1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



289 



view to the production of new and improved varieties. — 

 Among the smaller fruits, none possess a greater value than 

 the currant, and yet none have received less attention at the 

 hands of cultivators. Mr. Knight, impressed with the idea 

 that very superior kinds would be the result of proper atten- 

 tion to the growth of seedlings, wrote an article upon the 

 subject which was published in the Transactions of the So- 

 ciety. He also raised a great number of seedlings, and 

 three of them were thought to possess such merits as to 

 be deserving of names. The gooseberry has been impro- 

 ved from a small and austere berry to a very large and deli- 

 cious fruit : the strawberry has also been produced of such 

 size and flavor as to be scarcely recognized as the offspring 

 of the wild berry of the woods and pastures. And why 

 may not the same success attend experiments to improve 

 the currant? There is no reason to doubt they will, and 

 we may yet hope to see currants nearly as large as cherries, 

 and possessing a flavor much sweeter and richer than any 

 we now possess. 



l\\e White and Red 

 Dutch currants have 

 been cultivated for a 

 great length of time, and 

 have not, until now, been 

 displaced by any new 

 varieties. 3Ir. Knight's 

 seedlings, though good, 

 did not supersede these 

 old sorts. We have, 

 however, in the variety 

 under notice, one which 

 bids fair to take a place 

 at the head of all. This 

 is " May's Victoria." — 

 Though recently raised 

 from seed, and as yet 

 confined to a limited 

 number of collections, its 

 merits are so great that 

 it will soon find its way 

 into every garden. The 

 berries are of very large 

 size, of a rich deep color, 

 often measuring fiv 

 eighths of an inch in di- 

 ameter, and the bunches 

 are from five to six inch- 

 es long. The flavor is 

 also excellent, and,— 

 what is of great impor- 

 tance, — the fruit will 

 hang in perfection for a 

 much longer time than 

 the White or Red Dutch. 



This variety was rais- 

 ed by Mr. Wm. May, 

 nurseryman, of York- 

 shire, Eng., and the fruit 

 ■was exhibited at one of 

 the shows of the London 

 Horticultural Society, 

 and was awarded the 

 prize both for its size and 

 excellence. It has been 

 but little disseminated, 

 owing to the high price of 

 the plants ; but, as they 

 are easily multiplied, we 

 may soon hope to see it 

 introduced into every 

 garden where the pro- 

 duction of fine fruit is an 

 object. 



Our plants produced a 

 few specimens last year, 

 and, from the ordinary 

 size of the clusters and 

 berries, we thought it 

 had been overrated ; but, ^*S- 67. Victoria Currant. 

 the present season, when the bushes had acquired suflicient 

 strength to bear a crop, we were happily disappointed in 

 finding the fruit and bunches of such large size and beauti- 

 ful appearance ; and our drawing (Fig. 67) is an aeucrate 

 representation, by mea.surement, of the size of both berry 

 and bunch. 



The plants are of exceedingly vigorous habit, with foliage 

 diflfering from the White and Red Dutch in being thicker, 

 deeper green, and not so finely cut at the edges : in good 

 rich soil, the annual shoots are very stout aod strong. 



The currant, as we have stated in the article before allud- 

 ed to, requires to be severely pruned when the object is 

 large and haudsome bunches and berries. It would be use- 

 less to expect fine fruit unless this is attended to. At the 

 spring pruning, every new shoot should be headed back to 

 four or five eyes, and the old wood wholly cut out, or as 

 much of it as possible, as it is only on the young and vigor- 

 ous wood that the best fruit is produced. By attending to 

 these suggestions, the cultivator may have the finest fruit. 



We may therefore highly recommend the Victoria cur- 

 rant ; and, as its production is one step towards a superior 

 fruit, we hope our amateur cultivators may be induced to 

 follow up the experiment until something still better shall 

 be the result. 



We find the history of this currant given in a 

 recent number of the Gardner's Chronicle, from 

 its discoverer Mr. Charlton, a well known nur- 

 seryman in Northumberland. It appears that 

 some 40 years ago, Mr. C, then an apprentice 

 to a jobbing gardener who took care of Capt. 

 Smith's gardens at Houghton Castle, was sent to 

 gather red currants. In the course of his labors 

 he came to a bush, the last in the row, which 

 bore large, superior fruit. He then went to his 

 master to inquire what sort it was. He replied 

 he did not know ; but went and looked at it, and 

 then remembered that when he planted the row 

 he lacked one plant, and looking around the gar- 

 den found a seedling under a gooseberry bush, 

 which he took and planted — and this proves to 

 be the bush in question. It was then propaga- 

 ted extensively, and when Mr. Charlton com- 

 menced a nursery on his own account, he adver- 

 tised and sold it as the Houghton Castle Currant. 

 It has since been called "Victoria" and " Raby 

 Castle Red" Currant, by other cultivators, and 

 has been received in this country under the name 

 of May's Victoria Currant. 



A Curious Flower. — A singular phenome- 

 non, says a French paper, has shown itself in a 

 greenhouse at Lyons. At the time when all the 

 growers of camellias, roses, dahlias, &c., are 

 puzzling themselves to get the blue color, the on- 

 ly shade which nature has refused to these kind 

 of plants, chance has thrown a shade of azure 

 blue upon the petals of flowers produced by one 

 single branch of a camellia root of the species 

 ambricala rubra. This plant belongs to M. Da- 

 gene. The interior petal of the flowers are of 

 a delicate red, the superior are white, and both 

 are united with blue. The flower thus unites 

 three additional colors. 



Married, at Oberlin, O., on the 4th ult., by Prof. H. 

 Cowles, Mr. M. B. Bateham, editor of the Ohio Cultivator, 

 to Miss Louisa Jane Lovell, late of Unionville. 



Mr. Batemam's numerous friends in Western 

 N. York and elsewhere, will, we are sure, unite 

 with us in congratulating him upon his escape 

 from bachelorism. We are assured that the fair 

 partner he has chosen is eminently qualified to 

 make him happy at home, and aid him in the 

 management of his Cultivator and '-little farm" 

 — just the one he has long been seeking. 



