76 Pomological Gossip. 



is of large size, somewhat conical form, with a smooth green 

 skin, slightly suffused with blush, and possessing a rich subacid 

 flesh and excellent flavor. It is just now in perfection, but 

 will keep till March. We shall, now that we have learned 

 more in regard to it, describe and figure it in a short time. 



Josling's St. Albans Grape. — In our last volume we have 

 copied several papers from our foreign journals, in which all 

 the writers agree that this grape, about which so much has 

 been said, — and from which so much money was made, (up- 

 wards of ^10,000,) by the said to be originator, Mr. Josling, — 

 showing that it is nothing more than the Chasselas Musque, 

 of the old authors. Mr. R. Thompson, on whose endorsement 

 of its excellent qualities and distinctness as a new grape, most 

 cultivators purchased their vines, has written an article in a 

 late number of the Journal of the London Horticultural 

 Society, in which he gives an account of the original vine 

 under the care of Mr. Josling, which he particularly exam- 

 ined, and he states, that after a careful comparison of the 

 leaves of the Chasselas Musque and the St. Albans, no differ- 

 ence could he detected. The article closes with a recommend- 

 ation of the fine quality of the grape, which, if it should not 

 eventually prove to be new, must ever be considered as well 

 worthy of cultivation ! This certainly is not very flattering 

 to purchasers, who paid one pound sterling each for the 

 vines. 



When this variety was first brought to notice, we copied 

 a full account of it in our Magazine, (Vol. XIII. p. 116,) and 

 added, that " the description answered exceedingly well for 

 the Muscat Blanc Hatif," a variety we had cultivated in our 

 collection, and which we then supposed to be new, but which 

 has proved to be the old Chasselas Musque ; and by the last 

 Gardener^ s Chi^onicle^ we see Josling's St. Albans is pro- 

 nounced, probably by Mr. Thompson himself, as identical 

 with that grape. 



That a variety so long cultivated should be so little known, 

 is somewhat remarkable. And as the history of its introduc- 

 tion to English gardens may not be generally known, we 

 copy the following from the North British Journal of Horti- 



