44 ACCOUNT OF THE " BLACK PRINCE HAMBURGH " GRAPE. 



attending to the directions I have given for the preparation of 

 the seeds. I may mention that by far the best way of sending 

 small boxes of seeds to India or China is by the overland route, 

 via Southampton. The expense of sending any box of small 

 dimensions — say a foot, or a foot and a half, cubic measure- 

 ment — by this conveyance will be less than its freight would be 

 if sent by ship round the Cape ; it will reach its destination in 

 half the time, and the variations of temperature will be less. 

 The post-office can also be used with great advantage in sending 

 out small packets of the choicer kinds of seeds, and there is Jio 

 plan which is more likely to be successful than sending them in 

 a letter. A letter weighing an ounce will only cost two shil- 

 lings, and may be made to hold a great number of interesting 

 seeds for which a friend in the East would gladly give two gold 

 mohrs ; and if, in conclusion, I might give a word of advice to 

 those who have friends in distant countries as to the kinds of 

 flower-seeds which will prove most acceptable, I would say, send 

 above all those common things which, from time immemorial, 

 have been favourites in our woods and gardens. They will be 

 prized much more than any thing which we consider new or 

 rare. A friend of mine, who has a garden in one of the north- 

 ern Chinese towns, and to whom I sometimes send plants and 

 seeds, writes thus: — ^" Send me some Roses of various colours, 

 but amongst them a plant or two of those frie?ids of my youth, 

 the Cabbaore and Moss." 



XI. — Some Account of the " Black Prince Hamburgh " Grape. 

 By John Williams, of Pitmaston, CM. U.S. 



(Communicated Oct. 13, 1847.) 



I HAVE desired my gardener to send you a bunch of a seedling 

 vine, I raised from a berry of what is usually called the Black 

 Hamburgh Grape, but I believe it really to be what Speechley 

 describes as the Red Hamburgh, or Warner Grape, the berry 

 of which is black when properly ripened. Tlie cross was 

 obtained by impregnation with the pollen of the " Black Prince," 

 which I consider, after more than forty years' experience, to be 

 one of the best grapes we have — not of the perfumed kind. 

 The only defect I find in the Black Prince is that the berries 

 grow too much crowded, and require so much thinning. 



I therefore wedded it to the Hamburgh, with a view of 

 obtaining a more loose open bunch, with the vinous acidity and 

 richness of the Black Prince. This double object, I think, I 

 have obtained. The seedling plants, for I raised several of the 



