February 28, 1891. 
THE GARDENING 'WORLD. 
405 
VEITCHS 
COLLECTIONS OF 
Flower Seeds 
TO SUIT ALL REQUIREMENTS. 
At 53., 10s. 6<L, 15s., 21s., and 12s. each. 
FREE BY POST. 
COMPRISING ONLY THE MOST SHOWY 
AND USEFUL VARIETIES. 
Full particulars post free on application. 
VEITCHS 
COLLECTIONS OF 
UNEQUALLED FOR QUALITY. 
UNSURPASSED FOR LIBERALITY. 
At 21s., 31s. 6d,, 42s., and 63s. each. 
Carriage /paid to any Station in the United Kingdom. 
Full particulars post free on application. 
JAMES VEITCH& SONS, 
Royal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, S.W. 
1891 SEASON 1891 
. I have much pleasure in announcing that my complete 
Catalogue of VEGETABLE and FLOWER SEEDS is now being 
distributed to customers, and may be had post free and gratis 
upon applicati>n 
seeds. 
To this department I purpose devoting as much care as I 
have done in the past to Flower Seeds. Every variety 1 am 
offering is of most reliable worth, and from the very iinest 
stocks procurable. 
FtOWlR SEEDS. 
These have for many years received special attention at 
Tottenham. This portion of my New Catalogue will be found 
specially interesting, for not only does it include everything 
usually offered and worthy of cultivation, hut it includes also 
many NEW and RARE varieties, and which will he found in 
this Catalogue only. This remark applies particularly to Seeds 
of Hardy Perennials. 
THOMAS S. WARE, 
Hale Farm Nurseries, 
TOTTENHAM, LONDON. 
OR AT F AIR PRICES FR OM LIST 
-^CATALOGUE FREE#r 
NE W- TRUE- GENU INE 
ALL DELIVERED FRE 
BEN. SODDY. SEEDSMAN* 
243. WALWORTH R° LONOON. 
Mention this paper in applying for Catalogue. 
SPECIAL CULTURE 
OF 
FRUIT TREES&ROSES. 
A Large and Select Stock is now offered for Sale. 
The Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Fruits post free. 
The Descriptive Catalogue of Roses post free. 
property. All who love flower and fruit 
shows — and we know of some among gardeners 
who dislike them — must admit that there is 
hardly a finer place in the world for such 
exhibitions than is the Palace, and that the 
place merits that the best of exhibits shall be 
displayed there. 
THOMAS RIVERS & SON, 
The Nurseries, SA WBRIDGEWORTH, HERTS. 
SOCIETIES ANNOUNCEMENTS. 
Crystal Palace. 
E xhibitions of plants, floaters, 
FRUITS, &c., 
To be held during 1891. 
SPRING EXHIBITION OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, &c., 
Saturday, March 21st. 
The Entries for this Show close on March 14th. 
GREAT SUMMER EXHIBITION, 
Saturday, May 9th. 
THE NATIONAL ROSE SOCIETY'S GRAND EXHIBITION 
OF ROSES, 
Saturday, July 4th. 
THE FRUIT EXHIBITION, 
WITH 
THE NATIONAL DAHLIA SOCIETY'S GRAND SHOW, 
Friday and Saturday, September 4th and 5th. 
GREAT AUTUMN FRUIT SHOW, 
October Sth to 10th inclusive. 
GRAND CHRYSANTHEMUM EXHIBITION, 
Friday and Saturday, November 6th and 7th. 
Schedules of Prizes, Rules and Regulations, post free, on 
application to Mr. W. G. HEAD, Superintendent, Gardens 
Department, Crystal Palace, S.E. 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Monday, March 2nd. —Sale of Carnations and Hardy Bulbs at 
Protheroe & Morris s Rooms. 
Tuesday, March 3rd.—Crystal Palace Exhibition of Horticul¬ 
tural Sundries and Appliances opens. Meeting of National 
Amateur Gardeners’ Association. Special Sale of Lilies at 
Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Wednesday, March 4th.—Sale of Lilies, Roses and Plants at 
Protheroe & Morris's Rooms. Sale of Border Plants, Roses, 
Fruit Trees, &c., at Stevens’ Rooms. 
Thursday, March 5th.—Sample Sale at Protheroe & Morris’s 
Rooms 
Friday, March 6th. —Sale of New Orchids at Prothei oe & Morris's 
Rooms. 
Saturday, March 7th.—Sale of Border Plants, Roses, Fruit 
Trees, &c., at Stevens' Rooms. 
For Index to Contents, see p. 414. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greati st 
refreshment to the spirit of man." —Bacon. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28th, 1891. 
CURRENT TOPICS. 
7|The Crystal Palace Exhibitions. — The 
Palace, which, as all the world knows, is 
so commandingly situated on the top of 
Sydenham Hill, is practically as much the 
property of the public as it is of the com¬ 
pany pecuniarily owning it. We may almost 
say of it that it is a public institution though 
not a free one. Still, it would be difficult 
to tell how the public would be benefited 
were the Palace the property of the nation, 
and free to all; because in such case those 
remarkably varied and always elevating and 
attractive entertainments and exhibitions pro¬ 
vided now could not be produced at the public 
expense. 
The Crystal Palace Company, as we briefly 
indicated last week, lias promised a series— 
another series we perhaps ought to say—of 
horticultural shows during the ensuing year, 
which have no equal elsewhere in the king¬ 
dom. These shows arc in their competitive 
parts open to all freely. They are as dis¬ 
plays open to all who may choose to pay the 
small sum charged for admission. Literally, 
they are open to the world, and therefore we 
say of the Palace that it is in a sense public 
The exhibition of the multitude of articles 
comprised in the general descriptive term of 
garden sundries and requirements which opens 
on Tuesday next, and will be continued for 
some three weeks, promises to lie of an exten¬ 
sive and interesting character. It is a long 
time since we have had a similar exhibition 
in this country, and there can be little doubt 
of the benefit which such a display will be 
to the trade that provides for all gardeners 
the hundred-and-one of our daily necessities 
in the management of a garden establishment. 
To the great horticulture-loving public it can 
hardly also prove other than of great useful¬ 
ness from an educational point of view. So 
far as we can learn, the display will occupy 
both the immense north and south naves of 
the Palace, and the names of the leading firms 
who have arranged to exhibit are a sufficient 
guarantee that a large selection of well-nigh 
every article used in a garden, from a green¬ 
house to a thumb flower-pot, will be on view. 
We are also promised a lawn-mower contest, 
but of that more anon. What is likely to 
prove of greater interest to gardeners and 
Hop and fruit growers will be the contest for 
the medals offered for the best insecticide 
spraying apparatus, which has wisely been 
arranged to take place on the occasion of the 
Spring Flower Show on March 21st, when 
a considerable number of practical horticul¬ 
turists may he expected to be present. 
The later exhibitions of Eoses, Dahlias, 
Chrysanthemums and fruits, with perhaps on 
the 15tli of August the finest display of 
vegetables ever seen, should make .up a 
season of unusual interest and beauty. The 
Palace gives to us almost the only really 
interesting of autumn fruit shows now, and 
exhibitors should not be unmindful of the 
encouragement which the Palace Company 
holds out to them. May we be there to see 
all the shows ! 
J ^ecorative Groups at Exhibitions.— There 
■ is some satisfaction in learning that at 
least one exhibition during the ensuing summer 
there is a prospect of seeing some form of 
decorative group, other than the stereotyped 
style with which we are all so familiar. It is 
in this case proposed to have a group, of which 
Gloxinias alone should form the floral material, 
the ordinary green and coloured foliage plants 
being admitted for dressing. We should have 
liked to see Begonias included with Gloxinias, 
as whilst giving additional colours, they would 
also have given a diversity of plant form. 
A mass of Gloxinias, however varied and 
beautiful, must yet have some appearance of 
flatness. The introduction of Begonias, of at 
least one third of the whole, would have intro¬ 
duced variation in habit and served to break 
the flatness. Those who saw a remarkably 
beautiful group, arranged in prospective form, 
at one of the Crystal Palace shows last autumn, 
by Messrs. -J. Laing & Sons, of Forest Hill, will 
recognise the delightfully pleasing effect which 
can he got out of Begonias in groups alone. 
With Gloxinias added, we are sure the effect 
would be enhanced. 
One thing essential to the production of 
pretty effects seems to he found in greater 
depth in the groups. Ordinarily they are 
rather broader than deep, because, as a rule, 
ordinary flower-show tents do not allow of 
depth. Any form of decorative groups other 
than the stereotyped one with which most 
frequenters of flower shows are so familiar is 
welcome. Compilers of flower show schedules, 
however, are very conservative, and can seldom 
be induced to break away from the old routine. 
