Aogust 13, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Ul 



last I hope will be full enough ; it is very handBome as an 

 opening bud — a first-rate button-hole Rose. Allowance — I 

 have made but little — should bo made for " infants " on com- 

 paratively weak stocks, especially as they had a bad season for 

 establishment. I have Ducher's Van Houtte ; it is quite dis- 

 tinct and good. I am surprised that such a nice crimson- 

 purple Rose as Baronne Pelletan de Kinkelin should have gone 

 out. It is like, but very superior to, Eugene Verdier and 

 Andrij Leroy d' Angers. It is a good grower and free bloomer 

 ■both on Manetti and on its own roots. Mr. Turner kindly gave 

 them both to mo with others many years ago. I do not think 

 Ducher's Van Houtte or Madame Masson (Gloire de Chatillon 

 is the same) should have gone out. We want not only good 

 Koses, but better than thoso we have, and distinct from those. 

 To persons liking dark Roses I specially recommend Louis 

 Van Houtte (Lacharme), Baron Chaurand, Maximo de la 

 Bocheterie, full-sized, and Baron de Bonstetten. The Roses 

 here have done splendidly, and are very healthy. — W. F. 



RADCLYrrE. 



NOTES ON STRAWBERRIES. 



In No. G94 vf The Journal of HoKTicnLTUKE Mr. .John 

 Taylor, Hardwicke Grange, recommends several sorts of Straw- 

 berries for preserving, but I believe the only best for that 

 purpose is La Constante. The fruit is of a dark red colour, of 

 excellent flavour, of firm substance, and of medium size. 



Several times I saw in this Journal recommended Keens' 

 Seedling and Black Prince, and tried them therefore, but I 

 found them scarcely worth gathering. For forcing, as well for 

 general purposes, I prefer Early Prolific, Sir Joseph Paxton, and 

 President. To grow large fruits I take Unser Fritz (Glocde) 

 (Our Frederick, the Crown Prince of Germany), I daresay 

 there is no larger and finer variety than this. Dr. Hogg and 

 Cockscomb follow in size, and both are of delightful flavour. 

 — A. P., Germany. 



IN AND OUT OP ABERTSTWITH.— No. 3. 

 I HAVE seen some of the most celebrated of waterfalls in 

 England, that of Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland, and that of 

 James' Town in St. Helena, but never did I comprehend how 

 the grand and the beautiful might be combined with and 

 aided by such a down-rush of water, until I saw that at the 

 Devil's Bridge, twelve miles from this town. This waterfall is 

 the only one I know descending hundreds of feet through 

 mountain rocks, wildly arranged, mostly approaching the per- 

 pendicular, yet clothed thickly with Oaks and the most lux- 

 uriant of undershrubs and wood plants. The Swiss and the 

 Bt. Helena waterfalls descend from heights as lofty, perhaps 

 loftier than this, but they are merely bare streams of water — 

 not a break in their entire length — not a shrub on the face of 

 the rocks from the summits of which they descend, and viewed 

 from a distance they look like great lengths of white ribbon 

 waving in the wind. The Devil's Bridge waterfall descends 

 between huge masses of rock by four leaps, and then joins the 

 river Rheidol by a fifth. These are respectively 18, CO, '20, 110, 

 and 70 feet in length, and each leap ends in a rocky chamber, 

 one of which is so rounded by the whirl of waters as to be 

 named the Devil's Punch-bowl. Every leap is varied by 

 jutting rocks, and each descends amid trees and shrubs which 

 afford most effective dark bounds to the white foaming water. 

 Anyone intending to arrange an artificial cascade would do 

 ■well to visit this waterfall, not in the hope of copying even the 

 smallest of its leaps, but to observe the need — the unescapeable 

 need — if the utmost beauty is sought for, to break the fall of 

 the water however short its length — to compel it to make at 

 least one leap, and to have the rockwork sides of its course 

 well planted. I have seen one such, and although the entire 

 fall was not more than 25 feet, yet the rockwork broke it into 

 two falls, and the foamed water as seen through the bordering 

 evergreens and trailing plants deserved and obtained the ex- 

 clamation — " That is really beautiful !" An artificial waterfall 

 can never merit the designation of " grand." 



I was disappointed in not finding rarer plants at the Devil's 

 Bridge, and there were but few Ferns. Among these were 

 Cystopteris fragUis, Hymenophyllum Wilsoni, and Ceterach 

 officinarum. 



The residence of Lieut.-Col. Powell is about four miles from 

 Aberystwith, and has an additional temptation for visitors by 

 being reached by the only road unatliicted with a turnpike. 

 The residence is handsome and well described by its name, 

 Nant Eos, the Nightingale Dingle, for the whole park is 



beautifully wooded on each side of a ravine, and is such a 

 place as that queen of song birds delights in. 



The approach from the entrance lodge to the house is about 

 a quarter of a mile beneath noble specimens of Beech and 

 other forest trees, and I should think that under them is the 

 only quarter of a mile in all (Jroat Britain that is entirtly 

 covered with the Aaron's Beard, Hypericum calycinum. The 

 dressed grounds are small in extent, and the only specaUtics in 

 them are two Araucaria imbricatas ; they are 25 feet high, 

 most vigorous, and have not a brown leaf upon any branch, 

 from the top to those which in a wide circle rest upon the 

 ground. The approach from the house to the chief part of tho 

 dressed grounds is by a well-planted path by the wall side of 

 the kitchen garden, which, it is to be regretted, intervenes. 

 By this path is a mound surmounted by Mulberry trees, and 

 tliat mound is the cemetery of dogs who have died in the 

 service of the Powells. Small slate tablets are inscribed with 

 their names, and one has an appropriate addition — 

 " TEAVELLEn, a Retriever. 

 " That undiscovered country from whose bourne 

 No Traveller returns." 



The kitchen garden is large and excellently cultivated, and 

 the crops of Black Hamburgh, Black Prince, and Muscat 

 Grapes in its vineries were very fine in every respect. 



The gardener, John Evans, is one of the sterling blue aprons 

 of three generations ago. A Welshman, knowing little English, 

 to whom Abercrombie, Miller, and Loudon are unknown, and 

 who never knew of any gardening periodical — not, ! Editors, 

 even of The Jouenal or Horticultube ! — yet he is a thoroughly 

 successful gardener, has given entire satisfaction duruig the 

 forty years he has rooted at Nant Eos, and, hke others I have 

 known, regular in his days for performing certain sowings and 

 plantings every year, so as to need no " Gardener's Remern- 

 brancer" but an almanac. He was about planting-out his 

 Leeks on Lammas Day, August 1st ; and as he told me that they 

 were sown in March, I will wager that the sowing was done on 

 its first day, the anniversary of St. David. In talking with John 

 Evans about the plants and crops, I found that he did not 

 know some of them by the names we apply. He had only 

 heard of the Araucaria as the " Monkey Tree," and some 

 others which I do not remember; but the divergence in names 

 led to my thinking that the names by which plants are popularly 

 known here afford evidence showing which are native and 

 which exotic of Wales. For instance, Welshmen know Celery, 

 Cauliflower, and Potatoes only by those names, showing tlaat 

 they are comparatively modern introductions ; but Raspberries 

 are Mafons, Strawberries are Mefus, and Leeks are Cenin. 

 These last were evidently esteemed by Welshmen throughout 

 known ages the bulb of all bulbs, the type of bulbs, for (iarlic 

 is Cenin ewinog, or Leek with Claws ; the Chive is Cenin y 

 gwinwydd, or Leek of the Vines— that is, clustered ; and the 

 Hyacinth, Cenin y brain, the Leek of Dignity, or King of Leeks ! 

 Since being here the derivation of many names have become 

 to me explicable, which defied me before. Onion is e%idently 

 an abbreviation of its Welsh name, Winwyn, pronounced Tiinon. 

 That apparently absurdly-named town in Devon, Penny-come- 

 quick, is the corruption of the Welsh Pen y cwm (com) gwic— 

 that is, the Head of the Valley Village. Apple is evidently 

 derived from its Welsh name, Afal; and the Yew from Yw, 

 pronounced Y'oo. — G. 



TURNIP CULTURE. 



My crops of Turnips have been excellent for such a dry 

 season. I have been drawing regularly from the 18th of June. 

 I generally sow my first crop about the beginning of March, 

 a small sowing at a time (every three weeks), so that they are 

 always young. I have had throughout July as fine a lot of 

 young Turnips as anyone could wish, sweet as sugar, as white 

 as snow, and fleshy. 



The variety I grow for my first crop is tho Early American 

 White Strap-leaf, a much quicker grower than either the Early 

 White Dutch or Early Stone, as it comes in fully ten days 

 earlier. 



I find it is a good plan, previous to sowing, to give the ground 

 a good dressing of soot and burnt ashes (equal quantities), as 

 it prevents the ravages of the flea, and when the drills are 

 drawn it mixes regularly with the soil. 



The varieties I grow for winter and spring use are the Early 

 White Green-top, Chirk Castle Black Stone, and Early Stone, 

 with a few of the American Strap-leaf, which come in for the 

 supply at the end of the autumn ; this I sow at the end of 



