336 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 28, 1875. 



for snb-tropical plants. My Hedyohium flavnm and Cassia 

 corymbosa have been glorious. For four or five years neither 

 of these plants have suffered from winter. — W. W. Wingfield, 

 Gulval, Cormcall. 



THE OLD MARKET GARDENS and NURSERIES 

 OF LONDON.— No. 5. 



In a collection of old proverbs, or, as some people term 

 them, "musty saws," this occurs — "Fear keeps the garden 

 better than the gardener." I acknowledge at first sight this 

 appears enigmatical. Of course the allusion is not to keeping 

 a garden in order, but to its protection in some way. My in- 

 terpretation of it is as follows : Many of the plots of land 

 enclosed as gardens two or three hundred years ago were partly 

 used for the cultivation of various herbs prized on account of 

 their real or supposed medicinal elEcacy. Some of these were 

 foreign, grown from seeds brought home by the EngUshmen 

 who were then beginning to form that acquaintance with dis- 

 tant lands which has so largely increased of late years. Hence 

 a thief, who might otherwise have been tempted to trespass 

 upon a gardener's domain to carry off plants which he could 

 turn into money, would be, according to the superstition of 

 those times, afraid to touch them, because he attributed to 

 them powers of which he knew but little. That at least is my 

 explanation of the proverb ; if anyone can bring forth a better 

 I shall be glad to hear from him. 



They were singular folk, many of them, the gardeners of the 

 Stuart period ; and perhaps modern horticulturists are scarcely 

 ready to accept the fact that an enthusiasm in the matter of 

 plant-cultivation was once deemed a species of craze. I think 

 this arose from the fact that some of the hermits — men who, 

 either in or out of monastic orders, chose to lead sequestered 

 lives — occupied themselves in this pursuit, making a living 

 occasionally by vending the vegetables they grew. This is not 

 out of the line of our present subject, as I shall show, because 

 as one investigates the history of the suburbs of London, par- 

 ticularly with regard to the old garden grounds, one discovers 

 here and there traces of these hermits — men not positively 

 lunatics, I suppose, yet like Hamlet cranky in certain states of 

 the wind, and who found occupation and solacement thus. 

 The world generally was well content to leave them alone ; and 

 if, as it occasionally appears, they took possession of a plot to 

 which they had no right, land was not then valuable near 

 London. 



In my preceding article I made reference to Clerkenwell and 

 some of its old nurseries and gardens. Not very far from 

 Clerkenwell Green, and in proximity to Smithfield, is the 

 Charterhouse with its enclosed ground, which had, even at the 

 date of the battle of Waterloo, an outlook towards the open 

 country to the north. It is still a debatable question whether 

 the piece of land originally called " No Man's Land," and 

 afterwards in the occupation of the Carthusian monks, was or 

 was not the plot purchased by Sir Walter Manning, in which 

 many thousands of persons were buried during a visitation of 

 the plague in the fourteenth century. To us it is of curious 

 interest for this reason, that a writer on the history of Middle- 

 sex expatiates on the beauty of this spot and the flourishing 

 condition of the trees and plants growing in the locality, which 

 might be attributable to the enrichment of the soil by this 

 multitude of dead. Besides the land belonging to the Charter- 

 house, and for centuries cultivated as a garden, there was an 

 enclosed garden, a kind of nursery of the period, and called 

 the " Brikes," mentioned in a deed of sale dated in the seventh 

 year of Queen EUzabeth. The Wilderness, which, like some 

 other places of the like name, was not a wilderness at all, but 

 a piece of ground planted with some regularity by one or other 

 of the noble residents there, said in a rare tract of 1707 to 

 contain various scarce trees and shrubs, before it became a 

 charitable institution, and was one of the early examples of 

 an attempt at ornamental gardening. The appellation " Wil- 

 derness Row" still survives, but few trees to which we can 

 assign a date of any antiquity. " One swallow does not make 

 a summer " it is true, and one Pear tree does not represent 

 an orchard necessarily; and yet I think "Pear Tree Street " 

 not far distant tells the story of a long-surviving Pear tree 

 which escaped the fate of its brethren in the orchards that 

 formerly laid to the east of Clerkenwell. Possibly, as there is 

 a " Cherry Tree Alley " in Bunhill Row near the ArtUlery 

 Ground, the orchards extended in that direction also. But a 

 little farther north there were marshy fields which it was 

 hardly likely that anyone would plant with fruit trees, near 



" Holy-well " and other springs, where Willow Walk and Willow 

 Street tell a tale of the times when Finsbury was really " Fens- 

 bury," and only good for archery. — C. 



THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT STOCKS ON 

 GROS GUILLAUME GRAPE. 



We have this Grape^so long miscalled Barbarossa — in two 

 difierent houses grafted on the Muscat of Alexandria, and in 

 another and cooler house on Black Hamburgh roots. In the 

 Muscat house, and in the cooler Hamburgh house, we have it 

 also on its own roots. The results under these three con- 

 ditions are strikingly different. In both houses on the Muscat 

 stock it swells its berries much more regularly and to a larger 

 size than it does on its own roots in the same house and on 

 Vines of the same age. In the cooler Black Hamburgh house 

 it neither makes such large berries nor bunches, but it colours 

 much more rapidly than in Muscat temperature on the Muscat 

 stocks, or than it colours on its own roots in either house. 

 We have one vigorous Vine on its own roots, in which there are 

 just two moderate-sized bunches ; but these two bunches are 

 not nearly so fine in berry as bunches four times their size on 

 Muscat roots under heavy crops. We consider this one of tho 

 noblest-looking, and in every respect one of the best late 

 Grapes in cultivation ; and to those who wish to grow it to the 

 greatest perfection in bunch and berry as well as high finish 

 we would say. Graft it on a Muscat in a Muscat temperature, 

 and allow the stock at the same time to develope either one or 

 two bearing canes, as well as the graft of Gros Guillaume. It 

 must be added that it fruits more freely under close pruning 

 on the Muscat than on its own roots or on the Black Ham- 

 burgh.— D. T.— (T/iC Gardener.) 



DOINGS OF THE LAST AND WORK FOR 

 THE PRESENT WEEK. 



HABDY FBUIT G.UiDES. 



Many persons leave the fruit of late Pears on the trees uutil 

 the middle of November, when frosts hold off, but fruit left upon 

 the trees until so late in the season is not likely to ripen well. 

 It will answer to leave fruits of all the kitchen sorts as long as 

 possible, as the longer the fruit hangs firmly to the trees, and 

 the leaves remain healthy, so will the fruit increase in size. We 

 have had Uvedale's St. Germain hanging uutil the middle of 

 November, and it will, perhaps, hang so late as that this year. 

 All Pears intended for dessert purposes should be gathered by 

 this time. Much that has been gathered shows signs of not 

 keeping well, therefore it is the more necessary frequently to 

 examine the fruit, and let all the decaying specimens be removed 

 from the house at once. Damp and mould cause decay even if 

 they do not apparently come in contact with sound fruit. The 

 best way to store Pears is to lay the fruit down carefully one row 

 deep, but in many instances it will be necessary to place another 

 layer over the other. Apples, if intended for exhibition purposes, 

 should be allowed to remain upon the trees as long as they are 

 Ukely to increase in size, but they must bo protected with nets 

 to prevent birds from pecking them. The birds may just pick a 

 small hole in the fruit, but from this small point decay will com- 

 mence, and in a very short time the fruit is a mass of decay. As 

 the fruit is gathered it must be carefully named. 



AH the fruit intended to keep late should be placed in a cool 

 room, and tho atmosphere ought not to be so dry as in the place 

 where fruit is ripening. Apples keep well under the same cir- 

 cumstances as Pears. We have kept fine specimens for a special 

 purpose in boxes of dry sand. Each fruit was wrapped up in 

 paper, a layer of fruit was laid in the bottom of the box, and all 

 the interstices filled in with white sand, a second layer of fruit 

 was then laid over the other, sand was filled-in in the same way, 

 the process being continued until the box was filled. Apples 

 keep clean and free from taint in this way for a long period. 



In wet weather nothing can be done in the way of planting, 

 and it is a question whether any good can be done at trenching. 

 Our own opinion is, that it is the most profitable way to dis- 

 continue working on the ground altogether when it is saturated 

 with wet. It is a good opportunity to clear the weeds from walks 

 and Box edgings, and all gravel walks may be rolled and made 

 comfortable for the winter. 



Those who contemplate making a plantation of Raspberry 

 plants this season should make arrangements at once. The 

 Raspberry delights in a deep, rich, unctuous soil, and will do 

 better in a shady position than any other of our fruits. After the 

 position for the bed or quarter has been determined the ground 

 should be trenched about 2 feet deep, and plenty of rich manure 

 should be incorporated with it during the operation. Any fine 

 day after this the ground will be ready for planting. This to a 

 certain extent may be done according to the taste of the owner. 



