Maroh 16, 1876. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



209 



Mr. B. S. Williamg, Messrs. Eollieson & Sons, Messrs. Osborn 

 and Sons, and Mr. Aldous for collections of plants; and to Mr. 

 W. Faul for boxes of Camellias. 



Fruit Committee. — Henry Webb, Esq., in the chair. Mr. 

 William Horley, Toddington, Beds, sent a seedling Apple, ■which 

 was so mncb past its best that no opinion could be formed of its 

 merits. Mr. W. C. Pearce, Wicken Villa, Stouey Stratford, sent 

 a seedling Apple which was also past its best. Mr. William 

 Paul exhibited a seedling Apple which appeared to possess 

 some merit, but it was past its best, and which it would be 

 desirable to see again. Mr. Miles of Wycombe Abbey exhibited 

 a very fine dish of Cockle's Pippin. Messrs. Hooper & Co. of 

 Covent Garden sent a dish of Alpha Potatoes, which were pro- 

 duced by forcing in the space of two months. The tubers were 

 planted on the 13th January last, and tbe crop lifted on the 

 7th March ; they were grown in pots in a cool house. Mr. 

 Douglas, Loxford Hall, Easex, sent fruit of St. Michael's Orange 

 grown in a Cucumber house at 70" temperature, and they were 

 pronounced to be of the finest flavour. A cultural com- 

 mendation was awarded. Mr. Douglas also exhibited an Orange 

 tree in a pot, very healthy and bearing thirty ripe fruits. 



Dr. Hogg expounded his new classification of Apples, which 

 met with the approval of the Committee, and a recommenda- 

 tion was made to the Council to award a medal to Dr. Hogg for 

 his discovery, 



Florai, Committee. — E. B. Postans, Esq., in the chair. 

 Messrs. J. Veitoh & Sons exhibited seven new hybrid Amaryl- 

 lises. The best of the batch was Thalia, a magnificent flower 

 of immense proportions and extraordinary breadth of petals. 

 The flowers are 8 inches across, and the petals 2 J inches wide; 

 the colour is crimson, with a purple shade in the centre of the 

 petals ; tbe base of tbe cup is greenish white. Fine as are the 

 other flowers raised by the Messrs. Veitch, this variety far sur- 

 passes them all. Clio is also a very fine flower, more approach- 

 ing the "florist" type than any of the others. It is of large 

 size, with the scarlet shade predominating. The above two 

 varieties had first-class certificates awarded to them. The same 

 firm had first-class cariificates for Abutilon Darwinii tesEellata, 

 a very ornamental variety, having foliage with the markings of 

 A. marmorata and flowering freely in a dwarf state, and Pbalaj- 

 nopsis Veitchii, an undoubted natural hybrid between P. Scbil- 

 leriana and P. rosea. The leaves have the markings of P. Schil- 

 leriana, and the flowers have the characteristics of that species 

 in the markings of the labellum and formation of tbe lip. Odon- 

 toglossam Chestertonii is evidently a natural hybrid from New 

 Grenada and allied to 0. Andersoniannm ; the flowers are well 

 shaped, creamy white with bold brown blotches. Hyacinth 

 Sultan is the best of the dark purple flowers ; it has fine-shaped 

 bells and an immense spike. The Shah, light purple, fine bells, 

 close spike. Golden Lion is decidedly the best single yellow; 

 it has fine bells and a close compact spike. All the above re- 

 ceived first-class certifloates. Messrs. Veitch also exhibited 

 Princess Beatrice, single pale blue, a very fine Hyacinth in the 

 way of Grand Lilas, and Venus de Medici, which is one of the 

 best double Hyacinths. The flowers are rose changing to salmon 

 as they become older. 



Dendrobium Heyneanum, and a species of Spathoglottis with 

 drooping primrose flowers were sent by Sir Trevor Lawrence, 

 Bart., Burford Lodge, Dorking. The former had dense clusters 

 of white flowers and would be useful for cutting; a vote of 

 thanks was awarded. Rhododendron Fisher Holmes was sent by 

 Messrs. Fisher Holmes & Co., Shefiield ; it is allied to E. Edg- 

 worthii, but has smaller leaves. New Hyacinths were sent by 

 Messrs. Cutbush of Highgate, but the trusses were too small to 

 judge of their character. Messrs. Carter of High Holborn sent 

 a basket of Primrose Lady A. Taylour; it is the same plant that 

 has usually been grown as P. altaica. 



Ornithidium cocciueam, an Orchidaceous plant with small 

 scarlet flowers, was sent by Mr. Denning, gardener to Lord 

 Londesboroujh. 



Messrs. Thibaat & Eeteleer, nurserymen, Sceanx, France, 

 sent a deciduous flowering shrub of striking beauty named 

 Xanthoceras sorbifolia. The young green foliage, like a minia- 

 ture form of the Mountain Ash, partly encircles dense spikes 

 5 inches long of blush white flowers. As a forcing shrub it has 

 claims of undoubted value, and cannot fail to rise rapidly into 

 public favour. A first-class certificate was deservedly awarded. 

 Mr. W. Paul, Waltham Cross, sent a box of twenty-four varieties 

 of cut Eoses, very charming; and a vote of thanks was awarded. 

 Mr. Goddard was awarded a first-class certificate for Cyclamen 

 persicum Purple Gem, a splendid variety of singularly rich 

 colour, the flowers also possessing good form. Mr. Edward 

 Bennett, Rabley Nursery, sent Cyclamen Euby, very large; and 

 striata, a mottled variety. Mr. Dean sent a collection of hardy 

 Primroses, but they were not sufficiently distinct to merit 

 notice ; names of Primroses are being somewhat unnecessarily 

 extended. 



A botanical certificate was awarded to G. F. Wilson, Esq., 

 F.R.S., Heatherbank, Weybridge, for Claytonia oariolianum, a 

 plant from the Rocky Mountains — a little alpine pem. Mr. 

 Wilson also sent Primula viscosa and Scilla bifolia. Mr. Smith, 

 Edmonton, sent new bedding Geranium Goldfinch. 



Mr. OUerhead, gardener to Sir H. Peek, Bart, Wimbledon 

 House, sent p'.ants which had been recently imported of Den- 

 drobium Wardianum and lituiflorum, each having two fine 

 spikes with splendid flowers ; also Pbalesnopsia Schilleriana, 

 very fine. A vote of thanks was awarded. 



INTRODUCTION OF THE MOSS ROSE. 



Fob an answer to an " Inquirer " we have referred to many 

 old authorities, and the results of onr search are that Parkinson 

 in his " Paradisus " published in 1629, Rea in bis "Flora" 

 published in 16G5, and Bauhin in his "Pinax" published in 

 1671, enumerate many Roses, but tUe Moss is not among them. 

 It was introduced or raised in Holland probably at the close 

 of the seventeenth century, for Dr. Martyn in his edition of 

 Miller's " Gardeners' Dictionary " says it is in Furber's cata- 

 logue in 1724. We have seen a copy dated 1727 ; it is entitled 

 " Catalogue of English and Foreign Trees Collected, Increased, 

 and Sold by Robert Furber at his Nursery over-against the 

 Park-Gate at Kensington, near Loudon." 



Faulkner in his " Hittory of Fulham " says that Mr. Renoh 

 was the first to introduce the Moss Rose into this country, the 

 original plant of which is supposed to have been brought from 

 Holland. Renoh lived at South Field Farm near Parson's 

 Green, a farm possessed by his family for two centuries. He 

 was buried in Fulham churchyard, where there is this inscrip- 

 tion to his memory on a headstone — " Under this stone are 

 deposited the remains of Nathaniel Rench, late of this parish, 

 gardener, who departed this life Jan. 18th, 1783, aged 101 years." 

 So he may have introduced the Rose before 1724, for in that 

 year he was forty-two years old. 



The Moss Rose was first portraited in the " Botanical Maga- 

 zine," plate 69. It is described as the Jiosa muscosa, or Mosa 

 Rose, and the plate is dated December 1788. Mr. Curtis ob- 

 serves that, though Miller thought it a distinct species, Linniens 

 considered it only a variety of Rosa oentifolia. 



RIPENING PEARS. 



I SEE by letters in this Journal that my opinion of the 

 Hawthornden Apple tree is corroborated by several corre- 

 spondents, and I regret that such should be the case, as the 

 Apple is a useful one, especially for cottage gardens. 



■The discussion of the subject may be of service and produce 

 a remedy. For example, that excellent Pear the Jargonelle is 

 so subject to canker that in some parts of the country it haa 

 been abandoned ; but a panacea for this evil has been dis- 

 covered, I believe by Mr. Rivers, to whom we are indebted for 

 many new and good fruits. The Jargonelle, he tells us, by 

 being grafted on the Beurri; d'Amanhs wiU be rendered 

 healthy. 



In regard to ripening of Beurre Diel Pear, I have a tree in a 

 sheltered situation on a south wall which has borne large 

 crops every year for seven years past, which have never failed to 

 ripen from October to the end of November. This last season 

 two of the Pears ofi this tree did not turn yellow till December, 

 and were eaten on New Year's day ; they were ripe, but their 

 flavour was not equal to those from the same tree which were 

 ripe in November. 



I once saw a recommendation in this Journal from a corre- 

 spondent (in reply to a complaint about the non-ripening of 

 Knight's Monarch Pear, Brown Beurre ditto) to bury the said 

 Pears in a jar or large flower pot in their own leaves in a cellar 

 for a month or more before bringing them into the dry fiuit 

 room. Has this plan been tried ? In my early youth I used 

 to treat wild Crab Apples somewhat in that fashion with 

 excellent results — viz., making a hole in a haystack and burying 

 the said Crabs, which when exhumed some two mouths after- 

 wards had lost their sourness and roughness and become sweet, 

 and not in the least withered or wrinkled. I will not affirm, 

 however, that there was not a taste of hay on them. I ought 

 to mention that my garden lies 4.50 feet above high-water 

 mark. 



Having seen the then new Apple called the Washington 

 highly recommended in several catalogues (Mr. Rivers' among 

 the rest), I wrote to request him to send me one, which he did 

 some two years ago ; it bore two or three Apples last season. 



