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JOUBNAL OF HOBTIOOLTUBE AND OOTIAQB GABOENEB. 



[ NoTember 26, 1874. 



best order for the visitors. After all the Auricola is a home 

 flower, sweetest and prettiest in the Violet-like retirement of 

 its cool shelter, each plant arranged in no rivalry to its lovely 

 companions, but blooming for its own sake and for theirs, and 

 placed BO as to help out as well the beauties of the others as 

 its own. I know the excitement of the exhibition morning to 

 be a peculiarly happy and innocent pleasure, and that the 

 hastening into the room for a first look after the irrevocable 

 judgments are passed is rare enjoyment. But on the whole 

 I think some of us would say that the long quiet pleasures of 

 the gradually-expanding and closing show at home are most 

 largely the object, and the richest rewarding of our care. — 

 F. D. HoENEK, Eirkbij Malzeard, Ripon. 



ELECTIONS OF FRUITS. 



I AM sure all the readers of the Journal feel grateful to Mr. 

 J. Hinton for his industry in providing for the public the 

 Eose Election which has lately appeared in your pages, and 

 those who have derived benefit and instruction from it will be 

 of opinion that there is no reason why the queen of flowers 

 should monopolise these tables of exoellence. Pears and 

 Apples are objects of interest to everyone, and the latter, as 

 iii. Eivers truly remarks, " are the fruits of the people, 

 almost a necessary of Ufe ; " and if any one of your experienced 

 correspondents would undertEtke the labour of obtaining from 

 reliable authorities lists arranged (by the senders and accord- 

 ing to their opinion) in order of merit, of the best, say, 

 twenty-four kinds of Pears, and the like number of Apples, 

 and afterwards himself arrange the fruits according to the 

 number of votes given for each, he would be conferring a great 

 boon on fruit-growers and on nurserymen also. 



Many will feel disposed to doubt whether it would benefit 

 nurserymen, but I believe it would, and I ground my opinion 

 on the fact that when you send an order for trees, and leave 

 the choice of seeds to them, they charge less than when 

 you make your own selection. The reason clearly appears 

 to be, that growers for sale cultivate in extra quantities the 

 varieties of fruits which they find combine the greatest num- 

 ber of good qualities. For instance. Cox's Orange Pippin 

 Apple bears well, is free from canker, hardy, high -flavoured, 

 and a good keeper ; consequently a large stock of it is grown. 

 On the other hand Cornish Gilhflower, although to my taste 

 the best-flavoured of Apples, is an awkward grower (the spurs 

 being so far apart), apt to canker, the fruit liable to crack, a 

 bad bearer, and therefore scarcely worthy of cultivation. The 

 nurseryman in his catalogue has neither time nor space to 

 mention these idiosyncracies, and describes the latter as " large, 

 flesh rich, firm, and perfumed, one of the best dessert Apples." 

 Of course this merely applies to the fruit, and so far is per- 

 fectly correct. The enthusiastic novice reads this description, 

 is charmed, and at once makes a memorandum, " Cornish 

 Gilliflower to be ordered," so that the cultivator for sale is 

 bound to keep these unprofitable varieties in stock. I think 

 this will convince everyone the election will be generally 

 beneficial. 



Lastly, as the circumstances of climate, soil, and situation 

 have more effect on fruit than flowers, I would suggest that 

 after the election is published and the votes summed-up, the 

 contributors of the lists give us their experience of the kinds 

 they recommend, and state the nature of the soils on which 

 their results are obtained. I know a village near here, the 

 orchards in the upper part of which produce some of the finest 

 Older in Herefordshire, while the cider made from fruit grown 

 not a half of mile distant is scarcely drinkable. 



It may be said that as I am so ardent in the matter no 

 person is more fit to undertake the task proposed. To this I 

 answer — First, I have not the necessary time ; and secondly, 

 my knowledge of the subject is not sufficient to warrant my 

 nndertaking it, and it is a pity that success should be spoiled 

 by — An iGNOEAsins. 



GARDEN LABELS. 



Can you or any of your readers inform me as to the best and 

 most enduring kind of labels y It adds considerably to the 

 interest of having good collections of Roses and other things if 

 yon and your friends can readily learn the name of each. 



Here we have the names of various fruit trees, &o., written 

 with a pencil on a wooden label painted white. In my ex- 

 perience these do not last longer than two years. Then we 

 tried metallic labels, writing the names with some kind of 



indeUble ink ; but the ink has sadly belied its name, and after 

 a couple of years they, too, are useless. We have some Peach , 

 trees in pots, with their names stamped on lead plates. These 

 are really good, but they were, I think, specially prepared, 

 and were too expensive to be largely used. It seems to me 

 that a label with a large, clear, distinct lettering on white 

 crockery might be a good pemanent one. Arms and mottoes 

 are often put on dinner crockery and on children's mugs. Has 

 something of this kind ever been tried for garden labels ? It 

 might not pay for any private individual to order a few of 

 each of a large number of Roses, &c,; but it might pay some 

 manufacturers of crockery to prepare and sell labels for Gloire 

 de Dijon and La France by the thousand. If they could be 

 sold at a penny a-piece they would command an immense sale. 

 Were any of our large nurserymen to order them in large 

 quantities, and send them out with the plants ordered, it would 

 be a considerable boon to their customers. — An Amatedb, 

 Fifeshire. 



FRINGED PELARGONIUMS. 



I KEMEMBEK, On Seeing the good old variety Dr. Andre for 

 the first time, shortly after its introduction, saying, For 

 elegance such a class of Geraniums would totally eclipse the 

 smooth-petaUed section. From the number of new fringed 

 varieties recently introduced it would appear that such is 

 about to take place ; at all events I rejoice to think that the 

 fringed class is becoming more numerous every year. 



The kind that has done best with me is Empress ; and as I 

 find that it succeeds best with a treatment different from that 

 under which all other varieties which I have grown do, I 

 wish to give your readers the history of an old plant, still 

 flourishing, in my possession. It will be three years next 

 spring since I purchased a plant of Empress — a young plant 

 fuU of life and vigour, and although sent in a very small box 

 through the post, it did remarkably well that season, blooming 

 the whole summer through. In the autumn, however, I com- 

 mitted what I consider to be a mistake in the case of this 

 variety, and that was, I cut it down along with aU the other 

 kinds in my collection ; for while they were remarkably fine 

 the next season, Empress was stunted in growth, and did 

 not flower nearly so freely as it had previously, and has, with 

 different treatment, since done. 



With care I got it into a healthy growth before winter with- 

 out cutting the plant down, and by Christmas it had com- 

 menced showing its flower buds, and was in bloom in April 

 without any artificial heat whatever, none being necessary for 

 the preservation of conservatory plants last winter. I counted 

 as many as thirty-nine trusses of bloom and flower buds on 

 this plant at one time, and it continued one mass of bloom 

 up to the end of July last, after which it commenced to throw 

 out a vigorous new growth, without any cutting-down except 

 the mere tops on which the flower stalks were ; after which I 

 took the plants out of the pot, reduced the baU so that I could 

 introduce it into the same pot with about 2 inches of fresh 

 soil all round the portion of the ball I left, and by this process 

 the plant never received the least apparent check, and is at the 

 present time making vigorous growth, in appearance similar 

 to what it was at the same period last year, only much larger, 

 yet compact and bushy. All other plants of this sort that I 

 have seen, with the exception of one other, a very fine plant,, 

 which I observed had not been cut down, were treated in the 

 ordinary way, and were miserable still plants struggling for 

 existence, and the complaint of everyone who grows it is that 

 it does not succeed with them. — R. B. Thompson, Londonderry . 



LAYING OUT A SMALL TOWN GARDEN. 

 In a letter received from " J. E. W." he says, " I have a 

 small garden, at present a desolate waste of rank blotchy grass, 

 and with borders of straggling Nasturtiums, which I wish to 

 convert into a more pleasing object." There are doubtless 

 hundreds of similar cases where advice would be valued, and 

 the following notes are communicated with the view of assisting 

 such. " J. E. W.'s" garden is in London, which fact impUes 

 a murky smoke-laden atmosphere and the probability of an 

 almost barren soil ; for when any of the numerous building 

 companies or private speculators obtain possession of a plot of 

 land, the one great end and aim of aU their measures is profit, 

 and therefore before the " desirable freehold " or " elegant 

 semi-detached villa" is announced every yard of soil that is 

 at all rich or fertile is removed and sold to the ready purchaeers 



