110 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTIOULTDBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEK. 



[ AugoBt 13, 1868. 



too, just fit for planting. As this fine Grape is known to sue" 

 ceed so well on the Hamburgh stock, it is an excellent idea 

 cl Mr. Pearsons to prepare them in this way. 



It is not alone for fruit culture that these nurseries are 

 famed. In the ranks of the most popular flowers of the period, 

 the Zonal Pelargoniums, iu which competition is more keen 

 than in any other line, Mr. Pearson comes well to the front as 

 one of the mott successful cross-breeders. I have only to point 

 to his William Underwood, which when it left Mr. Pearson's 

 hands some years ago, if it had been exhibited in London 

 would have created quite a furore. Lord Derby, the best of 

 its class, is not such a vast improvement on it ; yet now we 

 bare Chilwell Beauty, a fine Nosegay, most excellent for early 

 pot cultivation ; Bayard, a free-blooming, crimson scarlet Nose- 

 gay with a fine large truss ; and Pearl, a flue creamy white 

 variegated kind. These have all received first-class certifi- 

 cates, but here is a lot not yet out which, if I am not mis- 

 taken, will make their mark when they do come. All Mr. 

 Pearson's plants are planted out in the open borders, not 

 drawn up under glass, and there are some thousands of 

 them. 



In the tricolor class, Duke of Wellington is one of the very 

 " iiriest " of colours imaginable, more so than any exhibited 

 at the great tricolor Show. Mrs. Keynolds Hole, selected and 

 named by Mr. Hole as first-rate, is certainly very beautiful, the 

 colours bright and vivid, the markings distinct. It has the 

 whitest outline to the leaf of any, and with a peculiar bluish 

 shade over the whole plant. Nankeen is another peculiarly 

 distinct sort. I scarce know wliat colour to call it. It 

 has a sort of buff shade in the distance, and will be very 

 telling. Lady Adeliza Norman ia another fine tricolor variety. 

 Of the Nosegays, Septimus Thornhill will be a tine acquisition ; 

 likewise William Hill and Thomas Speed, besides many others 

 which it would be impossible to notice here. 



Lastly I must not omit a few words on the Long Gun 

 Cucumbers. Mr. Pearson cultivates this variety exclusively, 

 and in quantity, principally for the seed. No other variety is 

 suflered to be near it, so that all the seed thus saved can be 

 depended on as pure and true. It is an old and well-known 

 sort to which Mr. Pearson's name has become attached simply 

 through the exceeding purity of his stock. Like all good 

 Cucumbers it seeds but sparely, and in consequence is rather 

 scarce. It is an excellent variety ; a free bearer, the fruit 

 growing from 18 to 21 inches in length, slightly spiny, and 

 handsome. Mr. Pearson cultivates it in a low span-roofed 

 house, trained to a trellis overhead. It is a fine sight to see a 

 house of Cucumbers like Mr. Pearson's, with the scores of club- 

 like fruit hanging from the roof. — Archambaud. 



NEW ROSES. 



Will " D.," or some other of your contributors or corre- 

 spondents, tell us which are the best Koses of 1867 — I mean 

 1867 according to the Royal Horticultural Society's rule ? An 

 article on these describing their form, colour, and growth would, 

 I am sure, be heartily welcomed by mai^y a rosarian, who, not 

 being able to attend the shows and judge for himself, is yet 

 anxious to secure anything that is really new and good. 



WUl " D." also say whether he still thinks highly of Miss 

 Ingram ? I do not like to state what I have always thought of 

 this Rose, a? I yet hope I shall prove to be mistaken. 



I see Mr. Radclyfi'e says he has not grown Marie Baumann. 

 He has then missed one of the very best of the Hybrid Per- 

 petuals, not excepting Charles Lefebvre and .Mfred Colomb. 

 It will please him greatly. My friend Mr. Cant and his clever 

 foreman Nevard tell me Mdlle. Jeanne Marix is really first- 

 rate. Mdlle. Kady. too, Mr. Eadclyffe may depend on as good. 

 I have also heard Franoois Trey ve highly spoken of, and indeed 

 saw it in really good form at Mr. W. Paul's in July last. Felix 

 Genero was very much praised by Mr. W. Paul and his Rose 

 foreman. 



I am sadly plagued this season by white mildew. The man 

 who could give us a recipe for curing, or. better still, preventing 

 this pest, would deserve, and doubtless get, something more 

 solid than thanks from every true — Rosakian. 



Nicholson sent this Strawberry with others to me gome years 



ago. It is a very large round Strawberry, much like Ajax that 

 came with it. It has wide-spread bold crowns, and very large, 

 coarse foliage. Its flavour is juicy and vinous, and very good 

 for so large a Strawberry. Ambrosia is also like it, but Due 

 de Malakoff is much better than either of the kinds like it. 

 Mrs. Nicholson and Mr. Rivers have the true sort. — W. F. 

 Radclytfe. 



DELLS BEET AS AN ORNAMENTAL PLANT. 



I LATELY spent a few very pleasant hours in the gardens at 

 Blenheim with Mr. Albert Moor, who is there laying a good 

 foundation for the future. " In eight years' time," to use Mr. 

 Moor's own words, " he hoped to succeed in completing arrange- 

 ments as he had moulded them in his own mind." Truly it 

 will be a long and an arduous work, but such is the tone of our 

 Oxfordshire gardeners. When I was at Nuneham Mr. Stewart 

 pointed out to me the improvements which he had already 

 succeeded in carrying out there, and said it would take him ten 

 more years to achieve the objects he had in view, and then " he 

 feared his age would have so increased," as not to allow him 

 to continue to enjoy the results of his enterprise and handi- 

 work. I hope and think differently, seeing that Mr. Stewart 

 has not yet a grey hair on his head. But to my subject. 



I think I never saw anything of such striking effect as the 

 planting of the ribbon borders which skirt the walks in the 

 kitchen gardens at Blenheim, and which effect is chiefly attri- 

 butable to Dell's Beet. These borders are a mile in length, 

 and the view of them is quite unobstructed. They are thus 

 planted : — Tom Thumb Scarlet Pelargonium, Dell's Beet, 

 Mangles' Variegated Pelargonium, Brillante de Vaisse Verbena, 

 and Lobelia speciosa (blue). Certainly Dell's Beet partakes o£ 

 all the good qualities ascribed by Mr. D. Thomson (see vol. xiv., 

 page 385), to Barrett's Crimson Beet ; and, unless my eyes for 

 once deceived me, I thought the bronze tinge on the leaves of 

 Dell's Beet exceeded anything I ever saw in any Beet — even 

 too much so, it occurred to me when I passed it in the twilight. 

 I feel it is very rash in me to set up my own in opposition to 

 Mr. Thomson's judgment, but as I saw it Dell's Beet really 

 did not lack the bronzy lustre of Barrett's. I quite agree with 

 Mr. Thomson that wherever these handsome-foliaged Beets are 

 planted they produce a good effect. More particularly are they 

 adapted for places of great extent. What a relief they are in 

 many senses of the word ! They are easy of cultivation, no 

 incumbrance to houses, and if they are not of quite so dark a 

 crimson in their flesh as some kinds when used for culinary 

 purposes, still they appear of a very respectable hue at table, 

 and are of good flavour, which is of more consequence to many 

 than colour without it. Again, flanking one of the geometrical 

 designs near the Palace, Dell's Beet shows finely in a ribbon, 

 with my especial favourite Oslorn's Brilliant Pelargonium on 

 its right and left. — Upwards and Onwards. 



P.S. — At page 74, for " equally objectionable from the same 

 defect are Old Betty and Early Ten-week," read " similar in 

 cultivation I conclude to be Old Betty and Early Ten-week," &c. 



DUG DE MALAKOFF STRAWBERRV. 

 I HAVE forgotten what Mr. Douglas said of the Dae de 

 Malakoff, but I am inclined to think from the description given 

 bj Mr. Biggs that he has not the true sort. The late Mr. 



THE MUSCAT HAMBURGH GRAPE. 



I WISH some of your readers, who think I have always over- 

 estimated this Grape, would come and see mine. One bunch 

 was cut to exhibit at a flower show, and there are nineteen 

 bunches on the Vine now, weighing in all about 60 lbs. The 

 berries are regular in size, and there is no sign of shanking. 



This Vine is growing iu as poor a border as it is possible to 

 find anywhere — indeed, it could hardly be worse, unless it were 

 in a wet undrained situation. It was made of strong soil with- 

 out a bit of turf, soil almost strong enough to make bricks, 

 and mixed with Derbyshire lime and a little manure. The 

 soil is 60 unfit for the growth of Vines, that it takes two or 

 three years for them to get into healthy growth, and I believe 

 the roots have to find their way into the common soil of the 

 garden before the Vines can make strong wood. In such a 

 case one would expect plenty of shanked berries ; and there 

 were so many at one time that I intended to remove the Vines 

 and make a fresh border. By encouraging more foUage the 

 \ ines have attained their present healthy condition. 



The shoots are stopped one leaf above the fruit, and every 

 time they grow are allowed to make two leaves, so that there 

 are six or eight above the bunches on every shoot, and to this 

 circumstance the healthy condition of the Vines may be 

 attributed. 



