10 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ July 7, 1863. 



Mr. Lydiitrd, of Batbeaston, near Bath, also sent two 

 seedling Strawbenies, both of wliich were fine-looking fi'uit. 

 Gem of the West is a fine bright scarlet colour, with a good 

 deal of the Pine flavour in it, but it lacks sugai-. This defi- 

 ciency may, however, be attributable to the season. Victory 

 of Bath is a large darker-coloiu*ed variety, and its flavour 

 was not remarkable. 



Mr. Euffet, gardener to Lord Palmerston, Brocket Hall, 

 sent a seedling Strawberry called The Premier, which, judg- 

 ing fi-om the plant exhibited in a pot, bears immensely. The 

 fi'uit is large, dark-coloiu'ed, and the flavoiu- is very good. 



Mr. TiUery, of Welbeck, sent a seedling Nectarine raised 

 fi'om the Elnige. It is of medium size, and in colour closely 

 resembles its parent, but the flesh is rather more stained 

 next the stone than iu the old variety. It is a good sort, but 

 scarcely sufficiently distinct. 



Mr. Archibald Fowler, gardener to Lord Dali'ymple, Castle 

 Kennedy, Stranraer, N.B., sent fruit of a very large Pig, 

 which weighed 6 ozs. It was received without a name, and 

 the variety has been grown at Castle Kennedy for aboxit a 

 century. It appears to be the Large White Genoa. It is 

 of turbinate shape, pale gi-eenish-yellow coloiu', with a 

 brownish tinge on the apex of the fruit ; the flesh brownish- 

 red and of good flavour-, but not first-rate. 



Mr. Keynes, of Salisbury, exhibited bunches of a Grape 

 introduced from Corfu. They were very large and shoul- 

 dered, the benies of good size, well set, and of a somewhat 

 ovate shape, gi-een, and vnth a transparent skin showing 

 the textiu-e of the flesh through it. It was not sufficiently 

 ripened for a correct judgment to be formed of its qualities. 

 Mr. J. Fleming, gardener to Her Grace the Duchess of 

 Sutherland, at Clevedeu, sent a seedling Grape raised from 

 a cross between WMte Frontignan and Eoyal Muscadine. 

 It combined the properties of both parents ; but as the plant 

 is yet young and the bunch was hardly ripe, it was not in 

 condition to form a correct opinion of its merits. 



Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, exhibited a seedling Early 

 White Nectarine raised fi-om Victoria Peach ; the flavour 

 of which was piquant and gave evidence of being improved 

 by being more highly ripened. He also had an Eai-ly Orange 

 Nectarine a fortnight earlier than Pitmaston Orange and 

 with the same flavour: and a seedling Hautbois consider- 

 ably larger than the ProUfic. It is called the Eoyal Haut- 

 bois, bears abundantly, and is a great improvement on the 

 old variety if its flavom- is produced eqtially good. 



Mr. Laxton. of Stamford, exhibited two ilishes of his 

 seedling- Early Prolific Pea, which proved to be Dickson's 

 Favourite. In another dish, Mr. Laxton exhibited a small 

 frame variety as Dickison's Favom-ite, wliich he is evidently 

 growing in error for the true sort. 



THE MELODY AND HAEMOXY OF COLOUES. 



AccoKDiNQ to the commonly-adopted doctrine, there are 

 three primai-y colom-s, red, yellow, and blue. The com- 

 bination of these in certaik proportions yields vvfliite. The 

 absence of them all is black. These primai-ies. mixed to- 

 gether two and two, produce what are called secondary colours 

 — viz., orange, from the mixtm-e of red and yellow ; green, 

 from the mixtui-e of yellow and blue; and purple, from the 

 mixtm-e of red and blue. Prom the combination of the 

 seeondai-ies arise three tertiary colours — citron, from the 

 mixture of orange and green ; olive, fi-om the mixture of 

 gi-eeu and pm-ple ; and russet, from the mixtm-e of orange 

 and purple. 



The language of music has been applied to colom-s, and 

 colom-ists talk of the melody of colours, and the harmony of 

 colours. Colom-s are said to be in melody when two con- 

 tiguous tints, or shades, or hues, run insensibly into each 

 other — as when red sUdes into pink and white, and pm-ple 

 deepens into dark pm-ple, or merges into red-purple and red. 

 Two different colours are said to be in harmony when their 

 association is felt to be pleasant to the eye. 



Two colom-s are said to be complementary when they to- 

 gether niiike up the wliite beam. Thus green and red are 

 complementary, as also purple and yeUow," orange and blue. 

 The eye feels pleasure in seeing colours in melody, or melt- 

 ing into each other. It also feels a pleasure in contem- 

 plating certain associations of different colom-s. In parti- 



cular the eye is pleased when complementary colours are 

 beside each other, or are under the view at the same time. 

 Complementai-y colom-s contrast the one with the other, but 

 are always in hai-mony. It is necessai-y to add that white 

 associates pleasantly with evei-y other colour ; so does black. 

 The following diagram is constructed with a view of 



showing what colours are couqjlemeiAary to each other. In 

 the figure w6 have three primary colom-s — red, yellow, and 

 blue -. and the three secondaries, orange, green, and piu-ple, 

 with the hues of secondaries on either side. We iiave also 

 the tertiaries, citron and russet. The diagram is so con- 

 structed that the colours in corresponding segments of 

 opposite cii-cles are complementary, and so in harmony. 

 Thus — red and green, blue and orange, yellow and pui-ple, 

 are complementary coloui-s. According to the hue of any 

 particular secondary, so is also the hue of its complement. 

 Thus a pure purple requu-es a yellow, but a red-pm-ple re- 

 quires a yellow-green, and a blue-pm-j^le a yellow orange, as 

 the complementary colour ; and so of all the other secon- 

 daries. The tertiai-y citron is in harmony with a dark 

 pm-ple, pui-ple requires a yellow, but an olive a dark orange, 

 and russet a dark gi-een. These principles are taught now 

 in every school of art, and aa-e attended to in the manufac- 

 ture of all our finer fabrics in which colom- is an element of 

 beauty, as in dresses, carpets, hangings, and furnishings 

 of various descriptions. 



Green Harmonising with Red and Russet. — The soft hue 

 which the Author of nature has been pleased to give the leaf 

 oi the tree and herbage, is by far the most abundant colour 

 iu the vegetable kingdom. Now, wherever the flower of a 

 plant is red, it associates agreeably ■with the leaf. The 

 flowers of the Eose, and manj' Pinks, Geraniums, Pelargo- 

 niums, Mallows, Lychnises, and dozens of others, contrast 

 strikingly with the foliage of the plants on which they grow. 

 The eye delights to see the fniit of the Chen-y, the Eose, 

 and the Thc^rn, and the berry of the Holly, the Mountain 

 Ash, and other plants peeping forth fi-om the green leaves. 



Furple Harmonising with Yellotv and Citron. — This is the 

 second most prevalent hai-mony iu the vegetable kingdom. 

 So far as we have been enabled to observe, pm-ple of vaxious 

 tints, shades and hues, such as red-pm-ple where there is 

 a preponderance of red, and blue-iim-ple where there is a 

 preponderance of blue, is the most frequent colour of the 

 petals of plants. Iu beautii'ul contrast, we often find yellow 

 in the centre of the flower. Thus in the gai-den Polyanthus, 

 and many varieties of Am-icula, the outer rim of the corolla 

 is pm-ple, and an inner cii-cle is yellow. Pm-ple and citron 

 are also commonly associated ivith the flowers of Grasses. 



Orange Harmonising with Blue and Olive. — This harmony is 

 less frequently met with in the vegetable kingdom. It is 

 very common in the sky. A pure blue, however, is rai-ely 

 to be met with in the flower in any of the organs of plants. 

 Most of the flowers called blue have more or less a tinge of 

 red. In the flower of the Forget-me-not, which ever greets 

 the eye so cheerfully, there is a border of blue-purple, and a 



