September 9, 1869. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEE. 



199 



THE GLADIOLUS.— No. 1. 



_ -j^ FONTAINEBLEAU. 



C^ ft^^ ^. VER since my first acquaintance with the 



Gladiolus, an acquaintance now of many 

 years' staudinfr, it has been my desire to see 

 them in their fulness of beauty at the place 

 whence they had come forth year after year 

 to win their way to favour and acceptance. 

 Some years ago I was enabled to make the 

 acquaintance of Monsieur Souchet, the raiser 

 of these flowers, known not only as an en- 

 thusiastic and persevering florist, hut as one 

 of the most genial and hospitable men that France (or 

 England, indeed), contains. No one has ever been to 

 Fontainebleau to %'isit the Gladiolus, who has not felt that 

 in M. Souchet and his admirable wife he has met kind and 

 attentive friends, and have, like myself, regretted that the 

 state of M. Souchet's health prohibits our having the grati- 

 fication of i-etiu'ning the hospitality he so freely renders. 

 I had not, although seeing and knowing the raiser, ever 

 seen the flowers in bloom ; my visits to Paris depended not 

 on my own arrangements, but on the plans of others, and 

 it was generally either in May or June that they were 

 paid, and hence I never saw the Gladiolus in bloom. I had 

 seen them growing, had pictured to myself what a won- 

 drous sight it must be when these long beds were in their 

 full blaze of beauty ; when acre after acre was resplendent 

 in then- varied hues. Well, at last my wish has been 

 gratified. I had not the usual business to take me there 

 this year, and so determined to make a short visit. Men- 

 tioning my intention to the Editors of "our Journal," I 

 was commissioned by them to undertake another work, 

 about which I hope to have somewhat to say by-and-by, 

 and at last have had the pleasure I so long anticipated. 

 Like all our pleasures here, it has had somewhat of 

 alloy in it, and I sometimes, as I think over it, almost 

 wish I had not been there, not that I was disappointed, 

 far from that, but I saw too much. How, I will presently 

 explain. 



With that consideration which my good friend always 

 shows to everybody with whom he has to do, M. Souchet 

 fixed the day of my visit, for what he called his "jour dc 

 hcipteme" the christening and arranging in order of merit 

 the flowers which are to be sent out this autumn ; and he. 

 therefore, had about three hundred blooms out and arranged 

 in his house ready for inspection. These included the 

 seedlings for selection and some of the flowers of this 

 season for the sake of comparison, also some of those which 

 are coming on, but are not yet multiplied. And here it is 

 that I saw too much ; not only were there flowers which 

 are about to be sent out, but others in advance even of 

 these. Now, when I look on my own flowers, beautiful 

 though they may be, there float before my eyes visions not 

 only of those I shall soon see, and perhaps possess; but 

 then I think to myself, What are these in tint in compari- 

 son with those yet to come '.' I look at Virgile or Monsieur 

 Legouve, but then I think of one I saw and mrasured — 

 oj inches by 5 — and how poor in comparison, though reallj- 

 beautiful, are those flowers ; and as one grower or another 



No. Ml.— Vol. XVII., Nzw Series. 



shows me some seedling he thinks highly of— pretty rough 

 it may be— can I refrain from saying, " Ah ! my friend, by 

 the time you have a stock of this the flowers you thmk so 

 much of will be among the things of the past." Yes, I give 

 up ill totn the idea of raising seedlings. One must be behind- 

 hand in the race. Who ever neared even Hoyle and Foster 

 in the Pelargonium race ? who ever could rush past my 

 friend Mr, Banks in Fuchsias ? No, the thing is hopeless ; 

 at least this was the impression made by my visit to 

 Fontainebleau. 



If anyone can act conscientiously in the matter of send- 

 ing out ills productions, M. Souchet must surely do so. He 

 grow.s and selects those which he considers worthy of being 

 sent forth into the world, but he does not arrange their 

 order of merit. M. Ramey, from Vilmorin, Andrieux, & Co., 

 M. Charles Verdier and M. Maillot criticise and examine, 

 and by their report he is guided. He has three or four 

 series, regulated by quality, which again regulates their 

 price ;' these gentlemen determine which place the several 

 seedlings shall occupy : and heuce it sometimes happens 

 that flowers of real merit may be put in a lower series, and 

 yet be ultimately equal to theii- more favoured brethren. 

 i would instance Jloliere last year, which was placed in 

 the second series, but which, I think, most of us prefer to 

 Semirarais, beautiful though it was v,'hen I saw it at Fon- 

 tainebleau ; the day I was there, the last act of criticism 

 was made by M, Ramey, and the names afiixed to them. 

 Of these I sliall have something to say by-and-by. 



The increase of the town of Fontainebleau and other 

 reasons have rendered a change in M. Souchet's plans 

 necessary : he has not so much ground at Fontainebleau as 

 he used to have, and grows there only the newer kinds and 

 the seedlings, especially those under trial ; the great bulk 

 of the older kinds with which he supplies the Parisian 

 fairs are grown at Montereau, about three leagues ofi", 

 where the soil is favourable, and the vcr hhinc [the larva 

 of the cockchafer], less destructive than it is in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood of the forest. There can be little 

 doubt tha't one great cause of M. Souchet's success is the 

 fallowing of his laud, which takes place two years out of 

 every three ; weeds, of course, are not allowed to grow, 

 and hence the bulbs have the advantage of a fresh soil : 

 but even with all his skill and experience he cannot banish 

 the " chlorosis," wliich so often attacks the plants. He does 

 not attempt to cure it, the moment a plant is attacked, 

 " arrache " is the word ; the spike may be in bloom, but he 

 says the bulb is dead. It might sound presumptuous to 

 question such an authority, but'I am inclined to do so. _ Of 

 course where they are grown by the acre, and where it is 

 absolutely neces^sary that only sound bulbs should be sent 

 out, such a procedure may be necessary, but it is manifest 

 that vv-e who grow a few cannot afford to do this, and I 

 have evidence from mv own garden that such bulbs are 

 recoverable. When I was at Lieal in the autumn of 1867, 

 a numbi'r of mv bulbs were badly affected, so much that 

 I did not think "it worth while to harvest them ; I therefore 

 at once planted them round one of ray borders. When I 

 left Deal in the spring of last year these were left behind, 

 and only the other day, when revisiting my old place ot 



Ko. 1093.- Vol, XLII.. Old Sebies. 



