April 12, 1877. 1 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



267 



great bearer, bnt with me, though a good pyramid, it is no 

 bearer in eight years. Scarlet Nonpareil, " W. tf." says, is an 

 abundant bearer, but with me dnring eight years it has pro- 

 duced not a dozen Apples, I think, but it is a capital tree. 

 With me the standards come into bearing quicker than the 

 pyramids; in fact, except some few sorts. Apples on the Para- 

 dise stock do not seem to fruit so well as I expected from state- 

 ments in the catalogues, but I find the Pears succeed very 

 much better. This year there is a most abundant promise 

 on almost every tree, and I have had some capital crops oil 

 before. 



All my trees I have been speaking of have been planted 

 about the same time. Standard Apples planted three or four 

 years beat the pyramids for fruiting which have been planted 

 twice as long. — G. C. 



[Our correspondent should have stated the nature of the 

 8oU of his garden.] 



I oniTB agree with your correspondent who, on page 254, 

 complains of the want of precise information in many articles 

 written for the benefit of others. I have long noticed this 

 neglect, particularly among those who have written so much 

 for the pages of the Journal that we are supposed to know 

 where they write from. Bnt I was surprised when I read, 

 in reference to my article on Apple culture — " Where does 

 ' W. G.' live ? On what soil ?" If your correspondent will 

 again turn to the article in question he will find it there stated 

 that I live in a southern county, and that the soil of my gar- 

 den is a deep sandy loam. To be more precise I will say that 

 my garden slopes to the east, that my crops are late, and that 

 I seldom ripen any Pears except the early sorts. 



Tour correspondent also says, " What is the use of being 

 told of his having a good middle-of-July Apple ? No one can 

 gei it. It is just the Apple I want." I have no desire what- 

 ever to keep this variety to myself, and shall be happy to send 

 the writer some of the shoots in the budding season, so that 

 he may have an opportunity of trying the sort himself. I also 

 hope — frosts permitting — to be able to send in July a dish of 

 this variety to our pomological authorities. 



When first planted my tree was very liable to canker, bnt 

 for the last four years it has been quite healthy. It is a very 

 heavy cropper, the fruit growing sometimes three and four in 

 a bunch. In 1874 I found it necessary to thin away two-thirds 

 of the crop. I do not know the origin of this variety, but 

 believe it came from Norfolk. — W. G. 



[There are four varieties of dessert Apple that ripen in 

 July and early August — namely, Joanneting, Margaret, Early 

 Harvest, and Sack-and-Sugar. — Eds.; 



AUKICULAS AND THE AMEBICAN BLIGHT. 



There is evidently some mystery as to the new attack to 

 which the Auricula has been subjecttd, and its importance 

 may be a sufficient apology for my alluding to it again. I have 

 already mentioned that the first specimen I sent to Mr. W. G. 

 Smith he concluded to be the mycelium of some fungus, but 

 on my sending a larger piece of root he pronounced it to be 

 the American blight or some similar species. I then forwarded 

 another root to Mr. Andrew Murray, the Secretary of the 

 Saientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society, and 

 his reply was, " The mycelium-looking substance is certainly 

 not the Apple blight. It is not it in structure, nor in mode of 

 growth, nor in locality, and no insect is visible. To me it 

 looks so fungoid that, notwithstanding the high authority of 

 Mr. Worthington Smith, I cannot help thinking some acci- 

 dental error has misled him. I have handed it to Mr. Cooke 

 to get his opinion." At tho menting of the Scientific Com- 

 mittee Mr. Cooke gave his opinion an follows — " The Auricula 

 left me for examination was, at the base of the leaves close to 

 the soil, surrounded by a snow-white flocculent matter which 

 bore some remote resemblance to the American blight. Neither 

 on the leaves nor on the root-fibrils C3uld I find the slightest 

 trace of any insect. The white flocculent substance contained 

 a few thin hyaline filaments which might belong to some 

 common Penicillium. The mass of substance was partly crys- 

 talline and partly amorphous. Being of opinion that the 

 greater portion of this substance was inorganic, I removed as 

 much as I could on the point of a knife and placed it in a clean 

 concave cell excavated in a slip of glass, and filled np the cell 

 with alcohol. At once the whole mass disappsared to the 

 naked eye, being dissolved in the spirit, and I covered with 



thin glass, and in a few minutes examined with the microscope. 

 A very few grains of sand and two or three fragments of hya- 

 line tubes like those of Penicillium remained ; but as the spirit 

 evaporated stars of acicular crystals around the margin fol- 

 lowed its retreat to the centre, until the whole field was covered 

 with stellate crystals of great length and delicacy. I do not 

 presume to draw any conclusion from this, which is clearly a 

 chemical question. I found no insects and no parasitic fungua 

 except a characteristic Cladosporinm in olive patches on a 

 decaying leaf." 



I afterwards sent to Mr. Murray sections of the stem of 

 another diseased plant which looked to me as if it had been 

 punctured by an insect, and he says, " They remind me very 

 much of what I have seen on a large scale in full-grown plant- 

 ations of Scotch Fir when the roots got into bad undrained 

 subsoil : first morbid growth of the roots, then rotting-ofi of 

 the fibrils, then discoloration of the wood in the trunk, some- 

 times excessive exudation of the sap, shortening of the leaves, 

 &o. You have the morbid growth of the roots, the rotting of 

 the fibrils, the degeneration of the tissues in the stem, the 

 exudation of primuline, and the feeble growth of the leaves. 

 What have you been doing to the roots ? would be my question." 



Now, in reply to this, I have only to say that all my Auri- 

 culas were carefully potted and drained, as I have ever done 

 them ; I used the same soil I did last year when they were so 

 fine ; and that there is no lack of vigour in those plants which 

 have not been attacked. I feel therefore as much at sea as 

 ever. May I say again that the experience of your corre- 

 spondents would be very acceptable ? And I am sure if Mr. 

 Llewelyn would forward a specimen of his diseased plants to 

 Andrew Murray, Esq., 67, Bedford Gardens, London, W., he 

 would be greatly obliged. — D., Deal. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



Wb are authorised to state that Her Majesty the Queen 

 will visit the Royal Horticultural Gardens at South Kensing- 

 ton on the 2nd of May, and that the flower show which is 

 announced for the 1st will be held on the 2nd. We have no 

 doubt that the exhibitors who usually show at the meetings 

 of the Society will on this occasion make it worthy of Her 

 Majesty's visit. 



The change of the days of meeting of the Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society from Wednesdays to Tuesdays cannot fail 

 be a great convenience to both exhibitors and visitors, and it 

 must also be of advantage to horticulture generally. The fix- 

 tures of the shows and meetings at South Kensington and 

 Regent's Park could only be regarded by the horticultural 

 public as suggestive of antagonistic rivalry between the two 

 Societies, and such a feeling ought not to be suspected even. 

 The aims of the two Societies are identical, and, instead of one 

 weakening the other, they should as far as possible support 

 each other in the promotion of horticulture. As was so weU 

 and fairly stated in our columns last week by Mr. Douglas, the 

 concurrent fixture was the result of accident in a great 

 measure, and blame of either Society is out of the question. 

 The remedy has not been more promptly applied by the Royal 

 Horticultural Society than the grievance demanded. The 

 change of days will commence on the 15th of May. 



The usual monthly dinner of the Horticultural Club 



took place on the 4th inst., and th^re was a good attendance. 

 Mr. Cant of Colchester sent some dishes for the dessert of the 

 Essex Spice Apple in capital order. It is a most delicious late 

 Apple and very free bearing. A vote of thanks was given to 

 Mr. Cant for his courtesy. 



We learn that the large-flowered and fine Azalea Duke 



OF Ediniiurgh raised by Mr. Parsons of Welwyn will be dis- 

 tributed by Mr. B. S. Williams. The flowers of this Azalea 

 are not more remarkable from their great size than from their 

 extremely stout texture, the petals being almost wax-like in 

 their consistency, and are smooth and well formed. The 

 colour appears to be rosy crimson, and when in a cut state, as 

 we saw the flowers, they almost resemble Dipladenias. Mr. 

 Williams now possesses the largest and smallest-flowered 

 Azaleas extant, the new varieties of A. amcona being largely 

 increased to meet the demand that is sure to be created for 

 them when their merits become fully known. 



In addition to the gentlemen already named, the fol- 

 lowing have accepted the offica of local Hon. Secretaries of the 



