October 29, 1674. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



381 



MarC'chal de la Cour, Triomphe de Jodoigme, Bearri? Ranee, Eer- 

 pramotte de la PentecOte [Easter Beurr6,] Bezi Mai, CraBsane, 

 Winter Nelia, Soldat Laboureur, Passe Colmar, Napoleon, Doy- 

 enne Defttis, Alexandre LambrC-, Doyenne Sterckmans, Graslin, 

 Doyenne d'Alen(;"on, Josephine de Malines, Mathew's Eliza, 

 Forelle, Sceur Grc^oire, Beurru Buchannan, Ne Pins Mearis, 

 Anna Audusson, Brown Beurrii, President d'Osmonville, Jules 

 d*AirolIes, Neuf liaisons. The weights given in the above list 

 are Jersey weight, each pound being equal to lib. li oz. avoir- 

 dupois weight.— Veritas, Turf Bank, Jersey. 



BORDER FLOWERS. 



Now that the brightness is o3 the formal flower beds, it 

 may not be uninteresting to some of your readers to learn 

 what we have in the mixed borders worth looking at. The 

 following is a list of plants in flower on October 19rh. Fine- 

 foliaged plants, of which there is a great variety, are not named, 

 as it is believed they are better known : — 



Asters, annual and herbaceoas 

 Antirrhlaanis in Tariety 

 PentatemoDB ditto 

 Alricaa Marigold 

 Dablraa in variety 

 Fuchsias ditto 

 Mignonette 

 Trte Carnations 

 Anemone japonica 

 Titifolia 



Honnrine Jobert 

 Sedara purporeum 

 Achillea aarea 

 Liliam ]a::cif>jlium 

 album 

 <Enothera Fraserii 

 Coreopsis tificforia 

 Poly^onam Sieboldii 

 OiaUs Bowieaua 

 Tunica Sasifra^a 

 Tritoma in variety 

 Crocus io variety ) ^..-i^ ._._ 

 Colchicum ditto I °^"'y **"^ 

 Sternbergia lutea 

 GalateUa cana 

 Erodinm hvmenodes 

 Erythriua Crista-galU 

 Sweet Pea'3 



Alstrumeria psittacina 

 Eapatorinm purpureum 



— T. 



Violas in variety 

 Sedum Sieboldli 

 Salvia patens 

 Erica in variety 

 Cataoanche bicolor 

 AcliiUea Ptarmica plena 

 Polygonum vaccinia;foUttm 

 Ctirjsocorcia LinobTrie 

 Coronilla glauca 

 Coreupsia auriculata 

 Geum coccine^m 

 Vittidenia lobata 

 Phygelius capensis 

 Cnmianella etylosa 

 Gaillardia grandiflora 

 Tritonia aurea 

 Anchusa it&Iica 

 (Enothera ma -rocarpa 

 ZauBchneria ealifomica 

 Coreopeie lanceolata 

 Stevia mexicana 

 ^thionema saxatile 

 PotentiUa Hopwoodiana 

 Verbena venosa 

 Plumbago Larpentje 

 Amaranthas in variety 

 Aconicam aatamnale 

 Salvia patens 

 PoljgonuLi Braanii 

 Linom narbonense 



STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



I WRITE a few more remarks on Strawberries, as one of 

 your correspondents wishes to know as much as possible about 

 them. I will beg'.n at the beginning of my gardening career, 

 and be as brief as possible. 



Forty-seven years ago I nsed to gather the Strawberries, &c., 

 at Cdrriden, the seat of Admiral Sir J. Hope, and the sorts grown 

 were Grove Ead, Scarlet Rose, and Hautbois, and a few years 

 after that Keens' Seedling came ont, and it has stood its 

 gronnd in spite of other newer sorts. Sir. Shearer, gardener to 

 the Marquis of Tweedale, Tester, is a great Strawberry-grower, 

 or rather the soil, &c., is well adapted for them, and he grows 

 Keens' Ssedling, Sir Horry, Elton, and British Qaeen. The 

 best of British Queens I ever saw grew there. I was at Eglin- 

 ton Castle this year, and Mr. Gray, the gardener, told me that 

 President is a first-rate variety, is better than Eclipse, and 

 succeeds Keens' Seedling. When I was gardener at Cistle- 

 martyr, Ireland, I gathered Black Prince on Jane 10th, but it 

 grew on a south border. This sort will only do one season ; 

 if planted in April it may be cleared off for Broccoli by the 

 middle of Jane. In this quarter Keens' Seedling is ready 

 aboat Jane 25th, but on sloping sunny banks it comes in 

 by the 10 ih. Where the soil is very light a good dressing of 

 manure pat over it, and a dose of water in very dry weather, 

 will make up to some extent for the want of heavy soil ; 

 but if this is not done the fruit will not be good, and the 

 plants are sure to die. The Elton is by far the best for jam 

 purposes, being a little tart. I hope some good sort eight 

 days earlier than Keens' Seedling will turn up. There is a 

 new sort (Dake of Edinburgh) raised at Fordee Dean, and the 

 owner told me it is very good. — John Addisos, Ormiston, Tra- 

 nent, N.B. 



A DisTRESsiN-G Case. — We regret to hear that the son of 

 the late Mr. William Barnes, of Camberwell, has become so 

 mentally afflicted as to be a hopeless lunatic, and is now an 

 inmate of the Surrey Lunatic Asylum. In this state he leaves 



a wife and four young children entirely dependant on his 

 mother, a widow, who is little able to bear so great a responsi- 

 bility. A subscription is in course of formation to render the 

 needful aid ; and when we state that it is in the hands of Mr. 

 Parker of Tooting, Mr. Fraser of Lea Bridge Road, Mr. Mailer 

 of Lewisham, Mr. Kinghorn of Richmond, and Messrs. Barr 

 and Sugden of Covent Garden, we have a sufficient guarantee 

 of the urgency of the ease, and of the safety with which the 

 fund will be applied. We hope that all who knew and re- 

 spected the late Mr. W. Barnes will extend their sympathy to 

 his distressed family. 



WASTED VEGETABLES. 

 Mehicai, men have of late been urging upon us that here in 

 England we depend too much upon bread and Potatoes to the 

 exclusion of other vegetables, and that a more liberal vegetable 

 diet would tend to improve health, and to the prevention of 

 many skin diseases and scorbatic affections from which our 

 working population especially suffer. This is undoubtedly 

 true, and it is not from ignorance of such that we continue to 

 suffer, but from inability to procure vegetable diet. Most 

 people in the upper and middle classes of society have vege- 

 tables at command, but the substratum have not the means to 

 purchase them, and unless they are fortunate enough to rent a 

 small patch of garden ground, are, except at occasional times, 

 constrained to do without them. Even in country markets, 

 Cabbages, Cauliflowers, French Beans, A'egetable Marrows, A-c, 

 are sold at so much higher rates than are Potatoes, that work- 

 ing men's wives rarely think of purchasing them ; yet here in 

 England thousands of tons of vegetables, the produce of gentle ■ 

 men's gardens, are annually consigned to the midden-stead. 

 And for what reason? Simply because it is considered infra 

 dig. for a gentleman to barter the produce of his gardens. 

 Tnese tons of vegetables are jast what the people need to keep 

 them in health. In place of flinging surplus vegetables on 

 the rubbish heap, let them be sent to the greengrocer or the 

 huckster. They will not sensibly depreciate the receipts of 

 market gardeners, yet transforming vegetables from exceptional 

 to general articles of diet will promote the health and con- 

 sequent well-being of the nation at large. — Beta. 



ALKALI FOR AN OLD APPLE TREE. 



Im considering the growth of organisms, the action of the 

 alkalies is to be looked upon as scarcely less important than 

 that of air and water. Lime is the great animal alkali, and 

 potash the vegetable one; its old name of vegetable kali 

 expressed that fact, and aU the potash of commerce is well 

 known to be derived from wood ashes. The importance of 

 potash as a manure has been frequently overlooked by farmers, 

 who rarely know the large amount of this material found in 

 grass, grain crops, leaves, barnyard manure, roots, and fruits. 

 How potash acts in plants, in conjunction with carbon and 

 silex, to form woody fibre, starch, sugai', and oil, is yet unknown 

 to chemical observers, but the fact of its action is beyond a 

 doubt. 



Liebig long since pointed out that the chief cause of barren- 

 ness is the waste of potash carried off by rich crops, especially 

 tobacco, with no replacement by proper manure. How many 

 millions of pounds of potash have been sent to Europe from 

 the forests of America, and in the grain, tobacco, and hemp ! 

 Luckily one alkali may be replaced by another, and we have 

 received a considerable quantity of soda from European sea- 

 weed, and in the shape of salt. Latterly, nitrate of soda from 

 natural deposits in South America is brought to us at a cheap 

 price. 



The point to which we now call attention is that our farmers 

 and fruit-growers have ignored, or rather have been ignorant 

 of, the importance of wood ashes as a vegetable stimulant, 

 and as the leading constituent of plants. Even coal ashes, 

 now thrown away as useless, have been shown both by experi- 

 ment and analysis to possess a fair share of alkaline value. 

 According to our observation, if the practice of putting a 

 mixture of wood and coal ashes around the stems of fruit trees 

 and Vines, particularly early in the spriog, were followed as a 

 general rule, our crops of Apples, Grapes, Peaches, &c., would 

 be greatly benefited in both quaUty and quantity, and the 

 trees and Vines would last longer. We will relate only one 

 experiment. 



Some twenty-five years ago we treated an old hollow Pippin 

 Apple tree as follows : — The hollow, to the height of 8 feet, was 



