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JOUENAIi OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



[ January 13, 181 



mean?, if they indnlge in the luxury of a garden, must, I fear, 

 abandon the hope of having it neat if we have Buoh seasons 

 as the past has been. 



My little greenhouse was as full as ever it had been, and 

 went through its usual metamorphoeis from the Cyclamen and 

 Come)lia season on to the end of the summer, giving me at all 

 times a few flowers — sometimes a good many — and a great 

 deal of pleasure. My Camellias were a great disappointment 

 owing to the dropping of the flower buds. I had in the pre- 

 vious summer, contrary to my usual custom, placed them out 

 of doors ; and however this practice may answer where there 

 is provision made for shading and where attention can be 

 given to watering, it is in such cases as mine a mistake, and 

 I find by last week's Journal that so experienced a gardener as 

 Mr. Douglas has come to the conclusion that they are better 

 indoors than out during the summer. I am confirmed in this 

 by the appearance of my few plants at this time (January 10th) . 

 They are rapidly opening, and very few if any going brown ; 

 and they were simply removed from the greenhouse to my 

 small cool Grape house, where they have been all the summer 

 under the shade of the Vines. I have found too — at least I 

 fancy so — that one or two applications of Standen's manure 

 when they are forming their buds is a capital thing as giving 

 power and vigour to the plants, which are confined in pot 

 room and apparently require something of the kind. I app'y 

 it on the surface as powder, leaving the watering to convey 

 its benefit to the soil. There are some sorts more given to 

 dropping their buds than others, and amongst these I have 

 found the old Double White, Fimbriata, and Henri Favre 

 about some of the worst. Of Azaleas I have nothing particular 

 to say. I had no new varieties, and the old sorts, with the 

 exception of Yariegata, bloomed well. 



Pelargoniums consisted entirely of the new varieties of 1874 

 and those of 1875 which I had received through the kindness 

 of Mr. Charles Turner. Of course the plants are small. I 

 am obliged to keep them so, and so cannot grow many of the 

 older varieties. Of those which were sent out from Slough 

 last spring the following I especially noted as good : — Arch- 

 duchess, lower petals richly painted crimson; top petals large 

 spot, crimson-purple edge, white eye. Crown Prince, deep 

 maroon top petals, bright narrow edge, white eye; very fine. 

 Duchess of Cambridge, a very fine scarlet flower, small black 

 spot on top petals ; fine form. Duke of Connaught, dark rosy 

 top petals, white centre ; a very fine flower. Grand Monarch, 

 dark top petals, crimson edge, orimsou lower petals. Pres- 

 byter, dark maroon tpot on top petals, crimson edge, clear 

 white centre. Constance, a novel flower ; fawn colour, small 

 spot, shaded with orange, clear white eye. Alice, maroon top 

 petals, crimson-purple edge, large white eye. I am sorry to 

 say, that after cutting down I have not succeeded with them 

 this year. Whether when put out of doors they had too much 

 rain or not I do not know, bat they do not promise well for 

 this year's bloom. 



After my Pelargoniums are done blooming I have little left 

 to fill the house. I however mean to try this year, if only for 

 the purpose of cuttings for vases, if I cannot have some 

 Fuchsias. And while writing about decorative purposes let 

 me say that I had in the early part of the season a number of 

 pots of Ixias, and that I found their cut blooms most efiective. 

 They are light, graceful, very varied in colour, and last a long 

 time in bloom, while some of the shades of colour, such as 

 vbidiflora, are not to be had in any other flower. I have found 

 the best plan of growing them is, after potting them in autumn, 

 to put them into a cold frame and keep them there until the 

 spring, then bringing them into the greenhouse for blooming. 



I think it will be seen from these few remarks that my little 

 house of 20 by 10 has done its duty.- — D., Deal. 



NEW GOLDEN POPLAB. 



We have received from Mr. Charles Van Geert of Antwerp 

 a coloured plate representing a shoot and foliage of his new 

 Golden Populus canadensis. It is very beautiful, and those 

 who know Mr. Van Geert are certain that he would not circu- 

 late any representation of it which was an exaggeration of the 

 truth. Our forest scenery is destitute of golden tints, except 

 in the autumn, and this new gain of Mr. Van Geert's will add 

 a beauty and variety to it which has hitherto been lacking. 

 In hie prospectus Mr. Van Geert says — 



" Its leaves are quite as large as those of the common Poplar, 

 and the yellow hue, instead of looking sickly, has a warm and 

 vigorous tint. The better nourished the tree is, and the more 



it is exposed to the sun, the more vivid is the golden hue. 

 The stalks and the hark of the shoots become then dark red, 

 which adds greatly to the beauty of the colouring. 



" This variety, or rather this freak of nature — for it was 

 spontaneously produced on a single branch of a large tree — has 

 been observed by ourselves for more than five years, and during 

 all this time it has never shown any tendency to alter its golden 

 character. 



" This novelty will be ready for sending out in March, 187G, 

 and the finest specimens will be forwarded to the first tnb- 

 scribers." 



THE D'ARCY SPICE APPLE. 



About twenty-five years ago an Apple, said to be new, was 

 sent out to the public under the name of Baddow Pippin by 

 the late John Harris of Broomtield, Essex. The scions of 

 this so-called Baddow Pippin from which John Harris obtained 

 his Apple were procured some forty years ago by the late Mr. 

 Jpremiah Pledger of Little Baddow, Essex, it is said from 

 Hazeleigh Hall, Essex; but wherever they came from, they 

 were grafted by a gardener named Robert Eolfe on to a tree 

 in Mr. Pledger's orchard at Little Baddow, Essex. It is from 

 this grafted tree that the late John Harris procured the scions 

 for his Apples which he sent out as Baddow Pippin. 



My object in troubling yon with this letter is to state that 

 this Baddow Pippin is in reality not a new Apple but the old- 

 fashioned D'Arcy Spice Apple, and has been growing at Tol- 



Fig. 7. — D'Arcy Spice Apple. 



leshunt D'Arcy, Essex, under the name of D'Arcy Spice Apple 

 for upwards of a hundred years, and I have to ask you to 

 restore to it its true and ancient name. The tree from which 

 I obtained the specimens of D'Arcy Spice Apple forwarded to 

 you is seventy or eighty years old, and is growing in D'Arcy 

 Hall garden ; and in the mimory of persons still living there 

 were three old worn-out decayed trees of D'Arcy Spice at 

 D'Arcy, which were probably a hundred years old at the time 

 of their decease. 



Again. In the year 1800 the then rector (Rev. Charles 

 Carwardine) of Tolleshunt Knights, adjoining parish to D'Arcy, 

 grafted an Apple tree in the rectory garden with a scion of 

 D'Arcy Spice Apple obtained by him from a tree, at that time 

 of some repute, in a cottage garden at Tolleshunt D'Arcy, and 

 then known as D'Arcy Spice Apple. 



I think D'Arcy Spice means D'Arcy espCoe, and that the 

 same is a very ancient Apple, introduced into this country by 

 the monks who held lands there. D'Arcy Hall is a very ancient 

 moated house approached by a bridge, dated 1575, and is men- 

 tioned in Domesday Book. The Apple must not be confounded 

 with Aromatic Eusset, aViaa Burnt Island Spice or Brown 

 Spice. 



The D'.\rcy Spice Apple is a first-class dessert Apple; the 

 tree does not bear well until of some age, and varies in growth 

 according to the stock on which it is grafted. I think if grafted 

 on a quick-growing stock, or double-grafted, it would become a 

 great favourite. It is a curious fact in the history of this Apple 

 that until last year the D'Arcy people had not the remotest 

 idea that their "favourite Apple had been renamed and sold as 

 Baddow Pippin. I do not think that John Harris knew that 



