THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



247 



delicious Florence, thrive best on the 

 •wild cherry stocks ; but the Florence 

 does well on the Mahaleb, and makes 

 a beautiful bush. For bushes and 

 pyramids in extenso, the Duke and 

 Kentish varieties are admirably 

 adapted if worked on jthe Mahaleb, 

 and when regularly pinched in be- 

 come compact and fruitful almost 

 beyond belief. Plant a bush of 

 Archduke on the lawn near the win- 

 dows, and if you can keep the chil- 

 dren from plucking the fruit till you 

 give them permission, you will have 

 a picture that may entitle you to the 

 envy of your neighbours. Belle 

 Magnifique, Coe's Late Carnation, 

 Jeffrey's Duke, Common Kentish, 

 Late Duke, May Duke, Morelio, 

 Nouvelle Boyale, Royal Duke, 

 and Reine Hortense, are superb 

 varieties for the bush or pyra- 

 mid form, and whether considered as 

 to leafage, blossom, or fruit, are well 

 worthy of admiration. 



There are not many varieties of 

 Pltjms that drop in the category of 

 ornamental trees ; nevertheless, as 

 they cannot be shut out, it is well to 

 make the best of them. As stan- 

 dards the damsons are handsome and 

 prolific, and the following may be 

 grouped with them : — Guthrie's Late 

 Green Gage, Huling's Superb, Jeffer- 

 son's Goliath, Perdrigon Violet Hatif, 

 Transparent Gage, Autumn Compote, 

 Diamond, Gisborne's, Mitchelson's, 

 Orleans, Pershore, and Kirke's. As 

 bushes and pyramids, the following 

 are at once handsome and profitable 

 varieties : — Belgian Purple, Brahy's 

 Green Gage, Coe's Golden Drop, 

 Rivers's Early Favourite, Rivers's 

 Early Prolific, Early Mirabelle, 

 Golden Esperen, Green Gage, Law- 

 rence's Gage, Purple Gage, Reine 

 Claude de Bavay, Mirabelle, Mira- 

 belle Tardive, Pond's Seedling, 

 Prince Englebert, and St. Martin's 

 Quetsche. S. H. 



NOTES ON GOOSEBERRIES. 



I am thinking just now of a pretty 

 collection of what are called " Lan- 

 cashire " sorts (very few of which 

 originated in Lancashire) which have 

 a place in my garden, many of which 

 ought to be better known and more 

 generally grown than they are for 

 domestic purposes. I believe I pos- 

 sess every gooseberry worth growing, 

 and among them all my favourite for 

 my own eating is Pitmaston Green 

 Gage, a small green berry, which 

 possesses a most recherche flavour, 

 about as different from an ordinary 

 market gooseberry as a peach is dif- 

 ferent from a potato. Another fa- 

 vourite of mine is Red Champagne, 

 but its tough hairy skin renders it 

 an inelegant fruit. It grows so well 

 as scarcely to need any pruning, a 

 mere thinning where the shoots are 

 crowded is quite sufficient. It is of 

 erect habit, a most abundant bearer, 

 very early, and the flavour of the 

 fruit seems to be grateful to every 

 palate. A few of the Lancashire 

 prize varieties ought to be in every 



garden, yet strange to say there are 

 not many of them that are worth 

 growing, except for the size of their 

 berries, for some of the largest are 

 very deficient of flavour. One of the 

 best of the Lancashire kinds for the 

 dessert is Bright Venus, a not very 

 large berry of the white class ; the 

 flavour of this is remarkably rich and 

 sugary, and the fruit may be allowed 

 to hang till it shrivels, and it is then 

 like a sweetmeat. This desirable 

 practice can only be followed by the 

 aid of netting to protect the fruit 

 from the birds, and even then it will 

 be strange if they do not get some. 

 Glenton Green and Glory of Ratcliffe 

 are two excellent varieties of the 

 green class, the berries of medium 

 size, handsome, and chiefly differing 

 in the first being hairy and the 

 second smooth. Massey's Heart of 

 Oak is a superb gooseberry, very 

 large, oblong, and green, the flavour 

 rich and vinous, the habit of the bush 

 pendulous and spreading. Among 

 the whites, I prefer for eating White 



