348 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE QABDEHER. 



t May G, 1875. 



■which it should, perhaps, be united. The perianth is globose, 

 about as large as a walnut and contracted to a wrinkled mouth, 

 •with a limb of three triangular segments. The colour is black- 

 ish purple. It is figured in the " Botanical Magazine " of 

 1840, and is a native of Japan. A flower appeared on this 

 plant a short time ago, having one of the perianth segments 

 developed in the form of a leaf-blade, assuming the leaf form, 

 colour, and venation. It should have a shady corner in the 

 greenhonse, and when at rest must not be kept quite dry. 



NEW BOOK. 



The Fruit Manual: containing the Descriptions, Synoivimes, 

 and Classijieation of the Fruits and Fruit Trees of Great 

 Britain; with a hundred and one engravings of the best 

 varieties. By Eobeet Hogg, L.L.D., F.L.S., Pomological 

 Director of the Koyal Horticultural Society, ite. London: 

 Journal of Horticulture Office. 



This volume, now in its fourth edition, is very much en- 

 larged both in the size and number of its pages — they amount 

 to six hundred. They contain the fullest and most accurate 

 information for identifying and estimating our fruits. I 

 Bhall give one extract that readers may judge of it them- 

 selves ; but it would be 

 false delicacy if I did not 

 add that it is worthy 

 of the author, who, the 

 Burgomaster of Ghent, 

 when he proposed his 

 health at the public din- 

 ner of the great Antwerp 

 Horticultural Show, en- 

 titled " the Linn^us of 

 pomology." — G. 



"Blenheim Pippin 

 [BlenheimOrange; Wood- 

 stoclc Pippin; Northwick 

 Pippin ; Kempster's Pip- 

 pin). — Fruit, large, being 

 generally 3 inches wide, 

 and 2j high ; globular, 

 and somewhat flattened, 

 broader at the base than 

 the apex, regularly and 

 handsomely shaped. Skin, 

 yellow, with a tinge of 

 dull red next the sun, and 

 streaked with deeper red. 

 Eye, large and open, with 

 short stunted segments, 

 placed in a round and 

 rather deep basin. Stalk, 

 short and stout, rather 

 deeply inserted and scarcely extending beyond the base, riesh, 

 yellow, crisp, juicy, sweet, and pleasantly acid. 



"A very valuable and highly esteemed Apple, either for the 

 dessert or culinary purposes, but, strictly speaking, more suit- 

 able for the latter. It is in use from November to February. 



" The common complaint against the Blenheim Pippin is that 

 the tree is a bad bearer. This is undoubtedly the case when it 

 is young, being of a strong and vigorous habit of growth, and 

 forming a large and very beautiful standard ; but when it 

 becomes a little aged it bears regular and abundant crops. It 

 may be made to produce much earlier if grafted on the Paradise 

 stock, and grown either as an open dwarf or an eepftlier. 



"This valuable Apple was first discovered in Woodstock in 

 Oxfordshire, and received its name from Blenheim, the seat of 

 the Duke cf Marlborough, which ia in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood. It is not noticed in any of the nursery catalogues of the 

 last century, nor was it cultivated in the London nurseries till 

 about the year 1818. 



" The following interesting account of this favourite variety 

 appeared some years ago in the Gardeners' Chronicle: — ■*Ina 

 somewhat dilapidated corner of the decaying borough of ancient 

 Woodstock, witbin 10 yards of the wall of Blenheim Park, stands 

 all that remains of the oiiginal stump of that beautiful and 

 justly celebrated Apple, the Blenheim Orange. It is now 

 entirely dead, and rapidly falling to decay, being a mere shell 

 about 10 feet high, loose in the ground, and having a large hole 

 in the centre ; till within the last three years it occasionally 

 sent up long, thin, wiry twigs, but this last sign of vitality has 

 ceased, and what remains will soon be the portion of the 

 woodlouse and the worm. Old Grimmett the basket-maker, 

 against the corner of whose garden wall the venerable reUct is 

 supported, has sat looking on it from hia workshop window, and 



Fig. 83. — Blenheim Pippin 



while he wove the pliant osier has meditated, for more than 



fifty successive summers, on the mutability of all sublunary 

 substances, on juice, and core, and vegetable, as well as animal, 

 and flesh, and blood. He can remember the time when, fifty 

 years ago, he was a boy, and the tree a fine full-bearing stem, 

 full of bud, and blossom, and fruit, and thousands tbronged 

 from all parts to gaze on its ruddy, ripening, orange burden; 

 then gardeners came in the spring-tide to select the much- 

 coveted scions, and to hear the tale of his horticultural child 

 and sapling from the lips of the son of the white-haired Kempster. 

 But nearly a century has elapsed since Kempster fell, like a 

 ripened fruit, and was gathered to his fathers. He lived in a 

 narrow cottage garden in Old Woodstock, a plain, practical 

 labouring man ; aud in the midst of his bees and flowers around 

 him, and in his 'glorious pride,' in the midst of his little garden 

 he realised Virgil's dream of the old Corycian : 'Et regum 

 equabat opes animis.' 



"'The provincial name for this Apple is still 'Kempster's 

 Pippin,' a lasting monumental tribute and inscription to him 

 who first planted the kernel from whence it sprang.' " 



VEITCH'S AUTUMN GIANT CAULIFLOWER. 

 Permit me to speak a word in favour of this well-known 

 vegetable, not, however, because it ia a large variety, for as a 

 rule I consider large vegetables are not the most meritorious; 



neither for any superior 

 flavour do I recommend 

 it, for on this point I con- 

 ceive it is no better than, 

 if as good as the Walche- 

 ren. Its great advantage 

 is its power of resisting 

 the ill effects of drought. 

 Being in a dry district 

 it has been a hard fight 

 to carry Cauliflowers 

 through the summer for 

 a full autumn supply, but 

 with this variety I feel 

 sure of a crop. Last sum- 

 mer when we were with- 

 out rain for months, and 

 the plantations of CanJi- 

 flowers were like dead 

 sticks, this variety alone 

 sustained the trial, and 

 gave in the autumn a 

 supply of great value, 

 and which was in use 

 throughout October and 

 November, at least until 

 destroyed by the severe 

 frost. For prolonged 

 autumn use the seed of 

 the Autumn Giant should be sown at the present time, as it is 

 much longer in attaining its growth than any other kind. By 

 planting 18 inches apart in not over-rich soil small heads are 

 produced which for table purposes are more serviceable than 

 the " Giants." Unlike other varieties it does not button pre- 

 maturely in a poor soil, and the ordinary autumn rains afford 

 a suifioient stimulant to produce crisp sweet Cauliflowers 3 to 

 4 inches in diameter. A dish of three or four of these is at aU 

 times more satisfactory on a gentleman's table than is one 

 head so large that it must be smashed or mutilated to squeeie 

 it beneath the dish-cover. Sown now for autumn use it is a 

 vegetable of great value, and should be grown in every district 

 where drought is usually prevalent, as it will yield heads when 

 all other varieties are burnt up. — A Kitchen Gabdenek. 



EOSE GROWING. 

 In some perhaps trifling matters Mr. Taylor and myself do 

 not quite agree, but the many practical articles that adorn the 

 pages of the Journal of Horticulture from Mr. Taylor's fertile 

 pen, one and all must read with a great relish. That (see 

 page 307) on Rose growing, if it wanted any testimony, I 

 could give it with perfect good faith. I have Roses now in- 

 bloom of large size and healthy, struck in the manner that 

 Mr. Taylor so ably describes ; they have been potted six years, 

 and have a top-dressing yearly. The plants in my cutting bed 

 are now making their young growths. I may mention that 

 Tea Roses are not so b^dy as Hybrid Perpetuals, and they 

 require the assistance of a handlight in sharp seasons. X beg 



