A RING OF ROSES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 124, 24 November 1908, Page 8

A RING OF ROSES.

FLOWER SHOW AT THE HUTT. While Wellington is once more plunged into tho turmoil of polling day, the Hut*, having settled such trivial matters as elections at the first ballot, is absorbed in the more important business of the Horticultural Society's Annual Rose Show. From the scentless printed £heoi of the voting paper to the cool fragrant petals of the rose is a changw from on© world into another, a far cry to the time when our prime ancestors were gardeners. Not. that tho rose of to-day is, as simple as the rose of yesterday, like everything else in an age. of progress it has undergone many metamorphoses into forms more wonderful and strange- than was that of the old wild flower from which all the modern, varieties sprang. The transformation has been wrought by the artificial selection of skilful horticulturists. The wild voss was, and is, still simple in form and of little variety in hue. Now there are almost countless roses, differing in shape and in colour, from which the colours range in finest shades and tints to faint pink, cream, tender lemon, crimson, damask, carmine, to a rich red like the sullen flush in a Spanish dancer. With tho varieties go quaint names usually after the wives and daughters of the gardeners who woke one morning to find their experiment had succeeded in i producing a new kind of rose. Thus at the Hutt Show to-day are exhibited scores of roses bearing English names, Lady So-and-So, or the Duchess of This-and-'That, French with Madames and Marquises, German with their Frau6, and all manner of titles taken from every land where grows tho rose. The whole room in tho basement of the Hutt Town Hall is fragrant with the perfume and bright with the hue of the national flower of Albion. The roses are more numerous this year, and more beautiful than ever, for the season has been pro pitious. Not only are there roses, however, for it may be one could have satiety even of their beauty, but there are many other flowers of the season, and not a fow exotics. Here, for instance, is a rareplant from tho selvas of Brazil with the beautiful title of Eucharis Amazonictu, with exquisite flowers of pure white perianth and calyx shaded with delicategreen. It is tho pride of the president of the society, Mr. <G. A. Chapman, who has tended it with infinite care, keeping it in a temperature that must never fall below 80 degrees or .the plant dies. •iMore gorgeous in its bold a-ppea) to the eye is an enormous Amaryllis shown by Mr. F. Cooper. The flower is fully twice the size of the ordinary Amaryllis, and opening its petals more widely with a richer display of colour. If 'Mr. Chap-man's-rarity is tho Queen, Mr. Cooper's variety of lily is the King of the show. Of plants in pots there is a splendid collection exhibited by Mr. Poole. Chief in its conspicuous extravagance of form is an Anthericum Schizeranum, an amazing plant with a vermilion flower of a (single fleshy petal surmounted by a curling topknot. Calceolarias — like pouches open to receive contributions — are seen to best advantage ir- a collection by Mr. Seager. Pelargoniums, sweet peas in great variety, poppies, peonies, rhododendrons, carnations — one a new heliotrope variety raised by Mr. Cooper — columbines, orchide, hyacinths, and many ferns, convey some idea of the sumptuous feast of colour in the snow. PRIZE-LIST. In the open class of twenty sections, Mr E. Moyes was eminently successj ful, carrying off the great majority of the prizes. Following is tho list of prize-winners so far as results are obtainable :—: — OPEN CLASS. Roses.* — Hybrid perpetuals (6) — C. Trevethick 1, E. Moyes 2. Same (12)— E. Moyes 1. Tea roses (6) — E. Moyes 1, C. Trev&thick 2. Hybrid tea roses — C. Trevethick 1, E. Moyes 2. Hybrid pereptual, hybrid tea, and tea roses (4 blooms) — E. Moyes 1. Red roses — E. Moyes 1, Mrs. Hughes 2. White roses -E. Moyes 1, C. Trevethick 2. Cream or yellow — E. Moyes 1, Mrs. Hughes 2. Pink — E. Moyes 1, Mrs. Hughes 2. Natural sprays, polyanthus — Mrs. Hughes 1, E. Moyes 2. Collection of Carnations — G. Harvey 1. Peonies — E. Moyes 1 and 2. Japanese iris — E. Mcyes 1 and 2. Collection pansies— Mrs. L. D. Ayson 1. Pot plants, ranged for effect — H. Poole. Sweet peas — Mrs. Hughes 1, Mrs. H. F. Ayson 2. Cut flowers — E. Moyes 1 and 2. Fortyeight roses, distinct varieties — Messrs Evans and Son.

At the weekly meeting of the Trustees of the Benevolent Institution this afternoon there were present — Rev. W. A. Evans (chairman), Miss Richmond, and Messrs. D. Robertson, J. Smith, and F. Cook. The treasurer's report showed a credit balanco of £209. Accounts amounting to £406 were passed for payment. It was reported that there are in the Horn© 76 males and 31 females. At a special meeting of the Miramar Borough Council to-day the Mayor (Mr. Crawford) was appointed to represent the council at the election of members of tho Wellington Charitable Aid and Hospital 'Boards. News was received in Wellington this morning that Mr. F. 'W. Haybittle, who, with Iris wife and two daughters, intended leaving London for N«w Zealand in the Tomoana on the 3rd inst., had to undergo an operation for appendicitis. The report states that he- is doing well, but the date of his departure is uncertain. Mr. Harry Jolly, just returned from England after a twelve months' residence in both London and Manchester, in a conversation with a Post reporter to-day, advanced his opinion that New Zealand is not as well advertised at Home as it might be. The offices of the High Commissioner of the Dominion are in the West End, quite apart from the business centre of the city. Canada and New South Wales, Mr. Jolly mentions, also have offices there, but they also have branch houses in the leading thoroughfares, whero the chief products of the colony are on exhibition. Even stripling Rhodesia possesses an agency in the central city, where its staple exports are on view. Mr. Jolly states that tho business literature of the Dominion is not obtainable at the public libraries of either London or Manchester. The ignorance of tho general English public on vital matters concerning New Zealand interests is, continued Mr. Jolly, surprising. "New Zealand should hustle and obtain offices in Fleet-street or the Strand, where they can be observed by all the business passers-by," concluded the speaker. The Governor (Lord Plunket) is at rwesent fishing at Turangarere, near Taihape. Lady Plunket is staying with Mrs. *J. Studholme, Taihape. His Excellency returns to Wellington next week.