Qjiei'ies and Answers. 123 



works both on systematic botany and on horticulture, respectino' the 

 Glastonbury thorn, induce me to trouble you with this communication. 

 Not that I consider myself able to give you full and satisfactory information 

 on the subject J but I hope, at least, to be enabled, from my long residence 

 in the neighbourhood, to describe with accuracy, whatever is known with 

 certainty at Glastonbury about the plant in question. The popish legend 

 about the staff of Joseph of Arimathea I may be permitted to pass over in 

 silence ; and, therefore, come at once to a thorn tree, now standing within 

 the precincts of the ancient abbey of Glastonbury; for there can be no 

 <loubt that, from this tree and its forefathers (the present one not being 

 of great age) all others of the kind have been propagated by budding or 

 grafting. The most marked peculiarity in this tree, and in those descended 

 from the same stock, is the time of flowering. It is now (Dec. 31.) in 

 blossom, and I transmit you a specimen for examination. It will again 

 blossom in the month of May, and from these latter flowers fruit will be 

 produced. I am informed, but have not myself made the experiment, that 

 plants grown from these haws turn out to be the common whitethorn^ 

 Perhaps the exact definition of those differences in vegetables which con- 

 stitute species and varieties is a subject not fully agreed upon; but, so 

 far as the matter is decided, I would ask, must the Glastonbury thorn be 

 considered a distinct species, or only a variety of the common white- 

 thorn ? I remain. Sir, j'ours, &c. — Echvard Callow. JButleigh, near 

 Glastonbury, Dec. 31. 1832. 



We received the specimens mentioned, from our much esteemed cor- 

 respondent, who, our readers will recollect, is the author of by far the best 

 work on the cultivation of mushrooms that has ever appeared (see 

 Gard. Mag., Vol. VIIl. p. 213.), and found them beautifully in flower, 

 covered with green leaves, and some of having bunches of ripe haws. After 

 giving away sprigs to different friends, we sent the remainder to the Horti- 

 cultural Society, to whom we have also given some of the haws, in order 

 that it may be proved whether this is really a distinct species or not. In 

 Hone's Every-day Book (a most entertaining work) will be found some 

 of the nonsense which used to pass current respecting this tree. — Cond. 



Seedling Varieties of Ticlphiniuvi. grandijlorimi. var. ckinense Dec. — Of all 

 the flowers which, at this season of the year [midsummer] ornament our 

 gardens, perhaps the Delphinium grandiflorum stands unrivalled for the 

 freedom with which it flowers, and the brilliancy of its colours. From 

 this plant I have raised the following six varieties : — 1. Flower white, 

 spotted with green ; 2. and 3. Flower of two different shades of light blue 

 spotted with green; 4. Flower of fine lilac, the hack of the petals slightly 

 spotted with green ; 5. Flower of a very brilliant blue, spotted with pur- 

 ple ; 6. Flower blue, spotted with purple, a semidouble very showy variety, 

 which is known by some as the JD. chinense, but very distinct from the one 

 so called in Loddiges's Botanical Cabinet, which appears to be the parent 

 of the above varieties. I have been informed, by a respectable nursery.^ 

 man, that he has " raised some of all colours ; " and, among them, " a fine 

 yellow." Has any one seen this last variety? — Henry Turner. Botanic 

 Garden, Bury, June 24. 1832. 



The sixth variety above is semidouble. The Rev. S; Aldefson of 

 Sicklesmere, near Bury St. Edmunds, in 1830, told me that he had flowered 

 a double-flowered variety of D. grandiflorum ; and I believe it was from 

 an unblossomed seedling which he had purchased at the Bury Botanid 

 Garden. These facts subserve the obvious inference that the plant very 

 commonly grown in gardens, for the showiness of its spikes of double blue- 

 flowered blossoms, and called Delphinium grandiflorum flore pleno, can be 

 no form or variation of the Delphinium grandiflorum above spoken of: it 

 is unlike in stature, in foliage, in the size and form of its flowers, and 



