512 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jnne 2G, 187S. 



mentioned flowers red, and pbospUate of soda altera greatly 

 the shades of many plants. 



GEAND YORKSHIRE GALA. 



If I was last week astouiahed at the excellence of the Leeds 

 Show, I was still more so at that of the gi-eat Show held at 

 York, and which I had now for the first time the privilege of 

 faeeing ; and I think if some of those gentlemen who seem to 

 imagine that the poor horticulturists who live in country parts 

 must be a long way behindhand, could only have seen what I 

 did, they would have considerably modified their opinion. When 

 I say that a large round tent was filled with plants which Mr. 

 Baines would find it a ditlicult matter to excel, and that to this 

 were added two tents of 300 feet iu length filled from end to 

 end with plants and flowers, they will readily imagine that there 

 ■was something to see. Nay, more : I may add that excellence 

 was the chai'acteristic of the exhibits, and that in some parts 

 these northern growers are in advance far of us southerners. 



I could not have been present on a more auspicious occasion, 

 for Mr. Stewart, who has for thirty years or more been an en- 

 thusiastic grower of florists' flowers. Auriculas, Carnations, &c., 

 and also for a number of years President of the Yorkshire So- 

 ciety, was this year Lord Mayor of York, and the occasion was 

 signalised by two events : our friend, Mr. Williams, of Holloway, 

 gave, in honour of it, a very handsome silver cup in addition to 

 the first prize of ,i'25 given by the Society, for the best collec- 

 tion of stove and greenhouse plants, which was gallantly won 

 by Mr. Cole, of Manchester, with some magnificent plants, com- 

 prising Hedaroma tulipifera, Cycas revoluta in flower, Ixora 

 Colei, and others ; and a number of the Lord Mayor's friends 

 had seized the opportunity of presenting him with a very hand- 

 some silver epergne for flowers, in recognition of their esteem. 

 This was gracefully presented by Mr. Dean in the name of the 

 subscribers at the luncheon and acknowledged in fitting terms 

 by the Lord Mayor. 



It may give some idea of the extent of the Exhibition when 

 I say that in the class for six Tricolor Pelargoniums there 

 were ten entries, and twelve for sis Bronze, that there were 

 in all eighty-four entries for Pelargoniums, and that the diffi- 

 culty was not so much to decide what were the best, as to 

 determine which were to be rejected. I know that my excel- 

 lent friend Mr. Peach and myself can bear witness that we never 

 had a harder task than the one we had to fulfil at this Show. I 

 was particularly struck with the good colour of the fohage of the 

 variegated Pelargoniums, for one often sees them so defective in 

 this respect, and the season has been so unfavourable in its 

 absence of sunlight, that the exhibitors deserved great credit for 

 the manner in which they had brought their plants up to the 

 mark. One exhibitor had trained his plants so as to make small 

 pyramids of them, and exceedingly effective they were. I have 

 only to add that as at Leeds there was a warmth and heartiness 

 about the whole thing that contrasted most favourably with our 

 slowness in the south. The indefatigable Secretary, Mr. Wilson, 

 worked most assiduously, the Committee ably seconding him. 



It is unpleasant to notice any drawback, but there was one, 

 which was commented upon in strong terms by Mr. Williams. 

 A cultivator at Derby had given notice of his intention to ex- 

 hibit one hundred plants, many of them of large size. Not only 

 did he not appear, but had not even the courtesy to send a 

 message, and it was only through a friend on the morning of the 

 show day that the Secretary had any notice of the fact. This 

 I cannot but designate as unpardonable, or as Mr. WilUams said 

 "cruel," disarranging as it did the plans made, and but for the 

 excellence of the Show it would have been more serious still. — 

 D., Deal. 



FRAME POTATOES. 



We have a vast array of names of sorts of Potatoes that are 

 said to be good for frame cultivation, many of which have, no 

 doubt, merits ; whilst a great many, and I may say a majority, 

 have no claim from any merit they possess, to be honoured 

 with a position under glass. 



The first desirability of a frame Potato is, that it has a 

 stiff short haulm ; Sud, That it gives, at a short a time as 

 possible after planting, tubers of a useable size ; 3rd, That 

 they be even-sized — in fact, large with a very small quantity of 

 small ; and 4th, Early attains a mealy state of the tuber, and 

 not watery waxy lumps, which are neither wholesome, nor, 

 as a rule, come up to the standard of a forcing or frame 

 Potato in other respects. 



It is not my intention to pass in review all the kinds of 

 Potatoes that are used for, or, at least, put forward as suitable 

 for, frame culture, suffice will be to .allude to those that I have 

 found the best. The first that I shall mention is Mona's 

 Pride, wliich has a stiff sturdy liaului, is not given to havo 

 more than one or two strong growths, and these give largo, 



even-sized tubers, that early attain maturity. It is a short, 

 thick, kidney-shaped tuber, and is a desirable forcing Potato. 



Hyatt's Prolific Ashleaf fully deserves its name of Prolific, 

 for it gives fully twice as many tubers as Mona's Pride, but 

 they are individually much smaller. Taking the whole pro- 

 duce it is not more than Mona's Pride, weight for weight ; and 

 as there are small in the produce of the Myatt's, but nono 

 or few in that of Mona's Pride, I must pronounce iu favour of 

 the latter. I have so long had Myatt's Prolific good — in fact, 

 considered it the best of all for frame work and pots, that I 

 am loath to proclaim Mona's Pride its superior. Small Potatoes 

 may not be of much account in out-door culture, the loss is 

 not so much felt or noticed ; but it is very different with those 

 in pots or frames, as the small are of no account. 



■Veitch's Improved Ashleaf with me has a very short stiff 

 haulm, gives a number of large, fine, clear-skinned tubers, 

 even-sized, attains ripeness early, and with very few small. It 

 produced the tubers on a rather long string, and therefore at 

 some distance from the root-stem, unlike either Mona'a 

 Prido or Myatt's Prolific, which have them close to the stem. 

 I had some of Veitch's iu pots which had the tubers right at 

 the bottom of the pots (1'2-inch), some under the large crocks 

 used for drtiinage. I find the produce of a three-light frame 

 planted iu November to be in April 2i lbs., whilst a three- 

 light frame of Myatt's Prolific planted also in November and 

 taken up in May, yielded 18 lbs. Here, then, wo have a nett 

 g.ain of G lbs. from a piece of ground 1'2 feet by (i feet, or on 

 8 square y.ards a gain of nearly 1 lb. per yard. It is only right 

 to say, that both the kinds planted together were fit for use 

 early in AprU, only not beiug wanted they were not taken up. 



I have no experience of the round kinds of recent date, and 

 what I have leads me to the conclusion that they must be of 

 a very different typo to what I have grown, or tliey are from 

 giving more small than large, and much longer in attaining 

 firmness than kidney sorts, of very little value as frame Po- 

 tatoes. I shall be only glad to learn I havo formed erroneous 

 impressions of the round sorts. 



I now come to what may not concern me as a cultivator — I 

 allude to the identity of Veitsh's Ashleaf Kidney Potato. I 

 find iu B.arr & Sugden's catalogue, 1873, page 66, that Glou- 

 cestershire Kidney, Bivers's Royal Ashleaf, and Veitch's Im- 

 proved Ashle.af are described as " First-class Potatoes, but 

 resembling each other so closely that it has been asserted that 

 the best authorities fail to distinguish the one from the other." 

 At reading this I must confess I was taken aback, for Pavers's 

 Royal Ashleaf is later by ten days to a fortnight than the old 

 Ashleaf, and Gloucestershire Kidney has not, so far as I know, 

 been put forward as a kind equaUing the Ashleaf in earliness, 

 but as a kind to succeed the Ashleaf. I should not care much 

 as to what name a really good thing was known by, but to 

 know that it is called by three is, to siiy the least, perplexing ; 

 and, notwithstanding that we have it " asserted that the best 

 authorities " agree in the three being one, it would be very 

 annoying to order a supply of sets to plant to come iu at a 

 certain time, and, assured that Gloucestershire Kidney or 

 Rivers's Royal Ashleaf are the same as Veitch's Ashleaf, take 

 one of the two former in place of the latter, assured that they 

 are the same, only to find, however, that they are not fit for 

 use ten days to a fortnight after the time they are wanted, or 

 the time Veitch's Ashleaf, supplied true, would come in. It is 

 with me the earliest of all the forms of Ashleaf, both in pots, 

 iu frames, and out-doors, and the most prolific. Planted iu 

 pots November 20th, 1872, we had the first dish February 24th, 

 1873 ; the last iu a frame, planted March 5th, were taken up 

 June 5th, dry and floury when cooked. — G. Abbey. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



There are two points in the Stkuctube op the Heakts- 

 BASE (Viola tricolor) which are not mentioned iu Mr. Bennett's 

 interesting article on its fertilisation, but which, I think, deserve 

 notice. The first of these is the lip of the stigma, which closes 

 the entrance to the spur and must be pushed back by an insect 

 trying to reach the nectary, thereby bending down the head of 

 the stigma, so as to sweep any pollen that may bo adhering to 

 those parts of the insect which come into contact with it iuto 

 its receptacle ; while, iu withdrawing, the insect necessarily 

 presses agaiust the lower side of the lip, and raises up the 

 whole stigma, thus rendering self-impregnation impossible, or 

 at least highly improbable. Modifications of the same contriv- 

 ance may be seen in many other flowers — e.g., I'inguicnla, 

 Iris, <SiQ. ; it reaches, perhaps, its greatest perfection iu Mimulus 



