May 28, 1874. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOETIODLTDBE AND OOTTAQB GABDENBB. 



419 



who, from no fault of their own, have not half the happinefs 

 in the garden whiuh ho himself enjoys. — Wsi. T.wlor. 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



TuE Council of the Eoyal Horticultural Society telegraphed 

 on the llHh inst. to the President of the Tuscan Eoyal Horti- 

 cultural Society, to propose that an International Show be held 

 in London in 1876. In the event of the proposition proving 

 acceptable, the Council will at once take steps to organise a 

 joint Committee representing the Society, the Royal Botanic 

 Society, and the other leading horticultural bodies, should 

 they be willing to lend their assistance. 



The Council propose that the Society should hold a dinner 

 this year in the latter part of June. The prices of the tickets 

 and other details will be notified as soon as possible; but we 

 may mention in the meantime that, if feasible, the dinner will 

 take place at Chiswick. The success of the undertaking will 

 of course depend upon the numbers who attend, and the Secre- 

 tary wishes to hear from Fellows on the subject. 



We are informed that what has been published about a 

 country meeting at Wigan is quite premature. 



PATENT CLIMAX BOILER. 

 We publish the following for the information of some Irish 

 correspondents. For further particulars they must write to 



Frout Elevation. 



the Thames Bank Iron Company, whose advertisement appears 

 in our columns. It seems simple in construction, is made of 



Cross Sectiou tkrough Feeder. 



"Brought iron, will bear great pressure, and has no joints 

 or sockets. It is made in various sizes, from 24 inches to 

 60 inches in length, the smallest being capable of heating 

 750 feet of l-inch pipe. 



FRUIT PROSPECTS. 

 I AM anxious to know if there is the same scarcity of fruit, 

 or rather blossom, on Apple trees generally this year as is the 

 case here. I have just been round the garden and two orchards. 

 In all there are about two hundred Apple trees, and for the last 

 four years I have had hundreds of bushels. I have now in 

 the house a few bushels left of a most excellent cooking Apple ; 

 but this year, without the slightest exaggeration, there will not 

 be one bushel from all the two hundred trees together. Is this 

 failure general ? There is an enormous crop of Pears and also 

 Apricots. Only a few Plums, and the Peaches and Nectarines 

 are utterly spoilt from blight, which I find has afiected the 



whole neighbourhood. Everyone's Potatoes have been se- 

 riously damaged by the severe frosts of last week. — F. P. G., 

 Shrewsbury. 



RHODODENDRON NUTTALLIL 

 RnODODENDKON NoTTALLii is uow in bloom in the gardens 

 of the Misses Cattley, Claydene, Edenbridge. The truss of 

 bloom on the main stem consists of nine flowers, measuring 

 l(j inches across, and the individual flowers over G inches in 

 diameter with the same depth of tube, and two of the side 

 branches have one truss of five flowers each, being nineteen 

 flowers altogether. The flowers are pure white within, saving 

 a tinge of gold colour in the throat, with a tinge of delicate 

 light rose round the margin. This may encourage to perse- 

 verance some of your readers after the many disappointments 

 from its not often flowering. The plant is 11 feet high, con- 

 sisting of one main stem and three branches starting about 

 '2 J feet from the base. Would it be advisable to cut it down 

 aa soon as it has done flowering to within about 3 feet of the 

 pot and that would leave li inches of stem to all the branches? 

 The plant is quite healthy, only too late for ua. — Thomas Neil, 

 Claydene, Edenhriilge. 



FOUNTAINE'S VINERY AT BLENHEIM. 



I MUST once more crave your indulgence to say a few more 

 words on the above subject, though Mr. Temple's remarks 

 were really answered in my former article. All the questions, 

 moreover, brought forward by him and many more are fully 

 considered and answered in my pamphlet on the subject, and 

 of this fact he is as fully aware as I am. There are, however, 

 several points left by him to be inferred which might lead to 

 error. He says he is aware the plan was submitted to Mr. 

 Thomson when he was gardener at Dalkeith ; " However, it 

 was not put in practice there." It was never submitted to 

 Mr. Thomson with that view, nor was he ever asked to pro- 

 mote the building of a house in those gardens. Mr. Temple 

 says there was but one Madresfield Court Vine on the rafters 

 of the house at Chiswick when he saw it. The house is only 

 25 feet in length, and probably Mr. Barron considered one 

 Vine with three stems 8 feet apart aa good as three separate 

 Vines ; but I have not been there lately to be able to state 

 this as a fact. He says there was no fruit on the trees, only 

 healthy foliage. Perhaps the fruit had been gathered. At all 

 events (as I stated in a former article), Mr. Barron wrote to 

 say that Peaches were very scarce last year throughout Chis- 

 wick gardens, but that those grown on my system had, with- 

 out doubt, the best flavour, so there must have been some 

 fruit at some time. Mr. Temple gives no account of what 

 stone fruit he saw in the various other houses at Chiswick. 



As to the different process required for growing fruit for 

 market and for a gentleman's table, as quoted from my 

 pamphlet, where the reasons are fully stated, the remark is 

 not mine, but that of a first-rate gardener, and I quite agree 

 with him. 



Mr. Temple goes on to say, " If Mr. Fountaine can bring 

 his fruits on under glass to give earlier supplies, the Vines wiU 

 be there still. Then, what about shade which alarms him so 

 much in the earlier part of his paper ? This suggestion floors 

 Mr. Fountaine's argument of keeping the fruits entirely out of 

 doors to secure flavour." Perhaps Mr. Temple will tell us 

 why the Vines are planted only 8 feet apart on the close-spur- 

 system, except to give ample light and heat to the trees when 

 in the house, and to prevent the house being useless to them, 

 as it would be by Mr. Temple's proposal of " giving the system 

 a trial on its widest merits," under a roof covered wholly with 

 Vines. As to this "flooring" my own argument of keeping 

 the trees entirely out of doora to secure flavour, it would have 

 saved trouble if he had talked of flooring an argument I never 

 used. Where, or when, have I ever proposed to keep the trees 

 entirely out of doors ? I have very strongly advocated the 

 contrary view, and given it as a reason why carrying out the 

 pots permanently by hand does not answer, as if the weather 

 changes they are better put back again. The late Peaches if 

 kept out for extra retarding in cold autumns at the ripening 

 period would lose flavour, and so would the early-forced fruit 

 if kept in the house in fine weather; but this sacrifice must 

 be complied with as regards very early and very late fruit in 

 both these extreme cases. Mr. Temple adds, " When I say 

 Mr. Fountaine's system can be adopted with success, I am 

 again pointing to the X, s. d. view ; my return of Grapes would 



