_Bicycles, &c._--The Speedwell Club began their annual exhibition of
bicycles, tricycles, and their accessories in February, 1882, when about
300 machines were shown. In the following year the number was nearly
400; in 1884, more than 500; in 1885, 600.

_Roots_.--Messrs. Webb, of Wordsley, occupied Curzon Hall, November 20,
1878, with an exhibition of prize roots, grown by their customers.

_Fruit, Flowers, &c._--The first flower show we have note of was on June
19, 1833. The first chrysanthemum show was in 1860. The first Birmingham
rose show in 1874 (at Aston); the second, five years later, at Bingley
Hall. The Harborne gooseberry-growers have shown up every year since
1815, and the cultivators of _pommes de terre_ in the same neighbourhood
first laid their tables in public in Sept., 1879.

~Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862.~--Even as Birmingham may be said to have
given the first idea for the "Great Exhibition" of 1851, so it had most
to do with the building thereof, the great palace in Hyde Park being
commenced by Messrs. Fox, Henderson & Co., July 26, 1850, and it was
finished in nine months at a total cost of £176,031. In its erection
there were used 4,000 tons of iron, 6,000,000 cubic feet of woodwork,
and 31 acres of sheet glass, requiring the work of 1,800 men to put it
together. 287 local exhibitors applied for space amounting to 22,070
sup. feet, namely, 10,183 feet of flooring, 4,932 feet of table area,
and 6,255 feet of wall space. The "glory" of this exhibition was the
great crystal fountain in the centre, manufactured by Messrs. Osler, of
Broad Street, a work of art till then never surpassed in the world's
history of glass-making and glass cutting, and which now pours forth its
waters in one of the lily tanks in Sydenham Palace. Many rare specimens
of Birmingham manufacture besides were there, and the metropolis of the