Why, the worst flowers in our recognised show varieties might have been seen in the same stand. It is merely like a very objectionable character going into a theatre in a crowd, and on that account being deemed respectable. We have been to many shows where the winning stands were anything but good, and the judges had to decide by the number of bad ones, and put those which had most of them lower down accordingly. Yet the writer, seeming perfectly satisfied that he had brought forward important evidence on behalf of the Committee, adds: "Knowing how much interest there is in these particulars to growers of the Dahlia, we may certainly characterise the transactions of the Floral Committee as eminently impartial and as discriminative; for so many seedlings to take their places in winning stands, is a proof that the awards were made with discretion, and some exercise of necessary severity." Well, we see with different eyes to those of the writer, for there is nothing, to our mind, like impartiality in awarding fifteen certificates chiefly to themselves; and it is not the slightest proof of worthiness that the flowers appeared among twenty-four or fortyeight in fortunate stands, more especially as the greater portion are known to be inferior to those we already possess. Indeed, our contemporary says:— Among so many there are, of course, several no better than older varieties of the same class, but there are also a few that will keep the place they have thus taken, and appear at future shows with more than a formal recognition of excellence." This is just the confession we expected from the advocate of the Committee. There is candour in the admission; but it does more towards confirming our accusation, than it does the impartiality of the Floral Committee. The writer goes on to mention the flowers of the year 1, Pope's Lord Derby, for which we have great regard, and which (having seen it in the seed-bed), we warn everybody, will require first-rate culture; 2, Perry's Model, orange buff, certainly not better than others of its class, and of which he says, "In size, however, this will not supersede Hugh Miller;" and 3, Turner's Mrs. Bush, which he rather accuses of infidelity; he says, "From frequent observation of it, we are inclined to fear it may run away, and be non est when wanted." So much for the Society's first-class flowers. It is a fair, if not altogether sound, opinion; but he adds Rawlings's Countess of Portsmouth to the first class, a formidable competitor to Miss Pressley and Lady Popham. But now for a further proof of the Committee's impartiality. The writer recognises but five out of the fifteen certified for commendation : Perry's Delicata; Turner's Cygnet; Turner's Charlotte Dorling; Dodds's Minnie Dodds; and, he says, "if high quality is now to be overlooked, we should add Keyne's Maria Carter and Oscar for colour." Oscar, however, was not commended; what then about the other nine? (for Mrs. Bush afterwards had a first-class.) Why, what we have said all through, only in other words, for having adopted the above, he says, "These are all that are worthy of special mention. We pass over many really good flowers because they are NO ADVANCE ON THOSE WE ALREADY POSSESS.' We thank the writer, who has said all that can be said in favour of the Committee, although his facts quite upset the good character he has given them, and confirm all we have said against them. We think his opinion of the flowers sound and honest; but, however, he may have, like a good counsel, opened his case favourably, the evidence broke down, and our accusation, that they awarded to themselves certificates for flowers which they well knew were not a jot better than we already possessed, is confirmed. Now we happen to have seen Black Boy, which, if it will bear strong growth, will head the dark class altogether, and if not, it is a model of perfection when small, as grown in London. We grant that Dahlias in London growth are only tickets in a lottery; but we recognised the King of the Yellows from a London garden, and it has quite justified our favourable opinion. Lord Derby, if constant, fairly heads everything in its class, but it may prove uncertain in other hands. Of their other first-class flowers we only say we shall wait till next year before we buy them, or order any of their commended varieties. RIBBON PLANTING. Ir there be any merit in ribbon planting, it is not among its noisy advocates that we must seek its parent, for, many years ago, the idea was broached, we will not say started, and we have procured the engravings, not for their value, but for the fact that, in recommending the proper treatment of suburban gardens, ribbon planting was put forward as a most effective mode, and the following sketches accompanied the article. It is there very clearly shown, by crosses, rings, and dots, how to dispose the different classes of plants. There is no doubt that with a judicious eye to colour, such a circular bed, and the corners filled to match, will be found highly decorative. The circle, perhaps, shows off this mode of planting better than any other form. A long line of ribbon, bungled like that at Kew, was, in sheer spite, praised, and the public persuaded to go and see it, much to the mortification of the "powers that be," and to the disappointment of the people hoaxed. But in a long border, we cannot like it. It is striking at first, yet it is a monotony that people soon get tired of: not so in a circle, because there is a finish on the spot. The eye takes in all the figure at once. dreds of suburban villas have a square plot in front that could be planted after this fashion. The back plants in the corners might be evergreens; and as to the rings of both the centre and side circles, the taste of the director, whether Hun which are left to the choice of the operator. These crude diagrams will be of service, because while they show the advantage of uniformity, they do not cramp the ingenuity of the planter. If there were fifty such plots, they might all be made different as to colour and habit of the plants. The only positive rule to observe, is that of keeping the most dwarf plants in front, and gradually rising behind; but in the centre of such beds, be content with subjects only a little taller than the rest, not tall enough to prevent a good sight of the whole at once. We may hereafter give our notion of the best plants to use; but we should strongly advocate pot culture for all the bulbs, for unless they be confined, they could not be removed until they died down without suffering a good deal, and to let them remain in the bed till they were ripe, would be to spoil the garden a great part of the year; nor may the foliage be cut off, for the bulbs would not grow afterwards. THE ENEMIES OF THE GARDENER. IN the open ground, there is one very simple means of trapping innumerable enemies. By using a smooth and rather taper rod of iron or hard wood, and making holes in the ground two or three feet deep, we form so many pitfalls, into which earwigs, ants, small grubs, and various insects tumble, and the vast majority cannot get up again. We have known some of these to get half filled with ants and earwigs, for the perpendicular side forms too long a journey for vast numbers, even if any ever reach the top, aud near an antcolony it is almost enough to exterminate the whole community, if we make a few clean-sided holes near their haunts. The earwig is not merely an enemy to flowers; it is destructive among fruits, and it is impossible to be too persevering in the endeavours to get rid of the enemy. Grubs and caterpillars, the larva state of butterflies and moths, are among the most mischevious, and formidable of all the gardener's enemies, and this should be thought of while the winged insects are sporting about among the flowers, trees and bushes, for these lay their eggs in great numbers on the plant that is to sustain the caterpillar or grub, and when hatched, we know the consequences. Some flies lay their eggs all in one place, especially those that take possession of the apple, pear, and plum trees, where we may occasionally see a web full of the creatures, ready to prey upon the first green leaves; others, infinitely more mischievous, lay their eggs all over the place, one fly, perhaps, placing a future caterpillar upon a hundred cabbages. How often has the gardener to his great mortification seen a large quarter of cabbages or cauliflowers with scarcely one plant untouched, and there is nothing so disgusting as either of these productions eaten into and dirtied by these filthy creatures. The quickest remedy is to kill the butterflies and moths. If one is seen catch and destroy it at any cost. It would be worth while for a gardener to pay a boy to go round the premises with a regular fly net, with orders to catch and destroy anythingthat he could get hold of, in the way of wasps, butterflies, or moths, and this at the earliest season, as soon as a white butterfly can be seen on the wing. It is also well worth while to get an intelligent young lad, who could be depended on to gather up the numerous chrysalises from the wall fruit trees, gooseberry, and currant bushes, walls, and other places of refuge during the winter months, when there are no leaves to intercept a perfect examination, and when, with a quick eye, a lad might almost insure the taking of every one. Those chrysalises would become so many flies or moths, whose business it would be to fly about awhile, to lay eggs upon the trees most appropriate for fostering the young grubs, ready for their work of destruction. We may easliy conclude that the extermination of these chrysalises is of the greatest consequence; but this will not prevent those from other places coming into your own garden, and there depositing eggs, leaving you as it were, a legacy of maggots; and therefore it is necessary to use the fly-nets, and catch every one that comes. Maggots cannot travel far, and if the parent cannot find a resting-place, but it is caught or hunted away, you escape all the grubs that she might other wise have left behind. Wasps are very destructive among fruits, they must be caught and killed; and be it remembered, that the time for this is at the beginning of the spring when every one represents almost a swarm. When they over-abound it is almost endless work to catch and kill. Bottles of inviting poison may await them at every place, but however many may turn aside and sip their last sip, the fruit is so much more attractive that most of them will pass the bottle without doing honour to it, and feast upon the next grape or peach, or plum that offers itself. So common is it to "shut the stable door after the horse has gone," that we ought not to wonder, perhaps, at being told by the teachers of gardening, that when the fruit begins to ripen we should hang phials of sugar and water, or some other tempting draught, to draw off the attention of wasps, and to catch them. How much more sensible the advice would be to provide these traps when they would enjoy the monopoly of temptation, when, in fact, every wasp that arrived within the smell would inevitably be tempted to drink. Why, by the time the fruit was becoming ripe, three-fourths of the depredators would be disposed of. The truth is, almost everybody waits for the inconvenience, and then tries to get rid of it, instead of using half the trouble to keep the evil off altogether. Bottles of sugar and water, or sugar and beer, with tolerably wide mouths, might, with great advantage, be hanging about all the year, for while food that's agreeable is scarce, wasps fly a long way in search of it, and this is the time when, by destroying one, "we kill many birds with one stone." "We have no notion of waiting for the enemy to do mischief before we try to get rid of him; we would rather battle with him when we had nothing to lose, and when our traps would he doubly and trebly inviting. Destroying wasps' nests is rather a dangerous sport, but wherever wasps at all abound, good premiums should be offered for their destruction. There would be plenty ready to hunt them out, and smother the whole community; the great danger is in leaving some hole open that communicates with the nest, and that we have not seen. The usual way is to stop all but the principal hole up, and to burn sulphur within that hole, all that came out are then burned to death, and all that remain in are smothered. We now come to the grubs, and other enemies under ground; the wire-worm, cockchafer-grub, the bot, centipede, and an endless variety of maggots. The wire-worm may be thinned a good deal by planting old carrots and drawing them every morning, when these creatures will be found to have eaten their way half into the carrot, and may be pulled out and killed, this will soon clear a place of the wire-worm, but most of the underground pests are annoyed by a good dressing of wood-ashes; if this be forked in a few inches into the soil, it drives them away for the time, but if, on digging a piece of ground, any of these things be seen, it is well to set somebody at once to fork it about and pick them out, and then give the dressing of wood ashes. With respect to birds, whose destructive work at seed-time will often lose the gardener a valuable crop, little can be done, but some constant means of frightening them, or, the best of all possible securities, net-work. There is a great variety of cheap netting manufactured now for the purpose of protecting fruit and seeds against birds; and the use of these will be found better than anything else; by sticking up a few upright props in the ground, about a foot high, and laying the net-work over, the net is kept from the surface; it does not obstruct the light, nor can any bird approach the seed. Some, however, put a rod of willow, or some light taper wood, sloping in the ground, and long pieces of paper to flap about with the wind; some put thread of worsted across and across the bed: some tie pieces of paper to string, forming something like the tail of a boy's kite, and hang this from one end of the bed to the other, so as almost to reach the surface. But we believe almost everything in time loses its effect; see, for instance, a bird perched on a scare-crow? what does that say for the efficacy of a stuffed suit of old clothes? yet the scarecrow may be seen in many country gardens and the birds hard at work all round it. We believe that nothing but netting, so placed as to keep birds off, can be depended on; other remedies may be used sometimes with success, but occasionally, without the netting they fail, whether in preserving seed or fruit; netting keeps the intruders at a distance. There is now a sort made called hexagonal netting, so fine as to stop a fly, and yet light and lasting; this may be used against walls, or thrown over trees, or in any situation where flies and wasps are troublesome, because it is only a little coarser than a lady's veil, and the same make. This forms a most impenetrable barrier against the smallest insect that flies, and if it be fastened so that nothing get behind it, we are quite sure nothing will ever get through it. We have said nothing of hares, rabbits, and other larger animals that plague the gardener, for there are only two ways of managing them; the one is to keep them out with a wire fencing, the other is to trap and shoot, or otherwise kill, any one that can be sacrificed. If rabbits burrow under the wirework their holes are soon detected, and they are easily trapped; and, unless the gardener lives in the neighbourhood of a warren, we have generally found that a dog and a gun would keep them tolerably well under. We believe we have gone through our list of the principal pests to which the gardener is subject, or at least such as require remedies that will apply to all; and when it is considered that these are constantly at work to the detriment of something, and that the gardener, besides all his ordinary labour, has to counteract their mischief, the subject, extensively as it has been noticed, is scarcely second in importance to any of the subjects which have come under consideration. THE STICK-AND-TIE SYSTEM. Ir must be plain to persons who take the trouble to think, that no deficiency of skill ought to be hidden or aided by mechanical contrivance; the man who cannot grow a Rose in a pot without supporters is deficient in his business; the plant that wants no assistance out of doors ought to have none under glass; we do not mean that a main stem may not be supported, because the root cannot spread out beyond the edge of the pot, and therefore cannot have the power of resistance which it would in the open ground; but when the plant is drawn, and the branches are too weak to hold themselves up in their places, there is bungling somewhere. If we were to individualize plants that are discreditably shown, because artificially supported, we might mention one that is as robust as a box-tree, and yet there are specimens exhibited that ought to make the exhibitor ashamed of himself-we mean Eriostemon buxifolius, a hard-wooded, elegant, pyramidally growing plant, as handsome as a fir, capable of sustaining itself if well grown up to any height and size; yet even this is, by some highly lauded and lavishly rewarded gardeners, shown with all manner of supports, and propped and wired into a form as unnatural and ungraceful as can well be imagined. And we are sorry to say that, whether it be the employer's taste or the gardener's, there are many other plants equally distorted and spoiled among the collections, that take off, as it were by prescription, the first prizes. In short, our exhibitions now, particularly near the metropolis, have every appearance of an assembly of artificial plants instead of real ones. If a man exhibits the Oncidium Papilio, the perfection of which is in its moving on its long wiry stem with every breath of air, as if it were a real fly hovering over the other flowers, you will see it fastened to a tall upright, perhaps with a bunch of cotton lint behind it, and as stiff as if the butterfly were pinned to a stick; they have not the common sense to release it from its bondage; but we suppose, by its freedom, it would form too great a contrast to the stiff and formal specimens composing the rest of the group. We regret this perverted taste, or want of taste, because it is derogatory, if not downright disgraceful to British gardening. Profuse bloom, and every flower dragged to the surface, seem to be the chief objects now; and the great mistake is, that when the bloom is disproportionably great it is as much a fault as being deficient. Then again, in blooming a plant profusely, the bloom and the foliage must take their proper places, but if the appearance of profuse bloom is to be given to a thing, by dragging every flower to the outer surface and tying it to the wires of a cage, we should like to see judges employed who know their business, and the exhibitor of such abominations disqualified. fills with roots, to stop back any branch that is growing too vigorously for the rest of the plant. If the plant is an irregular, bushy grower, always take out useless shoots as soon as they appear, and stop any that appear to take too much of a lead. If the plant is a straggling grower with long shoots, continually stop the ends of the branches. Stop even the cutting as soon as it is rooted, leaving only two pair of leaves, which in most plants cause four shoots, and when these four have made two good leaves, and are going on, take off the ends just above the two leaves, and there will be two shoots for each. The stopping may then be omitted while the plant grows into the form you want it, but if any shoots are in the way of each other, take them out, you may stop the joints then as they may seem to require it; there must be no long growth. We have grown Plumbago Capensis three feet high, three feet across, and without using or requiring a single support, and the same with others of straggling growth, and we confess that if we cannot show at exhibitions till we disgrace a plant with fifty props, we will never exhibit. There are some plants naturally pendulous, with branches too weak to stand out without props, but what does this suggest? Why that they are to hang down. We might as well prop up a Weeping Ash or Willow as prop up any other weeping plant. The Eriostemon Cuspidatus is a weakly, pendulous, or half pendulous shrub. Make it a standard: let its branches hang down all round. We can tell those gardeners who grow it in a cage, and drag its branches through the wires, that it is beautiful as a standard, and one of the most graceful of our greenhouse plants. It is half the battle to understand the natural growth of a plant; it is the other half to make the best use of that habit when you have it to cultivate. WRITERS AND WRITINGS. WE are now obliged to remind our friends that the time has much in two articles, written by Messrs. Rutherford and arrived for husbanding our space, and we have by us as Douglass, as would just fill up three pages of our work, and certainly not interest many readers. Theirs is a controversy that does not give us a solitary sentence of practice nor attack any abuse, nor suggest any improvement. We think Douglass's paper a complete answer to Mr. Rutherford, and Mr. Rutherford's a perfect extinguisher to Mr. Crambe, but the length is insufferable. We do not quarrel with trifles-we are not so squeamish about a bit of bass-matting or a prop as to cavil with it, but let any gardener who is not a prize hunter upon any terms that will get them-any man who loves his profession, and is master of it, examine the plants at the great shows, and count the props, wires, and ties, and ask himself whether he would condescend to degrade gardening by adopting such means to win all that could be got by it? We are quite aware this is an unpopular subject. Propriety has no chance against bad habits, and taste is but a poor opponent to gold medals; unless the societies or the judges correct the evil, there is no extravagance or trickery, no depth of degradation, that would not be resorted to by regular prize hunters. It is only the withholding of the prizes for unnatural training, as Mr. Loddiges did in 1833 or 4, when he was acting as a judge at Lord's Cricket-ground, that will bring gardeners back to sound taste and natural cultivation. It has been long observed that Geraniums are propped in a most discreditable manner, and some of the publications of the day have at length joined in the complaint; but although Geraniums are, from their habit, more conspicuous under their torture, other plants are, in many cases, as much deteriorated, and by similar, or worse means. It is, as we have before observed, the perfection of gardening to produce finely grown specimens of plants in their most elegant and graceful habit; but it is a prostitution of the science to produce them as too many are shown at our metropolitan exhibitions, and we hope those who happen to be judges will, out of pure regard to the skill of the gardener who can grow specimens naturally, reject at once all those collections in which plants are unnaturally trained. If the gardeners will not of themselves cure the evil, the owners ought to interfere, unless they wish to be indentified with such ungardener-like practices. How would it read in a report of a show-First Prize for collections, Mr. A. B., or Mr. C. D., with Eriostemon buxifolius on a frame, with forty yards of iron wire and eighty-one props, the plant being too weak to stand without them? Pimelia Decussata, with seventy-six props and ninety ties, and so on through the list of plants, showing that a prize had been awarded to a collection of plants that, without these props and wire-work, dared not have been shown at all? It is quite time to interfere with this matter before British gardening is utterly disgraced. It is quite time the owners forbade it for the sake of their own taste; it is quite time the judges and societies repudiated it for the sake of the interests of Horticulture and Floriculture, which they profess, and are bound to encourage. gardeners who grow these drawn up plants are incapable of growing them properly; some of those who grow Geraniums, others who grow Roses, and still more who grow general col-write English, and Mr. Rutherford is too serious in his treatlections, would, if they were forbidden to use these unnatural auxiliaries, be at the bottom instead of the top of the prize lists. Young and skilful gardeners, who have never degraded their own scientific acquirements by condescending to such tricks, would beat them until they learned their business, for they have to learn it before they earn reward. The growing of specimen plants requires first that we should study the habit of the subject, and to aid in producing it in the best possible style. If a plant is naturally of pyramidal growth, it needs little else than rubbling off the buds wherever they are going to shoot and are not wanted, to throw the vigour of the plant into branches that are necessary. The repotting from time to time as the old pot Half the To us, who value men for their practical knowledge and common sense, none appear so contemptible as learned fools. We have known persons saturated from top to toe with through all sorts of examinations, and like parrots, to be university education, taught at college like parrots, to go always ready with all they know. So long as you confined the examinations to the contents of books, all went well; but when turned loose upon the world the men were lost; then it is that a practical man endowed with common sense, rises superior. Learned idiots without the capacity for thinking and acting, are at a sad discount. They can write any of the sciences with which they have been stuffed, but they can only write what they have read. They have no second idea. Mr. Crambe is worse than this, for he does not about ment of such a bundle of accomplishments as Lord Ducie's scribbling gardener represents himself to be. It seems like taking up a sledge hanimer to kill a boy. We are not surprised that such a "shan" should write nine pages of bad English which contains but little point, and that little lost to many through the difficulty of guessing his meaning; but we are surprised that a public journalist should find room which might be put upon the shelf as useless, that it may not for it. Mr. Crambe is one of these specimens of learned lumber be in the way, and judging him by his nine pages of words, the literary world and Lord Ducie's garden would go on better without him. GROWING FRUIT IN BASKETS. THE following article and engraving appear in the Scientific American, a paper of some consideration on the other side of the Atlantic. We introduce it as an elegant novelty, but we are none the wiser until the writer informs us how it is managed. flowers both for use and ornament. Chamberlain's Patent Fruit-growing Basket. basket of choice fruit or flowers that will not decay or fade, but continue to grow and bloom, and cheer the drooping invalid? Or for the parlour window or dinner table, what more elegant than these baskets all covered with the choicest specimens of fruit or the finest of blooms? MESSRS. EDITORS:-At your request I send you a statement regarding my patent Moss Baskets, what they are designed for, and the advantages they effect. I will, in a few words, describe them so that your readers may have an idea of them. After several years of continual Thousands of persons have visited, during the past experiment, I have at last succeeded in growing suc-season, the residence of the Hon. W. B. Lawrence, at cessfully and perfecting equal to any of the most ap; Newport, R. I., to see these wonders and novelties in proved methods practised, all kinds, of fruit and gardening, and all were surprised and delighted with the beauty of these baskets. They have not been exhibited to the public except at the last meeting of the Brooklyn Horticultural Society, when a basket containing a pine-apple in full maturity was shown, and pronounced by several distinguished horticulturists superior to any they had ever seen grown either in England or the West Indies; also a basket of strawberries in full fruit, ripe, and in flower, now in the middle of November; also a grape vine, peach tree and two baskets of miscellaneous plants in full flower. As you are aware, when I procured my patent for this valuable invention through your office, I exhibited, at the Patent Office for examination, a basket containing a black Hamburgh grape vine in full bearing, which was pronounced by competent judges equal, if not superior, to those grown in the house in the ordinary way; also a basket containing a peach tree in full fruit, of most excellent flavour, fine form and beautifully coloured. These were all tested by connoisseurs, and pronounced by them superior to any ever offered for sale, or grown in the ordinary ways. An engraving of the basket of grapes recently presented to Mrs. Lincoln, is herewith annexed, so that your readers may judge of its appearance. This method of growing either fruit or flowers is preferable to any other, for its beauty, simplicity, and success, as less care and attention arc necessary than for ordinary plants, and they will last for years without renewing or shifting. All kinds of plants, fruits and flowers can be grown in this way, especially pine-apples, oranges, figs, grapes, peaches, peas, &c., beside all such small fruits, as currants, gooseberries strawberries, &c., to say nothing of more beautiful and attractive things, such as the camellias, roses, azaleas, fuchsias, orchids, ferns and variegated leaved plants, which, when once seen and appreciated, no one will be without their "hanging gardens.' What so beautiful for the sick room as a All persons desirous to see these can do so by 59 Broadway, New York. calling upon or writing to my agent, Mr. Miller, No. ALFRED CHAMBERLAIN. Newport, Rhode Island, |