June  24,  1897. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER . 
571 
smoky  neighbourhoods  this  is  more  especially  a  great  boon.  The  Rose, 
for  instance,  will  not  endure  smoke,  but  I  have  seen  many  a  good 
flower  come  from  an  artisan’s  greenhouse  which  he  could  not  have 
grown  in  the  open  air,  and  but  for  these  advantages  those  grand  estab¬ 
lishments  which  We  see  all  around  us  for  the  growth  of  flowers  and  fruit 
would  probably  never  have  been  contemplated. 
The  Influence  of  Sqchetius  and  Exhibitions. 
I  know  that  there  are  many  people  who  disparage  exhibitions  and 
the  efforts  that  have  been  made  to  promote  them,  and  although  nothing 
that  we  have  to  do  is  free  from  objections,  yet  I  am  persuaded  that 
these  objections  are  valueless,  and  with  regard  to  societies  we  know  that 
in  our  complicated  civilised  system  societies  must  be  formed  for  all 
sorts  of  things,  Foremost  amongst  those  which  have  helped  forward 
The  admirably  planned  and  beautiful  gardens  of  the  Royal  Botanical 
Society  in  Regent’s  Park  were  the  scene  of  some  of  the  finest  exhibi¬ 
tions  held  in  or  about  London,  and  no  doubt  greatly  contributed  to  the 
increased  popularity  of  flowers.  When  Paxton’s  gigantic  palaoe  of  glass 
was  erected  on  Sydenham  Hill,  and  surrounded  by  beautiful  gardens, 
another  impetus  was  given  to  the  promotion  of  horticulture  ;  it  is  an 
ideal  place  (or  a  flower  show,  for  it  affords  that  which  our  variable 
climate  so  much  needs  — » shelter  and  protection  from  bad  weather, 
beside  other  attractions  to  thos°  who  frequent  the  shows  held  there. 
As  far  as  the  provinces  are  concerned,  I  think  we  may  say  that 
wherever  societies  exist  their  influence  on  the  neighbourhood  is  easily 
seen,  and  yet  the  true  lover  of  flowers  must  regret  that  in  some  of  our 
Fig.  121.— GARDENIAS  IN 
ORCHID  HOUSE  ( page  556). 
this  good  cause  is  appropriately  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society.  During 
the  last  sixty  years  it  has  had  a  curiously  chequered  career.  We  can 
remember  the  feeble  gatherings  both  in  Regent  Street  and  Charing 
Crv>ss.  We  can  recollect  how  it  shared  in  the  grand  jilans  that  the  late 
Prince  Consort  had  formed  with  regard  to  South  Kensington  ;  we  can 
call  to  mind  how  all  these  hopes  were  disappointed,  and  what  a  failure 
South  Kensington  was  in  a  horticultural  point  of  view  ;  and  we  can  also 
remember  the  manner  in  which  the  Committees  were  shunted  about 
from  one  place  to  another,  and  how  at  last  South  Kensington  became 
a  byword  and  a  reproach  so  far  as  horticulture  was  concerned.  Still 
the  Society  held  on,  and  then  brighter  days  dawned,  and  although  its 
location  is  by  no  means  an  ideal  one,  yet  no  one  can  doubt  that  the 
fortnightly  meetings  held  at  the  Drill  Hall  have  been  of  late  years  a 
very  powerful  incentive  to  everything  connected  with  gardening. 
most  successful  exhibitions  other  things  which  are  hardly  legitimate 
adjuncts  to  the  flower  show  are  brought  in  to  make  them  a  success.  Bat 
then  it  has  also  to  be  remembered  that  but  for  those  adjuncts  many 
thousands  of  persons  would  not  have  been  brought  within  the  sphere  of 
influence  of  flowers  and  become,  as  so  many  have,  ardent  cultivators. 
Changed  habits  have  thus  been  brought  about  which  have  resulted  in 
brighter  homes  and  happier  lives.  Still,  wherever  these  converts  become 
true  lovers  of  flowers  extraueous  attractions  at  shows  lose  to  them  their 
charms.  _ 
No  one  can  review  the  effect  of  exhibitions  on  the  progress  of  horti¬ 
culture  and  ignore  two  which  unquestionably  had  very  great  influence. 
I  refer  to  the  one  held  in  1866  at  South  Kensington,  .and  the  more 
frequent  ones  held  at  Manchester  under  the  auspices  of  the  Manchester 
