FOREIGN NOTICES. 



479 



name of Reine Claude de Bavay, viz.. the Green 

 Gage, Coe's Golden Drop, and the true sort. The 

 uncertainty respecting this plum gave me great an- 

 noyance last summer, and I determined upon a 

 journev to Malines to see the parent tree when in 

 fruit. When I arrived at Malines I found Major 

 Esperen recently deceased, and I much feared that 

 my attempt to get a view of the tree would be 

 friiitless. I obtained, however, through the kind- 

 ness of Mr. Van Houtte, an introduction to Ma- 

 dame Esperen, who seemed to take pleasure in 

 pointing out to me the numerous proofs of the hor- 

 ticultural skill of her departed husband. I may 

 here mention, merely to show how superiorly the 

 Belgians and French manage their fruit trees in the 

 open quarters (I cannot give them equal credit for 

 wall trees,) that two small gardens here, not more 

 than one rood each, contained some hundreds of 

 pyramidal pears, pliuns and apples, nearly all per- 

 fect specimens, and covered with fruit. To return 

 to our plum. I found, on inquiry of Mr. Van 

 Houtte, that he had bought all the plants he had 

 sold ; in fact, he said, that having no nursery for 

 hardy trees, it was his custom to buy all plants of 

 that description. He was exceedingly loth to be- 

 lieve that he had been cheated ; indeed, I think 

 that even now he scarcely believes it, for he thinks 

 that we cannot judge by their leaves or shoots if a 

 fruit tree is correct to name. I can only say that I 

 am able to distinguish all the popular sorts of plums, 

 pears and cherries, by their leaves and shoots ; and 

 I am not alone in this, for every active foreman of 

 the fruit tree department in large nurseries can do 

 the same. To use a mild expression for cheating, 

 Mr. Van Houtte has been victimised, has uncon- 

 sciously victimised myself and others ; and I have 

 served some of my friends in like manner. 



I must now beg those friends to whom I sent a 

 tree last planting season, to replace the suspected 

 one sent the year before, to oblige me with a line. 

 I will then send them a plant of my own grafting, 

 true, and nothing else but true. I have fortu- 

 nately sold to many friends the sort I first received, 

 which is true, and kept a list of those to whom I 

 sent the trees that I bought, so that the error can 

 and shall be corrected. 



The October Green Gage, Reine Claude d'Octo- 

 bre, is so much like Reine Claude Tardive as not 

 to be worth keeping distinct ; this is a rather small 

 round plum, exactly like the Green Gage in colour 

 and shape ; flesh melting and rich, with the Green 

 Gage flavor, but not quite so juicy ; colour green, 

 spotted with red ; flesh parts freely from the stone. 

 I ate my fruit October 22d, and found them excel- 

 lent ; it is perfectly hardy, and its fruit may be pre- 

 served on the tree, if the season is not very wet, till 

 November. 



Rivers' Early No. 1. I mention this plum only 

 because it has invariably proved excellent, and on 

 account of my hanng given it a name ; it will, in 

 future, be called " Rivers' Early Favorite ;" its 

 shoots are downy, it ripens a trifle earlier than the 

 following, and in flavor is, I think, a little sape- 

 rior. 



Rivers' Early No. 2. This is the hardiest and 

 most prolitic of all our early plums ; in fact, it al- 

 ways bears a crop ; I purpose to call it ''Rivers' 



Early Prolific." In Covent Garden market, in July 

 last, the fruit sold readily at 7s. per sieve, contain- 

 ing about half a boshel. The shoots of this are 

 smooth although it was raised, like the preced- 

 ing, from Precoce de Tours, which has downy 

 shoots ; it may be called the Market Gardener's 

 Plum, par excellence, on accoant of its great pro- 

 ductiveness. 



Yellow Magnum Bonum. This is an American 

 plum of extreme hardiness, very large, oval, good, 

 but not quite first rate ; its flesh clings to the stone. 

 My fruit were ripe September 7 ; it seems to bear 

 much more freely, as a standard or pyramid, than 

 our old white Magnum Bonum. 



Raspberries. — The Perpetual Raspberry in my 

 soil has not succeeded in bearing an autumnal crop. 

 In the low, moist situation I saw it occupying in 

 Sulfolk it succeeded admirably ; but a new variety 

 I introduced last season from the Continent will en- 

 tirely supersede all our autumnal bearing raspber- 

 ries ; this is called the Leirge-Fruited Monthly 

 Raspberry. I have at this moment, October 25, a 

 bed of these raspberries covered with fruit nearly as 

 large as the Red Antwerp, and on the same plants 

 are green fruit and abundance of blossoms ; these 

 were planted in March, and each cane cut down 

 close to the ground ; owing to this I had no summer 

 crop, but the young canes commenced bearing to- 

 wards the end of August, and have ever since been 

 covered with fruit. From every bud a lateral shoot 

 is produced, which in succession give their fruit, 

 and the plant soon assumes a conical shape : or per- 

 haps it will be better described by saying that it is 

 like a small spruce fir, with regular tiers of fruit- 

 bearing branches. To obtain a summer as well as 

 an autumnal crop, the canes, all but one, may be 

 cut down close to the ground ; this single cane will 

 produce a crop in July, and those cut down will 

 produce abundantly in autumn. I regret to say that 

 my limited stock will not, I fear, allow me to send 

 out plants this season. 



I have an idea that potted plants, well attended 

 to, by giving them liqmd manure, might, by having 

 them placed under glass with a gentle heat, b« 

 made to give their fruit till late in December. 



Van Hoctte's New Phloxes. — Among the ma- 

 ny gay flowers which, at present, add so much to 

 the ornament of our gardens, the Phloxes are espe- 

 cially worthy of note, for their pretty clusters or 

 panicles of the most brilliantly shaded blossoms. 

 These charming plants begin to blooui at a time 

 when flowers are yet rare in the garden ; thus, in 

 the spring we have the dwarf kinds, such as P. 

 verna, procumbent, subulata, setacea, amoena, which 

 make beautiful borders ; while in July and Septem- 

 ber there are the taller varieties, which display, in 

 the midst of the flower beds, the brilliant corol- 

 las. 



M. Van HorTTE, of Ghent, to whom we owe 

 the beautiful variety which bears his name, (Phlox 

 Van Houtii,) has succeeded in raising four other 

 fine kmds. They are — 1st, Phlox "Standard of 

 Perfection," with bi-coloured flowers, of white and 

 cobalt blue, and arranged in magnificent pyramids ; 

 2d, p. Goethe, of a pure white, dashed with ash- 

 coloured lilac; 3d, P. Reine LouUe, pure white. 



