360 Notes and Gleanings. 



entirely new vein has been struck. The past year has not been so prolific of 

 novelties, in the way of fruits, as some of its predecessors. This may, in some 

 degree, be accounted for by the uncongenial nature of the spring of 1869, which 

 had a most disastrous effect upon fruit crops generally. 



Commencing with the grape, the king of fruits, we have to welcome as a stan- 

 dard late white grape, Mr. W. Thomson's White Lady Downe's, a variety pos- 

 sessing all the good qualities of its black parent, the well-known Lady Downe's 

 Seedling. Mr. Pearson, of Chilwell, may also be complimented on his success 

 in hybridizing the scented strawberry grape with our better-flavored European 

 varieties — an important preliminary step, though the hybrids obtained are not 

 large either in bunch or berry — since they possess the true strawberry scent of 

 the parent, and are very pleasantly flavored, especially one which is now called 

 M. de Lesseps. Then we have, from Mr. Melville, of Dalmeny Park, another 

 scented grape, called the Perfumed Muscat, which in appearance somewhat re- 

 sembles a small Muscat of Alexandria, and is very pleasantly flavored. A curi- 

 ous sport from the Citronelle, with striped berries, resembling, in the peculiarity 

 of its coloring and marking, the old Aleppo, or variegated Chasselas, has been 

 seen at one of the Kensington meetings. 



New melons are generally plentiful, but there are few more finely flavored or 

 more distinct than Mr. Gilbert's Burghley Green-fleshed has proved itself to 

 be ; while the new Italian variety, Triomphe de Nice, is also of fine quality. 



Among stone fruits, we have acquired, of apricots. Golden Drop, a small, very 

 early sort ; and New Large Early, a very decided improvement on the old form. 

 Peaches yield a good useful variety in Large Early Mignonne, ripening about a 

 week earlier than the Early Grosse Mignonne ; and of nectarines, Lord Napier 

 is an early sort, of first-rate quality, raised from a stone of the Early Albert 

 peach. These all come from Mr. Rivers's establishment. Of plums we have a 

 valuable addition, as an early dessert fruit, in Dry's Seedling, a large, roundish- 

 oval, reddish-purple variety, very pleasantly flavored. 



Dessert apples have yielded little novelty. To Mr. Lawrence, of Chatteris, we 

 owe a very pleasing addition to winter dessert fruit in Mrs. Ward, one of the 

 most sprightly-flavored, pleasant, and beautiful little apples yet introduced, hav- 

 ing the appearance of a Court of Wick, with the color of the Scarlet Nonpareil, 

 from which it was raised. We may also notice, as a pretty ornamental sort, 

 rivalling the Pomme d'Api in beauty, and of good quality into the bargain, an 

 accidentally-crossed 'seedling of the Red Siberian Crab, raised by Mr. Jennings, 

 and to be called the Fairy Apple. In pears, though many varieties have been 

 brought forward, all have fallen short in pohit of flavor, for which, perhaps, the 

 season is mainly to blame. 



Small fruits have furnished M'Laren's Prolific raspberry, a double-bearing, 

 large red variety, producing enormous crops on the young shoots ; its chief 

 merit thus being its lateness. Black currants have given us, in Lee's Prolific 

 Black, a sort larger and better than the Black Naples, and one which possesses 

 the merit of hanging firmly on the bushes for a long time after getting ripe. 

 Finally, to wind up \vith a boiutc-bouchc, we gain in strawberries the Ascot Pine- 



