260 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



by growing these in pots, so that eacli might be retarded oi 

 advanced by the heat to which it is subjected, both might be 

 brought into bloom at the same time, and if crossed, the 

 result might be a black grape with the muscat size and 

 flavour, or some approach to it ; for a better chance of success 

 might be added half a dozen of the best grapes. The sweet- 

 water, which is early, might by pot-culture, be made to in- 

 r'.rease the chances by showing its bloom with the otliers ; it 

 IS quite certain that if the grapes were all planted in one 

 house they would not all bloom at one time, and that to 

 accomplish this the sweetwater must be necessarily kept back 

 in the open air, while the black Hamburgh may be pushed 

 on a little, and some late ones actually forced j for unless 

 they are all flowering together, they cannot fertilize each 

 other. It would give a fairer chance of a good variety to 

 let all be put into one house when in bloom, than it would, 

 perhaps, to actually fertilize one with another artificially. 



If a grape* could be obtained with the colour of the Ham- 

 burgh, the earliness of the sweetwater, and the flavour of the 

 muscat, it would be beyond all price valuable. There is no 

 doubt that the raisers of stocks for grafting pick up their 

 seeds anywhere, and, therefore, raise nothing but common 

 wild fruit-trees, which are the result of ninety-nine stones 

 and pips out of a hundred ; but if, like the late Mr. Knight, 

 peo|)le would fertilize one sort with another, of such qualities 

 as may, when amalgamated, be an improvement, much better 

 chances of success would be given. If, among a large quan- 

 tity of stocks come up from pips and stones, we could, by 

 carefully going over them, find any strange foliage or habit, 

 — anytliing, in fact, that looked different from a wild stock, — 

 our business would be to mark such, not to be used for stocks, 

 but to stand and fruit, and show what they were ; for the 

 chances are, that, as the habit is different, the fruit will be 

 different ; and it is only by such means that new varieties 

 have been from time to time produced; and no man can guess 

 what splendid varieties of plums, apples, pears, and cherries, 

 may be buried, as it were, in stocks : for many have treated 

 tens of thousands of seedling-plants as if they were all wild, 

 without once taking the trouble to examine the foliage, to 

 see if there were any that had wandered from the ordinary 



* Since this was written in 1850, the muscat Hamburgh has beeu 

 produced, and a valuable grape it is. 



