^^ 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ Jane 18, ISBB. 



in o given period than another ; for unless the operator hit 

 apou a good strain, he may sow seed of half the torts in his 

 ooUection, and have only to mourn over his continual disap- 

 pointments. Stick, therefore, to a {;ood strain, and from the 

 same Strawberry, as I have myself witnessed, sorts may be 

 raised as wide asunder as Black Prince is frcm Trollope's 

 Victoria. 



One word as to the flavour of Strawberries. This every fra- 

 ^rian knows varies very much with soil and situation. I 

 apeak from my own soil, and in the majority of instances 

 Strawberries are good and keep to their characteristic flavour ; 

 occaeioually, however, we observe a great departure. Sir 

 Charles Napier and Victoria on Mr. Bivers's soil, I recollect, 

 are so acid that the addition of sugar is absolutely necessary, 

 whilst on my ground these sorts, the latter especially, are sweet 

 awid refreshing. Within two miles of this place, again, Victoria 

 ifl 80 Bour and different in flavour, that but for its form and 

 oolour I should scarcely recognise it. Possibly, on the other 

 imnd, by the same rule, Strawberries raised on my soil may be 

 richer in flavour elsewhere. Form, size, and colour are not so 

 much infitienced, and these are the more unchangeable types 

 «{ perfection which lend such a charm to success in raising a 

 new Strawberry. 



Of midseason varieties there are plenty, and there is scarcely 

 loom for improvement. What we want is better early and late 

 BOrts; and if I should be as successful in raising late varieties 

 with these attributes of perfection, as I trust I have been with 

 early ones, I shall have done some little service to horticulture, 

 if only in contributiug to the decoration of the dessert. At any 

 tate, these are, in my humble opinion, steps in the right direc- 

 tion. — William Eoden, M.D., A.M., The Grmvjc, Kiddcr- 

 minaier. 



£We have been favoured by Dr. Koden with an opportunity 

 of examining and tasting two of his new seedlings. Early 

 Fiolific and Duke of Edinburgh, and we were greatly impressed 

 with the wonderful advance these two varieties are on all other 

 early kinds, both in size and flavour. The former produces 

 its fruit literally in bunches, and is as early as Black Prince, 

 with fruit three times the size; the latter not quite so early, 

 but nearly so, and the fruit immensely large, one specimen we 

 hod being over 2 inches in diameter, and the flavour remark- 

 ably fine. These are most valuable and characteristic acquisi- 

 tions to the already too-numerous varieties of this estimable 

 Sroit, and they must become essential in every garden.] 



down south ; it is that which Mr. Turner so suocessfaUy 

 follows, though I am aware that other successful growers treat 

 them differently. — D., Deal. 



JUDGING AT THE ROYAL HOnTICULTURAL 

 SHOW. 



" J. W." says, page -419, that Mr. Turner's and Mr. Paul's 

 eoUections of Variegated Zonal Pelargoniums ought to have 

 been disqualified, for that they did not fulfil the conditions 

 required by the schedule. I differ from him entirely. May 

 Queen in Mr. Turner's, and Snowdrop in Mr. Paul's collections 

 are true Variegated Zonals. Zonal is a term used and well 

 onderstood as applying to a section of Pelargoniums,. and dis- 

 tinguishing it from the florists' large-flowered, the French, the 

 Fancy, and other kinds of Pelargoniums, and a Zonal in this 

 sense may, anomalous as it appears, show no trace of a zone 

 at all. 



If it were intended that gold green and red, or white green 

 and red Zonals (tricolors or quadricolort), should alone be 

 eligible for exhibition in the class in question, it seems to 

 me it should have been so expressed. As the wording stands 

 I Bubmit that Mr. Turner and Mr. Paul had a right to exhibit 

 the plants they showed in this class. — P. 



POTTING AURICULAS. 

 I SEE that you have inserted a paragraph by Mr. Hepworth, 

 from " The Gardener," on the best time for potting the Auri- 

 eula. He says July. Now, I beg to differ, and for the very 

 reasons that he has advanced, and say that it is better to pot 

 them as soon as the bloom is over. They have then a better 

 chance of making their growth and filling the pots with roots 

 than if potted in July, when they are somewhat at rest; and 

 lest it might be thought that they would remain too long in 

 the pots without change of soil, and so get soured, it must be 

 borne in mind that from November to February they hardly 

 lequire any water at all, and then a good top-dressing renovates 

 them amazingly. I used always to pot in August, but of late 

 jears have adopted this plan, which certainly answers better 



AMONG THE FIRST TRACES OF OUR NORMAN 

 FOREFATHERS. 



Three tourists met on the Grand Parade at Eastbourne 

 during last week — fair specimens of the classes into which 

 such travellers may be divided. The Utilitarian observed, "I 

 never saw such healthy, abundant crops — Wheat, Hay, Apples 

 — all splendid. We may expect a quiet winter, for plenty and 

 peace are a cause and effect." 



The Valetudinarian added, " And what splendid weather ! — 

 temperature 85° in the shade. I do hope now to be released 

 from this fettering rheum.itism." 



The Lover of the Beautiful, while those comments were 

 uttering, was rewarding a little bare-legged girl for a spray of 

 Boses she had presented, and well they merited the reward, 

 for they were beautiful specimens of the old Cabbage Kose, 

 and, like all the Bjses in this vicinity, intense ol colour and 

 without an insect or a blotched leaf to mar their effect by a 

 reminder of decay. " Have you seen such Buses as these 

 since you were boys ?" asked this third of the tourists, and 

 then added, " How they revive memories of my old home, and 

 make me forget that I alone am left of the group once gathered 

 there." Full sympathy was expressed in that feeling, and this 

 comment might have been quoted, " The charm of flowers to 

 the lonely-hearted is often more than words can tell. They 

 are a pleasure and delight ; they recall happy days, bring kind 

 friends to mind, and soothe and please in the saddest hours." 



Those tourists passed a week in close companionship, and 

 the following are jottings of their " sayings and doings." 



This present rapidly increasing resort for bathing is not the 

 East Bourne of the olden time. Tliat is situated a mile and a 

 half inland, deriviug its name from a bourne, or rivulet, rising 

 on the eastern side of the Downs, terminating at Beachy Head, 

 and which extend throughout the length of Sussex, Hampshire, 

 and Wilts. The head-spring of this bourne issues from the 

 chalk in a field attached to the parsonage, passes through the 

 garden of the Manor House, and mingles with the sea at Broad- 

 bourne. From that stream the Bomans drank eighteen hun- 

 dred years ago, for the mosaic pavement of the rooms and bath 

 of a Roman villa were discovered many years since near the 

 western end of the Grand Parade. 



That Parade is formed of three broad terraces or promenades, 

 the lowest of which is washed by the sea. They rise one above 

 the other, and the bank sloping from the higher to that below 

 is planted with that perverse dinger to our warm sea-bord the 

 Tamarisk (Tamarix yallica). Such a belt as this will form 

 when a year or two older will be unmatched. The Tamarisk 

 deserves the epithet of perverse because it refuses to grow ex- 

 cept on our southern coast. This retLa k induced an old 

 resident who overheard it to rejoin, " The Oak is as perveree 

 hereabouts, for there are but two near Eastbourne, aud one of 

 them is nursed in the garden of Oak Cottage, and that would 

 not be if the cottage did not belong to the Pendrells, descend- 

 ants of those who saved Charles 11." 



This led to the just observation that the gardening around is 

 worthy of high commendation. The climate is friendly to ex- 

 otics ; flowers flourish in the open air, and that which readily 

 rewards our labour has that care readily bestowed. The love 

 of gardening seems to be in all classes. The areas in some of 

 the streets are filled with flowering plants, and in their shadiest 

 corners are rookeries tenanted by vigorous Ferns. In the 

 windows of the cottages are Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, Calceo- 

 larias, and other flowers, looking so healthy and so intense of 

 colour as to command notice, and the gardens around the cot- 

 tages are well stocked with cleanly-cidtivated vegetables and 

 iiuits. 



Among the fruits must the old orchard trees he well remem- 

 bered. Who can tell how old those Apple trees are, the stumps 

 of which, alive yet, are in the garden adjoining the ruins of 

 Hurstmonceaux Castle? or of those in some of the old gardens 

 at Wunnock ? It was too early in the year to identify the 

 varieties, with but one exception, and that exception was the 

 nearly extinct Old Codlin. Its leaves and fruit, though young, 

 were unmistakeable. It is in a cottage gardeu, and the old 

 dame there resident, overhearing its praise, came forward to 

 tell that it was strong " 'cause it was grafted on a Black Jack." 

 I What this stock is called in a less local vocabulary did not then 



