July 11, 1865. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



23 



beau jaune." He eays, moreover, that ho has others with 

 yellow flowers, which he is propagating. This is great news 

 for ms, ami opens out the prospect of other accessions. He 

 has also a very pure white in the style of Louise Darzins. 

 These are not for next autumn. He intends to send out four 

 ■varieties in the autumn of the present year, one of which I 

 have seen, the other I hope to see before then. The one he did 

 send me was a very tine flower of the Senateur Vaisse and Due 

 de Rohan type. It is called Alfred Colonib. The flowers are 

 large, full, and well-shaped ; the colour, a lovely scarlet crim- 

 son, not shaded. He says he is very rich in seedling Roses, 

 and he is no mean judge, although lie has made a sad blunder 

 in one matter. I heard the story in Paris, and also from several 

 the other day at the Crystal Palace ; and as I knew it was 

 incorrect I determined to sift the matter to the bottom, and 

 I believe every Rose-gi'ower will acknowledge the correctness of 

 the view I have taken. It is this : Lacharnie was walking in 



the garden of Mons. , a celebrated Rose-grower at Paris, 



and, seeing a Rose in bloom, asked what it was. He was told 

 John Hopper. " Ah !" said he, " that is one of my seedlings. 

 The year that Charles Lefebvre was sent out this Rose was 

 growing alongside of it, and in executing an order for England 

 my man took it up by mistake and sent it over." Now, I know 

 Mr. Ward. I know him to be too honest a man to have acted 

 such a lie ; and I at once said, " This cannot be true, for I 

 saw John Hopper before Charles Lefebvre had left Lacharme's 

 nursery, for I well recollect Mr. Ward sending it up to the 

 Floral Committee in 1860, and how disappointed he was at its 

 non-recognition by them. I then told him that I was con- 

 vinced it was a first-rate Rose, and to keep it and show it 

 again. This he did, and with what result the world of rosarians 

 knows full well." On my return to Eugkind, finding that the 

 statement was being disseminated, I \STote to Mr. Ward, and 

 his answer, which I have now the pleasure of placing before 

 Kose-lovers, completely settles the matter. It will be seen 

 that I sought the fullest information on the subject. " I do 

 not wish to be robbed of the honour of raising John Hopper, 

 and I much feel the position such a statement would place me 

 in with the public if not contradicted. I shall be very glad to 

 show any one the original seedling plant and parent of every 

 John Hopper in existence, and my own production. I will 

 now answer aU the questions you have kindly put, and shall 

 be glad to answer or prove any other any one may feel respect- 

 ing the original of the plant. 



" 1. I raised the plant from seed in 1859. 



"2. You saw the first blooms in September, 18C0. 



" 3. I sent it out in the autumn of 18(12. 



" 4. At the time I let it out my stock consisted of six thou- 

 sand saleable plants and several thousands in a dormant state. 



" 5. I never in my life received a plant of any description 

 from Lachai-me or any other raiser or individual in France. 



" Charles Lefebvre came out in 1862, at which time I had 

 six thousand plants blooming of my John Hopper. I should 

 have shown my Rose again in 1861, most likely liave sent it 

 out in the autumn of 1861 or spring of 1862 ; but I had a long 

 illness — for four months in bed, which prevented it." 



I think that this is quite overwhelming evidence, and I have 

 every reason to think that when Lacharme knows it he will be 

 quite ready to say he is wrong. I felt that our poor fame is 

 injured by such misrepresentations, and hence my desire to 

 sift it to the bottom. I have no doubt that, to my mind, the 

 tmwise custom of buying the stock of a Rose in France, and 

 then sending it out here with an English raiser's name attached 

 to it, leads the French Rose-growers to believe all our new 

 Boses are of the same character : it is a very misleading prac- 

 tioe.,5-D., Deal. 



EARLY PEAS. 



Some of your readers have, I see, favoui-ed you with the results 

 of their experience concerning different sorts of early Peas, and 

 therefore it may not be out of place to give you mine also. 



I sowed early in Mai'ch last, within the same half hour and 

 on the same ground, six rows of early Peas, each row 9 yards 

 long, three rows of Carter's First Crop, two of Sangster's No. 1, 

 and one of Dillistone's Early Prolific. 



The Early Prolific seemed to be more affected than the 

 others by the cold winds of our late and lingering spring, and 

 did not thrive nor do well. I do not think we gathered from 

 it a quart of pods, and I shall not grow it again. It was per- 

 haps a couple of days earUer than Carter's First Crop. Carter's 

 .Kjst Crop yielded also very badly, scarcely more than the 



Prolific. These also I shall grow no more. They were ready, 

 I think, two or three days before Sangster's No. 1. A curious 

 circumstance attending their culture was that after a time 

 their first growth made no further progress, but a fresh growth 

 took place from the roots, reaching to be a foot high, but result- 

 ing in small blossoms and insignificant pods. The two rows 

 of Sangster's No. 1 yielded five or six times more than all the 

 other four, and were very little behind them iu time. 



Mine is a garden of good soil, entirely unshaded by trees or 

 buildings, wholly open to the south, east, and west, but shel- 

 tered by a high bank of fully 20 feet high from the north. 

 Last year I grew for the early crop only Sangster's No. 1. 

 Half of the seed I steeped as recommended by one of your 

 correspondents, the other half I did not. The steeped Peas 

 were ready for gathering fully a week before the others. I 

 may add that with this year's crop no sticks were used. — 

 Theta. 



PROPAGATING STAUNTONLV LATIFOLL^. 



We have a beautiful evergreen creeper, the Stauntonia lati- 

 foUa, which seems to be little known, at least neither we nor 

 our friends can procure any plants. Our plant nearly covers 

 the front of our house, has had blossoms during the last three 

 springs smelling deliciously like Orange flowers. In vain we 

 have tried to give our friends cuttings. We have pegged down 

 suckers near the root which we are told may in two or three 

 years produce plants ! We are trying also to bend some of the 

 shoots into pots on a balcony, but these all wither away, so 

 do the wooden branches which we try to bend down into the 

 earth in the pots ; yet every gardener who hears of this 

 creeper and wishes to have some of it, says nothing is easier 

 than to propagate it in this way. Can j'ou give us anj- more 

 instructions ? This season for the first time, some little green 

 pods like short caterpillars have appeared, but they seem to 

 fall off without ripening. — A. A. Y. 



[Select some of the finest flowers and disperse the pollen 

 about the pistil. This is best done with a small eamel's-hair 

 brush. If the blooms are carefully fertilised they will readily 

 produce seed, which is the surest way of propagating it, and 

 the way is to select half-ripened shoots, cut a small nick 

 just where the shoot is bent, then peg it firmly into the ground 

 using plenty of sand about it. This will cause the roots to 

 work freely. In fertilising the blooms select a day when there 

 is plenty of electricity in the air. ] 



MY PLANTS, 



AND HOW AND WHERE I FOUND THEM.— No. 6. 

 I HAVE always combined a slight accoimt of natiu'al history 

 with my botanical rambles, and the description of the knight 

 in the " lugoldsby Legends " would equally apply to myself. 

 My delight as a girl was to pore over some unknown chrysalis, 

 with two or three works upon butterflies and moths by my 

 side ; to bind up the broken limb of some unfortunate fowl ; 

 to refresh the leeches, newts, and beetles in a large wooden 

 tub (in which I had made an imaginary island), with a shower 

 of water from a large garden pot ; or to watch the change of 

 the tadpole into a frog, the same tadpole being kept for closer 

 inspection in a water-bottle upon my dressing-table. I was up 

 at six o'clock in the morning after the various kinds of cabbage 

 butterfly, through the woods in the heat of the day for the 

 highflyers, and out after dusk in the evenings with a lantern 

 in search of moths. Cats, dogs, dormice, and hawks completed 

 my small menagerie. These latter were the aversion of a 

 favoxu-ite sister, and often would she laughingly prognosticate 

 for me the ignoble fate of " Sir Thomas the good," who, 



" Be it -wfll uiidorstood. 

 Was a man of a very conteiiipltitivr mood. 



He would pore Iiy the hour 



O'er a weed or a flower, 

 Or the kIues that came crawling out after a shower. 

 Black beetles and humble bees, bluebottle flies, 

 .\nd moths, were of no small account in his eyes; 

 An 'industrious flea' he'd by no means despise, 

 While an old ' daddy longlegs ' whose long legs and thighs 

 Pass'd the common in shape, or in colour, or size. 

 He was wont to consider an absolute prize. 

 Nay, a hornet or wasp he could scarce 'keep his paws 



Oef.' He 



Gave up, in short. 



Both business and sport. 

 And abandon'd himself, tout enticTy to philosophy."' 



Now having introduced you to the daily life of the " good 



