September 10, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEE. 



183 



Little David take their places in the centres of small beds, or 

 as edgings to large ones, itc, beitiR dwarf and free-blooming. 



Among Pinks, I have found Wiltsbire Lass to bo about the 

 best for massing, either in large or small beds. Christine 

 and Helen Lindsay I use for mixed borders and vases, wheie 

 they afford abundance of cut bloom. As a salmon colour, 

 Madame Kadersdorff is first-rate for centres of large beds, or 

 the third row in a ribbon border. It is charming even at a 

 distance, and its substantial flower stem and well-made trusses 

 stand heavy rains remarkably well. 



In the Scarlet Nosegay section I must select Cybister, 

 Lord Palmerston, Amy Hogg, and Christine Nosegay as being 

 the most useful of the varieties I have cultivated ; but the hot 

 dry summer has been favourable to them, for tbey have been 

 of dwarfer growth and freer in blooming in consequence, other- 

 wise they have not gained popularity so fast as some varieties, 

 being so often injured by heavy rains. 



Of Golden Tricolors I have not found one to possess such 

 fine bedding qualities as the well-known Mrs. Pollock. Beau- 

 tiful, indeed, as they all are when grown under glass, they can- 

 not vie with this popular bedder out of doors. 



In the Golden-leaved and Bronze section Crystal Palace 

 Gem and Beauty of Calderdale are likely to be extensively 

 planted next season. The former, a dwarf-growing gold-leaved 

 kind, is a great improvement upon Cloth of Gold, having 

 flowers after the colour of Trentham Rose. The latter is a 

 bronze-zoned kind, having a strong and free growth, and well- 

 expanded foliage, showing the zone to perfection. I think it 

 one of the best of its class for centres of beds and mixed 

 borders. 



Of Silver Tricolors I have only Italia Unita, which does 

 not grow well with me. 



Of SIL^•ER Variegated kinds I have discarded Flower of the 

 Day and Alma, for Bijou and Flower of Spring. The latter is 

 a favourite with all who see it. I have also found St. Clair 

 well worth growing ; its cerise pink flowers render it a very 

 conspicuous object in the flower garden, but two-year-old plants 

 flower best. Those who want the same colour of flower with 

 a dwarfer habit of growth can use Lady Coventry, which makes 

 a pretty bed when edged with Verbena Maonetti coccinea. 



It will be seen that my remarks upon the newer kinds of 

 Pelargoniums are confined to the bedding qualities of the plants, 

 for beautiful as such varieties may be under glass, I maintain 

 that unless they will thrive under the ordinary treatment given 

 . to Pelargoniums, both in summer and winter, their beauty is 

 lost to the small grower, simply because he has no accommoda- 

 tion for them according to their requirements. — Thomas 

 Record, Lillesden Gardens, Hawkhurst. 



THE FIRST IMPROVEES OF THE 

 HOLI,YHOCK. 



In one of your recent Numbers there is a long article on the 

 Hollyhock, by Mr. G. Abbey. If you will allow me a line or 

 two, I should like to point out a few errors which I think ought 

 to be set right. 



Mr. Abbey says, " We owe all onr improvements in Holly- 

 hocks to the late Mr. Baron." I beg to state Mr. Baron never 

 did much to improve the Hollyhock, he was only a collector ; 

 he never raised a new strain. It is to Mr. W. Chater, of 

 Safiron Walden, that we owe the greatest improvement, even 

 np to the present time. He was the first successful cross- 

 breeder about twenty-three years since, when he bought Mr. 

 Baron's stock. Mr. Chater having then been collecting and 

 improving from twenty-five to thirty years, he had at that 

 time some first-rate flowers, which with Mr. Baron's made the 

 finest collection in the world. 



In the year 1848 Mr. Chater crossed his own flower. Napo- 

 leon, salmon with dark red ground, with Mr. Baron's Queen, 

 a light pink, and was successful. From the seed of the fer- 

 tilised flower he raised the celebrated variety which he named 

 Charles Baron, which was quite a new strain, and since that 

 flower it has not been necessary to impregnate for salmons and 

 bufis, as every year seeds saved from its progeny bring im- 

 provements which can be traced back to the old parent ; for all 

 florists ought to know that if once you get new blood into a 

 flower you may go on seeding, and continually raising im- 

 provements on the parent flower. We have Hercules, Invin- 

 cible, Lady'Dacres, and several others of the same colour, which 

 can aU be traced back to Charles Baron, from Napoleon and 

 Queen. I say that that was the first flower ever raised from 



the seed of a flower cross-fertilised by the florist, and the first 

 improvement in the Hollyhock ; therefore I think Mr. Chater 

 ought to have the credit. 



I was working in the Walden Nursery when he first took 

 Mr. Baron's flowers. I recollect going with Mr, Ward (the 

 raiser of John Hopper and Mrs. Berncrs Eofcs), who was ap- 

 prentice, and afterwards foreman to Mr. Chater, which ac- 

 counts for his being so successful in cross-breeding, to Mr. 

 Baron's garden for the stock of plants. The following year 

 we began to impregnate their flowers with some of our own 

 varieties, and in three years we had several new and distinct 

 varieties, such as Comet, Walden Gem, and others equally 

 good, and Mr. Chater still holds the position of being the most 

 successful raiser we have. His flowers are decidedly the best 

 sent out, they are of better form, more substance in the petal, 

 and more decided in colour than any others, and this improve- 

 ment has been going on now for more than twenty years. 



I have pointed out the colour of buff and salmon merely as a 

 specimen of what has been done. There are other colours 

 which I can trace back in the same way. Scarlets, whites, 

 and yellows, all from Cbater's Sulphurea perfecta ; purples 

 from Purpurea elegaus (Chater) ; lilac and peach from Chater'B 

 Pallida, and so on. Therefore, I say it is a mistake to give 

 Mr. Baron the credit for improvement, as I consider him only 

 a collector. He certainly did save seed from those which 

 would produce any, and, of course, raised a few new varieties 

 but could never obtain a new strain. As Mr. Baron was an 

 eminent florist, but no botanist, he had not the least idea of 

 cross-breeding, nor ever attempted it. 



Mr. Baron had been collecting for more than twenty years 

 before he sold his stock to Mr. Chater. The principal of his 

 flowers he bought of an old gentleman, a lover of the Hollyhock, 

 of the name of Johnson, in 1823. Mr. Baron had not in his 

 collection either a pure white, a yellow, a purple, or a good 

 scarlet. Mr. Chater had all these colours. It is to Mr. Chater 

 we owe all our improvements in the Hollyhock. He was the 

 first to cross-breed to perpetuate variation in colour, and to 

 improve the shape and quality of the flower. All the very 

 finest and best varieties now in cultivation are the results 

 arising from those flowers impregnated in his nursery by him- 

 self and foreman, Mr. Ward, and since then by his son, now a 

 nurseryman at Cambridge, and Mr. Speed, his present foreman. 

 Mr. Parsons, Mr. Eoake, and the Rev. E. Hawke, have also 

 been successful cross-breeders ; but they all worked from Mr. 

 Chater's materials, having received all his new flowers as soon 

 as sent out. 



It was Mr. Chater who first perpetuated the improved va- 

 rieties by cuttings, &c., not Mr. ISaron, as he used to say 

 when he wanted to increase his stock, he would take the spada 

 and chop a side shoot off the old [plant and stick it in. — A 

 Hollyhock Amateur. 



DUTCH CLOVER vehsus GRASS FOR LAWNS. 

 Confirmatory of the statement of " Hounslow " in last 

 week's Journal, I have to state what I have seen at Eockhurst, 

 West Hoathly, Sussex, the residence of Charles Hill, Esq 

 When Mr. Hill laid down his lawn two years ago, he was com- 

 pelled, from want of anything better, to take the turf from the 

 park surrounding the house, and this was of the ordinary 

 character of pasture herbage, with a large admixture of Moss. 

 As a surface-dressing, Mr. Hill used wood ashes, and this alone 

 has had the effect of driving out the Moss, of which there is 

 not the slightest trace, and in its stead a thick carpeting of 

 White Dutch Clover has made its appearance, and which during 

 the past dry summer has maintained a freshness and verdure 

 when everything in the way of a grass lawn was burned up. 

 A marvellous fact connected with it is, that in the original turf 

 there was no trace of the Clover. — H. 



BLANCHING CELERY— STOPPING PEA SHOOTS. 



Happening a few weeks since to be in the neighbourhood of 

 Leeds, I paid a visit to the garden of Mrs. Tetly, of Armley, 

 near that town, and saw one or two things there which seemed 

 new to me, and which you may think worth notice. 



I was struck with the Celery, a great part of which was 

 blanched with sawdust, the latter being kept in its propei; 

 position by wooden sides. The gardener, who, I am informed, 

 wins numerous prizes at the neighbouring shows, told me that 

 he found this plan answer very well, provided the sawdust was 



