DECEMBER. 
263 
my seed stock, and yet none of the tubers which were stored dry have rotted, 
'and this is the general experience of greening seed Potatoes in this neighbour¬ 
hood in the present autumn. I was very sorry to see the other day, that of a 
large stock of seed Potatoes, many of them new and expensive sorts, belonging to 
a nurseryman, and which had been laid out to green and were then stored under 
the shelves of a long plant-house, nearly three-fourths w r ere rotten, although not 
a single tuber appeared to be diseased when they were dug up. After this year’s 
experience I think I shall be somewhat chary of greening seed Potatoes in the 
future. 
There can be no doubt that the disease has presented itself among the later 
varieties in as virulent a form as ever, and this I consider is attributable to the 
exceedingly wet autumn ; for whatever may be the primary cause of the disease, 
it is certain that nothing so much aids its development and propagation as an 
excess of moisture. 
Southampton. A. D. 
GUILDHALL SHOW. 
Truly it was a pleasing sight which the old civic hall of the City of London 
presented on the morning of the 13th of November. Usually so cold and 
dismal at this season of the year, it had been galvanised into a new life by the 
holding within its walls of the usual autumnal meeting of the United Horti¬ 
cultural Society—a City horticultural organisation. All the gildings and trap¬ 
pings that made the ancient hall look smart on the recent occasion of the Lord 
Mayor’s banquet had been allowed to remain; an outer hall temporarily erected 
for the purposes of the civic feast bristled with men in armour and sundry 
quaint devices, and to reach the temple of peace and mercy within, for a 
charitable bazaar was combined with the Show, you had to pass through a kind 
of military chamber of horrors peopled with the remnants of a past age. Within 
the great hall the scene was charming in the extreme. Flowering and fine- 
foliaged plants were ranged in stages along the sides of the hall, intersected by 
the stalls for the Fancy Fair in aid of the Albert Orphan Asylum. These were 
beautifully furnished and arranged, the gay and striking colours so plentifully 
presented contrasting nicely with the sombre hues of the fine-foliaged plants. 
Two lines of tables running down the centre of the hall contained cut flowers, 
bouquets, table decorations, &c. The fruit, of which there was an excellent 
show, was arranged in one of the ante-chambers of the Chamberlain’s apartments. 
There was considerable difficulty in picking out the various groups of pot 
Chrysanthemums, as, in order to secure effect, they were commingled in the 
formation of the groups before alluded to. * Mr. George, gardener to Miss 
Nicholson, of Stamford Hill, had a group of plants of large-flowering Chrysan¬ 
themums that had been very skilfully managed. The following were very 
flue :—Golden Christine, Alma, Vesta, Christine, Princess of Wales, Beaute du 
Nord, Annie Salter, Golden Hermione, and Lady Hardinge. A group of 
Chrysanthemums in pots, shown by J. Crute, Esq., of Holloway, the President 
of the Societ}% was much admired, the flowers being remarkably fine. Mr. 
Forsyth, of Stoke Newington, also had splendid plants of Pompone kinds. The 
most noticeable were Cedo Nulli, Golden Cedo Nulli, Bob, Golden Aurora, and 
White Trevenna. 
Of cut blooms there was a goodly number, and of something more than 
average quality. Looking along the stands of blooms one could not but be 
struck with the very large preponderance of light-coloured and yellow flowers, 
aud the almost entire absence of lively-coloured red and crimson flowers. If 
the colour of the Pompone variety Bob could only be associated with flowers 
