1873.] THE HYDRANGEA. 317 



Had we been standi believers in Mr Knight's doctrine, we might have avoided 

 much of the loss we have sustained. 



But lured as we have been by early Jtnd highly productive, racy-fiavonred, 

 and exceedingly cellular kinds, which from their delicacy are short-lived, we 

 neglected, throngh our ignorance and nnbelief, the vascular and conseqnenth' 

 more hardy kinds, which do not collapse under the same atmosphere as the 

 above-mentioned sorts, 



()ur attempts in the future are now clear enough. 



It is not probable that we shall abandon our favourite cellular kinds ; but we 

 must rear seedlings from the vascular kinds, and not " cross " them with the 

 cellidar sorts, as a means of furnishing us with late Potatoes that will withstand 

 such rigorous years as those of 1816 and 1872. 



Mr L. G. Moore tells us, in the Germantown ' Telegraph' of April the 9th, 

 that he formerly had an old kind of Potato called the " Whig," which was an 

 excellent Potato, and which was never diseased, and it maintained its good 

 qualities late in the following summer ; but it was a poor cropper, and became 

 supplanted by the Peach Blow. Therefore let us apply to our American cousins 

 for the Whig Potato, and rear seedlings from it without crossing it with any 

 other kind, and let us see what can be done in this direction. 



This theory of the most cellular varieties of the Potato suffering more than the 

 robust kinds by excessive moisture and a low temperature is not confined to the 

 humble Potato, as it holds good in other kinds of plants and trees — the Peach 

 and the Apple, for instance. 



The Peaches here suffered so much by the late rains that many of them " died 

 back " considerably. A favourite Balgowan Nectarine, that I thought was a 

 hardy fellow, had not a good blossom upon it. The Pibston Pippin Ajiple suf- 

 fered severel}^ and Alfriston dropped every leaf early in the autumn, and is 

 now to all appearance dead. 



There is another of Mr Knight's theories which I have proved true in practice. 



When looking over his Peach-trees, which had been seriously affected with 

 the "blister," a cryptogam which very much damaged the foliage of the Peach, 

 about 40 years ago, he observed that the Peach did much better, and the trees 

 lasted longer, when budded as standards or half- standards, not only because the 

 manipulator had a chance of performing his work better than when stand- 

 ing on his head, as it were, but because the sap received such a degree of 

 elaboration in the stem of the stock as rendered it more congenial to the sap of 

 the bud, and hence a more complete union of the two was made. In proof of 

 which I found a half- standard, glandless, rough-leaved Eoyal Georre Peach here 

 45 years ago, which is still bearing a crop of fruit, while d ig that time 

 several generations of dwarfs have been sent to the wood-pile. I jiresume it 

 is imperfect workmanshij) which lets moisture to the crude sap, and disease 

 is established. 



KiNLET, Bewdley. Johx Pearsox. 



THE HYDRANGEA AS A DECORATIVE PLANT. 



The common Hydrangea hortensis is perfectly hardy in the south of 

 England, the Isle of Man, and other parts of the British dominions ; 

 but it is as a pot-plant that we would here allude to its excellence. 

 Doubtless some of our readers may have seen the beautiful little 



