122 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[August 4, 1888. 



the second, £20, or the pillory; and for the 

 third, £40, or the pillory, with the extra penalties 

 involved in the loss of an ear, and being covered 

 with infamy. 



y> From this reign until theearly years of the fourth 

 George, nothing of any importance transpired 

 in the legislature that affected gardening. By 

 7 and 8 George IV., c. 29, sect. 42, persons steal- 

 ing or destroying, or damaging with such intent, 

 any plant, root, fruit, or vegetable production, 

 growing in any garden, orchard, nursery-ground, 

 hothouse, greenhouse, or conservatory, are 

 punishable summarily by one justice, with im- 

 prisonment for six months, with or without hard 

 labour, or a fine not exceeding £20 over and 

 above the value of the article stolen, or injury 

 done ; and for a second offence are guilty of 

 felony, and punishable as in cases of simple lar- 

 ceny. And by sect. 43 of this same Act, persons 

 stealing any cultivated root or plant, used for 

 food for man or beast, or for medicine, distillery, 

 dyeing, or for any manufacture, growing in land, 

 open or inclosed, not being a garden, orchard, or 

 nursery-ground, are punishable summarily before 

 one justice ; and for a subsequent offence may by 

 two justices be ordered to be whipped. 



Such, then, with one or two minor exceptions, 

 are the laws and regulations relative to gar- 

 dening, in the framing of which, it will be 

 inferred, our forefathers underwent no great 

 mental strain, for the very fundamental prin- 

 ciples of the subject were so obvious, and so 

 essential to the well-being of everyday life, that 

 no extraordinary efforts were needed to perceive 

 the wisdom of these laws. It is upon abstract 

 theories and visionary data that our wise legis- 

 lators become the most controversial, and fall 

 soonest. 



Gardening, like literature, may be regarded as 

 the effect, rather than the cause, of centralisa- 

 tion. It would be a profitless task to seek for 

 historical data much beyond the boundaries of 

 towns and cities. And so it follows that the 

 centres of civilisation are also the centres of 

 gardening. The Universities in particular, took 

 the lead in this respect. An historian of Cam- 

 bridge has pointed out that a garden was laid out 

 and planted so soon as possible after the founda- 

 tion of the house, but utility, not ornament, was 

 the motive at work. At King's Hall, Cambridge, 

 in 1338-39, only three years after Robert de 

 Croyland had sold his property to King Edward 

 III., the wages of the gardener (serviens in 

 gardino) occur in the accounts, with charges for 

 nailing up and pruning the Vine, which was 

 probably trained over the house. In subsequent 

 years similar charges are frequent. In 1362-63 

 the ground between the college and the river was 

 laid out as a garden, and a workman is paid at 

 the rate of 3d. a day, four days, to make the 

 beds (herbaria) ; but, with the exception of a 

 oharge for "Persily sed" in 1341-42, and for 

 Saffron in 1383-84, the accounts throw but little 

 light on what was planted in them (Willis and 

 Clark's Architectural History of Cambridge, in.). 

 At Peterhouse, the account roll of 1374-75 shows 

 that the kitchen garden contained, inter alia, 

 Parsley, Cress, Garlic, Leeks, Saffron, and vege- 

 tables in general. 



The work of " Thomas Hyll, Londoner," appa- 

 rently kept all others out of the field until in 1577, 

 Henry Binneman, or Bynneman, the publisher, 

 issued The Gardeners' Labyrinth, which professed 

 to contain " a discourse of the gardener's life, in 

 the yearly travels to be bestowed upon his plot 

 of earth," the choice of seeds and the " apte " 

 times of sowing, and so forth. The information 

 was gathered out of the most approved writers, 

 from Pliny to Galen, and from Apuleius to 



Hesiodus, by Didymus Mountain, and was edited 

 by Henry Dethick. This very remarkable book, 

 which appeared nearly twenty years before 

 Gerard's stupendous work, is divided into two 

 parts, each having separate titlepages and pagina- 

 tion, but with continuous signatures. The first, 

 dealing with the subject generally, is in eighty- 

 four pages, and the second, which is much more 

 specific in its information, 180, excluding the 

 indicatory " tables." It is dedicated to Sir 

 William Cecil, and the copy now before us was 

 formerly the property of Sir Joseph Banks. The 

 first part contains eight quaint illustrations, but, 

 with an economy which is beautiful in its utili- 

 tarian simplicity, one of these does duty no 

 fewer than three times in the course of eighty 

 pages, whilst another appears twice ! the two 

 full-page illustrations are most extraordinary, 

 and well deserve to be reproduced if only to 

 indicate the position of horticultural theorists 

 three centuries ago. One illustrates " the 

 maner of watering with a pumpe by troughes 

 in a garden," and the other shows " the maner of 

 watering with a pumpe in a tubbe," and of the 

 two methods we shall not attempt to decide 

 which is the more insane! To this first part, 

 also, there are a dozen plans of various mazes 

 and " knottes." The second and larger portion of 

 this book only contains five illustrations besides 

 the pictorial titlepage, and of these only one is 

 a plant, viz., the Blessed Thistle. The Gardeners' 

 Labyrinth is printed in black-letter type, and an 

 edition of it was published by A Islip in 1594, 

 and another by H. Ballard in 1608. W. R. 



(To be continued..) 



New or Noteworthy Plants. 



A LARGE FLOWERED NEW SPECIES OF 

 TEA ROSE (ROSA GIGANTEA, Crepin). 



In the report of the July meeting of the Belgian 

 Botanical Society M. Crepin gives a full account of 

 a supposed very fine new species of Tea Rose, which 

 has been discovered by General Collett on the moun- 

 tains between Birma and Siam. It has a pure white 

 flower 5 inches in diameter, and differs from the 

 common Rosa chinensis, Jacq. (R. indica, Auet.) by 

 its single-flowered inflorescence, entire outer sepals, 

 unarmed floriferous axis, and very large flower. It 

 may prove to be an extreme variety of R. chinensis, 

 but at any rate cultivators should look after it. It 

 is fully described in M. Crepin's paper under the 

 name of Rosa gigantea, Collett MSS. 



'Cattleya labiata Gaskelliana (hort. Sand.) 

 albens, Rchb.f. 



I first received a specimen of this Orchid through 

 the kindness of Professor Wittmack, of Berlin, the 

 Editor of Regel's Garienflora. It is described in the 

 volume of the current year, and represented on 

 plate 1274. It was raised by Mr. Franz Bluth, a 

 distinguished orchidist of Berlin. Its origin was 

 Sanderian. Notwithstanding the dislike which I 

 usually have to pronounce an opinion on single 

 Cattleya labiata flowers, I was finally convinced 

 that this must be a Gaskelliana, wanting in its 

 chief ornament — the characteristic blotch which is 

 usually seen on the top of the lip, and I was right, as 

 I see by a specimen of the same plant kindly sent me 

 by Messrs. H. Low & Co. It originated from Cattleya 

 Gaskelliana. The flower is of a very pale rose 

 colour, and there is much yellow round the lip, and 

 some scarcely recognisable brown lines are seen 

 above the yellow. It is a most lovely variety. 

 H. G. Echb. f. 



CYPRTFEDlr/M BELLATULTTAI AND C EGREQTC7M. 



Messrs. H. Low & Co. have kindly sent me half- 

 a-dozen very fine flowers of these plants, all having 

 dark blackish-purple, sometimes quite black, spots on 



the sepals, the lateral sepal being large and deflexed. 

 The lip is usually narrow, whereas in M. Gode- 

 froy-Lebeufs types of Cypripedium Godefroyas it 

 was hemispherical. All the staminodes are long and 

 narrow, as in the first-named flower, but they are 

 never triangular. One of these plants is most inte- 

 resting, having a short nearly trilobed sepal and light 

 purple spots, much resembling those on the type. 

 Curiously enough, the spots in this variety are so 

 light that they do not show on the other side of the 

 sepals and petals. I propose to name it Cypripedium 

 bellatulum egregium; it will be quite a treasure for 

 our Cypripedium growers (s. v. v.). H. G. Bchb.f. 



HEUCHEEA SANGUINEA. 



This is one of the newer introductions, appro- 

 priately marked with a star as something especially 

 good, in Nicholson's excellent Dictionary of Garden- 

 ing, vol. ii., p. 140, figured in the Garden, vol. xxvi., 

 p. 360, and in the Botanical Magazine, t. 6929. It is 

 a low growing perennial, allied to the Saxifrages. 

 Its general character is sufficiently indicated in our 

 sketch (fig. 13, p. 125). The flowers are of a rich red 

 colour ; the leaves dark green and slightly marbled with 

 a lighter tinge. It is a charming plant for the rockery 

 or for the cool greenhouse, and was introduced from 

 the Pacific slopes of Arizona and New Mexico by Mr. 

 Ware. It was first made known to science by the late 

 Dr. Engelmann. For the opportunity of illustrating 

 the plant we are indebted to Mr. Gilbert Davidson, of 

 Annan ford. 



EEMAEKS ON THE FEUIT 



CROPS, 1888. 



[For Tabulated Summary, seep. 95.] 



SCOTLAND. 



Aberdeenshire. — Fruit crops of all sorts suffered 

 from the severe frosts in April and May. Small 

 fruits blossomed abundantly, and, although much 

 injured, are in most cases a fair average crop ; Victoria 

 Plums are a large crop, other sorts rather poor. 

 Pears very poor. Cherries on some trees a good 

 crop, others very few. Apples are a fairly good 

 crop ; but so late that only early sorts are likely to 

 come to maturity. J. Forrest, Haddo House. 



I am sorry to say that the crops of fruit do 



not by any means look favourable at present. Owing 

 to the cold spring everything is about three weeks 

 later than usual, while on May 29 we had 10° of 

 frost, which in general did much damage, nothing as 

 yet having come to maturity. I can only speak of 

 quantity. Apples look exceptionally productive. 

 Plums — curiously, while the fruits of some are well 

 advanced, many of the trees are now in bloom, R. 

 Farquhar, Fyvie Castle, Fyvie. 



The fruit crops in this district are to be very 



limited, especially the early flowering kinds. Cherries, 

 although abundant in the blossom, have set very 

 badly, owing no doubt to the frosts every night. 

 Plums, even Victorias, are very scarce, and did not 

 show blossom well, and what came was killed by the 

 frosts. Apples on standards are almost a failure, 

 except some of the hardier sorts and some on walls. 

 Gooseberries and red Currants look well ; black 

 Currants were very much thinned by the winds. 

 Strawberries are looking well. J. F. Smith, JDunecht 

 Gardens, Aberdeen. 



Banffshire. — The fruit-tree blossom was retarded, 

 and in some cases much injured, by a continuation 

 of frosty weather, which set in here on February 13, 

 which lasted to the end of March, with sharp frosts 

 at night afterwards, occasionally intervening up to 

 the end of May. Apple blossom, which seemed 

 strong and healthy, suffered most, and the crop is, 

 with few exceptions, a failure. These and Plums on 

 walls are our worst crops. The weather up to this 

 date has been cold and ungenial ; everything in 

 consequence is much behind in growth for the 

 period. J. Webster, Gordon Castle Gardens, Fochabers. 



Dumfries. — There were good prospects of a plen- 

 tiful crop of all sorts of fruit up to June 14, when 

 we were visited by a very severe hailstorm, which 



