138 



JOUBNiL OP HOBTICULTUBB AUD COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Aognst 19, 1888. 



aa the cuts are locally Btyled, was ainggiah or stagnant, and 

 hero I (onnd a namber u( interesting plants, such as do not 

 occur except in similar localities. In the open out nearust to 

 the {arm the most conspicnoas featare vas an abundance of 

 Hipparis vulgaris, Jlaro'stail, the first I had ever met with in 

 the county, but which I knew from report was to be found there. 

 Stooping, or rather kneeling, down by the side of the cut to 

 secure a epfcimen or two for a neighbour's herbarium, I was 

 startled by flushing a young coot, which had sought refuge 

 under the bank, and now, in great alarm, half fluttering half 

 diving through the water, sought shelter under the roots of the 

 overhanRing Heath on the other side. On drawing a plant or 

 two of Hipparis from the water, I found long sprays of another 

 curious vegetable product adhering to them, which I had not 

 noticed, and which I might otherwise have overlooked. This 

 was the long trailing stem of Utricularia, or Uladder-wort, with 

 its finely-divided leaves and bright shining vesicles, from which 

 it derives its English name, and which serve a carious purpose 

 in the economy of the plant. In the same cut I noted a few 

 specimens of Nuphar Uitea, Yellow Water Lily, and the broad- 

 leaved Pondweed, Potamogeton natans. 



Diverging from the moor, I crossed the road on the south 

 aide, and entered the meadows through which the brook before 

 referred to pursues its devious course. Open cuts traverse 

 these meadows, all emptying into the brook. In some of these 

 vegetation is abundant. Several varieties of Equisetum are 

 found, the branching Bar Reed almost chokes the waterway, the 

 bright yellow flowers of Eanunculus lingua are here and there 

 very conspicuous, and the Water Speedwell, Veronica Anagallis, 

 grows to a large size. la the brook I found four sorts of pond- 

 weed, Myriopbyllum spicatum, in abundance. Water Lilies spot 

 the surface of the stream, and one, if not two, varieties of 

 t'hara may be seen submerged in the water. 



Having spent the couple of hours at my disposal in a most 

 pleasant fashion, I turned my face homewards, mentally re- 

 solving to make a more minute survey of this interesting 

 jocality at some future and not distant opportunity. — H. 



DOUBLE GRAFTING. 



Mil. Grieve (see page 120) will, I am sure, excuse me for 

 putting him right in one or two matteis ; I do it in a kindly 

 spirit. Mr. Grieve states that " the system has been recom- 

 mended by a French pomological writer as early as the year 

 1700." He has taken this idea from some inexperienced 

 author, who should have known that it was practised in Eng- 

 land from 1630 by Evelyn and by Eea, and that it was known 

 by the Romans some 2000, and by the Chinese perhaps 10,000, 

 years ago ; it is also very probable that the race now buried 

 under those tumuli which spread over such au enormous space 

 in Eastern Tartary practised double grafting; so that it has 

 probably been known from " a very remote period." It is, in- 

 deed, a sort of instinct in those who love gardening, to regraft 

 fl graflsd tree which does not suit its place, for I recollect that 

 when 1 was quite a lad I transformed a grafted Pear tree, which 

 horo only a few sour Pears, into a fruitful tree, by regrafting it 

 with Williams's Bon Chictien. 



The invention of systematic double grafting is ot compara- 

 tively recent date, and originated in England some twenty 

 years s ioce by Mr. Rivers doub!e grafting that grand but shy- 

 beaiing Pear, Gansel's Bergamot, on trees of Beurrc'd'Amanlis. 

 As many of your readers may still be ignorant of this simple 

 way of ameliorating fruit, I will try and make it plain. First 

 take your Quince stock (it should be the Angers Quince, and 

 not the Paris (Quince), and plant it in your garden. Allow it to 

 grow two years, and then in August of the second year bud it 

 with the Beurro d'Amaclis Pear. The bud will the fuUowiug 

 summer make a healthy shoot, which may be budded the first 

 year if it? growth is vigorous, or allowed to grow two yeirs, and 

 then be grafted in spring. The latter is, perhaps, the better 

 mode it ^igol■o^3 trees are wished fvr. It will thus be appa- 

 )ent that from four to five years are required to form a good 

 double-grafted Prar tree. 



Mr. Rivers, in his " Miniature Fruit Garden," was the first 

 (0 systematise double grafting c£ Pears — ;' c, to double graft 

 Tliem with an end. For tl.is reason he selected the BeuriC 

 <i*Amaalis for the intermediate stock, and knowing well that 

 the Jirgonelle Pfar on the Pear stock made long vigorous 

 Rbootp. which ifter a year cr two cankered and bore but little 

 fciiit, he double grafted it ou the Beany d'Amanlis Pear to 

 mijke it more dwaif and ftrliie. I', has answered admirablv. 



and many thousands are now manufactured annually. His 

 next successful essays were to double graft Gansel's Bergamot, 

 to make it prolific, and take oS the grittiness peculiar to that, 

 in flavour, the finest of all Pears, and the Beurr<; Bance to 

 increase its size and soften its astringent flavour. Both these 

 objects have been attained without any great flourish of trum- 

 pets, which would have been the case had the method been 

 gleaned from French gardens. 



Mr. Rivers has also discovered a most valuable intermediate 

 stock for doable grafting on the Quince. This Pear bears a 

 melting fruit, quite late in ripening, and remarkable for its 

 abundant juice and acidity, so as to be scarcely eatable. This 

 is employed as an intermediate stock for such Pears as Ham- 

 mer Doyenne, Citron des Carmes, Williams's Boo Chretien, 

 and some other kinds of Pears that require their luscious fla- 

 vour corrected. As the knowledge of the peculiarities of this 

 intermediate stock (a new variety) has been the result of some 

 close observation, I was not surprised to find its name with- 

 held. For, as Mr. Rivers observes, the appropriation of a new 

 idea without acknowledgement or gratitude is too common at 

 the present day with horticulturists of a certain class ; but this 

 feeling or failing is very common among all manufacturers. 



Mr. Griave is " enable to say whether or not doable grafting 

 of Cherries and Apples has been practised." Mr. Grieve might 

 have spoken more decisively as to Cherries, for they have long 

 been operated npon in England, and are mentioned by Mr. 

 Rivers in his book. The stock employed is the Cerasus Mahaleb, 

 on which the old Morello, or a variety of it, is budded. The 

 latter is a sort that was raised at Frogmore, remarkable for 

 its vigorous growth, its habit of blossoming abundantly and 

 never bearing any fruit, or, at least, very few. On the young 

 shoots of this kind varieties of the Bigarreau and Guigne 

 Cherries are budded or grafted. This mode of cultivation gives 

 a comparatively dwarf habit to those vigorous-growing sorts, 

 and makes them better adapted for garden trees as pyramids 

 and trained trees, than when grafted on the common black 

 Cherry (Cerasus sylvestris). 



With respect to double grafting the Apple, there does not as 

 yet seem any advantage to be derived from it, as the English 

 Paradise stock produces in all our soils and climates such 

 healthy garden trees. I have, however, tried the experiment of 

 grafting that well-known dwarf and prolific sort, the Hawthom- 

 den on the Crab, and then double grafting the young shoots with 

 the Blenheim Pippin, and one or two other vigorous-growing 

 sorts. The experiment has been in progress two or three years, 

 and it seems as if the intermediate Hawthornden stock had 

 imparted to a certain extent its dwarf productive habit ; but it 

 is yet too early to judge of the effect of this mode of culture. 



Referring again to Pears, there is not the least doubt but 

 that many sorts may be improved by doable grafting ; time 

 and close observation are both necessary to select the sorts 

 and the stocks, so as to regulate the flavour of the fruit. This 

 may seem chimerical, but it may prove very much the con- 

 trary. — Obseever. 



EAST LOTHIAN STOCKS. 



I CAN strongly endorse all that Mr. Thomson has said in 

 favour of these splendid acquisitions to the garden, either for 

 bedding, pot plants, or cut flowers. When I visited Archerfield 

 last autumn, and saw the long lines of them standing up 

 boldly like gigantic Hyacinths, I felt that my journey was 

 more than repaid by seeing them alone. 



However, I was sceptical of being successful with their cul- 

 ture, knowing that so many had failed in other localities. I 

 am a believer that soil and locality affect many kinds of plants. 



Mr. Melhven, of Ejioburgh, sent me packets of the various 

 kinds for trial — viz., purple, scarlet, and white. I sowed the 

 seed in gentle heat about the end of March, and gradually 

 hardened the seedlings off, and some time in April they weio 

 pricked out into light soil placed over a layer of rotten manure, 

 somewhat in the way we are accustomed to treat Celery. The 

 protection afforded was a sunk pit with boarded covers, which 

 were used against frost and heavy rains. About the end of 

 May llie jilunts were lifted carefully with good balls and planted 

 ia well-manured ground ; a thorough soaking of water was given 

 to the ground botii btf jro onJ after planting, and the result is, 

 out of a hundred of each kind planted in long bands, each colour 

 separately, there has only one single flower appeared. They are 

 branching and flowering very freely, aid the effect is beyond 

 anything I ever anticipated. The posiijon is an exposed one, 



