Janaary 21, ISCg. ; 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



43 



compact, sturdy habit, and produces an abundance of deep 

 pink trusses. It also bore the heat of last summer admirably. — 

 Edward LucKnuBST, Kijerlon House Gariltn<;, Kent. 



CULTURE OF ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONALE, 



ASIUKNIUM AI.TEnNIl'OI.llIM, ANll ALI.OSOnUS CrtlSPUS. 



RuFERKiNii to your correspondent Mr. .John Bryan's remarks 

 (see page 501), I find that he wishes to know how he can suc- 

 ceed in growing Asplenium septentrionale, as with him it lives 

 for one season and then dies. Tho only way that I have found 

 to grow this little gem successfully, and its lovely sister Asple- 

 nium alternifolinm, is to divide them every season, and treat 

 them like an annual, as they both form several little crowns, 

 which may be divided singly or two or three in a clump, and 

 repotted. The soil I use is peat, with a good addition of silver 

 sand, and plenty of drainage. By this mode of treatment I 

 have grown the above with fronds cjuite 4 inches in length in 

 32-pots, both in and out of doors. 



I have found Allosorns crispus do best when grown in a cool 

 greenhouse. The compost I use for this is old mortar rubbish, 

 peat, and loam, a smill quantity, with plenty of drainage. This 

 Fern also does best when young; it can be easily raised from 

 spores, and bears dividing with impunity. 



I am rather surprised to hear that Mr. Bryan has never seen 

 any Ferns growing wild in his neighbourhood. I have seen 

 beautiful plants of Asplenium ruta-muraria growing on the 

 walls surrounding Audley End by the windmill hill. I trust 

 Mr. Bryan will have no difficulty in finding them, as I have 

 seen and admired them when passing along the road to Saffron 

 Walden. — Geoeoe Willeks, Cambridge. 



MARECHAL NIEL ROSE. 



Abodt two years since much was said for and against this 

 new Rose. We were told by some (those who, perhaps, had the 

 true sort), that it was a vigorous grower and a profuse bloomer ; 

 others said it lacked all those essentials, that it was a bad 

 grower, and would not bloom, except under glass. One gentle- 

 man informed us that he had been awarded several prizes for 

 that variety, and the plants from which the blooms were taken 

 all grew out of doors. Not having a plant at that time in my 

 possession, and never having seen a bloom, I went to the Man- 

 chester Show in 1807, expecting to find it there. I was sur- 

 prised to find but one solitary bloom in the Show, and that 

 not fully expanded. In March of the same year I paid a visit 

 to Porkington Hall, near Oswestry, the seat of Mrs. Ormsby 

 Gore; I there saw a plant of Mareehal Niel, which had been 

 recently planted at the foot of an iron pillar in the conserva- 

 tory. I paid another visit in May, 1808, and then saw the 

 Maruchal in " all his glory," and I would add, with " blushing 

 honours thick upon him." It was bearing seventeen magni- 

 ficent blooms of immense size and substance ; good as Gloire 

 de Dijon may be, it appeared like a pigmy by the side of the 

 Mareehal, and the fragrance was such that the conservatory, 

 which is large and lofty, together with the adjacent rooms, were 

 pervaded with the delightful odour. The foliage, too, was thick 

 and glossy, several of the loaves measured 5J inches long and 

 3S inches wide. 



I was told by Mr. Edwards, the obliging head gardener, that 

 the plant had in the previous year made a shoot 20 feet long, 

 and which, after reaching the top of the pillar, 10 feet high, 

 was bent over, and touched the floor. At the Bath Show one 

 gentleman exhibited 114 blooms. 



If the (rue Marfichal Niel is so beautiful, how much it is to 

 regretted that a good name should be sullied by our having had 

 a worthless Rose palmed off upon us for the true variety. 

 Some say the spurious sort is the result of an accident ; but I 

 rather think some of our foreign brethren think there are so 

 many " to be gulled," that they may do a little in that way. I 

 hope as the standard of excellence is better understood by the 

 Rose-loving pubHc, that our continental friends will discover 

 that John Bull will only buy what is really good. — S-u-oriA. 



PACKING FRUIT, FLOWERS, AND VEGETABLES. 

 It is always a source of gratification to me when I receive 

 " our Journal ;" however tired I may be with my day's work, 

 I soon forget my weariness as I read. I have just perused 

 the article at page 6 on packing fruit, flowers, and vegetables, 



and as I have sent a considerable quantity of fruit by rai), and 

 to long distances, very successfally, I will describe the method 

 that I usually adopt. 



In sending Grapes to market, it is of great importanoe that 

 they should arrive at their destination with the bloom unin- 

 jured, and as fresh as possible. Some years ago I had charge 

 of a largo garden in the south of .Scotland, and I grew a great 

 many more Grapes and other fruits than were required for (he 

 consumption of the family. I sent them to the Glasgow and 

 London markets, London being twelve hours' ride from onr 

 place. I packed my Grapes in large square boxes, somewhat 

 after the shape of teachests, a half-hundredweight at a time, 

 sometimes not so much. When the family was in town I nsed 

 to pack vegetables and flowers in square hampers, and place 12 

 or 20 lbs. of Grapes in a small box. I used to wrap fine tisane- 

 paper carefully round each bunch of Grapes ; I generally put 

 on the paper double. I placed a thin layer of bran over the 

 bottom of the box, then stood the Grapes, placing them bnnch 

 after bunch on the end, setting them upright, and filling firmly 

 between every bnnch with bran, layer after layer. After the 

 top layer of Grapes was put in, I made the box quite full of 

 bran, so that any shaking or jolting of the train might not 

 injure them. Sometimes I sent a man to collect a quantity of 

 moss, and had it dried, and then chopped up very finely. The 

 chopped dried moss answered as well as bran. I sent off up- 

 wards of a hundred dozen of Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, 

 and Figs ; these I packed just the same as the Grapes, only the 

 boxes were made shallower so as to hold about three rows of 

 fruit. I had letters both from my master in London and from 

 the markets, telling me how well they were packed. I hope 

 this communication may lead others to state their experience. 

 —P. P. L. 



OUT-OF-DOOR GRAPE CULTURE— MTNE 

 MANUFACTURE. 



I FEEL bound in honour to defend the Esperione Grape. I 

 have been merely waiting to cool down ere I arose in antago- 

 nism to " ARCUAJiBiUD," who wrote well and truly in his articJe 

 entitled "Out-of-door Grapes," at page 415, excepting as 

 regards his depreciatory remarks on the Espiran, as we must 

 for the future call it, for, truly, it is a Grape of hope ! Poor 

 Beaton ! I wish he were alive to aid me with his enthnsiasm 

 mixed up with so much good practice, for I feel a man ought 

 to be a very Bayard to cross lances with " Aechameaud." I 

 think he should know good old Donald Beaton became con- 

 vinced that the Grape he grew was not the Espiran. I believe 

 I may lay some claim to his conversion, and also for resuscitat- 

 ing this old and famous Grape, which was fast falling into 

 oblivion. There is no mistake about Beaton's eventual opinion. 

 When he found that he was off the scent, and was trying to 

 compare the practice of others with some experiments of his 

 own in out-of-tloor Grape-growing during the autumn of 18.57, 

 I happened to have an Espiran Vine against the wall of this 

 house, and each phase that he desired to see under my own 

 experimental observation ; so I cut off those branches bodily 

 with their bunches attached, just as they grew and ripened, 

 packed and wadded them, placed them carefully in a large 

 tub, and sent them oft to Snrbiton, to become food for history, 

 and to be judged and tasted at Willis's Rooms, where the Oom- 

 mittee of the Royal Horticultural Society then held their meet- 

 ing. The upshot was, my practice agreed with Beaton's, bat onr 

 Grapes differed ; mine was the Espiran and his the Franken- 

 thal. Our letters are too long for publication in this paper, 

 but I will quote his postscript to the next article he wrote after 

 the Show : — "I hereby tender my public and most hearty thanks 

 to Mr. Fenn, the author [I sent my written theory and practice 

 as well], of the following very praclieal views on the cultivafon 

 of out-door Grapes, and for the trouble and expense of sending 

 me samples of beautiful and most delicious Grapes from all 

 the modes of pruning described below, which tell their own 

 tale, leaving me no more to say than that the Grapes might 

 pass anywhere as hothouse Grapes." 



In a letter bearing date December, 1867, onr veteran in- 

 structor, Mr. Rivers, wrote me — " If yon have any cnttingB of 

 the Esperione Vine to spare, I should be glad of them. What 

 a valuable Grape it is !" I sent a faggot of cuttings to Saw- 

 bridgeworth. In fact, I have been presenting eyes and cuttings 

 of this Grape to persons in all parts of the country for the last 

 seventeen years, and it would greatly assist the determination 

 of its character if those to whom I have presented this Grape 

 would write to you stating their opinions. It is planted largely 



