04 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ August 7, 1873. 



extent. President has been most useful ; it suffered more from 

 the loss of flavour than from premature decay. The varieties 

 that have proved best of all for flavour, and for resisting the 

 attacks of damp, are Lucas, Dr. Hogg, and Frogmore Late 

 Pine. These were all good, ripening in the order in which 

 they are named, and yielding an abundant crop of fruit of 

 much excellence in every respect. It would, of course, be un- 

 wise to discard any good kind simply because its fruit was 

 spoiled by the excessive dampness of the season, but it is 

 certainly advisable to let those sorts predominate that are 

 found to possess such valuable properties as are fully developed 



BLUE FLOWERS. 



A SHORT time ago Mr. Eobson communicated to the Journal 

 an interesting letter on the white flowers of the garden, and 

 certainly this colour, by its cool, quiet, contrasting effect, is 

 indispensable in the setting of a floral picture. In the many 

 examples of floral criticism — for on this question nearly every- 

 body claims the right and power to criticise — there are a 

 thousand verdicts every year of "too much scarlet" or "too 

 much yellow," against one of "too much white," and the 

 odds are nearly as great in the matter of " too much blue." 

 No colour is more universal than blue, none more admired, 

 and none more expressive. It is the colour that pervades the 

 very elements of Nature and reigns there and in the petals of 

 flowers a very queen of beauty whose loveliness can never be 

 impeached. It is found only occasionally in the feathered 

 tribe, and never without increasing the beauty of plumage. 

 In the vegetable economy it is never found in the stern work- 

 ing department of leaf, branch, or stem. Amongst the won- 

 drous beauties of earth we can. besides the normal green, find 

 foliage draped in white, and brown, and yellow, and red, and 

 even nearly black; but no blue leaf has yet been seen, or 

 stripe or blotch, save in the flower. Above all other colours 

 it is honoured as the emblem of constancy and truth. 



It is, however, a fact that the flower gardens of the present 

 day are singularly destitute of the ever-admired and charming 

 Wue. There are, it is true, the blue Lobelia and the exceed- 

 ingly useful varieties of Viola ; Ageratum, too, where it is 

 ased, gives a gentle touch of it, and the pure rich gloss of 

 Salvia patens is occasionally admitted. But can this be all of 

 'jhe numerous array of blue flowers that are admitted into the 

 garden ? It is verily so, and why ? The imperious fashion of 

 " bedding-out " has driven the rest away. I will not rail .against 

 the fashion, but would prefer it to have its fling. It gives 

 enjoyment, demands skill, and reflects credit to owner and 

 handicraftsman. But in saying this, I say also, Bring back 

 the blues, and let them have a plot too. Use them in simple 

 natural mixture. There will be new delights every morning, 

 and the blue flowers will afford a refreshing change from the 

 monotonous masses of the formally-planted beds. 



I am led into this dissertation by the verdict of a gar- 

 den party — a party of ladies intent on flowers and criticism. 

 They were new-fashioned ladies in an old-fashioned garden, 

 but the old garden was in new fashion in the matter of colour 

 — a predominance of blue. To see these modern ladies ad- 

 mire the ancient flowers was a treat. They were under the 

 thraldom of blue, for it was just then Delphinium and Cam- 

 panula time. What a list of blues do these two names alone 

 afford ! Still the plants are as varied in habit as their flowers in 

 colour. Look up at the 6 to 8-feet pillars of Delphinium, the 

 rich deep blue of Hybridum K.anunculiflorum, and the old 

 Hendersonii, at the pale or faded blue — just now fashionalde — 

 of Mrs. Gerard Leigh, at the dazzling dancing azure of Felix 

 Poulott, and grant at once that these things are worth growing. 

 The colour of the last-named is " altogether lovely," and com- 

 pels a pause of every passing lady. Look down from the 

 Delphiniums to some of the dwarfer Campanulas, and do not 

 disdain them. Do not disdain t'le old and sterling Carpatica 

 with its mass of telling colour of its own peculiar blue. To 

 descend lower, do not disdain even the annual forms of this 

 family ; only to see them in their beauty they must be turned 

 into biennials by autumn sowing. Without enumerating I 

 wiU take the simplest and commonest of all, and venture to 

 tissert that no one can disdain it when grown as it ought to be 

 and seen in all its richness in June and July — I mean Venus's 

 Looking-glass, Specularia Speculum. What ! name low com- 

 mon things like these ! Yes, however " low" it may seem to 

 be in high gardening days, " these common things " shall 

 have a niche because they deserve it, and because they are eld 



friends, with a long history behind thera and a long future 

 beforet hem, for they can never be driven away. Their native 

 beauty will ever preserve them from annihilation, in spite of 

 fancy, prejudice, and fashion. 



Are they transient? So is the Rose, so are all things beau- 

 tiful. They are admired the more for that. Even an ever- 

 lasting bloom of Roses would pall on the vision and deaden 

 appreciation. Condemn not flowers for being transient. If 

 we sometimes regret their departure the regret is momentary, 

 and new hopes arise in new births and an ever-recurring suc- 

 cession. Is not this transient character, so much deplored, one 

 of the greatest gifts of Heaven? It gives new life, new hope, 

 new appetite, and the earth seems always young, and yields 

 fruit of ever-fresh enjoyments. But blues are not tran- 

 sient. Employ in addition to the families named the old blue 

 Salvia freely. Turn the Veronicas, the Myosotis, the Ne- 

 mophila to account. Cherish the Viola. Throw in the old 

 Trachelium and the venerable and rich-robed Tradescantia 

 virginica. Let the Convolvuluses have a place in summer, 

 and the little Scillas and Anemones in spring, and tell me 

 not blue flowers are transient. They are not transient, but too 

 sparingly used, or a host of ladies coming from gardens of 

 their own would not exclaim in pleasure on seeing their 

 favourite colour alive and in flowers. — J. Weight. 



KENT. 



Our county, on which we rather pride ourselves, has re- 

 ceived but scant justice lately at the hands of travellers. A Mr. 

 I'Estrange has lately pubhshed one of those books which seem 

 to be got-up for Mudie's, in which one writes most charmingly 

 about the decaying vUlages of Romney, Ac, which are in 

 effect more flourishing than they have been for some time. 

 And now, j'roh pudor ! Mr. Witherspoon, whose love for the 

 Gladiolus one must honour, runs through the county and 

 records his impressions, in which he pours great contempt on 

 our farming, and deplores the miserable condition of our south 

 country labourers. Travellers' tales are proverbial, and tra- 

 vellers' impressions are often hastily put to paper and pass 

 current for shrewdness. 



Now let me tell my tale. First as to the land. Railways do 

 not always run through the best land of a country. Who 

 would judge of the north of France by the line of country from 

 Boulogne to Paris, or in our country of the midland counties 

 from the Une from Huntingdon to Peterborough ? And it so 

 happens that the South-Eastern Railway runs for part of its 

 course through some of the worst land of the county — hard 

 " clity " clay ; and no worse punishment could we wish to any 

 farmer who had wronged his fellows, than to set him down to 

 farm this land. Hungry and cold, no farming can ever make 

 it remunerative. Mr. Witherspoon expatiates, too, on the use 

 of the scythe on brown meadows, and the absence of the 

 mowing machine. Ours is not a pasture but an arable county, 

 and probably there are fewer mowing machines here, for the 

 simple reason there would not be employment for them to 

 repay their outlay. In my own parish there are farms where 

 not a ton of hay is made this year, but the mowing machine is 

 in use here where there is any breadth of land laid down. We 

 do not cut our grass brown, and I should not be at all surprised 

 to find that what Mr. Witherspoon saw was men brushing 

 meadows where .sheep had been fed, but where the grass had 

 grown " strandy," and in consequence had to be brushed over. 

 Then as to the matter of wages. I do not know what Mr-. 

 Witherspoon calls poorly-paid labourers, but the lowest rate of 

 wage here is Ki.t. (irf. to IT'', per week, independently of harvest 

 work and hopping ; and if he had kindly paid me a visit I could 

 have taken him into cottages, and that not one or two, but 

 many, where he would have seen neatness and comfort such 

 as I venture to say he would not find in the houses of our 

 much-belauded and overpetted mechanics. I am sorry he falls 

 into the loud talk about an age of progress, &c. About the 

 Docks, Thistles, Ac, letjme say there is a worse weed than 

 any of these which we ought to do more to eradicate — the 

 drinking habits, which from all we hear are as prevalent 

 amongst Durham miners as Kentish labourers. 



This is not, strictly speaking, horticultural matter; but, as a 

 " man of Kent," my back was rather put up by what I cannot 

 but consider hasty judgment and wrong opinions. There is 

 one thing Mr. Witherspoon might have observed, which is not 

 surely an indication of bad wages or unsound condition — the 

 well-kept gardens attached to the cottages, in which many an 

 old-fasliioned flower is cherished, and where vegetables and 



