This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
Reported ex-pressly for the Horticulturist. - A very fine monthly meeting for the season of the year, and very gratifying to the cause of horticultural progress.
The most interesting feature was in the fruit department, and principal amongst these, a collection of grape vines grown in pots. Those who have never seen grapes grown in this way can form no idea of its many advantages. On the twenty plants exhibited in pots ranging from ten to fourteen inches in diameter, there were one hundred bunches, and the whole probably would produce a weight of seventy or eighty lbs. A collection of Pine Apples grown in pots was scarcely less interesting, - the fruits being considerably larger than the the half ripened cholera breeders of the stores. It is very remarkable that more attention is not given in our country to raising such fruits. The flavor of a store bought pine bean no comparison to that of fruit raised artificially. A fine dish of the Cherry Currant places that variety amongst these fruits in the same position Hovey's Seedling occupies amongst strawberries; though there were some remarkably fine Bed Dutch present, the Cherry was double the size of them, both in berry and bunch. It is rather " tart" in flavor. The Beurre Giffard Pear feasted the eyes of Pomologists, and some of their tastes.
In size and shape it resembles fine Seckel, and will perhaps prove for some time our best early Pear. The Gooseberries were principally of the light class. Blacksmith, Green Rib, and Yellow Bib being the largest The cut grapes though fine, presented nothing of unusual interest, except perhaps being better colored than we have often had them.
The increasing taste for the cultivation of orohideous plants, gives us more summer blooming plants than we once had. Saocolabium Guttatum, one of the prettiest and most easily grown, was flowering amongst blocks of wood in a basket A Cattleya crispa, with one very large and handsome flower; Dendrobium Chrysanthem, with several of its pretty orange and crimson flowers; Cymbidium Aloifolium, a kind for potculture, with one long pendulous spike of crimson and white flowers; Acropera Loddigessii, with its curious curled flowers and pepper and honey odor; and Phajus Maculata, not so pretty as some others of the genus; - were amongst the best.
There was little new in the plant line. Some seedling gloxinias attracted much attention, through their size chiefly; one of them like the old G. digitatiflora, had the merit of novelty in the ordinary shape. The much neglected Hollyhock had some very beautiful representatives, named and much admired. Of the many Petunias exhibited, there was nothing new in color or form.
Besides the usual fine display of vegetables, there were some good specimens of Fairbeards Champion of England Pea, perhaps the best summer pea we have.
 
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