418 



JOUENAL OF HOBTIOULTUEB AND COTTAGE GAEDBNEB. 



[ Novemljer 12, 1874. 



its fair proportion, and dashing throngh the edge. Colonel 

 Champnejs, an intensely rich light flower in colour and edge, 

 has the same fault ; but they are all very pretty among the 

 rest, Eo I grow them on the home stages, though as florists' 

 flowers they must suffer the penalty of a certainly unpardon- 

 able fault. 



There are other fair grey edges competent sometimes to 

 give exhibition flowers in Campbell's Confidence, Lightbody's 

 Sir Charles Napier, Maclean's Unique, Fletcher's Ne Plus 

 Ultra, and Waterhouse's Conqueror of Europe. The last two 

 are a pair with such pips for size that nothing else matches 

 them. They are seldom good at their biggest, and get to be 

 coarse in all sizes above that of a halfcrown. 



Notes on white edges and selfs 1 will offer in the next num- 

 ber of the Journal that has room for them. I will merely add 

 now a cultural hint. November is a month in which the 

 Auricula-grower can ill-afford to neglect two of the golden rules 

 of Auricula-growing — Kiippjy of air and cleanliness. The plants 

 must be protected from wet overhead in imitation of Nature's 

 dry coverlet of snow, that excludes from dormant plants two 

 nnneeded stimulants at once — light and moisture. But as our 

 varieties of Auricula do not so much die down as their wild 

 sisterhood, light and air are always a necessity to them, and 

 must freely be secured in any protection professing to be safe. 



Everything about the Auricula, which is itself a plant of the 

 very neatest habit, should be always in the best order. In this 

 mouldy month pots kept free from green slime, the soil from 

 moss and crust, the plants from withered leaves and every- 

 thing stagnant and rotten, will all conduce to keeping the stock 

 in health at a time which is only a terror to evildoers — the 

 careless growers. Though green fly is less a nuisance now, yet 

 keep them all off ; and on this point I prefer a cleaner method 

 of abolishing the enemy than with the tobacco powder of the 

 far north, as instanced by Mr. Douglas. That is only one filth 

 driving away another, and what a mess to make about the 

 fair foliage of Smiling Beauty and Taylor's tilory ! Besides, 

 the meal of such plants interposes between the insect and the 

 tissues he would feed upon, and so he mostly betakes himself 

 in these cases to the under side of the leaf where there is less 

 of this non-conductor — where the snow lies not so deep. It is 

 then as little trouble to brush him ofi with a stiflish little 

 brush, whose bristles generally bayonet him, as to drive him 

 away with the smell of powder ! — F. D. Hoenee, Kirkby Mai 

 zeard, Eipon. 



"WHAT IS A BURR KNOT APPLE? 



It has long been my intention to ask your readers to state 

 their opinions on this subject, and I have just come across a 

 few lines on it which I dotted down when living in South 

 Wales, the very home of the Burr Knots, notwithstanding 

 that some believe Yorkshire to have been the place of their 

 origin, which at any rate must date from a very remote period, 

 if not as far back as our native Crab. I have reason to think 

 the Burr Knot older than any of the varieties of Apples at 

 present growing in the United Kingdom. It is pretty generally 

 distributed throughout, and in many parts of Wales forms 

 almost the only Apple grown ; I was almost going to say, can 

 be grown, for in some parts so unfavourable are the soil and 

 climate to most Apples, that it is almost the only one that can 

 be grown with any amount of success. It forms the stock to 

 work other varieties on. I do not refer to the better class of 

 gardens where there are borders of the best turfy soil, but to 

 the gardens of cottagers, farmers, and tradesmen, the only 

 real guide. From my own experience in that part, no stock is 

 equal to it for poor, cold, wet, heavy soils where there is a 

 moist atmosphere. The Burr Knots are there known by 

 the name of " Pitchers," why so 1 cannot say. There are the 

 large, the small, and various other Pitchers, differing much in 

 the colour, shape, size, and other characteristics of the fruit, 

 which, however, is mostly small, the largest under the medium 

 size of Apples generally. What are called Pitchers (Burr Knots) 

 are simply any Apples that will form a tree by merely striking 

 off a branch and placing it in the ground ; in other words, all 

 those trees which have an abundance of protuberances, which 

 are masses of rootlets. These are ready at any favourable 

 moment to form a vigorous growth of roots, and the branch 

 becomes established even if it is large enough to have bloom- 

 buds capable of perfecting fruit the same year ; more, a branch 

 may be planted in the autumn and grafted or budded the 

 following spring or summer. 



But here comes what I particularly wish for information on 



Are we to conclude that all Apple trees are Burr Knots that 

 have the characteristic protuberances? Why not at once call 

 them the English Paradise ? for no two trees can be more alike 

 than it is to the French Paradise or Pommier de Paradis. I 

 could scarcely believe otherwise than that they were identical 

 when I saw the latter at Chiswick ; the style of growth, and 

 more particularly the abundance of large bloom-buds at the 

 points of each shoot, were precisely of the character of one 

 variety of the Welsh " Pitcher." It would be very interest- 

 ing to learn from Mr. Barron if this stock produced fruit, 

 and if so, its colour, shape, &q. In the variety I speak of the 

 fruit is conical, below medium size, running small to the eye, 

 which is small and depressed, the stalk also small, rather 

 short, and deeply set in the base ; colour when ripe yeUow, and 

 covered with red stripes ; the tree a most prolific bearer as a 

 rule, and always producing its fruit on the points of the young 

 shoots, which are from 3 to 8 inches long. If all be true that 

 is said of the French Paradise — viz., it is tender in our climate, 

 it must differ considerably from the variety of Burr Knots in 

 Wales, as nothing can be hardier. There are many other 

 varieties there that are of stronger and more rambling growth 

 than the one in question, which is rather compact-growing, 

 with not so many protuberances about the branches. The 

 fruit are so different in all respects as to make one beUeve they 

 are of quite distinct races. Some of them are very small, of 

 a yellow colour, with veins of russet towards the stem, many 

 of them having the appearance of having been cut and then 

 hailed over with a russety substance. Some varieties are com- 

 pressed at each end, with a large Pippin-like eye, and stalks 

 long and wire-like ; others have a conical-shaped fruit similar 

 to a Nonpareil. Most of these varieties are very long- keeping ; 

 some, I am inclined to think, seldom ripen. Many will stand 

 on the trees far on in winter without apparent harm. All these 

 make fine stocks. I have grafted such varieties as Cox's 

 Orange Pippin , Golden Harvey, and others , which made a growth 

 of 2 to 3 feet the second season. In the same soU, when 

 worked on other stocks, they would not grow at all. I should 

 have stated that these latter varieties produce their bloom- 

 buds on short spurs, and not on the tips of the young shoots 

 as with the former variety. 



All the varieties I saw in South Wales were such as could be 

 eaten or cooked, and quite different from those generally de- 

 nominated Burr Knots, Sweet Burrs, &c. In the cider-making 

 counties, as Hereford and Devon, they are a long pale lemon- 

 coloured Apple, much the colour and shape of a Lord Suifield, 

 and about the same size ; ripe about the same season as that, 

 but in flavour not so agreeable, for it is a regular cider Apple, 

 which implies it must be a Bitter-sweet. These, too, have the 

 peculiar protuberances, and will grow readily from branches, 

 but are now seldom employed, as they rarely make trees so 

 quickly as the Crab in dry sandy soils. Are we to class these 

 with the others that are so different in all respects except the 

 rooty squamose protuberance ? 



There is yet one other variety of Burr Knot I have not seen. 

 It is, I understand, grown plentifully in parts of Hertfordshire, 

 and at Ware Park goes by the name of Byde's Walking Stick, 

 and is said to be a large handsome cuUnary Apple. Can any- 

 one give us more particulars of this Burr Knot ? If it is really 

 a large Apple it must be a great improvement on all that I 

 have seen. I have met with a few not-strictly-speaking Burr 

 Knots that have a tendency to produce swollen masses, parti- 

 cularly so in certain situations, and would, no doubt, grow 

 from branches if encouraged to do so, still distinct from the 

 Burr Knot or English Paradise in not throwing out that mass 

 of roots, or keeping the same so close to the surface. Branch- 

 propagation is not, as some seem to think, only known of late 

 years. I doubt not but it was practised by the rude Britons 

 long before budding or grafting was thought of. But to get 

 a large crop of fruit the first year must certainly be new. 

 Whence comes the nutriment to feed this crop ?— J. Taylob, 

 Hardicicke Granije. 



CYATHEA MEDULLARIS. 

 The plant at Kew of Cyathea meduUaris, the noblest of Tree 

 Ferns, must be a fine one, doubtless to be the finest to be seen 

 anywhere. When living at Tatton Park with Mr. Cliffe in 1870, 

 we had then a plant nearly 20 feet in the trunk, with more than 

 12 feet of a frond. The house not being large enough. Lord 

 Egerton determined to put up a larger one, which I believe to 

 be 40 feet square and 35 feet high. This fine plant was to 

 be replanted in the middle of the house already mentioned. 



