March 21st, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
451 
gj| SEEDSMEN fg§ 
By Qj* To 
Boyal Her Majesty 
Warrant The Queen, 
AND BY 
Special Warrant to H.R.H.the Prince of Wales. 
SUTTON’S 
PRIZE 
L AWN B RASS S EEPS 
AWARDED 
The Diplome d’Honneur, Amsterdam, 1883. 
The Special Gold Medal, Melbourne, 1880. 
-- : — 
SUTTON’S 
EVERGREEN M IXTURES 
SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR 
Garden Lawns, 
Tennis Lawns, 
Cricket Grounds. 
PRICES. 
Sutton’s Mixture for Garden < Per bushel, 25s. Od. 
Lawns and CroquetGrounds 1 ,, gallon, 3s. 3d. 
Sutton’s Mixture for Tennis f Per bushel, 22s. 6d. 
Lawns and Bowling Greens \ „ gallon, 3s. Od. 
Sutton’s Mixture for Cricket ( Per bushel, 22s. 6d. 
Grounds.j ,, gallon, 3s. Od. 
63T Sow 3 bushels per acre to form new Lawns, or 1 bushel 
per acre to improve an existing sward. 
“Your new plot of Grass is perfection itself, I don’t 
think I have ever seen better.”—J. C. FOX, Esq., Royal 
Horticultural Society, South Kensington. 
“ The new Lawn made with Messrs. Sutton’s Grass Seeds 
has been a wonderful success. Everyone who sees it is 
astonished to find that it was only sown last May.”—Mrs. 
CRESSAVELL, Morney Cross. 
“ Tom- Grass Seeds have quite surpassed anything ever 
seen about here before. My employer desired me to express 
his pleasure in playing on such a close sward of sown grass.” 
—Mr. J. McINTOSH, Gardener to AY. Lowson, Esq., 
Taymount. 
“ I have a wonderfully good Tennis Lawn from the seed 
supplied by you last season. Although only sown the 
second week in May, the Lawn was actually played upon 
the first week in August.”—T. AY. FORE,SHEA', Esq., 
Witney. 
SUTTON’S 
PSIPEET Oli THE FORMATION AND 
IIPROYEMENT of LAWNS from SEED 
May be had GRATIS and POST FREE on application. 
Seedsmen by Royal Warrant to H.M. the Queen, 
and also the First Seedsmen by Special AVarrant 
to H.R.H. the Prince oe Wales. 
READING. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”—B acon. 
Cjj* Ikrknmg Morffr. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 21st, 1885 . 
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Shoavs- 
—The schedule of prizes for the competitive ex¬ 
hibitions of the Royal Horticultural Society have 
just been issued, and no doubt are being scanned 
with very considerable interest by many gar¬ 
deners. The association of these Shows with the 
remarkable series of exhibitions now being 
annually held at South Kensington gives to them 
much additional interest. Besides the Shows of 
the National Rose, Auricula, and Carnation and 
Picotee Societies, all of which are full of interest, 
and give special encouragement to some of our most 
popular garden-flowers, the Royal Horticultural 
Society offers prizes at ten others, inclusive of one 
specially devoted to cottage-garden produce. 
Last year’s Show for cottagers was a great 
success, and no doubt that success has led to the 
promotion of another Show for that class of 
gardeners again this year. 
A special Show for Orchids, on June 9th, will 
no doubt attract many admirers of those beauti¬ 
ful epiphytes, hut there is danger that the Orchid 
Conference on May 12th and 13th, which will 
take the form of an exhibition without prizes, 
may discount the Orchid competition of a month 
later. Pelargoniums, Azaleas, Cinerarias, Bego¬ 
nias, and fine-foliaged plants get a good share of 
encouragement, and the displays will doubtless 
he interesting as well as gay, for many other 
plants are invited in the respective competitions, 
which can hardly fail to prove attractive. It is 
long since prizes have been offered for Dahlias at 
South Kensington, but that favourite flower is 
now in higher favour in that quarter, and the 
goodly prizes offered will doubtless lead to a 
good competition. 
After all, to gardeners generally, the chief 
interest of the year will be found in the three 
last Shows of the season, when—the butterfly 
element of exhibition attendance having left 
town—the Shows cater more generallyfor subjects 
of utility. Thus, on September 9th—rather too 
early, it is feared, for many kinds—there will be 
a remarkable exhibition of Grapes—remarkable in 
this sense, that there will he no collections, nor a 
single class for more than a brace of bunches; 
hut then there are twenty-six classes for as many 
named kinds, and one other class for any other 
sort not previously named, if such can be found. 
No doubt it is hoped that by bringing together 
samples of Grapes grown under specific names, in 
diverse parts of the kingdom, something may be 
dons to correct the very dubious nomenclature 
which even yet so largely exists. 
Something of a similar kind may result from 
the exhibition of Apples and Pears, to be held on 
October 13th and following day; for there are 
classes for many specially-named sorts of each of 
these fruits. Chrysanthemums and Potatos, and 
other vegetables get very liberal recognition on 
October 27th, and the talked-of Potato Conference 
is fixed for the same date. The special prize 
donors are the Messrs. Sutton & Sons, of Read¬ 
ing, who make liberal offers for Melons, Cucum¬ 
bers, Lettuces, collection of vegetables, and 
Potatos ; and Messrs. Webb & Sons, of Words- 
ley, who also take vegetables under their special 
care, as becomes a large seed-firm. 
-H*.- 
Chinese Primroses. —It was doubtless some¬ 
what disappointing to many who attended the 
recent very pretty Show at South Kensington, 
not to have found Chinese Primroses represented. 
There is, we fear, a feeling growing up that these 
beautiful winter flowers are out of season when 
March comes in, and further that they are then 
superseded by the largely - grown Cyclamen. 
How, to that notion we take strong exception, not 
only because the Chinese Primrose ought to be 
as beautiful in March as in any other month, hut 
also because the Cyclamen is somewhat of a 
speciality, and can be well grown by but very 
few persons. Though so effective and so wonder¬ 
fully floriferous, yet the Cyclamen gives no great 
variety of colour or habit, hut in spite of these 
simple features it seems to be the most difficult 
flowering-greenhouse plant that we have to grow, 
because they are rarely seen good anywhere, hut 
in a few places where their culture is a speciality 
and specialists grow them. 
Not in one private garden in a thousand can 
really good samples of Cyclamens he seen. On 
the other hand almost everybody can grow 
Chinese Primulas well, and the amateur gardener 
with his small house may, indeed often does, have 
as good plants as the gardener who has amplo 
glass space at his disposal; then there is very 
much more of variety in Primula bloom, and in 
the plants far more of grace and beauty than the 
Cyclamen gives. This latter plant is always stiff 
and formal, and one plant is, except perhaps in 
colour, but the duplicate of ten thousand. We 
are not desirous of contemning the Cyclamen 
in any way, much less at the expense of the 
Chinese Primrose, but certainly Avhen it is 
assumed that these latter beautiful winter flowers 
are out of season in March, chiefly because 
Cyclamens are in, the proposition seems such an 
absurdity that we cannot but offer a protest 
against it. 
Of course we have no intention to decry the 
Cyclamen, that would be absurd also, as it would 
be unmerited. On the other hand it is hardly 
fair to either plant that the one should be 
elevated at the expense of the other. It is 
neither necessary to decry either nor to specially 
elevate them, as the merits of both are so well 
known, though we cannot but think that, on the 
whole, the palm of merit rests with the Chinese 
Primrose, because of the exceeding ease with 
which it can be cultivated. We find, moreover, 
that A r ariety creeps into this plant faster than into 
the Cyclamen, a natural result of ease of fertili¬ 
zation, free seeding, and quick growth. There is, 
too, a natural tendency in Primulas to vary, even 
to the extent of producing beautiful semi-double 
and double flowers, and these variations may be 
as much the fortune of the small grower as of the 
large one. There can be little doubt but that 
the Primula will long remain our most popular 
winter-blooming plant for greenhouses, for it is 
graceful, effective, and wonderfully floriferous, 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution. 
—A special general meeting of the subscribers to 
this institution was held at the Bedford Hotel, 
Covent Garden, on the 13th inst., Edward Tids- 
well, Esq., the Treasurer, in the chair. The 
meeting was well attended, and the whole of the 
suggested alterations in existing rules and the 
three proposed new ones, having been explained by 
Mr. John Lee, the Chairman of the Committee, 
they were put to the meeting seriatim, and 
adopted without a dissentient voice, the alterations 
in rule 8, increasing the amount of the pensions, 
being carried by acclamation. The practical 
