444 



JOUBNAL OP HOBTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ November 19, 1874. 



mnst at present say that with all their faalts we love them 

 still, and I am not, therefore, to be understood as utterly con- 

 demning a flower because I mention its weak points, only we 

 must naturally prefer those that have fewest. 



And now we come to the selfs, or, as the old Lancashire men 

 have it, "self-edged," and that not inaptly, for the breadth 

 which in other classes is a belt of green, grey, or white, is in 

 the selfs occupied by the body colour extending, without 

 change of shade, to the petal edges. Hence the importance 

 in this class of a bright yellow tube and brilliant broad paste, 

 without which the flower has a heavy sleepy look. Selfs are 

 not only a lovely class in themselves, but their effect among 

 the others at blooming time is very grateful. Their quiet 

 colours afford a rest to the eye that is confused by the rich 

 jewelry of unrelieved masses of emerald greens, and pearly 

 greys, and frosted whites. We have black and very dark selfs 

 in Nctherwood's Othello, Pohlman's Garibaldi, Spalding's 

 Blackbird, Smith's Mrs. Smith, Sim's Vulcan, Walker's Nim- 

 rod, Kay's Topsy, Turner's Master Hole, and King Coffee, a 

 seedling raised here ; crimson in Campbell's Duke of Argyll and 

 Lord Lome; violet in Smith's Garland, Barker's Nonsuch, 

 Smith's Pensioner, Clegg's Blue Bonnet, Whitaker's True Blue, 

 and Tamer's Cheerfulness ; bluer shades in Spalding's Metro- 

 politan, Lightbody's Meteor Flag, Smith's Formosa, and Hey's 

 Apollo, affectionately called "Old Poll." We have various 

 maroons in Sim's EUza, Spalding's Bessy BeU, and Miss 

 Brightly and Mary Gray; browns in Campbell's Pizarro and 

 Headly's Petronella ; dark crimsons in Lightbody's 172 and 

 Lord Clyde; a lovely carmine lake in Berry's Lord Lee, though 

 it has no paste ; and yellows in Gorton's Stadtholder and Gold- 

 finch, and best of all B. Simonites, a seedling of which my 

 friend the raiser has but two plants and I the third. 



Many selfs have a pale or watery tube, giving the flower a 

 weak and vacant look. This is a class defect, and must be 

 worked out. Most of them possess also a central depression 

 or notch on the petal edge, whereas they ought to be perfectly 

 Eose-leaved, as in Othello, Garibaldi, Nimrod, and Topsy. All 

 selfa are flowers of thinner texture than the edged ones, and 

 so bloom the earliest and pass away the first. Late-flowering 

 selfs are much needed, and this is a valuable property in Duke 

 of Argyll. It is the latest and one of the best selfs, a sub- 

 stantial crimson flower with splendid golden tube and brUhant 

 white paste, but with the central notch. I have some scores 

 of seedlings from it, and one gem already. 



Out of the selection of selfs I have given I will briefly pick 

 the best. Othello, Garibaldi, Blackbird, Mrs. Smith, Nimrod, 

 Topsy, Master Hole, Duke of Argyll, Lord Lome, Garland, Pen- 

 sioner, True Blue (old rare sort), Spalding's Metropolitan, 

 Meteor Flag, Eliza, Bessy Bell, Pizarro, Petronella, and Light- 

 body's 172, that puts aside Lord Clyde. My black seedling 

 King Coffee is a young sort of only four plants. I wait to see 

 if it keeps to its maiden promise of goodness. 



In all I have said I have been guided by careful notes made 

 of Eorts that bloom in my own collection every year. I have 

 also been intimate with them in other collections too, and I 

 am quite aware that in some details, particularly in ground 

 colours, ail growers might not quite agree with me. The fact 

 is that soils, localities, and air so variously affect the exquisite 

 sensibility of the Auricula, that half a dozen growers from 

 different counties might almost as much differ over the precise 

 tint in a variety of the Auricula as the three worthies in 

 James Merrick's familiar poem, who each of them thought 

 that he knew best the real colour of the chameleon. — ^F. D. 

 HoRNEK, Kirkliy Malzeard. Ripon. 



Flowess which Open and Close at Fixed Hodrs.— Sir 

 John Lubbock, M.P., in his very interesting paper read at 

 Belfast at the late meeting of the British Association held 

 there, thus pleasingly alluded to this peculiarity among some 

 of our own wildings : — " Many flowers close their petals during 

 rain, which is obviously an advantage, since it prevents the 

 honey and pollen from being spoiled or washed away. Every- 

 body, however, has observed that even in fine weather certain 

 flowers close at particular hours. This habit of going to sleep 

 is surely very carious. Why should flowers do so ? In animals 

 we can understand it ; they are tired, and require rest. But 

 why should flowers sleep ? Why should some flowers do so 

 and not others? Moreover, different flowers keep different 

 hours. The Daisy opens at sunrise and closes at sunset, 

 whence its name, day's-eye. The Dandelion (Leontodon Ta- 

 raxacum) opens at seven and closes at five ; Ajenaria rubra is 



open from nine to three ; Nymphaja alba from about eleven to 

 four; the common Mouse-ear Hawkweed is said to wake at 

 eight and go to sleep at two ; the scarlet Pimpernel (AnagaUis 

 arvensis) to wake at seven and close soon after two ; while 

 Tragopogon pratensis opens at four in the morning and closes 

 just before twelve, whence its English name, " John-go-to-bed- 

 at-noon." Farmer's boys in some parts are said to regulate 

 their dinner-time by it. Other flowers, on the contrary, open 

 in the evening." 



THE POMMIER DE PAEADIS, OE FRENCH 

 PARADISE STOCK. 



A FEW years ago Mr. John Pearson, of ChUwell, a gentleman 

 of great knowledge and experience in these matters, expressed 

 an opinion in the pages of this .Journal that the Pommier de 

 Paradis of the French nurseries is a plant ill adapted as a 

 stock on which to grow Apple trees in this country. This 

 opinion was at once endorsed by Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridge- 

 worth, a gentleman whose experience on such matters cannot 

 be gaLusaid ; and both gentlemen gave instances in their ex- 

 perience why they had arrived at that conclusion. A very ex- 

 hausting statement on this subject will be found by Mr. 

 Elvers in vol. x. of this Journal at page 193. 



In the same volume will be found some communications on 

 the same subject by Mr. Scott, a nurseryman at Merriott, near 

 Crewkerne, in which he contradicts the statements of Mr. 

 Elvers, Mr. Pearson, and of the most eminent writers on the 

 subject from Phihp Miller downwards. I cannot follow the 

 language he uses to these gentlemen in his controversy with 

 them, Ijut the tendency of his observations is to show that they 

 do not know the true Pommier de Paradis, but that he does, 

 and that he uses it exclusively as the best stock on which to 

 grow Apple trees. He says, " The more I see of the true Pom- 

 mier de Paradis stock the more I am convinced it is the stock 

 to graft large Apples upon." 



Fig. 122. 



It was very important that it should be ascertained what the 

 true Pommier de Paradis is, and also what Mr. Scott's Pom- 

 mier de Paradis is. Mr. Scott communicated to Dr. Masters, 

 of the Gardeners' Chronicle, some remarks on his stock, ac- 

 companied with specimens of the fruit, and to the kindness of 

 that gentleman I am indebted for a specimen of the fruits, 

 and from which the following figure and description are taken. 

 The Royal Horticultural Society also moved in the matter, and 

 procured from the most rehable sources in France trees of the 

 true Pommier de Paradis, and through the careful manage- 

 ment of Mr. Barron at Chiswick they have this year produced 

 fruit. The result of this experiment is to prove that Mr. 

 Scott's stock is not the Pommier de Paradis at all. The accom- 

 panying figures and descriptions taken from the respective fruits 

 will convince anyone of the truth of this statement. 



THE POMMIER DE PARADIS. 



Fruit {fig. 122) with a balsamic fragrance, round, very angular, 

 with prominent ribs on the sides, which extend to the apex, 

 where they form sharp ridges, giving the fruit the appearance of 



