iSyi.] RECENTLY - INTRODUCED GRAPES. 413 



grafted on other Vines. We would recommend its being grafted on the 

 Muscat of Alexandria as the best stock for it, so far as we can judge ; 

 for a few days ago we carefully tasted samples of it from its own roots, 

 from Black Hamburg, and Muscat of Alexandria stocks, and the trace 

 of Muscat flavour was most appreciable from the Muscat stock. We 

 have just been informed of a very remarkable change effected on this 

 Grape by grafting it on the Black Frontignan, which, it is said, has 

 changed the Golden Champion " into a small oval black Grape, par- 

 taking of the peculiar Frontignan flavour." If this be correct, we have 

 never heard of so complete and striking a change before. We may 

 further state that it augurs well for the Grape that, at the last Edin- 

 burgh June Show, it took first and second prizes for white Grapes 

 against Buckland's Sweetwater and other well-grown white Grapes; and 

 had there been a third award, the Golden Champion would have 

 secured that also. Mr Turner, of Slough, has, according to the report 

 in the ' Journal of Horticulture,' shown three bunches of it of " large 

 size." The ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' says it was affected with spot. It 

 will be remembered against what an adverse tide of opinion the ^lus- 

 cat of Alexandria (or, as it is thought, the Black Muscat reintroduced) 

 has worked its way into such high favour, and we have every reason to 

 expect the same of the Golden Champion ; at all events, no favourable 

 experience of ours will save it from what it deserves, either the one way 

 or the other. 



forster's white seedling. 



This variety has been in cultivation a considerable time, but we think 

 that, as an early white Grape, it is not yet so well known nor so much 

 grown as it deserves to be. Especially is this applicable to it as an 

 early-forcing Grape in pots. In the early part of summer we saw very 

 extraordinary examples of it in pots at Thoresby Park and Chatsworth, 

 at both of which places were the finest houses of pot-Grapes we 

 have ever met with, and very conspicuous among them was Forster's 

 White Seedling. It cannot lay claim to first-rate flavour, but it is juicy 

 and pleasant, bears and sets most freely, and is very early. 



Mr Speed very forcibly exemplifies the wisdom of not cutting 

 back pot-Vines at pruning-time, and allows the bulk of the crop at 

 the top part of the Vine where the buds are always finest, and to 

 which part the principal flow of sap is attracted ; and certainly his 

 examples of this style of fruiting well justify the practice. 



We may here state that a writer — " Vitis " — in a contemporary, attri- 

 butes our paper on " Pot- Amines," in last month's ' Gardener,' to William 

 Thomson of Tweed Vineyard, who never saw nor heard of the remarks 

 there made till he saw them in the * Gardener.' 



David Thomson. 



