December 23, 1873 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



5U 



towns receive their proportion from Hereford and Worcester. 

 The orchards of Normandy and Brittany, too, supply large 

 quantities of Mistletoe to the London markets at Christmas 

 time. Large tracts of country in western Franco, as in western 

 England, are devoted to Apple-growing. In Normandy alone, 

 the tree which the Mistletoe most delights in has been so 

 widely cultivated, that as many as five hundred varieties of 

 the acid or Bitter Apple are known in the district. The French 

 Mistletoe finds its way to St. Malo, and is thence shipped to 

 England by steamer. From the Channel Islands, too. Mistle- 

 toe is shipped for England, although orchard culture in Guern- 

 sey and Jersey has of late years been decreasing. 



Arrived at Covent Garden or its precincts, the Mistletoe is 

 offered for sale in bulk or in small lots. Even in the off-streets, 

 too, where the cargo can get no farther on its way to the head- 

 quarters of the market, the sales begin and are often com- 

 pleted on the spot. The waggon is converted into a shop, 

 and the sales are legally effected, for they take place within 

 the market precincts, and the dues are collected as though the 

 transactions had occurred in the Piazzas of the market itself. 

 As we stand here. Mistletoe is selling all around us from Is. iUl. 

 a branch to £5 and £(i a-ton. But, great as are the quantities 

 of Mistletoe which find their way to the London markets at 

 Christmas time, the various kinds of Holly are still more 

 plentifully supplied. Holly, however, is not so peculiarly the 

 growth of certain districts as Mistletoe, and the sources of its 

 supply are more various, and perhaps at the same time more 

 questionable as regards the law of mrum and liium. All around 

 London the festive season is one of uneasiness and trepidation 

 to the owners of evergreen gardens and shrubberies, and not 

 seldom it is regularly signalised in such cases by the employ- 

 ment of watchmen, night and day, to protect the grounds 

 against marauders. A considerable quantity of the Holly 

 which finds its way to the London markets is come by in a 

 casual but not necessarily dishonest manner. Here, for in- 

 stance, are several loads which have been brought in rail- 

 way vans from the Bricklayers' Arms Station. We learn that 

 some railway works in progress in Surrey are being carried 

 through a thick jungle of wild Holly and underwood. The 

 Holly becomes the perquisite of the ganger and his men, and 

 is found to be well worth transport to Covent Garden Market. 

 Many other consignments have a history which tells of the 

 exceptional character of the trade. 



Much of the evergreen supply for Christmas purposes is 

 offered by itinerants, who may or may not have contracted for 

 the goods they possess, and it is hardly doubted in Covent 

 Garden, Spitalfields, the Borough, and Farringdon Street that 

 many a load of Holly, which looks as honest as its neighbours, 

 has been obtained surreptitiously. But the great Holly supply 

 of the London markets comes-in in the form of consignments 

 to order from well-known business clients in the country. 

 Stewards of great estates are wont to sanction the chpping of 

 the plantations at Christmas time, and some valuable patronage 

 of this kind is freely exercised. Gardeners at gentlemen's 

 seats, too, are allowed to lop the evergreens and to treat the 

 spoil as their perquisites, or they sub-let the privilege to the 

 local market-gardener, who well knows where to find a customer 

 for his wares. Nor must it be forgotten that the Holly still 

 maintains its aboriginal hold on the common lands of Surrej', 

 Hampshire, and other counties near enough to London to 

 repay the expense of carriage and yield a profit to the vendor, 

 besides putting an honest penny in the way of the villager far 

 away. Homo of our finest native HolUes are found in the New 

 Forest, but Sevenoaks and Cobham and Holmwood are equally 

 well known to the purveyors of Christmas evergreens. We 

 find, too, that it even pays to bring HoUy from Shropshire, and 

 that large quantities are being brought from the environs of 

 Shrewsbury year by year. At Covent Garden it is sold to the 

 retailers in bundles from fxl. upwards, whilst the same quantity 

 of variegated Holly often fetches from Sn. to Cm. and upwards. 

 A load of well-berried variegated Holly sometimes fetches as 

 flauch as £20. So at Covent Garden, before daylight on a De- 

 cember morning, the trade goes on in gUstening broad-leaved 

 Laurel ; Ivy, glossy and black-berried ; UoUy, " with its thorny 

 leaves and berries like crimson drops," as the symbolical writers 

 love to describe it; and round toppling bashes of the white - 

 berried Mistletoe. — {Leiture Uo'ir.) 



Gabdbhbbs' Royal Beskvolest Isstitbtion. — We ask sub- 

 scribers to consider the case of Mrs. Edlington, widow of the 

 late John Edlington, who died in October last, leaving her 

 and six children, three of whom are totally unprovided for. 



The wife hasl[suffcred'for twenty years from disease of the 

 heart, which has not only prevented her doing any kind of 

 hard work, but also necessitated the husband's earnings being 

 spent in medical and oth^r attendance, and she is now quite 

 incapable of earning her own living. Mr. Edlington was at 

 the time of his death gardener to Sir M. Cholmeley, Bart., 

 Eastou Hall, Grantham, and previously he had lived with the 

 Earl of Strafford, Wrotham Park, Barnet, the Earl of Erne, 

 etc. He was a staunch supporter of the Institution, having 

 been seven years a subscriber, and never having lost an op- 

 portunitj' of advocating its claims amongst his friends. 



THE CATHCAKT PRIZE ESSAYS ON THE 

 POTATO DISEASE. 



Messrs. Chaeles Whitehead, John Algernon Clarke, William 

 Carruthers, and H. M. Jenkins, the Judges appointed by the 

 Royal Agricultural Society to examine the essays competing 

 for the £100 prize offered by Lord Cathcart for the best essay 

 on " The Potato Disease and its Prevention," presented then- 

 report at the last meeting of the Society's Council. Among 

 ninety-four essays not one has been found worthy of an award ; 

 in fact, had anybody really succeeded in combating the disease, 

 he would probably have done better with his discovery than 

 by describing the modus operandi for £100. The causes most 

 frequently set forth in the manuscripts were degeneration of 

 the tuber, fungus on the tuber, superabundant moisture and 

 wet weather, Peronospora iufestaus attacking the leaves and 

 stems of the plant, electrical action, and unhealthy condition 

 of the plant, induced by the use of certain manures. The 

 principal remedies recommended were the cultivation of new 

 varieties, use of disease-proof sorts, employment of lightning- 

 conductors, application of lime as a manure, avoidance of speci- 

 fied manures, steeping or kiln-drying the tuber before planting, 

 dressing the haulm with sulphur, chlorine, Ac, cutting off the 

 tops on the first appearance of disease, growing the Potatoes 

 in small clumps or hillocks, bending down the haulm so as not 

 to drip over the roots, and tying up the haulm to stakes, or 

 cultivating sorts having erect stalks. Evidence in some essays 

 contradicted in nearly all cases alleged results stated in others. 

 The Judges have recommended the Society to grant a hand- 

 some sum of money for the purpose of inducing some compe- 

 tent mycologist to undertake an investigation of the life-history 

 of the'Potato fungus (Peronospora infestans) in the interval 

 between the injury to the Potato plant and the reappearance of 

 the fungus in the following year. Also that valuable prizes 

 should be offered for the best disease-proof early and late Po- 

 tatoes, the awards to be made after testing the competing sorts 

 and their produce during three seasons. 



Death of Mk. Charles Lawson. — We regret to have to an- 

 nounce the death of Mr. Charles Lawson, head of the late firm 

 of Peter Lawson & Son, of Edinburgh, and lately Lord Provo;ji, 

 of the city, which took place on Sunday night, the 21st inst. _ 



THE YEW AT CEOWHDRST, IN SUSSEX. 



Camden observes that " in times past the whole country 

 (Sussex) throughout, by reason of the woods, was hardly 

 passable, for the wood Andradswald took up in this quarter a 

 hundred and twenty miles in length, and thirty in breadth." 

 Evidence of this remains in the number of places in the 

 names of which the Anglo-Saxon word hurst, a wood, was 

 applied, and is still retained. Within ten miles round Hast- 

 ings are Hurst Wood, Cowhurst, Maplehurst, Coghurst, Crow- 

 hurst, Piddlehurst, Penhurst, and Bathurst. Other parts of the 

 county are similarly characterised. Wadhurst, Bricklehurst, 

 Hawkhurst, Ticehurst, Bellhurst, Salehurst, Hurst Green, and 

 Ewhurst, are all in close vicinity to the South-Eastern Rail- 

 way between London and Hastings. With the exception of 

 the Yews, all the trees of the Anglo-Saxon days have passed 

 away, but of the Yews many are still existing. I know no 

 county in so many of the churchyards of which ancient Yews 

 are remaining as in Sussex. 



Ray, the botanist, I believe, was correct in considering that 

 our forefathers so placed them because, being evergreen, they 

 symbolised the immortality that triumphs over the grave. 

 The peasants of Ireland wear sprigs of Tew in their hats 

 during Eastertide, the season that commemor.ates the assur- 

 ance of immortality; and Evelyn tells that in his days the 

 Yew sprigs were called " Pahus." The durability of the wood 



