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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 31, 1867. 



indeed, as the more it is seen, the more popular it will become, 

 not like some of its predecessors, and the much-lauded Viola 

 cornuta, which require only to be grown one year in order to 

 determine whether they are fit subjects in the flower garden to 

 be depended upon for a continuance of bloom throughout the 

 season. — Joseph Oliver, Eslington Park Gardens, 



VINES AND VINE BORDERS— NATURAL 

 TEMPERATURES. 

 Thb first of these titles was the one under which this dis- 

 cussion began, and the last was added by you, I believe, to my 

 letter published in the number of May '23rd. I do not bring 

 this forward that I may claim to be the first who turned the 

 discussion upon natural temperatures, as it was seeing that 

 " H. S." treated the subject in this way that induced me to 

 join ; but I do claim it as one which I have taken great pains 

 to draw attention to in your Journal. 



I years since drew attention to the enormous quantity of 

 piping Mr. Thomson advises, and I think that his temperatures 

 are excessive if they are, as I understand them to be, tempe- 

 ratures in the shade — that is, indicated by a thermometer 

 hanging under the Vines. I hoped Mr. Thomson would reply, 

 but I also wished to know all " H. S." had to say, and to 

 induce this I took a position to some extent in opposition to 

 him. I was not writing a treatise, and was not, therefore, 

 hound to give my opinion ; at the same time, I think that any 

 one who reads that letter of May 23rd will come to the conclu- 

 sion that it was an invitation to discussion rather than an 

 expression of opinion. 



When I have advocated such high temperatures as 100°, I 

 have always said that they should be from the sun acting upon 

 the whole house, as in the case of an orchard-house or vineries 

 such as mine are, and which are pretty well described by 

 "Viatoe" at page 291, when he says, " The Vines should be 

 trained upright," " thus leaving a clear roof." The difference 

 between 100° as I practise and 100° as Mr. Thomson advises is 

 — I have not a comparison, and can only say I still at certain 

 times advocate one and avoid the other ; and as " H. S." says 

 he wants to know if be is right in growing his Grapes at such 

 temperatures as he speaks of, I will tell him where and how he 

 can obtain a confirmation of his practice, and he can at the 

 same time help me in supplying what I think is a great want. 

 " H. S." is trying to make Mr. Thomson prove the tempera- 

 tures he advises by his own practice. This I think he has a 

 right to do [He did reply last week.— Eds.] ; and I made the 

 same effort in your pages in respect to a work on orchard- 

 houses. In my case the only result, as far as I know, was that 

 this work, which then appeared annually in a new edition, is 

 no longer advertised ; and I must therefore conclude the author 

 would rather cease publishing than tell what temperatures 

 success requires. 



It is very desirable to have the maxima and minima tempe- 

 ratures of a south wall and of the large conservatory at Chis- 

 wick, and I applied for them. I have only one year of these 

 temperatures, but may in due course receive this year's any 

 day. There Vines of all sorts are planted inside and out, but 

 none both inside and out. There, also, will be seen the great 

 advantage of planting only inside even where the Vines enjoy 

 the highest temperature in aU England ; and I should think 

 the weight of Grapes they have produced year after year in a 

 border which for size and depth Mr. Wills would laugh to 

 scorn, might also be ascertained. I expected to have been able 

 to furnish from one of my houses similar tables, which I di- 

 rected to be kept, and was greatly disappointed to find that my 

 gardener, for his own reasons, had discontinued observing ; but 

 I will try and arrange better this year. I am also intending 

 to blacken a portion of a south wall, and take the maximum 

 and minimum each day, as also with a black bulb thermometer 

 exposed to the sun, which thermometer I will have sheeted up 

 each night. — G. H. 



Your correspondent " H. S." seems to infer by his question 

 in the first paragraph of his communication, that no Vines 

 exist in vineries to which an ass could be tied with safety. I 

 wish to tell him that, as a disciple of Mr. Thomson, I could 

 show him Vines planted only four years since, to which he 

 could not only bind the colt but the aes as well, and the rear- 

 ing, kicking, or any frolics they chose to make would have no 

 effect whatever on these cable-rooted " cUmbing plants of the 



temperate zone." These same Vines are luxuriating, forty-five 

 in number, in iron vineries 200 feet long, and are carrying 

 upwards of 1500 lbs. weight of fruit, two-thirds of which are 

 Muscats and Lady Downe's. These houses have air-openings 

 equal to one-fourth part of their surface, yet the thermometer 

 frequently in the month of August last indicated 45° Centigrade, 

 or 110" Fah. under the shade of the Vines. 



Although Uving within three hundred miles of the British 

 Isles, amongst Vines and vineyards, I still adhere to the prin- 

 ciples inculcated in Mr. Thomson's admirable treatise on the 

 Vine, believing that by so doing we shall have Vines in a few 

 years to which we could, if desirable, tie horses as well as 

 asses. " A close damp atmosphere charged with pestilent 

 vapours " is not, however, the treatment Mr. Thomson recom- 

 mends, nor, happily, the treatment here adopted. — H. K., 

 Pontcliartrain (Seine-et-Uise). 



Allow me to suggest to " H. S." (page 290-1), that he would 

 be doing a favour to the readers of your Journal if he would 

 concisely state the mode of Vine culture which he recommends. 

 This would be more useful than raising objections against the 

 system advocated by Mr. Th n son and followed by other gar- 

 deners. If this latter sys 'in is found to produce fruit so 

 excellent in quality that its equal is to be met with only in 

 some rare spots of the most favoured regions, theoretical ob- 

 jections must surely fall to the ground. 



As to temperature, I am not in a position to controvert 

 " H. S.'s " account of the warmth of Western Africa ; but I 

 have the authority of the Government Astronomer for stating 

 that at Madras the maximum of May is 99.2, the minimum 

 78.5. Now, it is well known that in countries bordering on the 

 tropics the summer temperature is often, from their length of 

 days, equal or even greater than that of the tropics themselves. 

 It is for the purpose of forcing that British gardeners use high 

 temperatures. They are perfectly aware that the ordinary 

 varieties of Grape, such as Black Hamburgh and Royal Mus- 

 cadine, can be ripened most perfectly in September and Octo- 

 ber without any artificial heat at all, provided they have a 

 house to themselves. — G. S. 



CHASSELAS NAPOLEON GRAPE. 

 Since our notice of this Grape in the collection of Mr. 

 Knight, of Pontchartrain, at the exhibition of fruit in connec- 

 tion with the Congres Pomologique de France, we have many 

 communications regarding it. Mr. Kuight stated in his obser- 

 vations, published a week or two ago, that Chasselas Napoleon 

 was the same as Pause Jaune ; and so far he is right, for there 

 are two varieties of Grapes cultivated in France under the 

 name of Pause Jaune, and this Chasselas Napoleon is one of 

 them. But the great and most important distinction between 

 these two is, that the one sets every berry and the other sets 

 hardly any. That which is the preferable one was shown by 

 Mr. Knight under the name of Chasselas Napoleon, and for 

 the benefit of British Grape-growers we now announce that it 

 was distributed by the Royal Horticultural Society two or three 

 years ago under the name of Blcane, its original and most 

 correct one. Some of those who were fortunate enough to 

 participate in that distribution may ere this have fruited it, 

 and will be able to give an opinion upon its merits. We have 

 known it for years, and can safely assert that it is by far the 

 handsomest and most valuable early white Grape yet known, 

 and far surpasses Buckland Sweetwater or any other Grape of 

 that class. 



RIGHT OF TENANT TO REMOVE TREES. 

 Will you inform me whether a tenant who has occupied a 

 garden for thirty years, can, on leaving, remove trees, roots, 

 &c., and whether young wall trees can be removed ? The garden 

 was made by the present tenant, and all the trees, &c., planted 

 by him. It was not taken of the present landlord in the first 

 instance, he having bought the property about twenty years 

 ago. It has been a market garden the whole time, and there 

 has never been any objection made to trees being sold and re- 

 moved till now that the tenant is leaving. The garden is taken 

 in addition to a dwelling house, and is held yearly. — A. T. 



[If the tenant was when planting the garden, and stiU is, a 

 nurserymau and market gardener, and the trees, plants, &c., 

 have been sold and removed during the enture tenancy down to 

 the present time, we are of opinion that the trees, wall trees (ii 



