October 29, 1868. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTOEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER, 



323 



Golden Chain is still the best Golden-edged variety we have. 

 The yellow is more pure and constant than in any other kind 

 that I Lave yet grown or seen ; and beinr; a variety tlmt lifts re- 

 markably well in the autumn, and keeps well through the winter, 

 its slow growth, for which it is condemned by many, is not bo 

 Sroat a drawback to it after all, as the same plants can be used 

 for three or four years in succession, and by striking some 

 €very year a stock of it may be always had of a good size. 1 

 generally put in a lot of cuttings of it between the older 

 plants at bedding-out time ; these help to fill up, and they 

 form good young plants for lifting in the autumn. 



5Iy experience with Tricolor Pelargoniums fully agrees with 

 what Mr. Robson says with respect to Mrs. Pollock losing 

 much of its beauty under the influence of extreme sun heat. I 

 have often heard it remarked, that Mrs. Pollock and other 

 Tricolor varieties require exposure to plenty of strong sun to 

 bring out their colours to the best advantage, but iu my own 

 experience I have invariably found the reverse to be the case. 

 For instance, Mrs. Pollock was far superior in colour with us 

 here last summer than it has been this year, until the begin- 

 ning of September, when it began to improve, and has since 

 been very fine. Possibly some persons may say that drought 

 has more influence as regards want of colour in the leaf than 

 the intense heat ; but I can scarcely think so, as Mrs. Pollock 

 with us this summer was abundantly supplied with water 

 taken immediately from a lake, and, consequently, in the best 

 condition to apply to plants, and the plants grew well. I am 

 more inclined to attribute the cause of loss of colour to the 

 fading, when exposed to a very hot sun, of the colouring matter 

 which constitutes the zone in the leaf, but in this I may be 

 wrong, and would like to have the opinion of others on the 

 subject. 



Lnna with me this season has been very much better in 

 colour since the beginning of this month (October) , than at any 

 previous time throughout the summer, excepting, perhaps, for 

 a week or two after it was planted out. 



Italia Unita, as a Silver-edged Tricolor Pelargonium, al- 

 though beautiful as an individual plant, is not in my opinion 

 nearly so effective for general effect and contrast with other 

 things as the Silver-edged varieties. The best of the latter 

 which I have yet grown is Miss Kingsbury, possessing an ex- 

 cellent habit and good robust constitution, and retaining its 

 •foliage well to the last. I consider the Tricolor varieties w'll 

 prove very useful — that is, those of as good constitution as 

 Mrs. Pollock, of which I fear many fall short — as being very 

 effective late in the season, and good for wet summers when 

 many flowering plants get much dashed and injured. Of 

 course, they will be good in fine summers as well. 



I will now comply with Mr. Robsou's invitation respecting 

 the merits of the Beet as a dark-foliaged plant for decorative 

 purposes, .and in doing so I cannot speak too favourably of it, 

 30 far, at least, as the variety I have grown has proved itself 

 here this season. It has certainly been t!ir plant of the season 

 here in the way of dark foliage, no other plant in the flower 

 garden having received so much special notice and praise, and 

 it certainly, in my opinion, deserves all the praise it has re- 

 ceived. It has a richness peculiarly its own, and not possessed, 

 so far as I know, by any other plant used for the same purpose, 

 and this it has retained throughout the season up to the 

 present date (October 2tth), being equally good in the hottest 

 part of the summer, as it has been since, which is more than I 

 can say of some other dark-foliaged plants used here this 

 season. For instance, in the hottest part of the summer the 

 leaves of the Coleus (which has done moderately well other- 

 wise), became scorched and brown to a certain extent. Again, 

 in the case of the Perilla, the caterpillars played sad havoc 

 with it, quite disfiguring the greater part of it for a time. The 

 few plants of Amaranthus which I grew did very well up to 

 the beginning of this month, when, as it always has done with 

 me, it began to fog-off. As far as this season goes, and it is 

 the first I have grown it in the flower garden, I must certainly 

 give the palm to the Beet, as being the best dark-foliaged plant 

 I have grown, not the least of its advantages being, that it 

 requires very little attention after being once put out, and does 

 not appear to be likely to be attacked at any time by insects. 



I believe the variety I have grown is a very superior and 

 true strain. I obtained the seed from Messrs. Francis and 

 Arthur Dickson & Sons, Chester, in the spring of this year 

 under the name of, or rather labelled, "Dwarf Black-leaved 

 Beet for flower-garden purposes," and certainly a better variety 

 for the purpose I do not think could possibly be grown, and I 

 shall certainly endeavour not to lose it. 



Chrysanthemum Sensation has retained its foliage with mo 

 up to the present time, and I like it much, being very good for 

 edginga when kept well stopped, which improves its colour. — 

 Joiix H. Mason, Prince's Park, Liverimul. 



POMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS. 

 Fruit here (Gargrave) is very fine this year. A seven-year-old 

 Easter Beurre Pear, on the Quince, trained upright, and feet 

 high, with five branches, bore thirty-six Pears. I weighed the 

 entire crop ; the weight was IS lbs. ; average weight halt a 

 pound each. Madame Trey ve, which you figured in the Journal, 

 is a glorious fruit ; here one fruit weighed 10 ozs., another 

 lOJ — as melting and vinous as a fine Peach, the best September 

 Pear I have ever tasted. Skin fine, thin ; no core, no grit. 

 Then the tree is healthy, vigorous, and sets fruit buds in 

 abundance. — C. M. 



Feoji the garden of .J. B. Houston, Esq., Orangefield, 



Belfast, we have received fruit of a Bed Cdhkant, from bushes 

 growing in the open quarters. This variety ripens with the 

 Piaby Castle and others, but retains its fruit and foliage until 

 late iu the season, in fact, until severe frost sets in. The 

 foliage now (October 17th), is quite green, while Baby Castle, 

 growing beside it and under the same treatment, is ready for 

 the winter pruning. 



Bunches mostly short, resembling the Grape Currant, but 

 very productive, bearing enormous crops. While in the young 

 state the bushes grow very vigorously, and require lifting and 

 replanting. Foliage thick and leathery, in shape something 

 resembling the Mallow leaf. 



During the autumn of 18B7 nice fruit was gathered in the 

 first and second weeks of December. The footstalks were as 

 green and the berries as plump as if it had been August. 



Among the curiosities of pomological literature may be 



reckoned the following extracts from a French fruit-tree cata- 

 logue we have just received. Among Gooseberries we find 

 " Bunker's rill," " Ewotoone," " Leaoche," which being inter- 

 preted mean Bunker's Hill, Two to One, and Peacock. We 

 publish this as a warning to English nurserymen, to be careful 

 how they print French names in their catalogues, which we ob- 

 serve are frequently as comically represented as the examples 

 of Anglo-French we have given above. 



" I NEVER remember to have seen so great a resem- 

 blance between two varieties of fruit as in the Stirling Castle 

 and Small's Admirable Apples, for they are of the same dwarf 

 habit — apparently of the Hawthorndeu race — and both prone 

 to bear when the trees are in a very young state, often bearing 

 profusely on trees not more than 2 feet in height, the second 

 year after grafting, if on the English Paradise stock. On ex- 

 amining the trees and the fruit of both I have discovered some 

 slight variations, which have induced me to think they are not 

 (as I thought when looking at the young trees during the 

 summer), the same variety under two names. The fruit of 

 the Stirling Castle is of the same shape, colour, and size as 

 Small's Admirable, but has its eye set in a much deeper basin. 

 The young shoots of the tree are spotted with white like those 

 of the Admirable, but they are much lighter in colour. Those 

 of the latter are of a very dark brown ; but the most distinctive 

 character is in the leaves, those of the Stirling Castle being 

 nearly round, while those of Small's Admirable are compara- 

 tively long and pointed." — T. E. 



The Early Nonpareil Apple. — With respect to this Mr. 



Eivers writes, " Pray allow me to disclaim all right to have my 

 name appended to this very old variety (see page 281). My 

 history is as follows ; Some sixty years since there were old 

 trees of this sort growing here, said to have been planted by 

 my great gi-andfather. They were decayed and full of cankered 

 shoots. In a warm season they bore fine fruit, which I used 

 to think most delicious. In those times it was designated the 

 Early Nonpareil, and I know of no other kind deserving the 

 name. Many years afterwards this name was apphed to Hicks' 

 Fancy, in my opinion a very inferior sort. 



" I venture to give the following description of the Early 

 1 Nonpareil or Haute Bonne (not ' Haute Bontfi ' as I misquoted), 

 from the folio edition of dear old Miller's Dictionary. What 

 capital English is his ! ' The Nonpareil is a fruit pretty gene- 

 rally known in Englaud, though there is another Apple which 

 is frequently sold in the markets for it, which is what the 

 French call Haute bonne. This is a larger, fairer fruit than 

 the Nonpareil, more inclining to yellow ; the russet colour 



