October 14, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



335 



and very handsome, containing usually nine peas of a very 

 fine dark green colour. It attained to a height of 5 feet. A 

 fine Pes, the earliest and best of wrinkled Green Marrows. 



Supplanter. — This is very robust, and attained to a height 

 of 4 feet, having very large pods (i inches long and correspond- 

 ingly broad. Peas large and of a rich green colour ; and 

 though it is of the Imperial class it is fully half wrinkled, 

 possessing a quality equal to any of the latter class, being a 

 large, handsome, and very prolifio kind that will supplant 

 many others. The first pods were fit to gather the 13th of 

 August, being neatly a month later in this instance than Dr. 

 Hogg, and it continued in use up to the early part of September. 



Connoisseur. — This attained to a height of 8 feet and is 

 growing yet, having the rambling growth of Ne Plus Ultra. 

 It commenced podding at 2J to 3 feet from the ground, and 

 producing twenty and more pods upon a stem. The foliage 

 is deep green and enduring, which gives a kind of evergreen 

 appearance to the rows — i.e., plants and seed, being green and 

 having very great resemblance to Ne Plus Ultra, but the pods 

 are straight and well filled with about seven good -sized peas 

 of the highest excellence. It is more proUfic, more continuous- 

 bearing, and decidedly as a late kind superior to Ne Plus Ultra. 

 It had pods fit to gather the 1st of September, and has now 

 (September 28th) upon the same plant pods with ripe seed, 

 some fit to gather, others just slatted, and also flowers, which 

 will give an idea of its continuity of bearing. 



Now, by omitting Unique we have from a sowing of Peas of 

 three kinds — viz., Dr. Hogg, Supplanter, and Connoisseur, made 

 early in May, a succession of Peas from the middle of July into 

 October. Such a trio for excellence as I have not found before ; 

 whilst the dwarf one, Unique, is essentially an amateur's Pea 

 of the first cropping and using quality. — G. Abbey. 



NEAR AND AMONG ANTEDILUVIANS.-No. 2. 

 Rapidly becoming antediluvian — that is, things of the past — 

 are country pleasure fairs ; that of Lyme Regis was on the 

 5th inst. and two booths for the sale of toys and sweetmeats 

 then comprised the whole ! The useful portion of this annual 

 gathering retains its full vitality. Householders lay-in their 

 winter store of Onions on that day, and garden-holders buy 

 the Cabbage plants which are to yield their spring supply. 

 The Onions are sold in " bags," each bag containing six pecks, 

 and hundreds of bags were there. Pickling Onions sold for 

 lOrf. the peck of 14 lbs. The best store Onions, averaging 

 3 inches in diameter, sold for Id. the peck. The Cabbage 

 plants, a large-hearting variety, were 6(i. per hundred. 



I have now journeyed over a semicircle round the town 

 having a radius of ten miles, and in all directions the cottage 

 gardens are worthy of praise. The flower beds even at this 

 season are gay, for Fuchsias, Geraniums, Hydrangeas, and 

 Myrtles remain in the beds throughout the winter. Many 

 hedges of Fuchsia Ricoartonii are to be seen in superior gar- 

 dens, and single shrubs of it 10 feet high with branches cover- 

 ing a circle of 8 feet diameter. Myrtles are also tall shrubs, 

 and are now in flower. 



Other plants which in colder districts are dwarf shrubs, or 

 require the shelter of a wall, are here tall standards. I have 

 just seen a Fig tree, a 20-feet-high standard, with 6 feet 

 branches all round, and a stem 2 feet in circumference. It is 

 loaded with fruit nearly full grown, and which will ripen if this 

 month prove sunny, and if it prove unpropitious the fruit will 

 be fit for preserving. The Holly is more than usually em- 

 ployed for hedging round fields as well as gardens, but it is 

 only on its tree-grcrwth that I wish to note. Holly trees are 

 frequent and noble both in size and vigour. One close to the 

 town is .50 feet high, its single stem more than 3 feet in girth, 

 and its branches shade a circle of 20 feet diameter. Portugal 

 Laurels, and, indeed, all hardy evergreens, are of superior 

 stature and vigour. 



I dwelt in my previous notes upon that unique plant " The 

 Flower of the Axe." Among other plants rare in the neigh- 

 bourhood is the insect-devouring Drosera, rendered more no- 

 torious recently by Mr. Darwin, and the Bog Pimpernel. The 

 Primrose is here common, but the Cowslip is scarcely known, 

 and is popularly called " the Crewel." This and other local 

 names of plants induced me to hope that among them might 

 be the mysterious " Cnlverkeys," but no plant is known here 

 by that name. 



The Apple orchards are most numerous, and the crop this 

 year very large. From here down to the valley of the Axe is 

 the locality where the best cider is made. The cmshing has 



commenced, and I have seen cartloads of Apples being taken 

 to the mill. 



As I write cartloads of seaweed are passing the window, and 

 they continue passing all the day, and every day except 

 Sunday. The supply is inexhaustible, for every tide throws it 

 up into an accessible cove behind the solid stone Cobb, or pier 

 as it would be called elsewhere. The seaweed is chiefiy spread 

 over the grass land at this time of the year, but it is used as a 

 foundation for the compost heaps. In the garden it is espe- 

 cially liked for Cabbages and Potatoes. One gardener tells me 

 that it is spread thickly beneath Gooseberry bushes to prevent 

 the caterpillar. 



As might be expected from Sir Walter Raleigh's connection 

 with, and the trade with Spain being largely carried on along 

 this coast, it was one of the earliest to cultivate the Potato 

 extensively. Chard was, and still is, one of the largest markets 

 for it. The commonalty at first had a great prejudice against 

 its use for food, and they thought that the higher classes had 

 some sinister motive in promoting its growth — no fact could 

 show this more forcibly than the election cry at Lewes, " No 

 Popery ! No Potatoes !" 



The word "Popery" reminds me that I have just been to 

 the church here — though nothing can possibly be further from 

 decoration than that — but it enables me to jot down that in 

 the nave there is an epitaph on one of the Roses, contem- 

 porary with him who was Charles II. 'a gardener. It is in 

 memory of Elisabeth Rose, and it includes this anagram, 

 " Ohe ! blest arise." Totally differing in every respect is the 

 church, and all its surroundings of Monkton Weald, a good 

 old Saxon name, and going thither I passed an inn with a 

 sign, probably the only one in all England. It is the " Pen 

 Inn," so called, not in reference to the writing implement, but 

 because it is on the top of the hill. Pen being the Saxon for a 

 summit. The parsonage, the churchyard, and the church are 

 all models worthy of general imitation. The incumbent, the 

 Rev. J. B. Camm, is known to the readers of this .Journal as a 

 skilled rosarian. His Rose beds on three descending terraces 

 are occupied by about two hundred standard, and a more than 

 equal number of dwarf Rose trees. Far away on the other side 

 the churchyard is the Rose nursery. Hundreds of this year's 

 budded standard stocks looked like a miniature Hop ground. 

 Much did I regret that my visit was not in the season of Roses. 

 The parsonage is on a hill side, and the terraces follow at 

 different levels down the hill in its front. The little side 

 gardens, filled with Geranium beds, and surrounded by lofty 

 HolUes, the beautiful specimens of Conifers, the Magnolia, Coton- 

 easter. Fuchsia, and Tea Roses, covering the house front, are all 

 impressed on my memory, but should be shown by the pencil. 

 The churchyard has no common-shaped gravestones, but 

 all have neat memorials, alternating artistically with small 

 flower beds. Roses, Gladioluses, Phloxes, and Heliotropes 

 were its blooming tenants when I was there ; but there are 

 successions for other seasons, and a purple Clematis and a 

 Passion-Flower are on the church wall. These all tell of 

 happiness to those gone on before, whilst the Cypresses and 

 Weeping Willow of the boundary are fitting for those they 

 have left behind. 



There and everywhere the harvest thanksgivings have just 

 concluded — gladdening all, for all feel the gratitude that they 

 are instituted to express. The interior of all the churches 

 have been in some mode decorated, and I will slightly detail 

 the decorations of Beaminster church as an illustration : The 

 reredos had an elaborate course of Barley, Dahlias, scarlet 

 Geraniums, and foliage across the top, and in the centre under- 

 neath there was a cross of white Roses, bordered with a design 

 in corn and flowers. Two miniature sheaves of Wheat tied 

 with scarlet Geraniums stood upon the communion table, and 

 there were two more on the communion-table steps. The 

 organ screen had an artistic adornmfnt composed of Wheat- 

 ears, flowers, and fruit, interspersed with Ferns and variegated 

 foliage, and the reading-desks and lectern were similarly em- 

 bellished. Each panel of the pulpit was marked out with a 

 blade of Indian Grass, and filled-in with vases of Moss, five in 

 number, containing handsome bouquets of flowers, and at the 

 top and bottom were wreaths of Wheat-ears, Apples, flowers, 

 and foliage, from which Grapes were pendant. The font was 

 covered with white Roses, Oats, and Barley, and at the base 

 were placed small sheaves of Wheat and pot flowers. All the 

 gas standards were adorned with Indian Grass. — G. 



Straweebeies.— On Thursday the 30th of September, and 

 on Monday the 4th of October, there was gathered from my 



