46 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 21, 1869. 



Cnllivation. A first-class certificate was given it. There is some doubt 

 about the name, but the flower was not recognised by any of the 

 members present. The plant came from Guernsey into the possession 

 of its present owner. A special certificate was jtfiven the collection. 



Mr. Woodward sent Cattlcya Garbrandiana. which was simply a 

 variety of C. Trianjui. Messrs. Veitch sent several varieties of Phor- 

 minm, one of which, P. Cookiannm variegalum, it was requested 

 should be sent again, the plants being too yonng to determine their 

 merits. Asplenium sp. from Monte Video, to be named by Mr. Moore, 

 was awarded a first-class certificate. Messrs. Carter sent a pretty 

 collection of plants with variegated foliage, also some cut specimens 

 of new Coleus. A very well-grown plant of PhaIa?nopsis Scbilleriana, 

 from the same firm, was awarded a special certificate, and a special 

 certificate was given the collection. Mr. Forsyth, gardener to Baron 

 Rothschild, Gunnersbury, received a special certificate for a fine speci- 

 men of Phal{Enopsis Scbilleriana. 



Mr. Sampson. Yeovil, sent cut specimens of the Glastonbury Thorn, 

 "with the flower buds folly formed, though not expanded. He also sent 

 some flowers of hybrid Pelargoniums, which were very pretty ; Echi- 

 natnm and Miniatum were the parents. Mr. Green, gardener to 

 W. W. Saunders, Esq., was awarded a first-class certificate for Agave 

 Bissiriana hystrix ; he also exhibited some spiltes of a very beautiful 

 scarlet Salvia, the specific name of which was not known. Messrs. 

 E. G. Henderson contributed cut specimens of Oestrum elegans in 

 frrnt and flower, the former the same colour as the flowers, very hand- 

 some for decorative purposes. A box of cut specimens of Camellias 

 was sent from the gardens at Osborne. These flowers were grown in 

 the open air without any protection, and were very fine both as to 

 colour and size. For these a special certificate was awarded Mr. 

 Toward. Mr. Gibson, of Battersea Park, exhibited four fine speci- 

 mens of Senecio Ghiesbrechtii, very handsome both in foliage and 

 the immense heads of sweet-scented yellow flowers. 



ScLENTiFic Co.MMiTTEE.— W. Wilson Saundcrs, Esq., F.R.S., in 

 the chair. The greater portion of the time was occupied by an exami- 

 nation of fruit-tree stocks sent by Mr. Rivers, Mr. Scott, of Crewkeme, 

 and Mr. Meston. The collection of Mr. Rivers consisted of the fol- 

 lowing : — 



Group 1. — Apples on the Nonesuch English Paradiso stock, with 

 two stocks one year old. The trees are one and two years old, with 

 the exception of the dwarf bushes, which are two and three years old. 

 This stock was raised by Mr. Rivers from the Nonesuch Apple some 

 thirty odd years ago. 



Gronp 2. — Apples on the Broad-leaved English Paradise stock, with 

 two stocks one year old. This stock was raised also from seed the 

 same season as the above, its parentage unknown. Both these stocks 

 are remarkable for their rooting freely at the surface, and giving a 

 robust growth with great fertility. 



Group 3. — Apples on French Doucin stocks, one and two years old, 

 the best variety received from France. This kind does not root so 

 freely near the surface in this climate as the English Paradise stock. 

 Two stocks were sent with the trees. 



Group 4. — Apples on the French Paradise stock, one and two years 

 old, with two stocks one year old. The trees on this stock are very 

 fertile, but are apt to canker in the stiff cold loams of Saw bridge worth. 



Two Peach trees, Bellegarde and Grosse Mignonne, budded on a 

 kind of White Magnum Bonum Plum. The French Peaches were 

 formerly budded on the White Pear Plum and the Brompton Plum 

 stocks. In France at the present day they are budded on the Black 

 Damask and Myrobalan Plum stocks with no gi-eat success, as the 

 stocks do net swell freely. The stock now swells with the scion, and 

 seems likely to supersede all other kinds of Plum stocks for French 

 Peaches. 



Stocls. — One Burr Knot, a surface -rooting Apple, forming a very 

 good stock for garden Apple trees. 



Two pigmy Paradise stocks one year old, and two miniature Paradise 

 stocks one year old. These were sent to show the tendency of our old 

 kinds of Apples to produce from seed surface -rooting dwarf trees, 

 as several other varieties of like habits have been raised at Sawbridge- 

 worth from seed. 



One lateral single cordon Apple tree on the Paradise stock, five 

 years old. 



One vertical cordon Apple tree on the same kind of stock, and of the 

 same age. 



One lateral single cordon Apple tree on the French Paradise stock, 

 five years old, an imported tree from France. 



The three last-mentioned trees had been growing side by side in a 

 stiff, cold, clayey soil. 



The opinion of the Committee in regard to the value of Mr' Rivers's 

 two stocks as dwarfing agents was, that in respect of perfection of union, 

 free surface -rooting properties, and the influence they exerted in 

 developing, even in the first year, a profusion of bloom buds, they were 

 excellent stockp, 



Mr. Scott, of Crewkeme, sent examples of French Paradise, and 

 of the English Paradise stocks, as supplied by the Surrey nurseiT- 

 man ; and on comparison it appeared that the French Paradise of 

 Mr. Scott and that grown by Mr. Rivers under that name were not 

 Mentical. At all events there is a very marked difference in the 

 TJgour of the trees, and in the mode of rooting ; those of Mr. Scott 

 throwing-up an abundance of suckers, which those of Mr. Rivers do 

 not. The Englisli Paradise stock sent by Mr. Scott is a much smaller , 



and less vigorous -growing plant, and exhibits symptoms of canker ija 

 consequence of having suffered from frost, a peculiarity we never bfore 

 knew the English Paradise stock subject to. Mr. Scott also exhibited 

 maiden trees of fine healthy growth, grafted on the French Paradise. 



Mr. Meston showed examples of trees worked on the French 

 Paradise, imported from France, exliibitingall the vigour of those sent 

 by Mr. Scott on the same stock, and of those shown by Mr. Rivers on 

 the Nonesuch English Paradise, and the Broad-leaved English Para- 

 dise. A double horizontal cordon, also imported from France, was 

 sent by Mr. Meston, the cordons of which corresponded in length and 

 vigour to a single horizontal cordon sent by Mr. Rivers, and which 

 was also gi-afted on the French Paradise, which was likewise an imported 

 tree, but had not the robust growth of one of Mr. Rivers's single cordons 

 grown on the English Paradise. 



The exhibition was altogether a most interesting one ; but it was 

 impossible to arrive at the characters which essentially distinguish 

 the different varieties of stocks by what was furnished on an ex- 

 amination of the collection. It was, therefore, unanimously resolved 

 that the collections exhibited be sent to the garden at Chiswick, and 

 there cultivated, with the view of observing the subsequent effects pro- 

 duced by the different stocks, and of growing the stocks themselves, 

 EO that an opportunity may be afforded of studying them, not only as 

 regards their horticultural value, but also as to their botanical 

 characters. We hope, therefore, by the treatment they will receive at 

 Chiswick, we may, ere long, be enabled to determine the differences 

 now existing, and to see by the flowers and their fruits what these 

 really are. 



Gexeral Meeting. — J. Bateman, Esq., F.R.S., in the chair. A 

 list of donations of plants and seeds having been read, and a vote of 

 thanks to the donors unanimously passed. His Serene Highness 

 Prince Teck, His Highness Hassan Pacha, Viscount Milton, M.P., 

 Lord Alfred Churchill, and several others were elected Fellows. After 

 the Committee awards had been reported, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley 

 observed that there were not any flowering plants calling for special 

 remark except Orchids, which Mr. Bateman would notice, and he 

 would, therefore, at once direct attention to the beautiful Pear-shaped 

 Gouid which had been exhibited by Messrs. E. G. Henderson. This, 

 he said, was one of a little group belonging to Cncurbita pepo, and 

 called Coloffuintes by the French. Any one interested in the subject 

 of Gourds would find the best information in a paper by M. Naudin, 

 in the fifth volume of the fourth series of the " Ajmales des Sciences 

 Naturelles.' After mention had been made of a new Thistle, probably 

 a hybrid, Mr. Berkeley produced some Peach shoots which had been 

 sent to him by a gentleman at Eastbourne, and of which not only 

 the tips but the middle had died off in a seemingly inexplicable 

 manner. Mr. Berkeley, however, considered that this result was at- 

 tributable to the exceptional weather of last year, in which there was 

 a sudden change from excessive drought to excessive moisture. A 

 seedling Pelargonium from Southampton then came under notice, on 

 account of its producing from the stem a web of a curious snbstan^, 

 exactly like that found in drains, and the fibres of which appeared to> 

 be adventitious rootlets. A portion of the root of a Telegraph Cucum- 

 ber which had been propagated by cuttings, was also exhibited to the 

 meeting. This was covered all over with tubercles, which resembled a 

 minute species of Truffle, found in the west of England. These 

 tubercles on being cut open and placed under a microscope exhibited 

 a number of beautiful cells, among which were cysts containing a 

 minute vibrio. The only means of arresting the evil which Mr. 

 Berkeley could recommend, was burning the roots. 



Mr. Bateman before touching on the Orchids, directed attention to 

 the beautiful cut Camellias from Osborne, and the photographs of the 

 plants on which they were grown. He remembered that many years 

 ago there was a controversy as to whether the Camellia is hardy or 

 not, and he believed Dr. Lindiey settled that it is hardy, but unless it 

 receive heat it will not flower. The gardens at Osborne were only on& 

 of the many instances of the wisdom of the late Prince Consort, and 

 one of his good deeds to horticulture was their establishmeut. 



Mr. Bateman, passing on to the tubers of Oxalis crenata exhibited 

 before the Fruit Committee, said that in the shop of M. Chevet, in 

 the Palais Royal, at Paris, which contained a more miscellaneous col- 

 lection even than Covent Garden, he had seen a number of tubers 

 which he recognised as old friends of thirty years ago. On revisiting 

 the shop some time afterwards he had found that from being fine 

 tubers *2 inches long, they had subsided into such as those before the 

 meeting. On inquiring what they were, he was told they were Oxalis, 

 and that they had been grown out of doors in the neighbourhood of 

 Paris. Those who studied the horticultural periodicals several years 

 ago, would remember seeing paragraphs on the Oxalis crenata as a 

 rival to the Potato, but like the Arracacha, Dioscorea batatas, and 

 others which had been proposed, little more was heard of it. He him- 

 self had grown it out of doors and it had only produced tubers as large 

 as peas by the time frost came, but his two original plants had been 

 kept in a warm vinery, and they had afforded him tubers as large as 

 those exhibited. They were cooked, and he had a very lively and 

 pleasant recollection of them ; nothing could be lighter, being more 

 like soiifjicts than anything else, and he had no doubt they were very 

 wholesome. Though Oxalis crenata could not be successfully grown 

 out of doors, at least in most parts of the country, it might be tried 

 in orchard houses, and if it succeeded there it would be an important 

 addition to our slender and never-increasing stock of vegetables ; for 



