The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-12 00:00:00

ROYAL HORTICUL7U.RAL SOCIETY.

The last flowers of the summer having quite de-
parted, a meagre and chilly show was made out of
the first flowers of the winter yesterday at these
gardens. It is needless to say that on this occasion
the display was limited to those hard-named spin-

sters of the floral tribe—chrysanthemums, whose
stiff shapes and prim blossoms eke out the garden
beds at this season of the year, when all their
lovely competitors have retired from public ad-

miration. There was a large assortment of
these old long-surviving belles under the
arcade of the garden yesterday, all of which
were patterns of floral propriety es regarded the
strict methodical arrangement of every leaf and
blossom, and all were so perfectly alike in this re-
spect that they would have gone near to resembling
a show of paper flowers but for their unpleastutt bit-
ter smell, There were, of course, all the 'usual
varieties of colour shown, but the whole collection
was exceedingly small, and as far as these plants
were concerned, would not have been dignified with
the name of a show even in a small country town.
From the very few visitors in the gardens it attracted
scarcely any attention, and all seemed glad to keep
within reach of the warmth and shelter of the con-
servatory, where there was for the time of the year
a fair display of autumnal fruit. Some of the apples
and pears in this class were exceedingly good, though
of course they bore no comparison to the extraor-
dinary samples which came in from all parts of
Europe on the last occasion. Some good specimens
of seedling grapes were shown, and one or two
bunches of hothouse fruit, part of the same sort ; but
the whole show, as we have said, was very poor,
and not even up to such a standard of merit, either
in fruit or flowers, as may be always seen for nothing
in the shops of the chief dealers in Covent-garden.
In our humble opinion we venture to think that the
society has done unwisely in departing from their
rule of holding no flower shows after the early part
of Orqnbor. A flower show held in open London
gardens in the middle of November has no attractions
whatever, and most especially when the so-called
show is limited to some 50 pots of chrysanthemums,
all bearing the same strong family likeness that dis-
tinguishes every member of these hardy half-ever-
greens. The society are likely to be the first to see
this want of popularity, for we doubt if the admis-
sions yesterday made up half the amount given in
prizes. Great improvements are being carried out in
these gardens now, with a view to their attractive-
ness for next year. Preparations are being made to
establish real flower beds, instead of those cold,
scentless mock parterres of coloured glass and slate
which have so long usurped their place. Flowering
shrubs and evergreens are also breaking up the
flat monotony of lawns, which are to be further in-
tersected with groups of roses and beds of such
flowers as lillies, tulips, verbenas, &c.—such homely
garden beauties, in fact, as one sees every day, but
nowhere without pleasure. These are exactly the
improvements which are wanted, and without which
these grounds will never be gardens. It is more
flowers and less stucco, gardeners and not masons,
who are now required to give the finishing touches
to what ought to be one ut the most alluring pro-
menades in London. The sooner the two gigantic
French fountains are now got rid of the better, in
order that the grass and gravel walks may have
time to recover from their disruption before next
season. Both these works are very costly in price,
and are besides much too big for the gardens, Min-
ton's beautiful majolica fountain, the price of which
is only £2,600, is infinitely better adapted to the
tone of these Italian grounds than the ponderous
iron castings shown by Barbazat or Darenne. This
fountain would really be an ornament ; those which
now stop the way up the central path are gloomy
anachronisms, in the style of all around them. The
following are the names of the chief prize-takers
yesterday :
Class 1. Six plants, large flowered, distinct vatieties
(open). Equal first prize, Mr. C. Ward, gardener to Mr.
W. Fowler, Tottenham-green; Mr. J. Glover, gardener to
Mr. R. C. Lessage, Tulse-hill, S. Extra prize, Mr. C. Tur-
ner, Royal Nurseries, Slough.
Class 2. Three plants, large flowered ; distinct varieties
(amateurs). Equal second prize, Mr. C. Ward, gardener to
Mr. W. Fowler, Tottenham-green ; Mr. J. Glover, gar-
dener to Mr. R. C. Lessage, Tulse-hill, S.
Class 3. Six plants, pompones, distinct varieties (open).
First prize, Mr. D. Hutt, Half-way House, Hackney-road;
second prize, 111 r. J. Weston, gardener to Mr. D. Martineau,
Clapham-park.
Class 4. Three plants, pompones, distinct varieties (ama-
teurs). Equal second prize, Mr, C. Ward, gardener to Mr.
W. Fowler, Tottenham-green; Mr. D. Hutt, Half-way
House, Hackney-road.
Class 5. 12 cut blooms, distinct varieties (open). First
prize, Mr, T. B. Robinson, 5, Church-road, west, Isling-
ton ; second prize, Mr. J. Cattell, nurseryman, Westerham.
Class 6. Miscellaneous collection of cut blooms (open).
First prize, Mr. J. Cattell, nurseryman, Westerham.