During the months of May, June, and July, when the great shows are held in addition to the bi-monthly meetings of the Floral Committee, the rush of new plants is so great that it is difficult to preserve an unbroken record. For instance, at the first great show of the Royal Botanic Society sixty-four first-class certificates of merit were awarded to new plants; of these Mr W. Bull alone took twenty-seven, and Messrs Veitch & Sons nineteen. In addition, ten second-class certificates were also awarded. Nearly the whole of the subjects, however, had already been noticed in the columns of the i Gardener.'

Of plants having undoubted claims to novelty and worth, the following have received first-class certificates: Lselia purpurata alba, a variety with pure white sepals and petals, and a lip faintly tinted and veined with pale rose, and stained with yellow at the base; to Vriesia Glazi-ouana, a noble and massive-looking Bromeliad, with broad erect glossy leaves recurved at the tip; to Martinezia Lindeniana, a very distinct Palm, with broad leaves split at the apex and jagged at the margin, and supported on glaucous stalks, furnished with long slender spines intertwined with shorter ones; to Agave Verschafleltiana, a handsome dwarf species, with short broad leaves irregularly edged with spines; to Begonia Sedeni, one of the new Japanese species, with salmon-carmine flowers; to DavalliaMoorei, a beautiful Fern, with handsome and graceful pale-green fronds; to Croton Veitchii, very handsomely variegated with creamy gold; to Masdevallia coccinea, with high-coloured flowers; and to a fine variety of Miltonia spectabilis, the flowers broadly flaked with pale rose, and coming into flower fully two months before Spectabilis; - all these having been exhibited by Messrs Veitch & Sons of Chelsea.

The same award was made to each of eight abnormal forms of Scolo-pendriums, all varieties of vulgare, and exhibited by Mr E. J. Lowe, F.R.S., Highfield, Nottingham. Mr Lowe has obtained many new forms, and some of the-above group are not the least curious and interesting of them. The same award was made to Mr Lowe for three new forms of Athyrium filix-fcemina, named severally Rickeltsiae, Kallistron, and Kalon; and to Messrs Ivery & Sons, Dorking, for Lastrea filix-mas cristata crispa, a somewhat novel- and taking form. Mr J. H. Ley, Croydon, received the same award for Adiantum excisum multifidum, var. Leyii, a singular crested form of this dwarf-growing species.

Mr B. S. Williams has received first-class certificates for Loelia mar-ginata, a pale-flowered variety, with slight purple edges, but somewhat wanting in massiveness; for Littonia modesta, with orange-coloured flowers; and for Calamus ciliatis, a novel and elegant Palm. Messrs B-ollisson & Son, Tooting, had a like award for Epidendrum vitellinum major, an old plant, having been flowered by Messrs Loddiges some twenty-five years ago, but still rare, and having deep-shaded orange flowers.

Subsequently to this, Messrs Veitch & Sons received a first-class certificate for Alocassia Sedeni, a hybrid between A. metallica and A. Lowi, raised at the Chelsea Nurseries by Mr Dominy, and partaking a good deal of the character of the latter kind. Messrs Carter & Co., Holborn, received like awards for two handsome and strong-growing Ferns - viz., Gymnogramma chrysophylla maxima, a golden form of noble free growth; and Gymnogramma calomelanos maxima, a silver form, as free and handsome in growth as the foregoing: and W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., a similar award for a beautiful new species of a Grenadan Acineta, with large, waxy, clear yellow flowers, having an enclosed reddish-brown lip.

Turning away from these valuable but generally uninteresting plants, as far as the ordinary lovers of flowers are concerned, it is pleasant to turn to something having more popular, and at the same time charming, aspects of beauty. Foremost must be placed Clematis Lady Londesborough, another of Mr C. Noble's new varieties, and producing large showy flowers of a pale lilac tint. A first-class certificate was awarded to this, and also to a new variety of the lanuginosa type, named Excelsior, producing double flowers, the exterior florets being of a bluish-mauve hue, with a flame of brown along each, and the centre of the flower a tuft of small mauve-coloured florets, which came from Mr Thomas Cripps, Tunbridge Wells. The same award was made to Pillar Rose Prince Leopold, the exterior of the flowers dark flushed with purple, the centre bright crimson, from Mr William Paul, and scarcely worth the award made to it; to Climbing Rose Duchesse de Mecklenburg, with pale salmon rose-coloured flowers, and promising to be very useful, from J. H. Arkright, Esq., Hampton Court, Leominster; to Hybrid Perpetual Rose Miss Ingram, the flowers full and nicely expanded, and of a delicate blush white, with a tinge of deep blush in the centre; and to Hybrid Perpetual Rose Mons. Woolfield, bright pink suffused with rose in the centre, flowers full and very beautiful, both from Mr C. Turner, Slough, who also received the same award for Azalea George Eyles, soft pale salmon red, with bold and showy stout well-formed flowers.

Mr Turner also received first-class certificates for the following large-flowering Pelargoniums of Mr Foster's raising - viz., Maid of Honour, Corsair, Her Majesty, and Pretender, all very fine; Sultana, Agrippa, Heroine, Herald, and Admiration: G. W. Hoyle, Esq., Reading, for Bonnie Charlie, Gratu-lation, and Holkar. The same award was also made to Mr Turner for the following splendid fancy Pelargoniums: Marmion, East Lynne, Leotard, and Lady Carrington: a similar award for Bright Star, a very good and effective silver-edged variegated variety; and for White Clove, The Bride, with large and very full creamy-white flowers. Mr William Paul received a first-class certificate for silver-edged Pelargonium Waltham Bride, in the style of growth of Flower of the Day, and producing pure white flowers; Mr Harman, Denham, for variegated Ivy-leaved Pelargonium Mr Lambert, in the way of Duke of Edinburgh, but with more yellow in the variegation; Mr J. W. Winsett, Chelsea, for hybrid Ivy-leaved Pelargonium Willsii rosea, with flowers of a fine hue of rose, smooth, and quite as circular in shape as those of the ordinary zonal kinds; and Mr Sidney Ford, The Gardens, St Leonard's Lodge, Horsham, for Gem of the Season, a robust-growing Ivy-leaved variety, with round smooth flowers of a pale salmon-pink hue.

The following plants, representing the second degree of excellence, have been awarded second-class certificates: Odontosrlossum Reichen-heimii, a species with chocolate-spotted sepals and petals, and a rosy lip white towards the tip; and a dwarf Sarracenia somewhat resembling S. flava, but with less dilated pitchers and an erect lid, both from Messrs Veitch & Sons: Rhododendron Beauty from Messrs J. Standish & Co., Ascot, a charming hardy variety, producing fine stiff trusses, and rosy pink flowers of excellent form marked with a white bar on each lobe, and with buff spots on the upper one; Azalea Reine Marie Henriette, pale pink, with narrow margin of white, the upper segments heavily marked with pale scarlet, a fine and bold flower, but somewhat rough-looking, from Mr C. Turner, Slough; Zonal Pelargonium Lord Stanley, with vivid crimson flowers, from Messrs F. & A. Smith, Dulwich; and Pelargonium Pollie, one of the large-flowering class, having rich crimson flowers heavily overlaid with dark and rich dark top petals, dwarf-growing, and very free blooming; one of Mr Fosters' new flowers, and also exhibited by Mr C. Turner.

R. D.