790 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 12, 1893. 
purposes, on account of its free flowering properties 
and golden yellow flowers; but unfortunately when 
examined at close quarters, the flowers are seen to 
be badly formed. The two lateral petals reflex away 
from the lip, detracting from the refinement of the 
flower, but with this exception it is a most desirable 
bedder. 
In an early issue, we intend to give an account of 
the beautiful race of rayless Violas, both the large 
types and the miniature forms raised and sent on 
trial by Dr. Stuart of Chirnside, N.B. Those above 
described have been sent by Messrs. Dobbie & Co. 
of Rothesay, N.B. We should like to see the culture 
of beauitful Violas greatly extended, no matter what 
the types are. Nor have we any desire to prescribe 
limits to any good race whatever. 
-- 
A SUBURBAN BANK HOLIDAY 
FLOWER SHOW. 
The fourth annual show of the Beddington, Car- 
shalton, and Wallington Horticultural Society was 
held on Monday last in Carshalton Park under most 
favourable circumstances. The society had issued a 
well-considered schedule, and this, with other 
attractions not closely identified with horticulture, 
brought together a good company, so that there 
should be no uneasiness as regards the financial 
results. The most attractive feature of the show 
this year was a new class included in the schedule 
at the instigation of Mr. A. H. Smee, who provided 
the prizes, and which might with great advantage 
be introduced into the schedules of other societies, 
particularly those which have for their object the 
advancement of the working classes in rural districts. 
The competition was for the best dinner for five 
persons—a working man, his wife, and three 
children, the menu to include at least two vege¬ 
tables, the value of each dish to be stated, and the 
whole not to exceed two shillings. 
This novel class brought out a strong competition 
and the various “ spreads” were judged by points, 
the following being the maximum scale:—soup, 
eight; fish, eight; entrees, ten ; roast or boiled meat, 
pudding or pie, ten ; vegetables, twelve ; sweets, six; 
fruit pudding or pastry, six ; savoury or cheese, six ; 
bread, four; salad, four; sufficiency,four; cost, six; 
and skill in preparation, twelve ; or a grand total of 
ninety-eight points. The first prize was won by Mrs. 
Stevens with fifty-four points. This exhibitor put 
the cost of her dinner at two shillings, and for this 
sum she provided soup, pressed beef, scarlet runner 
beans, custard, potatos, plum tart, and bread. These, 
with the exception of the potatos, could hardly be 
beaten so excellent were all the other dishes in quality. 
The beef was garnished with parsley and beet cut in 
thin slices, and with the exception named these 
viands were fit to be set before anyone. The second 
prize went to Mrs. Barr who had a breast of mutton, 
Potatos, cheese, bread, rizine milk pudding, Apple 
tart, bread and butter pudding with Currants, vege¬ 
table marrow, lettuce, and extract of herb beer, of 
the exhibitor's own make. This exhibitor scored 
fifty-one points, and may be considered a close 
second, while well ahead of the third prize winner, 
Mrs. Evans, who had sheep’s head, potatos with 
white sauce, bread, scarlet runner beans, tapioca 
pudding, and mutton broth with pearl barley. 
Extra prizes were awarded to Miss Culverhouse, 
whose exhibit consisted of cutlets dished up on rice 
decorated with cooked tomatos and sliced lemon, 
potatos, bread, and five apple dumplings; and to 
Mrs. E. Davis, who had stewed beef with carrots, 
cabbage, potatos, bread, and plum pudding, the 
whole costing is. 6Jd. Mr. Smee himself set up a 
table, on which each article was most daintily dished 
up, and included cheese, butter, mackerel, meat pie, 
bread, scarlet runner beans, and potatos, the total 
cost of which was is. 9jd. The table was set off 
with flowers, and the viands calculated to tempt the 
most fastidious appetite, and the whole served as an 
object-lesson of first-rate importance. 
Another important competition was for nine distinct 
vegetables to be arranged on a 4 ft space, called 
forth the best energies of the judges, most of the 
exhibits being of a high order of merit. £5 was 
offered to be divided proportionally with the points 
of merit awarded to the collections, each exhibit to 
include a selection from the following : nine tubers 
of Potatoes, three Cauliflowers, nine Onions, thirty- 
six pods of Peas, twenty-four pods of Broad Beans, 
six Carrots, three Marrows, fifty Kidney Beans, three 
Cabbages, six Parsnips, six Turnips, and Parsley 
admissible for garnishing. The vegetables through¬ 
out the show were, with few exceptions, very good 
indeed, and under the trying circumstances attending 
the prolonged drought, reflected the highest credit 
upon those who contributed to this fine display. 
Looking round a show of this kind, it is rare, indeed, 
that we do not notice some striking illustrations of 
the right and the wrong way of doing things, and 
there was an instance of this here in class nine, in 
which a prize was offered for six herbs, distinct kinds. 
With one exception the bunches of herbs were shown 
in a loose, untidy way, and withered, while the first 
prize lot were shown in a basket, and fresh as they 
were in the garden. In the classes for Onions, too, 
a few bulbs were shown which were fearfully 
mutilated by the roots being more than cut off, and 
some of the samples would have been much improved 
by a little more cleaning. 
In the classes for window .plants there where 
shown Ivy-leaved and Zonal Pelargoniums Fuchsias, 
tuberous rooted and ornamental foliaged Begonias, 
Gloxinias, Ferns, and Isolepis, and with few excep¬ 
tions, these were good examples of careful cultiva¬ 
tion ; but while the poorness of the Zonal 
Pelargoniums in one or two instances was very 
noticeble, the Tuberous Begonias were on the whole 
good. In the fruit classes good examples of Goose¬ 
berries, Black, Red, and White Currants, Cherries, 
Plums, Apples and Pears, were shown, but for the 
prizes offered for Grapes, Melons, Peaches, &c., 
there was a poor competition. Tomatos were 
plentiful and good throughout the show, Sutton's 
Perfection and Ham Green Favourite seeming to be 
the favourite kinds in the district. A row of 
Tomatos in pots grown with single stems ran down 
the centre of one tent and produced a pleasing effect, 
being well done. The miscellaneous groups, arranged 
for effect on a space of 80 square ft., occupied a con¬ 
siderable amount of space in one tent, and the whole 
reflected great credit upon the exhibitors, both for 
skill in cultivation and taste in arrangement. Mr. 
Cummins, gardener to A. H. Smee, Esq., was placed 
first with a well displayed group, consisting of 
Orchids, Ferns, and other fine foliaged plants, and a 
plentiful use of Orchids gave him an advantage over 
the others, and his setting up was also better. Mr. 
J. H. Stevens took the second prize with a well- 
arranged group, conspicuous in which were good 
examples of the Campanula pyramidalis. Mr. 
Glover was third with a good, but somewhat heavy, 
arrangement, in which Hydrangea paniculata figured 
conspicuously. At each end of the centre table of one 
tent was placed a group of Salpiglossis, looking 
exceedingly bright and pretty. If exhibitors of 
miscellanous groups would only grow a few of these 
and use them, they would sometimes much improve 
the appearance of their exhibits by introducing a 
few of them. 
At five o'clock there was a conference presided 
over by E. J. Halsey, Esq., chairman of the Surrey 
County Council, and Mr. J. Wright gave a most 
interesting address, which was listened too very 
attentively by a crowded audience. Having a few 
good object-lessons on the table before him, Mr. 
Wright dwelt briefly on judging by quality rather 
than mere size, illustrating his point with samples of 
Vegetable Marrow taken from the first, second, and 
third prize lots, the first prize being fair sized 
examples, tender, and good for cooking, the second 
larger and harder skinned, while the third were very 
large and hard skinned. His next illustration was a 
Potato plant grown with a single stem, strong and 
robust, with a splendid crop of fine tubers. Then 
he showed a plant with several stems, all weak and 
with a miserable, worthless lot of tubers. This was 
to show the superiority of high cultivation over 
ordinary and careless methods. Then taking up 
samples of Apples, he again illustrated the economy 
of high over poor cultivation by showing that the 
crowded small fruit were not only worthless, but 
owing to the fact of their taking a much larger 
percentage of mineral constituents from the soil thsn 
good marketable fruits do, they actually cost more to 
produce. 
Among miscellaneous exhibits was a group of 
fine foliage and flowering plants contributed by the 
Messrs. Peed, of Streatham ; a splendid bunch of 
Harrison's Pink Celery, the only example of this 
vegetable in the show ; a stand of cut Roses from 
Mr. Wm. Taylor, Osborn's Nurseries, Hampton; 
and a group of cut hardy flowers from Mr. King, of 
Beddington. The distribution of prizes at eight 
o’clock brought a very enjoyable day’s outing to a 
close. I took notes of the prize-winners in most 
classes, but have not particularised many of them, 
for the reason that to do so at these local shows is 
only to fill up your pages with matter which is of 
interest only to those in the immediate locality.— G. 
-—-- 
THE MARQUIS OF HUNTLY ON 
COTTAGE GARDENING. 
The Marquis of Huntly made a happy little speech 
in opening the Insch Flower Show on Saturday, 
5th inst. After returning his warmest thanks for 
the hearty way in which he had been received, and 
the kind words spoken of him by Mr. A. M. Gordon, 
of Newton, in introducing him, his lordship avowed 
his ignorance of horticulture, taking comfort to him¬ 
self in the knowledge that Scotchmen in the old days 
must have known little about flow'ers, or surely they 
would have selected for their national emblem a 
different badge from the Thistle. Flower shows, he 
considered, infused a spirit of emulation which incited 
to industry and to the improvement of the produce 
of the garden. He was glad to know that the Insch 
Horticultural Society was so well supported by the 
neighbouring proprietors. 
There was nothing that had made more progress in 
the county of Aberdeen than cottage .gardening, and, 
he made bold to say he looked with more favour 
upon the giving of gardens to the cottars and the 
encouraging of cottage gardening than he did upon 
small holdings. He believed there was a large 
population who would be more satisfied with 
cottages and cottage gardens, and would also be 
better remunerated, than they would be with small 
holdings. Referring to the people of Aberdeen, 
Lord Huntly was of opinion that while they could 
not be so well up in horticulture as people living in 
the country, they at least showed a strong liking for 
flowers, and by way of illustration he alluded 
jocularly to their anxiety while on holiday to annex 
the flowers by the wayside. He hoped the associa¬ 
tion would continue to prosper. 
Major Leith proposed a vote of thanks to Lord 
Huntly for opening the exhibition, and alluded to 
the benefits to be derived from the cultivation of 
window-grown plants. The vote was enthusiastically 
agreed to. The show was one of the best that has 
been held under the auspices of the association, the 
pot plants, flowers, and vegetables being in many 
classes above the standard of former years, while 
fruits, particularly Gooseberries and Apples were 
large sized and of good quality. 
-- 
FLOWER SHOW AT 
EARL’S COURT. 
The exhibition on the gth and 10th inst. was devoted 
to displays of flowering and foliage plants, and 
kindred subjects arranged for effect, as well as for 
cut flowers. Singularly enough there was only 
one class for fruit, but the miscellaneous exhibits of 
that kind added largely to the appearance of the 
show, which was held as usual in the large tent in 
the western gardens. One of the lines of staging 
was removed to make more room for the large 
groups of stove and greenhouse plants, Crotons, 
herbaceous subjects, and Lilies, which were effec¬ 
tively arranged in semi-circular groups along one 
side of the tent. Concurrently with this another 
line of staging was widened to accommodate the 
numerous miscellaneous exhibits. It was the general 
opinion of all who saw the plants when put into 
place that they had never been more tastefully dis¬ 
played. It must be acknowledged that no plants 
are calculated to produce more charming effects 
than well arranged banks of hardy flowers. 
The first prize for a group of flowering and foliage 
plants, arranged in a space not to exceed 200 ft., was 
awarded to Messrs. J. Laing & Sons, Forest Hill, 
who had an effective display of Palms, Crotons, 
Caladiums, Alocasias and others, enlivened by 
tuberous Begonias, Gloxinias, Orchids, Liliums, 
Campanula pyramidalis, Achimenes, and other 
subjects in flower. The first prize in the amateurs’ 
class, for a large group, was awirdcd to Mr. G. 
Wythes, gardener to the Duke of Northumberland, 
Syon House, Brentford. Palms, Asparagus, Celosias, 
Tuberoses, and Campanulas were the features of the 
group. Mr. C. Turner, Slough, had the only group 
of Liliums, and was accorded the first prize. They 
consisted of Liiium speciosum and its varieties, and 
