502 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 19, 1865. 



ever knew. It was also the most productive Vine I had ever 

 seen." In No. 477, Mr. Beaton thanks me for sending him 

 some cuttings and specimens of the Esperione Grape, and pro- 

 nounces that they " might pass anywhere as hothouse Grapes." 

 In the article, in No. 481, there is a veiy interesting corre- 

 spondence from Mr. Rivers, where the colour of the leaves is 

 treated as a distinguishing mark, and both Mr. Rivers and Mr. 

 Beaton seem wavering as to there being two kinds of Espe- 

 rione, one with a leaf dying off yellow, and another with leaves 

 dying off a variegated purple. The latter concludes with the 

 inquiry, '-Is there no old garden about Windsor where a plant 

 exists, from the royal garden, which was, probably, levelled 

 down when the present garden was made ? Mr. Ingram must 

 recollect the Windsor Esperioues, and what came of them at 

 last." Now, the leaves are a most important point. I can 

 show that against the unprotected waUs of this house the 

 Esperione foliage is dying off yellow, whilst in the case of the 

 very Vines propagated from the out-door Esperione, and planted^ 

 in a vinery without artificial heat, the foliage is for the most' 

 part djing off of a beautiful variegated purple. A Black Ham- 

 burgh under the same circumstances, and in the very same 

 house, has its entire foUage fading yellow. I have observed 

 the same feature ever siuce I have had the Vines under glass. 

 I never could feel decided till I found that out. 



It is now some thirty-three years ago, when I was not far 

 advanced in my teens, that on making my way towards the 

 kitchen garden at Downton Castle, I stopped upon a raised 

 embankment, intently viewing some fish in an artificial pond, 

 when the late T. A. Knight, Esq., President of the Horticul- 

 tural Society, came upon me almost before I was aware of his 

 presence, so absorbed was my attention in the fish. He held 

 two fine Potatoes in his hands, and he described them to me — 

 he would converse with anybody — and from that very day I 

 date my peculiar interest in the Potato. I told him that I 

 wished to see the garden, and he said, " Go and see all that 

 you wish to see." Perhaps I was too young for the gardener 

 to notice ; but I fancy I can yet see the experiments and pro- 

 ductions in the garden as I saw them then. \\'hat more espe- 

 cially struck me, was a Vine with a beautiful bloom upon its 

 fruit, and having pretty foliage. It was in a structure, which, 

 if I remember aright, was neither a pit nor a house, and I 

 thought if ever I came to grow Grapes I should like that variety. 

 Years passed en, and I never saw that garden again, but when- 

 ever I came to where Grapes were growing, I searched for the 

 wished-for kind 



It was either in the first or second 3'ear, I think, of .the Vine 

 disease (OVdium Tuckeri), that I was .it the gardens at Stoke 

 Farm, near Windsor, the late Dowager Lady Sefton's, and Mr. 

 Oldaker's houses were poisoned with it. I was accompanying 

 him in the garden, and we came to a sort of lean-to house in 

 the framing gi-ound, used for forcing flowers to cut, and lo 1 there 

 was my Img-sought Vine, gi-owing against the back wall, in 

 perfect health, and loaded with ripe Grapes, covered with the 

 well-remembered and immistakeable bloom. I explained to 

 Mr. Oldaker how I first became acquainted with it, and re- I 

 quested the name. " Esperionce," that is how I entered it in 

 my pocket-book, was the answer. The stem of the Vine was 

 large, old, and gnarled. Oldaker said it was a very old sort in 

 the neighbourhood, and not usually met with, but he was very 

 glad he had it, for otherwise he would not then have been able 

 to have cut a bunch of Grapes fit to be presented at table. He ' 

 sent me some Russi.'in Violets and Vine cuttings in the 

 autumn, and I never saw him alive again. I visited Stoke 

 Farm again last autumn, and the first thing I did was to make 

 a pilgrimage to the Esperione-house. I leamt that the Vine had 

 been destroyed soon after Mr. Oldaker's death. Mr. Simpson 

 has now turned the house into a peacheiy. The hole in the wall 

 where the stem entered only remained to remind me of the ex- 

 istence of the A'ine. The oldest workman, still in the garden, 

 and who was there before Oldaker's time, could fui-nish me 

 with no history beyond what I have written, except that the 

 Vine was there long before his coming to work on the pre- 

 mises. 



The last time I was at the Royal Horticultural Society's 

 garden at Chiswick, the Vines in the conservatory were young. 

 I hope to see them next year when the Grapes are ripening. 

 They had the Esperione there in 18C'2, and 1 saw an un- 

 mistakeable bunch of it exhibited in their collection at the 

 first International Fruit Show, at South Kensington. It 

 maintained the best bloom before the world, and it was a very 

 nice bunch of Grapes. It is a wonderful and certain bearer ; 

 it 39ts its berries well, is as often shouldered as not, fi-equently 



singly so, and the shoulders are longer and looser than those 

 of the Hamburghs. The mere protection of glass adds to its 

 quaUty greatly, by producing a sweet aromatic piquancy of 

 flavour. Invalids have told me that they found it grateful 

 when the best Black Hamburghs would cloy. Cultivated on 

 the open walls, in nine years out of ten, I can prove that it 

 makes good claret, and something better. It is altogether a 

 better Grape for making red, or any other wiue, than the Ham- 

 burghs, and I have bunches now in the vinery that would hang 

 till the new year. It is my favourite Grape, and "I care" 

 very much for the Esperione. — Upwards and Onwards. 



GRAFTING GERANIUMS. 



It is not customary to graft or bud Geraniums, nor, indeed, 

 any softwooded plants ; not that it is a difficult operation, but 

 from the ease with which the most of them are propagated by 

 cuttings. It has been considered by some that if certain kinds 

 of Geraniums which do not do well as bedding plants were 

 grafted upon kinds of hardier constitution they would do much 

 better. I have no doubt that some kinds might be increased 

 iu vigour by being grafted upon a hardier stock, where the soil 

 is unfavourable to their growth upon their own roots. On the 

 other hand, grafting would avail Uttle where the climate is un- 

 suitable, for no stock whatever can impart any portion of its 

 own nature to resist cold, rain, or sim to the kind grafted upon 

 it. There are some Geraniums that do not root well when 

 planted in the open ground, scarcely gi-owing, except duiing 

 cloudy weather and when the air is moist. Such are all the 

 golden-leaved and golden-edged Geraniums, as Gold-leaf, Cloth 

 of Gold, and Golden Fleece of the golden-leaved kinds, and 

 Golden Chain and Golden Harkaway of the golden-margined 

 kinds. All these have very long roots, running very little below 

 the surface, as do those of most of the white and yellow-edged 

 and golden-leaved Geraniums, and on this account they are diffi- 

 cult to take up with balls in autumn ; notwithstanding which 

 they grow more freely after taking up than during the sum- 

 mer, excepting Golden Chain and Golden Harkaway, which 

 are the very best of all the gold-margined kinds, and these do 

 not gi'ow much during the winter months. 



Now, if there be any kinds of Geraniums that could be altered 

 and have vigour imparted to them through the agency of a more 

 vigorous stock, these are the kinds to operate upon. For my 

 part I should not care to have Golden Chain any stronger than 

 it grows with me at present ; but I have a notion of gi'afting it 

 on stems 1 foot and IS inches in height, which I think would 

 look extremely well at the angles of white lines in panel work, 

 and be effective and novel judiciously placed where the sur- 

 face is flat. What I particularly want is a good white, pink, 

 and scarlet Geranium that will bloom continuously, and yet 

 have the dwarf, compact habit of Golden Chain. At the same 

 time I do not like to see Cloth of Gold go back instead of grow 

 when planted, neither is it desirable to have all Geraniums of 

 one uniform height, nor aU of free vigorous habit. Cloth of 

 Gold and Gold-leaf would be all the better if they would grow 

 a little more, and there may be some who would like many of 

 the others to grow more, though, for my part, I should be glad 

 to learn a process to dwarf three-fourths of all bedding Gerani- 

 ums, for notwithstanding the unprecedented drought and heat 

 of the past summer, they grew by far too much. I want them 

 to bloom like fancy Pelargonirmis, to glow slowly, to be very 

 compact, and to produce a bloom or truss from every joint. 



In addition to the gold-leaved kinds, some of the tricolor- 

 leaved sorts would probably be improved by grafting on a hardier 

 kind of stock, which is desirable, as in their present state they 

 are of little value for bedding-purposes, except Eastern Beauty, 

 Topsy, and Mrs. Pollock, and even these woidd be none the 

 worse of a stock that would grow in almost any description of 

 soU. 



Inasmuch as the kinds of Geraniums proposed to he grafted 

 or budded are not in themselves amongst the very vigorous, it 

 would be contraiy to sound principles to graft them on very 

 robust-gi-owing stocks, for assuredly the best results will accrue 

 from grafting on stocks whose growth corresponds most closely 

 to that of the kind to be grafted. Golden Fleece, for instance, 

 should not be grafted on an erect-growing kind, as Lucien 

 Tisserand, but on one of a corresponding habit, as Tom Thumb, 

 which is the stock I would choose for it, Gold-leaf, and Cloth 

 of Gold ; and I would choose Little David for Golden Chain 

 and Golden Harkaway ; and Royal Dwarf as a stock of upright 

 growth, free, and hardy constitution, suitable for varieties of 



