THK CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



233 



APPLES IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 

 Ill relation to apples and popular 

 varieties, Mr. Josiah Hoopes, a well 

 known Pennsylvania authority, com- 

 municates the following to the New 

 York Tribune. So thorough a com- 

 petitive test was never before attempt- 

 ed as ut the English Apple Convention 

 of last autumn. It resulted in teaching 

 our trans-Atlantic brethren at lea^t 

 one good lesson, and we may ])rofit by 

 it as well. Of the 1,54;") varieties on 

 exhibition, two were better than all 

 the rest. To arrive at this coi\clusion 

 each exhibitor was invited to name 

 the best varieties of his district, for 

 dessert as well as cooking, " so the 

 whole of Great Britain was polled," 

 and the resiilt was : King of the Pip- 

 pins headed the list for dessert, and 

 Lord SufHeld for culinaiy uses. The 

 report is noticeable for the absence of 

 American varieties, showing the im- 

 portance of each country, and of each 

 section as well, depending upon its own 

 native kinds for a supply of fruit. No 

 better evidence is needed of the truth 

 of this than the fact that the King of 

 the Pippins, mentioned above as the 

 best dessert apple for p]ngland, is with 

 us a very acid, poor fruit, unwoi'thy of 

 cultivation. The Ribstone Pippin, 

 which I pi-esumed was the standard for 

 quality in English api)les, comes third 

 on the list, and is a fine fruit with us, 

 although inferior to many of our own 

 excellent varieties. The greater portion 

 of the specimens on exhibition were 

 taken from the dwarf bush and pyramid 

 trees but a few years old, and very few 

 from large standards such as are pop- 

 ular with us. The London Gardeners' 

 Chronicle said to English readers : 

 " Unless we are favored by warmer and 

 drier seasons than the average of the 

 last eight years, home-grown apples — 

 whatever enthusiasts may say of our 

 notions as patriots — will hardly be 

 found profitable." With Americans 



abundance of good apples is indispen- 

 sable, and happily we have to spare for 

 foreign friends less favored. Visiting 

 a few years ago, a noted garden within 

 a short distance of Edinburg, I was in- 

 formed that " hundreds of people in the 

 vicinity had doubtless never tasted an 

 apple," and, judging from the care and 

 expense bestowed upon the few trees I 

 saw, the assertion could readily be be- 

 lieved. 



THE VARIETIES OF THE COCKSCOMB. 

 Probably but few who admire the 

 lax-ge, velvety, dark-crimson crests 

 of the cockscomb, are aware that these 

 are due to a malformation which has be- 

 come fixed by cultivation. These combs 

 or crests are sometimes of enormous 

 size : some even have measured eighteen 

 inches across. They show no distinct 

 flowers. It not rarely happens that the 

 parts of a plant, that are usually distinct 

 and separate, grow together ; it is not 

 rare to find twin cucumbers, formed by 

 two which are united for their whole 

 length. This union often takes place 

 with stems. Squash vines are some- 

 times found grown together for some 

 distance, and a similar growth is often 

 seen in the asparagus. The Cockscomb, 

 Celosia oristata, is an annual, a native 

 of the East Indies, and in its normal 

 state produces numerous erect branches, 

 terminated in time by long spikes of 

 flowers. The numerous flowers them- 

 selves are small, and not at all showy, 

 but each has at its base several bracts, 

 or floral leaves, which are highly color- 

 ed. These are usually dark-crimson, 

 but there are white, yellow, and rose- 

 colored varieties. In the form cultiv- 

 ated as cockscomb, the stems and 

 branches are united and soldered to 

 gether, as it were, into a confused mass, 

 which is sometimes very wavy on the 

 top. In the branching form, only the 

 flowers on the lower portions of the 

 branches are fertile ; accordingly those 



