MAY. 129 
HYACINTH ARGUS (Garpen Variety). 
(PLATE 164.) 
THE Hyacinth, so long the pride of Dutch gardens, is now 
becoming a popular show flower in Britain; and as such, 
taken in connexion with several other genera recently added to 
the list of florists’ flowers, clearly shows that public opinion is 
progressing in favour of plants with highly coloured blossoms, 
which are fast superseding the Cape Heath and other hard- 
wooded plants, all but universally grown a quarter of a century 
back. This is not owing to any falling off in point of merit, 
for Ericas, Epacrises, and the beautiful Papilionaceous plants 
of New Holland have still their admirers; but where only a 
limited number of plants can be grown, or where a good 
succession of bloom is wanted throughout the year, the Chinese 
Azalea, Cineraria, Pelargonium, and even the Calceolaria, are 
preferred as being more showy, and less difficult to cultivate, 
than Heaths, Epacrises, Dillwynia, Leschenaultia, Pultenea, 
Hovea, and their allies, which, though unequalled amongst 
greenhouse plants for loveliness and beauty, are hard to grow 
in perfection, and seldom reward us with that amount of their 
graceful and often richly-pencilled flowers as we could desire. 
Although the Hyacinth has from time immemorial been 
cultivated in our gardens, on a limited scale, as a border plant, 
it is most widely known as a forcing plant. The ease with 
which it produces its flower-spikes in mid-winter has long 
made ‘it an indispensable article for conservatory and room 
decoration, for which purposes it is unrivalled for its beauty 
and fragrance. But it is only within these few years that 
either commercial or private growers have thought it worthy 
a public exhibition, the credit for establishing which belongs 
to the Messrs. Cutbush & Son, of the Highgate nurseries. 
The success which has attended their Hyacinth exhibition has 
done the best service to our present subject by bringing its 
merits immediately under the notice of the patrons of flowers, 
and has doubtless done much towards popularising it as a 
florist flower, worthy of that care and skill so strikingly 
exhibited in the cultivation of other plants, when once put on 
the list for competition. Now that public taste has fairly 
placed the Hyacinth on the list of the florist, we may conclude 
that Hyacinth exhibitions will be as common in the spring as 
Chrysanthemum shows are in the autumn. We know of no 
flower more manageable by persons with small means than the 
Hyacinth, and none which would more certainly repay the 
VOL. XTYV., NO. CXLIX. K 
