1879.] FRUIT-CULTURE. 353 



Although the Dipladenia cannot be used for all purposes, it is not 

 only a worthy subject of the exhibition-tent and stove decoration, 

 associated with Allamandas, Clerodendrons, &c, but it is useful in a 

 cut state for shallow vases or dishes : mixed with these and Gloxinias, 

 with a little Fern intermixed, Dipladenias are useful and striking. 



Wm. Bardney. 



Nonius Green. 



FRUIT- CULTURE. 



In the July number of ' The Gardener ' there occurs the following 

 passage by Mr Hinds in connection with this topic : " I am ready to 

 yield to every grower what I claim for myself — viz., that of knowing 

 my own wants and circumstances best, and therefore that I have a 

 right to choose for myself whatever course seems best to adopt ; but 

 the aspect of affairs is altered if I recommend for general cultivation 

 what is in fact but a foible of my own." Now there is nothing what- 

 ever to complain of in this excellent " piece of morality. ' ; The passage 

 is worth remembering by us all, and if I make use of it here in a way 

 that is not particularly acceptable to your correspondent, he has himself 

 to thank for it. Let your readers turn to Mr Hinds's calendarial writ- 

 ings on " Strawberries " in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' and see for them- 

 selves how his precept and his practice correspond. 



Not to go back more than the last few weeks, he has in one place 

 sarcastically described those who differ from him in his peculiar 

 notions as following " the practices of their grandfathers ; " in an- 

 other place he has referred to his neighbours as pursuers of "the 

 merest phantoms," which are not " resorted to where high - class 

 gardening is carried out ; " and again, he has broadly accused his com- 

 peers generally of ignorance how to grow certain Strawberries that 

 did not suit " their wants and circumstances,'' — informing them in 

 the most courteous manner that those who condemn such and such 

 varieties as do not find favour with him, " do so because they do not 

 know how to grow them" (!). These are some of the examples of 

 toleration towards his neighbours that Mr Hinds sets when he has " a 

 foible of his own " to recommend. In his paper in ' The Gardener/ he 

 says " Black Prince Strawberry is not worth growing after February." 

 After that date, however, I can grow plenty of berries of it 5 inches 

 or more in circumference ; and I have sold it, as I can prove, in April 

 at from 15s. to 25s. per pound. Were I to apply the same test to Mr 

 Hinds, therefore, that he is in the habit of applying to his neighbours, 

 I might very justly say that he condemns Black Prince " because he 

 does not know how to grow it." Except it be the market-growers, 

 who grow Sir Charles Napier for its appearance sake only, Mr Hinds 

 stands alone almost among private gardeners as its champion. 



