom fails to 
produce a deeper feeling of self-respect and moral dignity amongst 
us working men who are privileged to witness it. 
It would be impossible for me, and someivhat contrary to our 
general practice in this serial, to give a detailed account of the 
almost countless objects of superior culture, and good manage¬ 
ment, and proofs of industry, and anxious care, that loaded the 
tables of some half dozen large tents belonging to the division 
open to all comers ; to the divisions for gardeners, amateurs, 
cottagers, under-gardeners, agriculturalists, and, though last not 
least, the division set apart for the designs and collections of 
wild flowers bv boys and girls belonging to Sunday-schools. I 
will merely cull a few of the most salient points that are likely 
to be most generally interesting. 
One of the most telling features of the Exhibition was the 
various collections of eight stove, greenhouse, or ornamental- 
foliage plants in the open division. Tho lead here was most 
deservedly taken by Mr. Mills, gardener to H. G. Nethercote, 
Esq., of Moreton Grange, near Northampton. His plants were 
a fine specimen of Caladium argyrites , some eighteen inches 
high, and about as much in diameter ; the foliage beautifully 
healthy, and pearled in profusion with its peculiar white blotches. 
A fine plant of Caladium Newmanii, its large green leaves 
speckled and dotted with spots of crimson. A huge mass of 
Caladium Chantinii, rivetting with its beauty every spectator ; 
the leaves not long and narrow, like Cauliflower, but rounded 
like Rhubarb, and measuring fully one foot across. Pothos 
argyrea, with thick leaves like a Hoya, the green blotched with 
white ; more singular than beautiful. A huge mass of Begonia 
grandis fully two feet in height, and more in diameter; foliage 
healthy without a single leaf showing a wrinkle or a curl. Begonia 
Marshallii, not quite so high, but wider across, and beautifully 
done. A nice plant of Chamccrops humilis, and a compact plant 
of the ever-admired Cyanophyllum magnijicum. Equal seconds 
were awarded to Messrs. Wood & Ingram, of Huntingdon, and 
Mr. Blackmore, gardener to R. G. Bevan, Esq , of Brickwortli. 
In the collection of the first-named gentleman were splendid 
plants of Caladium pictum and Chantinii; and in Mr. Black- 
more’s were fine plants of Begonia Marshallii and Statise im- 
