MOO 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ FebrnoTy 7, 1867. 



Eicling Beauty (round, a late !ieeper1, 13 not much sproulfd ; 

 and of Thomiis Almoud'a Urbt caily (the first year public, 

 still almost unknown), I have put by for you i-orae of the least 

 sprouted I could find." I have had a great hanlcering after 

 those liinds ever Biuco Mr. RadclylTe first informed us about 

 them in Vol. X., page 105, No. 2.57. The extract couchidcs, 

 " I liave i).lso a Potato which I value — Daintrec's Seedling Ivid- 

 ney. I had it early last year direct from Fen Drayton. I 

 think it ia superior to the Lupslone, which is very good with 

 us, but Boil effects such wondors for good or evil ; yet name 

 it, and I will s^nd 30U a sample." Now, the soil abuut I'uts- 

 boi-ough must bo quite diiJerent from this at Woodstock, and 

 I helievo I received the very first tuber of his Kidney seedling 

 that Mr. Daintrce ever sent fjut. It was sent in a letter through 

 the post-oflicc, and v:as much damaged by the post-ohiee stamp- 

 ing. I kept J[r. Daintree three years in suspeu.'se before I 

 could quite decide upon its merits, but I am happy to say he 

 lived to know that I grev.- it siieoessively ujion three difi'erert 

 soils, and then I felt a pleasure in recommending it as being a 

 Potato of the same strain as the Lapstoiie, and even superior 

 to that very excellent variety. From what " D., Dml," said 

 about it (No. 9 in his list, Viil. XI., page 403, No. 209), I ex- 

 lieet it will also rank well with so good a judge, and in a soil 

 difierent from that of my Devonshire correspondent. 



Allow me here to state that I quite agree with Mr. McDonald, 

 of Woodstock Park, luistioge, in what he siiys about another jjro- 

 tcije of mine, Coldstream Early, at page 4G4 of the same Num- 

 ber of Tee Journal of Houiicui.tukh. It is this sort of cross- 

 CMamination upon different soils that we want before new kinds 

 of Potatoes are sent out by the raisers. My object is to prove 

 what are -the best sorts which can be obtained ior the rector's 

 table, and the supply of our household. I hnve been four 

 years proving my Onwards scedhng to my satisfaction on ilif- 

 ■ferent soils, and I am now sending it to experienced growers 

 upon various soils, requesting them, in the event of the kind 

 not proving entirely to their satisfaction, to be good enough to 

 destroy every tuber, as I should feel sorry to ( ITer a Potato 

 to the public under toy name, unless it were quite 0rst-rate. 

 'Baisers of new sorts err in being in too great a hurry in sending 

 out their seedlings. Including the present year I shall have 

 heen five years in making a trial of fifty sorts, dating from tho 

 seeds maturing in the berry, and_althougb many of the issue 

 turned out what for the first three years I thought very good 

 varieties, yet I decided that tbey were not superior to sorts 

 already in cultivation ; so of such I took the precaution to boil 

 into pulp in a copper whatever we did not consume, and with 

 this pn!p watered the Eose trees, and the result was, that we 

 never had Roses in finer bloom. 



I have now only three kinds left out of the fifty — namely, 

 Eusset Kidney, iieehive, and the Ouwards, and I believe I shall 

 have to consider the last only us worthy of perpetuation, per- 

 haps not even that, if I do not succeed in obtaining good 

 reports of it this year from a distance. My friend, Mr. Alexan- 

 der Dean, of Maybush, near Southampton, is the only person 

 at present besides myself who has made a trial of my seedling. 

 He says, " I'enn's Ouwards, a seedling of his own, a second 

 early round, good both as to crop and quality." Mr. Dean ex- 

 hibited sixty varieties of Potatoes at the Eoyal Horticultural 

 Society's gardens, in September last. A notice of them ap- 

 peared in the October number of the " Florist and Pomologist." 



Although the labour of five years is only likely to produce me 

 one Potato, I am now about sowing two more choice crosses, 

 Dumbering about one hundred seeds, from which I hope to 

 produce something superior, although I fear I shall not be 

 able to arrive at the characteristic stated by my brother at 

 a, cricket-match dinner given last year. He complained of the 

 badness of the kind served at table, and joking retorts from his 

 cricketing friends arose as to " what he knew about Potatoes!' " 

 "Well," he said, "he certainly could tell whether a Potato 

 ■was good or bad when eating it ; but he had a brother living in 

 Oxfordshire, who was a connoisseur of Potatoes, and could 

 judge of them in their raw state ; that he had just raised a 

 new sort, as even and round as a cricket ball, and he was 

 merely wailing before he let i> out, to produce on each tuber 

 • an imitation of the teams." — TJrwAr.oa and Onwakes. 

 (To be contmued.) 



EDGING FOR WALKS. 

 In reply to your correspond! nt an " Ayrshiue Gaudesee," 

 I ventuTe to give my experience with regard to a siibstitutefor 



a Box-edging, having been in a similar dilemma. I have an 

 oval bed in the middle of my garden, with an Apple tree in 

 tho centre, the bed fiUedwith Lilies of tho Valley. The Box- 

 edging did not thrive owing to tho drip from the tree, or being 

 overgrown by the Lilies : consequently every two or three years 

 it had to be replaced. After one of my visits to the Itoyal Hor- 

 ticultural Gardens I substituted an edging of Messrs. Bosher's 

 cable-pattern terra-metallic tiles, of two sizes, the smaller to 

 turn the oval more neatly. Tho tiles were laid in with only 

 tho cable pattern above tho gi'ouud ; the chinks, unavoidable in 

 the turning, were filled in with Portland cemtnt, and the whole 

 painted a dull green, so as to resemble as nearly as possible 

 tho colour of the Box in the other parts of the garden. The 

 result has been very satisfactory. I think this is the third 

 winter, and I have not had to replace one tUe. I was careful 

 to have terra-metallic tiles. — F.Ii.H.S. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS NEW AND OLD. 



WnATEvDii may betide other florists' flowers, however the 

 Pansy may be snubbed, the Dahlia sneered at, and the Am-icula 

 cold-shouldered, there is no fear of the Chrysanthemum being 

 passed by. Even the bedder-out patronises it, for certainly 

 one of the best beds that I saw at Battersea Paik last season 

 was composed of Mr. Bull's variegated sort Sensation ; and as 

 the Chrysanthemum, happily for its fame, comes into flower 

 when the glories of the garden have faded away, and all looks 

 dreary save where this pilant has been allowed to linger ; 

 as, moreover, it is so easily propagated, and bears itself so 

 bravely and so well amidst the smoke of oar huge metropolis, 

 it is likely to have a prolonged period of favour. Hence Mr. 

 Salter, to whom we owe neiirly all the fine varieties now in 

 cultivation, need not be afraid of a time when his winter garden 

 will be deserted, and the tide of visitors which finds its course 

 there during the dieary mouth of November will be stopped in 

 its course. Were it so, one of the chief pleasures of a visit to 

 Loudon in that month of fogs and dreariness would be lost. 

 I see nothing in a Chrysauthtmum show, but I do confess to 

 a real enjoyment in a stroll through the well-arranged green- 

 houses in which Mr. Salter year by year places his favourite 

 flowers. Such a stroll I had in November last, and the results 

 of it I now chronicle ; and inasmuch as the time for purchasing 

 is now at hand, I may in some way be a guide to those who are 

 seeking to add to their ctUections. 



I must here, however, confess to a piece of heterodoxy — 

 viz., that I think the incurved flowers have now reached pretty 

 well their acme, and that in order to obtain brighter colours 

 wo must try the reflexed sorts, infusing, it may be, some of 

 the blood of Mr. Fortune's last introductions from Japan. In 

 one sense these incurved flowers are disappointing : the open- 

 ing bud gives promise of bright colour, but by the time that 

 the flower is fully opened the back of the florets is alone ex- 

 posed to view, and, consequently, a good deal of the richness of 

 the colouring is lost ; but in the reflexed Sower, which I ihink 

 may with care be obtained as full as some of the varieties of 

 rtflexed Asters, the front of the florets is that which is exposed 

 to view, and consequently a bri;;hter-coloured flower is likely 

 to be obtained. Mr. Salter mentioned to me that Mr. Fortune's 

 Japanese varieties, which were at first neglected, are now being 

 sought after ; and this is probably a symptom of an alteration 

 in taste which will effect the object I allude to. 



As usual, Mr. Salter has a large number of varieties to be 

 introduced to the public this spring. Some of these had not 

 been named at the period of my visit, but of those which had 

 I jioticed Lady Talfourd, beautiful silvery rosy lilac, a fine 

 incurved flower ; Faust, a chestnut red ; Countess of Warwick, 

 fine creamy white; Madonna Mary, a large-petalled flower; 

 Eosa Mutabilis, a delicate pencilled flower ; Dr. Lindley, fine 

 amber, a beautiful flower ; Purpurea Elegaus, quite new in 

 colour, of a rosette form, and very good in all respects ; Yolande, 

 light blush white, silvery lilac back to petals ; Gold of Ophir, 

 not probably a show flower, but of good habit ; Iris, a large 

 incurved flower, bright orange, with purplish back. 



Of the flowers of 18t!(j the following seem to me those most 

 deserving of cultivation: — Amabilis, delicate blush, incurved; 

 Compactura, an excellent conservatory flower, blooming early, 

 and of admirable habit ; Countess of Granville, fine white, a 

 reflexed flower of great beauty ; Crimson Velvet, beautiful 

 velvetj' eiimsou, the darkest and brightest of all the high- 

 coloured Chrysanthemums ; Gloria Mundi, a splendid brilliant 

 yellow, a seedling from Jardin des Plantes, and when I say 



