December 19, ISCt. 1 



JOUKNAIi OF HOETICULTCBE A^D COTTAGE GABDENER. 



501 



soil ontBide. They are dwarf bushes, aacually cat in closely 

 to produce shoots for bnddint;, so that the fnut they produce i» 

 ulose to their stems, and barely a foot from the surface of the 

 border they are planted in. 



I confess I was at first at a loss to account for their being so 

 tardy in ripening, but I believe I have hit upon the cause. 

 When the sun shines upon the glass the upper stratum of air 

 becomes intensely rariiied, and cool air with lead-like gravity 

 rushes in at the lower part of the house, so that the rapid in- 

 draught neutralises to a great extent the effect of the glass roof, 

 the fruit being in a constant draught. This must be the case, 

 for when waliing in these houses, my head being near their 

 roofs, I have always found them very warm, and as I have 

 thought, of a ripening temperatiue, but I never remember 

 having ascertained their temperattne on the ground to contrast 

 it with that near the roof. In quoting the extreme temperature 

 of my large orchard-house at " OC"," " G. H." should have in 

 fairness given the context. This heat was at the top of the 

 house under the apex of the roof. It vras 88° at 5 feet from 

 the ground among the trees. 



The accurate registering the temperature of houses is yery 

 amusing, and on paper seems of importance ; to the experienced 

 cultivator it is really of little consequence, one seems in- 

 stinctively to know what is wanted, it is only as regards the 

 extreme of cold which may be fatal to the blossoms and young 

 fruit that it is of real importance. As to giving a close calcu- 

 lation of what the day temperature of a house should be, the 

 weather is so fitful in our spring and early summer time, that 

 five times a-day the thermometer rises and falls to a great 

 extent, yet not enough to give rules about. 



I cannot help thinking that " G. H." must have been very 

 unobservant of tlie night temperature of brick w.ills,* their' 

 " tender mercies," are the extremes of heat aud cold. In May, 

 a thermometer exposed to the full sun will often moimt to 

 100° and 120'. A " May frost " wiU supervene freezing the 

 young fruit and sending the register down to 20°. From the 

 middle of August to the middle of September a thermometer 

 in the sun on a south wall will show a temperature of the 

 same height, but radiation during the long nights tells forcibly, 

 so that in the morning the •' tender mercies " of the wall have 

 not prevented the thermometer going down to 45° or 40°, and 

 this fully agrees with the experience I have gained in orchard- 

 house culture, and which I gave in my last, not one vrord of 

 which I can retract, because it is gained fi'om my long practice. 

 I repeat, that extremes of temperature are favourable to the 

 well-ripening of fruit, \vithout them we should have our Green 

 Gages mawkish, and our Peaches insipid. 



Nature is very kind in giving Jlentone an even temperature 

 in which poor invalids may exist, and Jlentone may produce 

 fruit of decent Savour; I hope •' G. H." vrill give us full par- 

 ticulars ; but depend upon it these soft, mild, sea-side places 

 are not the places to give us very full-flavoured fruit. To find 

 a favoured spot for Peaches and Apricots, we must go to some 

 hill in the far east, where the air is cold and dry, and the sxm 

 hot beyond our comprehension. It would be highly interest- 

 ing to learn from the United States, taldng New Jersey for 

 instance, where Peaches are grown so largely, how the day and 

 night temperature varies in the ripening season, and whether 

 it is ever as low as our brick walls and orchard-houses. Nature 

 as she shows herself at Jlentone is not, I think, an instructor 

 of much account, as far as regards fruit cultivation here. 



The exigencies of otir climate seem to me to open a wide 

 field of experimental fruit culture, into which we have barely 

 entered. I may, for instance, mention, that a lean-to bouse 

 14 feet wide is being built here of the lightest, cheapest, yet 

 most durable nature. It is self-ventilating, is about 10 feet 

 high at back, and 5 feet in frcnt. Its rafters are 4i by li inch, 

 bevelled. They are placed 24 inches apart, and kept in their 

 places by a bar of T iron, screwed to each rafter by their 

 under surfaces. The back wall is of deal boards painted white, 

 to a portion of which diagonal cordon Peach, Nectarine, and 

 Apricot trees are trained so as to occupy the lower part, while 

 standard-trained trees will occupy the upper part temporarily. 

 Nothing in fruit-tree culture can be prettier or more pro- 

 ductive than diagonal single cordon trees under glass, which, 

 owing to their being under continuous summer-pinching, they 

 require. They are planted about 14 inches apart, and very 

 rapidly make a wall or fence under glass very profitable. The 

 portion of this house finished is 200 feet in length. It is in- 



■ " G. H."' seems to ignore the effect o! radiation from the heated Bar- 

 face coil of an orchard-bjooBe. Tliis is verr great, and, moreover, it is 

 arree-ted by the roof. 



tended to carry it along in a straight line to 2000 feet, or, 

 perhaps, bOOO feet in length, as the Biirfacc of the noil is level 

 and adapted to the p;irpose. The area of the house will be 

 devoted to the culture of trees planted in the borders, as 

 espaliers or otherwise. Its cost is about three-fourths that of 

 a brick wall, but I have not yet exactly estimated it. Not 

 a brick is employed in its construction, yet it is as durable as a 

 house built to a heavy brick wall, and so light and warm as to 

 bo a most agreeable as well as a profitable venture. 



I must conclude by thanking •' G. H." for his articles, they 

 make one think and observe. — T. E. 



CYCLAMENS.' 



A. I take a great interest in Cyclamens, and grow them 

 lai-gely, I have been much gratified with Mr. Atkins's pro- 

 mise of a paper, by a first-rate hand, more exact than Mr. 

 Abbey's. My present communication is not, however, to 

 criticise, but to ask those learned in Cyclamens, if the Cycla- 

 men Peakeannm, Sgiu'ed in the work edited by "D.," of Deal, 

 be anything else than the Cyclamen europrcum, found on; 

 the Italian slopes of the Alps, a httle spoiled by being kept ia 

 a warm greenhouse ? I and a friend have what seems to be 

 the sa.me thing, but imder very different treatment. In my 

 friend's warm greenhouse the bulbs are evergreen, and some 

 are al-rrays in flower, or nearly so ; in my own cold green- 

 house they are just now about to go to rest. I gathered yester- 

 day what seem to be the last blooms. Out of doors they have 

 ceased to bloom for some weeks. The out-of-door plants are 

 finer in colour, more robust, but the petals are shorter, and 

 less divided. In-doors, according to the temperature, they 

 become more and more like some varieties of Cyclamen per- 

 SScum, but the petals are more divided, and less regular than 

 the better varieties of persicum. 



I find that p.il the Cyclamens will prow out of doors in the 

 midland counties if properly treated, even C. persicum if 

 covered with some leaves and branches in the winter ; bnt all 

 do better in a frame where they can be thoroughly drained, 

 and well ventilated, but kept from rough winds, and too much 

 sun. 



I have some of the finest bulbs that can be grown of most 

 sorts; but the gems, so far as the eye is concerned, ace the 

 Greek varieties ; the foliage and flower leave nothing but per- 

 fume to be desired. Cyclamens are so easily grown and pro- 

 pagated that I hope to see them as largely cultivated as they 

 deserve, and also improved, as every other flower has been, by 

 careful selection. — S, 



THE ESPERIONE GEAPE DEFENDED. 



I WISH to rise up in defence of my Grapes. I feel wounded 

 by " A Surgeon's Notes," at page 333. The wound is given 

 by a masterly hand ; still, can it be that three out of the four 

 Grapes which I cultivate should be laid so low ? " Not much 

 need be said of the Black Hamburgh.'' " The Muscat St. 

 Laurent is a watery Grape." " I cannot say I care for the Es- 

 perione." A depreciation of the first two I could have borne, 

 but of the Esperione never. Those which I submitted to the 

 Editors were pronounced " very good," and I wondered whether 

 '• J. H. H." had the true Esperione ? 



There is a great uncertainty about this Grape. I was partly 

 the cause of some articles in these pages, aud much inquiry 

 concerning it in 1S57, and the result left no doubt in my mind 

 that the Esperione is the Grape which was foi-merly cultivated 

 on the slopes of Windsor Castle. Om-Iate friend, Mr. Beaton, 

 as with everything else that he took in hand, has given us a 

 good insight into its_history, &c., while treating on Vine 

 pruning in Nos. 473, 4/7, and 481, and it was only the other 

 day that I was asked my reasons for thinking thati possessed 

 the identical sort. I do not intend to quote very extensively, 

 but I vrill bring to my aid a few extracts from the above 

 Numbers, and which seem to bear me out in my opinions ; 

 I will then trace my acquaintance with this Vine down to the 

 present season. 



In No. 473, Jlr. Beaton wrote, " Mr. Grierson, of Ledbmry. 

 who retired from gardening in 1830, was the planner and 

 planter of that new garden, and among other things he planted 

 an Esperione Grape Vine, which he received from the late Mr. 

 WOliams, of Pitmaston, near Worcester, the best authority at 

 that time for such things, after Mr. Knight of Downton Ca»tle. 

 This Vine v.-as the only authenticated one of that kind that I 



