Febniary 18, 1S75. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



139 



both personally and by bis pen, will be ready to lend their 

 assistance towards the aceomplishmeut of so charitable an 

 object, and will be onlv too pleased at having an opportnnity 

 of doinj; so.— John Wills, Onslow Crt^fcent, Oiishw Squari', 

 Brompton. 



A CLASSIC TREE. 

 When Dr. Johnson made his celebrated tour throngh Scot- 

 l»nd, he saw only two trees from which a prudent hangman 

 would venture to suspend a fall-grown victim without fear 

 of breakages, but unfortunately tha,t method of sylvan de- 

 coration was largely practised in tbis country long before his 

 day. Be that as it may, however, one of the two so highly 

 honoured by his notice has just been totally destroyed by a 

 recent gale. This was the remains of an old giant Ash which" 

 stood near the village of Ellon in Aberdeenshire, and which for 

 the last fourteen years has only been an aU-but-naked trunk. 



A Banffshire newspaper in recording its destruction, says in 

 connection with the cause of its more than local celebrity, 

 that "it is well known that the Doctor got the blinds of his 

 ■carriage pulled down so as not to see the avenue of fine trees 

 while going up to Cullen House." 



The following particulars have been kindly sent me by a 

 correspondent at Ellon : — " All that latterly remained of the 

 old tree referred to was a trunk of about 13 feet in height, and 

 measuring 10 feet in circumference at 4 feet from the ground. 

 It was supposed to be upwards of 250 years old. It was sold 

 along with a number of other old trees on the Ellon property 

 to a timber merchant about the year ]835, but the late Rev. 

 Dr. Robertson, who was then parish minister here, having a 

 liking for the old tree, rebought it and allowed it to stand. 

 It was then comparatively healthy and far exceeded in size 

 any in this neighbourhood. Some years afterwards it lost one 

 or two large branches, partly from gales and partly from 

 natural decay which began to set in about the upper part of 

 the trunk. In order to prolong its existence if possible, the 

 then proprietor had all the daoaying parts removed, stopping- 

 up the hollows with cement and covering with lead, also 

 looping the main limbs with strong iron and connecting them 

 together by long links and screws. For a number of years 

 after this was done it seemed to prosper, until the memorable 

 hurricane of October 3rd, 1860, which completely disbranched 

 it, leaving only the trunk above mentioned. 



"In connection with its partial destruction at that time a 

 curious incident occurred. Dr. Robertson, who had left Ellon 

 some time before and gone to reside in Edinburgh, was that 

 very morning a passenger by the stage coach on his way to 

 revisit his old home. Just as the coach was nearing the tree, 

 and no doubt while the Doctor's eye was resting on it with a 

 ■kindly interest, the old tree waved its manacled arms for the 

 last time, and fell crashing into the highway almost literally 

 at the feet of its former protector." — R. D. Taylor. 



Miy 20th; summer ditto, Thursday, Juuo 2Ith ; autumn 

 ditto, Thursday, August 2Cth ; winter ditto, Thursday, Novem- 



FAILUEES IN CUCUMBERS. 

 In answer to " A Market Gabdener" (page 94), I have been 

 troubled with a similar grub in the roots of Cucumber plants 

 six years ago. In the garden I then had charge of I bad a 

 large house for growing Cucumbers, and I began to cut fruit 

 the first week in March. The plants grew well to the end of 

 June, when some of them began to die at the tips of the 

 branches, injuring also the young fruit, and in two or three days 

 the plants so a£feoted died. In searching for the cause of this 

 fatality I very carefully cleared all the soil from around the 

 stem to examine the roots, when I found several white swell- 

 ings on the bottom part of the stem, and also on the roots, 

 about the size of large peas, which on being cut through the 

 centre revealed a small white grub about an eighth of an inch, 

 and some a quarter of an inch long. If I destroyed the grub, 

 and then dusted the stem and roots over with fresh slaked 

 lime, added a little light turfy loam previously warmed, and 

 shaded the house for a few days many of the plants recovered 

 and gave fruit to the end of October. I advise " A Makket 

 Gaedeneu" to follow the plan I found so successful. I trust 

 some of the readers of the Journal will give their experience 

 of any Cucumber disease, and the remedies which may have 

 been sueoesafully applied. — G. S., lladlow, Kent. 



ber 25th. 



BROCCOLIS. 



Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland. — The following 

 are the Society's Exhibitions during the present year : — Spring 

 Exhibition, Thursday, April 22nd ; May ditto, Thursday, 



" I HAVE not entered on the subject of Broccolis, &c., for in 

 truth I know not what to say." That is a remark of "D., ■ 

 Deal's," on page 5)2. Fancy our gifted and versatile friend 

 driven to such a strait as to " not know what to say I" The 

 ease must indeed be a bad one when the veteran thus throws 

 up his brief so summarily. He plauts so as to gain a succes- 

 sion, but they all " come in of a heap." " So they do," will 

 be the mental remark of hundreds of readers. Yet why 

 should they when we see what the catalogues say ? By these 

 authorities we may cut Broccoli tor ten months in the year. 

 What ! ten mouths out of twelve, and yet they " come in all 

 of a heap !" WeU, it is true — both assertions are true, as I 

 have proved. Last year I cut Walcheren, September and No- 

 vember ; Snow's Winter White, December and January ; 

 Adams's Early White, February and March ; Wilcove, April 

 and May, Carter's Summer, June. By just one variety of 

 each section a continuous supply was kept up until the 17th 

 of June; I observed that particularly, while at the same time 

 duplicate varieties were also in use, thus making the period of 

 cutting doubly sure. In the September and November period 

 were Veitch's fins autumn Cauliflower and Early White Cape 

 Broccoli ; December and January, Backhouse's White ; Fe- 

 bruary and March, Hampton Court; April and May, Dilcock's 

 Bride ; Jane, Cattell's Eclipse. Thus by five varieties the 

 above period was covered, having in reserve half a dozen 

 varieties more. Bat the fact remains, that had the quantity 

 of the five first mentioned been doubled every purpose would 

 have been answered just as satisfactorily as it was done by 

 the whole list of kinds. 



Now there is this to bo said in the matter of Broccolis, that 

 they possess no clearly-dffined standard of nomenclature. 

 Should this important desideratum ever be attained it would 

 be to the general advantage. Seedsmen would gladly abridge 

 their lists if the public knew what they were ordering. But 

 they don't know — that is, if they, as many do, change their 

 seedsmen every year. If you order a given kind from one 

 house this year, and from another house the next, the proba- 

 bility is that you will get two different sorts, except in the case 

 of a new variety, which is everywhere alike for aboiit a year 

 if the demand is not too great. I have had a good deal to do 

 with Broccolis, and have experienced considerable incon- 

 venience by blanks and failures. I have had Snow's Winter 

 rushing-ia in April a few days after Cattell's Eclipse, which 

 should have waited until June. I was then in "D., Deal's " 

 dilemma. It was " all of a heap " with a vengeance. The 

 only way I got over it was to order small quantities of several 

 varieties from an established house and take note of their 

 conduct. In that way a train of sorts was found following 

 each other with satisfactory regularity. By sticking to these 

 and the source of supply I have had for some years no further 

 difficulty. I cannot give any better advice to others than to 

 do likewise. Find what suits best, and order the same from 

 the same place again. Don't be hypercritical as to the varie- 

 ties being correctly named. Names are nothing in your case 

 then; it is simply a case of time and Broccolis, and fitting the 

 one to the other. To sum-up this part of the question : Go to 

 a house with a reputation to lose, and if yon are served well 

 stick to the place and the varieties until you have proved for 

 yourself that a new introduction will serve you better. That 

 is the advice I give to my personal friends on this matter, and 

 it occurs to me, if it is of any use privately (as it has been), 

 it may be publicly. 



Perhaps I may add a word as to sowing. With the sorts 

 above named two sowings have always sufficed — viz., all the 

 kinds by April 1st, except the latest kinds, and these — that 

 is. Carter's Summer and Cattell's Eclipse, towards the end 

 of the first week in June. These late-sown plauts attain no 

 great size in the summer, and in the autumn, if the weather 

 has been dry, do not appear to have build enough about them 

 ever to produce heads at all. Do not, however, dig them up, 

 but dung them — that is, give the ground between the rows a 

 good covering of manure, packing it up to where the hearts 

 should be. This will protect them from frost, and the enrich- 

 ing material will go directly to the formation of heads. The 

 plants so treated will in spring grow marvellously, and will 

 yield more eatable produce and less waste in large leaves than 



