124 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTtJEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



( February 5, 1874. 



light, a moderately cool temperature during winter, and a moist 

 atmosphere all the year round. It should never be rested — 

 that is, dried off, and requires the least possible amount of 

 sphagnum or any other material about its roots. The leaves 

 are arranged in a distichous manner, and are dark green. 

 Spikes erect, bearing from six to twelve large flowers from 

 4 to 5 inches in diameter, and of a uniform lovely soft blue. 

 It blooms at various seasons of the year, mostly during 

 winter and spring. Native of Khasia. — Expekto Cbede. 



VABIETIES OF POTATOES. 



I AGEEE with the Irish Farmer's Gazette and the Rev. W. F. 

 Eadolyife as to synonyms and pseudonyms, but must disagree 

 with the Irish Farmer's Gazette in the list of synonyms given 

 in the article " Old Friends with New Names " (see Jouknal or 

 HoKTicuLTUKE, page 55), and am glad Mr. Radclyffehas pointed 

 out some of the errors. Without any divination, it may be 

 considered that the basis on which the conclusions of the 

 Irish Farmer's Gazette are founded were that of the trials in 

 the " Chiswick Garden last year," and that the writer has no 

 practical acquaintance with many, if, indeed, any, of the varie- 

 ties of Potatoes in the list of synonyms. I have no desire to 

 be hard on the Eoyal Horticultural Society, but cannot refrain 

 from observing that whoever relies on so sandy a foundation 

 for a list of synonyms must be prepared for the consequences ; 

 for the one object of a Society like this should be to prevent 

 errors of nomenclature, and to keep down the varieties, as far 

 as is consistent with the importance of the subject, to a reason- 

 able number, giving no new, or alleged new, thing a certificate 

 without proof that it is superior in quaUty and produce to 

 existing varieties. The South Kensington estabUshment, as 

 far as I can understand, is where the certificated varieties are 

 manufactured ad Uhilum and ad infinitum, and it may be that 

 any doubtful subject can be settled by the other establishment 

 at Chiswick. No great harm will then be done ; for though certi- 

 ficated at Kensington, it will be proved worthy at Chiswick or be 

 found a synonym of some standard variety. It may be that a 

 certificate incentive is necessary to induce the exhibition of new 

 varieties, but that is no reason why a variety should one year 

 appear as a certificated new thing and the next as a synonym. 

 A certificate given anything means that it will be sent out at a 

 price double or more than the double of that for which it 

 would be if it were to be found a synonym, and I must submit 

 that many of the errors in nomenclature, the multiplication of 

 varieties, and the many worthless varieties existent are, in a 

 great measure, due to the certificate principle adopted by the 

 iloyal Horticultural Society — the granting of certificates to 

 subjects which only appear as selected specimens of what a 

 sort may be brought to by culture and art, rather than as 

 manifesting what the subject is under the general treatment 

 of other kinds. Many subjects we happily do not hear of nor 

 see named again after the year of their being certificated and 

 distributed, and it would be well if no subject were allowed a 

 certificate until it had been grown along with other standard 

 ones, and found distinct and superior. No other test ought 

 to be admitted with vegetables — they should be judged compa- 

 ratively with other kinds, and they would then have given them 

 what the pubUc is certain to give them when the certificated 

 or otherwise commended subjects come into their hands, after 

 a comparative trial — commendation or condemnation. 



I simply mention these matters, as they have long found a 

 place in my mind among the impressions of the Eoyal Horti- 

 cultural Society since the estabhshment at South Kensington. 

 Horticulture has advanced, and will continue to do so indepen- 

 dent of any centralisation of it in a society, but of that ad- 

 vancement very little of the solid part can be claimed by the 

 Society outside Chiswick. 



The best school of horticulture would be a large estate, 

 established on the co-operative principle, cultivating fruits and 

 vegetables for profit as well as the testing of new varieties, 

 and then none but the very best kinds of either fruits or 

 vegetables would find then- way into private gardens. To Kew 

 might safely be entrusted plants or floriculture and arboricul- 

 ture, and with this and a national estabhshment, or even a 

 private one, in so far as the money could be found from the 

 private rather than public purse, dealing with fruits and vege- 

 tables, the Eoyal Horticultural Society might be let go, espe- 

 cially as it is a never-ceasing bone of contention over which 

 no two agree. Disorder and disorganisation are but the fore- 

 runners of decay and dissolution, and to this the Eoyal Hor- 

 ticultural Society is advancing with blind measured steps. No 



disinterested on-looker can fail to see the infatuation that 

 prompts the two factions into which the members of the 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society are divided — the desire for power ; 

 both studiously seeking the interests of the Society, and pursu- 

 ing their cause with a vehemence that may hasten the inevitable 

 day of reckoning. They pretend to uphold the Society which, as 

 at present and for some time constituted, in no way promotes 

 the interests of gardening or gardeners. Surely the fates have 

 been against the Society since its removal from Chiswick to 

 Kensington — the glory of the former being centred in the 

 latter. Were Flora and Pomona to appear it is certain it 

 would not be at South Kensington, except it were briefly upon 

 some fete day, but at Chiswick amongst their devotees, old 

 faces and true. Jealous indeed are the gods, and so is every- 

 one in the horticultural world of the interests of horticulture. 

 The title of the article, " Old Friends with New Names," 

 has led me to the above expression of my ideas of the Eoyal 

 Horticultural Society. I will now proceed to express myself 

 as regards Potatoes new and old, especially those mentioned 

 by the Irish Farmer's Gazette. The onslaught is against " six- 

 teen impostors with assumed names;" they being impositions 

 on the Kentish Ashleaf. I could have understood this had 

 they one and all been put down as Ashleaf, without the prefix 

 Kentish. What is Kentish Ashleaf V Is there any difference 

 between it and "Creeper,'' a name given to the old Ashleaf on 

 account of the tubers being produced at some distance from 

 the stem on rather stout wh'es '! In what respect does it differ 

 from the old Ashleaf '.' I put these questions, for it is evident 

 the Irisli Farmer's Gazette, oi its authority, has concluded that 

 because some kinds are of one type, ha\-ing originated from a 

 certain variety, they are to be considered as synonyms of the 

 oi-iginal. In no other way can I account for the placing of 

 Veitch's Improved Ashleaf in the company of Cambridgeshire 

 Kidney. Last year " our best authorities " had found it iden- 

 tical with Gloucestershire Kidney and Eoyal Ashleaf, it not 

 being, in my opinion, an improvement to place this very de- 

 sirable kind — i.e., Veitch's Improved Ashleaf — in the society of 

 Early May, which is an inferior form of Ashleaf. Veitch's 

 Ashleaf is a most desirable kind for forcing, in pots, pits, 

 and frames, and it is, to say the least, straining a point to 

 discover it is one year identical with Gloucestershire Kidney 

 and Elvers' Eoyal Ashleaf — both of which are later by ten days 

 to a fortnight, and have stronger haulm — and the next that it 

 is Cambridgeshire Kidney, the Kentish Ashleaf. 



Mona's Pride, happily, is so dissimilar to the " old famihar 

 Ashleaf" that we may pass it by without comment, as no one 

 who has grown the two — a thing, by the way, I may mention 

 very few have — will ever agree to the synonym. 



Up to this stage we have twenty pretenders for the honour 

 of the Ashleaf, and it may be said of them all, one is as much 

 Ashleaf as the other. They all show theu' parentage, and for 

 ordinary purposes may be reduced to two, or at most three, 

 kinds — viz., Sandringham Kidney, the neai'est to the original 

 of all kinds named, notwithstanding that the Irish Farmer's 

 Gazette sets it down as an imposition on Myatt's Prolific Ash- 

 leaf, the original name of Myatt's Ashleaf, which is ten days 

 later — it is a vei-y true stock of the old Ashleaf ; Myatt's 

 Prolific Ashleaf, or Veitch's Improved Ashleaf, the two being 

 good croppers, and very good iu quaUty, will succeed the 

 Sandringham. These three are the best of the Ashleaf type, 

 Myatt's having its tubers close to the stem, whilst Veitch's 

 are produced on rather long wires, but gives a more even- 

 sized tuber. 



We now come to Lapstoue, no more variable Potato known, 

 so that we need not wonder at the number of synonyms. I 

 could in any year put forth half a dozen from a selection of 

 the true kind. It sports more than any other sort, and the 

 kinds named as originating from it are all of them inferior, 

 if we except Yorkshire Hero, which undoubtedly is a fine 

 Lapstone, in no way inferior to it. Originating from the Lap- 

 stoue by seed, it is not nearly so variable as the Lapstone, 

 but, nevertheless, has all the characteristics of the Lapstone, 

 it not being free from reverting to the Copper-nosed Kidney 

 from which the Lapstone is derived. Huntingdon Kidney and 

 all the aliases have more of the Copper-nosed Kidney blood 

 than of the Lapstone, not one at all comparing with the Lap- 

 stone for quaUty. They are aU too much nose, and heel too 

 long ; the Lapstone, though flat, being a bulky Potato, with 

 very little difference between the rotundity of the nose and 

 heel. The Yorkshire Hero has a better constitution, hence 

 succeeds on soils from which the Lapstone is driven by 

 their wetness and closeness. To keep the Lapstone true the 



