8ft 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 81, 1866. 



wowing season, a heavier crop may be obtained from them 

 than from any other Onion which I have tried* We always 

 selected our Onions for showing from them, and were generally 

 successful. Their only fault is their not keeping late in the 

 spring. We always grow James's Longkeeping, ox some similar 

 kind, for late use. — W. C. 



HINTS ON HYBRIDISING FRUITS. 

 Having been occupied for many years in hybridising plants, 

 and being very fond of it, I at length turned my attention to 

 fruits : I commenced with Grapes. 



My object was to make the Muscat easier to cultivate, and 

 increase the size of the Frontignan ; also to make the large 

 Coarse kinds of a better flavour, and to improve the early ones. 

 I began, in the first instance, with the Muscat of Alexandria, 

 one of the most difficult Grapes to cultivate', and the Tro- 

 ?Gren Muscat, a remarkably free grower, but a long time in 

 coming to maturity. It is a most delicious Grape, though not 

 so highly musked as the former. I expected to obtain Grapes 

 less difficult to cultivate, and was partly right; but I was 

 rather astonished at the final results. It should be premised 

 that the Troveren is a round Grape ; the Muscat of Alexan- 

 dria an oval one. The latter I made the female parent ; and 

 out of thirty seedlings no two were alike. The first three that 

 fruited were black, one being a large early Grape, in shape an 

 oval, with a fruitstalk like a piece of wire ; it was of a very 

 fine flavour, with the slightest possible taste of Muscat, and 

 hung well. This was a great success and well worth all my 

 trouble. The other two were late ones, with large round 

 berries, but nothing else remarkable about them. In the fol- 

 lowing year I fruited ten or twelve more from the same lot. 

 One of these was of a beautiful white or golden colour, and 

 ripened quite as soon as the Hamburgh ; its fine vinous 

 flavour was exquisite, mingled as it was with a Muscat taste 

 about half as strong as that of its parents. This also had very 

 Stiff fruitstalks, and kept a very long time. Another, and this 

 astonished me more than anything else, was a perfect minia- 

 ture of the Muscat of Alexandria, perfectly oval, and with the 

 strongest Muscat flavour that I ever tasted, but it was no 

 larger than a Red Currant ! I have not as yet discovered any- 

 thing very remarkable among the others. The next experi- 

 ment I tried was with General Marmora (no doubt a white 

 seedling variety of the Hamburgh) orossed by Burchardt's 

 Amber Cluster [Early 'White Malvasia]. My object was to ob- 

 tain a very early Grape ; and in this I succeeded beyond my 

 expectations, as I got a very fine white transparent Grape 

 like the Amber Cluster, but as large as the Hamburgh, and 

 fully five weeks earlier than that kind. This of course is a 

 great gain, and what has been much wanted, as the Sweet- 

 water Grapes are very bad setters, and the Muscadine is too 

 small for table use. The next crosses were between Blano de 

 Saumur and Chasselas Musque, and Chasselas MusquG and the 

 Citronelle. From these two crosses I have obtained the most 

 delicious kinds that ever came under my notice, more so even 

 than the old Frontignan and Chasselas Mueque. Two of them 

 are sweet-scented, smelling, when the sun shines on them, 

 like Orange-blossom. Nothing I have ever seen can compare 

 with them in flavour and productiveness ; their size, too, is 

 very large, some of them being as large again as the Fron- 

 tignan. 



Two other most remarkable crosses are Chasselas Musquo 

 fertilised by the Long Noir Durant, a large oval black Grape, 

 on a very large bunch, but of an inferior flavour. This cross 

 produced Grapes of various colours, black, pink, and grizzly, 

 but all quite round. The next time I made Long Noir Durant 

 the female parent ; and, curiously enough, the result was al- 

 most identical with the former, there not being an oval berry 

 obtained. A very slight Muscat taste is observablo in a few ; 

 but m the greater number it is not observable at all. 



These are the results from about 500 seedlings that I have 

 raised and 400 sorts that I have fruited ; I have some more yet 

 to fruit, such as the Canon Hall crossed by the Japanese one. 



As the result of my experience, I am convinced that no one 

 can tell, m raising a lot of seedling Grapes, what they will be 

 likely to gei, they vary so much. 



I next directed my attention to Peaches. 



My object was to obtain Reaches with Nectarine flavour, and 

 I am glad to say I have succeeded. The Nectarines I made 

 the female plants were the Violette Hative, I'itmaston Orange, 

 audthe Stanwwk, crossed with the Noblesse and Barringtan 



Peaches. Although the Violette Hative Nectarine had a gmall 

 flower, still, when crossed with the large-flowering Peaches, 

 eight out of twelve were large-flowered ; and out of fifteen kinds 

 fruited this summer only one was a Nectarine, the others 

 were all Peaches, most of them with the Nectarine flavour. 

 Two of them were especially delicious, having a beautiful Nec- 

 tarine flavour, melting like a Peach, but full-coloured like the 

 former fruit. The stones that produced the seedlings were 

 sown in the beginning of February 186:-! ; the greater part of 

 them flowered in February 1864 ; but the fruit fell off. I now 

 have one planted out in my Peach-house that will have next 

 June ten or twelve dozen Peaches on it. It is 10 feet high, 

 about the same width, and covered with fine-blooming wood. — 

 John Standish, Royal Nursery, Ascot, Berks (in Journal of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society). 



THE ROSE GARDENS OF LYONS. 



Under the guidance of Mademoiselle Josephine Lacharme — ■ 

 not exactly the fair nymph whom one would imagine ought to 

 wait upon the queen of flowers, but a jolly good- tempered and 

 communicative maiden, who gave me on our way the history of 

 her brothers and sisters, who all seemed well to do — I found 

 my way to Damaizin's, through fortifications and past fosses 

 and glacis, which give one the idea in France that either her 

 children are very rebellious and want very much keeping 

 down, or else that she has very naughty neighbours who are 

 continually on the watch to plunder her ; and then into dusty 

 roads ankle deep in white dust, which after a good storm will 

 be converted into deliciously tenacious mud, to find, alas ! 

 that Damaizin was not at home, and that Madame Damaizin. 

 could not give me any information on the subject of the new 

 Roses. I saw enough, however, to enable me to say that big 

 garden is very neatly kept, and in this respect very different 

 from Lacharme's. 



On again through the dust and heat of a broiling day I toiled 

 to Ducher's, for there were no Jiaares to be had here, and I 

 had sent home mine. Here, however, I was more fortunate ; 

 Ducher was at home, and on my mentioning my name I was 

 cheerfully recognised, and shown over his grounds. These 

 are not large, and I forgot to ask him whether he had grounds 

 elsewhere, but there were some good Roses to be seen. 

 He at once said, " Ah ! I will show you a beautiful Rose, I 

 suppose called after your daughter;" and there truly was a 

 grand bloom of Mademoiselle Marguerite, which he pronounced! 

 to be one of the very best Roses of this year. He has several 

 seedlings to be let out this year, and one of them, of which X 

 shall have the name (having only the number now) , I consider to- 

 be the be6t Rose I saw abroad. He has striven to avoid the blood 

 of General Jacqueminot, and has succeeded in obtaining some 

 good Roses. One is a seedling of La Reine, another a seedling 

 from William Jesse like Baronne Provost in shape, and the 

 one already alluded to a seedling of William Jesse and Madame 

 Domage, very good shape, free-flowering, aad bright in colour, 

 a distinct and good Rose. He showed me a plant with the very 

 darkest foliage I ever saw, I think, in a Hybrid Perpetual, but 

 the flower was white ! and opened but indifferently. 



I had yet another journey to make to Guillot fils, so weU 

 known to all Rose-growers by name, and Ducher accorapanied 

 me there. Generally speaking this is not a good plan tc- adopt, 

 for there is a reluctance in a French Rose-grower to shew you 

 his novelties before another ; but as M. Guillot had been pre- 

 pared for my visit, I did not mind this, and I found that when 

 we arrived there Ducher left me to go round the garden alone 

 with the proprietor. M. Guillot has given us many good 

 Roses, and as he bad written to me strongly in favour of a new 

 Tea Rose of his, I was anxious to see it. It wiR be, I believe, 

 a valuable acquisition. It is a very beautiful flower, of a bright 

 yellow colour, the eentre sometimes peach, tho habit of tJ«s 

 plant vigorous, and the flowers freely produced. It is *J be 

 called, I believe, Boutou d'Or. He has another yel^w not so 

 good, and a fine-looking seedling of Gineral Jaoqueminot of 

 imbricated form ; this mav psove to bo » b'°°<l Rose. There 

 was also a Rose of which f hooe great things, but it is not to 

 be let out till 1867, a Hybrid" Tea— Tea and Hybrid China I 

 believe, or Perpetual— the colour a bright rose, and the flowers 

 large. I hope to make a farther acquaintance with this 

 flower. .ToRnphins Beanharnai3-, one of Guillot's flowers of this, 

 year, is beautiful. President Mas I do not consider much; 

 arid Pline is quits a second-rate floweu, and coar.se. While 

 waiting here, and refreshing mjB9lf.wifci,a glass, olt Bordeaux* 



