Auotst 18, lc(:8.J 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



191 



Astrachan and Duchess of Oldenburg, in the list, 

 and these two kinds have long been naturalised in 

 Canada, and Canada to me is simply a portion of 

 the American continent. The fact is that Apples 

 have been introduced to America " from Prussia and 

 other parts of Northern Europe," including England, 

 Germany, Holland, and France, for centuries, and all 

 records of the transfer being lost some of them now 

 figure as " of unknown orign," or as those " acci- 

 dents " of which Mr. Meehan so often writes (on 

 p. 161), be apparently being unable to put his finger 

 on the name of any seedling Apple of undoubted 

 American origin, although many such are mentioned 

 in Downing's Fruits and Fruit Trees of America — a book 

 far too rarely met with in the library of the English 

 gardener. My own belief implicitly is that the 

 best fruits for any climate and locality are those 

 raised from seed in such climate or locality, either 

 from wild species, or from such improved varieties as 

 have succeeded exceptionally well after naturali- 

 sation ; it follows that I recommended systematic 

 hybridism and rearing of seedlings, instead of the 

 " accidental " or "happy-go-lucky" plan which Mr. 

 Meehan implies has hitherto been the rule in America. 

 My original article was reprinted with favourable 

 editorial comments as a leader in the Garden and 

 Forest, and soon afterwards I was delighted to learn 

 that Apples and other hardy fruits from Russia and 

 other parts of northern Europe had quite recently 

 been introduced by Professor Budd to the new expe- 

 rimental stations or Government gardens and trial 

 grounds now organised and working in several, if 

 not all the American States. In a word, accidental 

 progress in America is, it seems, giving way before 

 organised method, and the good results likely to 

 attend these centres of culture can scarcely be over- 

 rated. John Dominy, the celebrated and original 

 hybridiser of Orchids and Nepenthes, did much for 

 us in England in a lifetime happily still healthy and 

 vigorous, yet he once said that an hybridiser should 

 have nine lives, like a cat, instead of only one, seeing 

 that we must often await results for many years. 

 Now it seems that the work of these experimental 

 stations, if carried on persistently from genera- 

 tion to generation, and if the records be duly 

 kept will be the best way of solving the " ars 

 lonya vita brevis " difficulty to which Mr. 

 Dominy alluded in his practical and homely manner. 

 I am not a little surprised at the list of American 

 Apples (on p. 161), which Mr. Meehan describes as 

 " accidents." I confess the word " accident'' is very 

 useful, but every thoughtful person is well aware that 

 nothing is really "accidental," and we use the word 

 as a convenient way of expressing an occurrence of 

 which we know nothing, but the cause or motive 

 force is behind the final results all the same. Just 

 as I write I find an able article in the American 

 Garden and Forest for August 1. p. 265, based on a 

 Presidential address delivered before a convention of 

 nurserymen at Detroit, by Mr. Watrons, who em- 

 phasises the fact that Apple culture in the North- 

 west of America suffers enormously in many localities 

 from climatic and other causes ; and this he attributes 

 mainly to the fad that the Apple is of foreign an- 

 cestry, and not a development of a native race, as is 

 the case with American Grapes, Strawberries, and 

 Blackberries. In the great north-west districts we are 

 told the seedlings from the native species of Prunus are 

 fast superseding Plums of European origin. This article 

 is well worthy of notice, containing, as it does, the 

 germs of much successful fruit culture in America 

 and other countries. While firmly believing that 

 all fruits of absolutely native origin will mainly and 

 in the long run, be found best able to withstand the 

 erratic vicissitudes of climate in all countries, yet we 

 must never lose sight of the fact that plants are not 

 always found to thrive best in the places where 

 Nature places them, and this is especially the case 

 when plants are grown for some particularly arti- 

 ficial purpose or use. For example, a plant may 

 exist naturally in a cold, northern country and ex- 

 posure, and yet prove more fruitful in a warmer and 

 more sheltered climate. The converse of this is very 

 rarely true — there are notable examples, but they 

 are few and unimportant as compared with the 

 former rule. Hence I recommended the improve- 

 ment of native species if possible, or of cultivated 

 varieties of the same, or similar species, introduced 

 from a colder and less suitable country or locality 

 than that where they are to be naturalised. Now 

 the Apples that have been introduced, mainly from 

 England, Holland and Germany, often fail in 

 America. Downing, indeed, tells us that our most 

 noted Ribston Pippins give place in America to 

 Baldwin, Newtown Pippin, Spitzenberg, and others 

 raised in that country. F. W. Burbidgc. 



A PROLIFEROUS STRAWBERRY. 



Horticultural editors are often appealed to to 

 interpret the conditions in the schedules of flower 

 shows. A frequent inquiry is as to whether Rhubarb 

 is to be considered as a fruit or a vegetable — using 

 the latter word in a culinary sense. A similar ques- 

 tion is often put with reference to the Tomato. No 

 such enquiry has ever reached us as to the Straw- 

 berry; every one seems quite satisfied that that 

 should be called a fruit, and not only a fruit, but that 

 particular fruit called a berry. It may be read that 

 the Almighty might have created a better " berry," 

 but that He did not. What, then, if the so-called 

 Strawberry be not a berry at all, and, except in a 

 very loose sense, not even a fruit ? In point of fact, 

 the true fruits in the Strawberry are the little dry 

 pips commonly, but erroneously called seeds, and 

 which spring from and are more or less imbedded 

 in the fleshy end of the flower-stalk. Usually the 

 flower-stalk or axis, after having given origin to the 



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RMfLT o > o |\ o „ , 



several parts of the flower, ceases to grow, and disap- 

 pears from sight : but in the Strawberry it swells out 

 into that delicious succulent mass which is so nice 

 that the partaker heeds not for a moment the 

 botanical pedant who tells him it is not and could 

 not be a berry. That it is really the dilated top of 

 the flower-stalk is, however, shown on various grounds 

 which it is unnecessary to discuss. Suffice it to say 

 it is the office of a stalk to produce leaves, leaf-buds, 

 shoots, or flowers, or all of them, as the case may be ; 

 and in the Strawberry before us we have three or 

 four such buds springing from the sides of the berry, 

 and one of them so perfectly organised as to have not 

 only leaves (.v) but adventitious roots, the commence- 

 ment of a runner, (c), and a terminal flower. (Fig. 23). 



Trade Notice. 



Me. John G. Brown, only son of the late Mr. 

 Matthew Brown, of the firm of Dickson, Brown 

 & Tait, and Mr. James Wilson, late head shopman 

 with the same firm, have commenced business as 

 seed and bulb merchants at 10, Market Place, Man- 

 chester, under the title of Brown & Wilson. 



Vegetables. 



ONION Cl'LTUR E . 



A gardener remarked the other day that " the 

 wet summer was driving the Onions all to top." I 

 told him that it was natural a succulent and 

 moisture-loving plant like the Onion should grow 

 freely during a wet summer ; but so far from regard- 

 ing it as an evil, I thought it indicated a good crop of 

 Onions, provided the stock were good. That is a 

 matter of the first importance, and I have known 

 stocks of Onions of very indifferent quality through 

 planting all the smallest and roughest bulbs for 

 seed. The Onion growers of Oxfordshire— the men 

 who produce exhibition Onions from 1 lb. to 21b. in 

 weight— so far from deploring moisture for their 

 Onions, give them an abundance. I have known them 

 give the beds a good soaking even when rain \\ as 

 certain. They, as practical and successful culti- 

 vators of the Onion, give plenty of manure below 

 and plenty of moisture upon the surface. 



To grow exhibition Onions a fairly moderate stiff and 

 tenacious loam is the best. Onion-growers lsy down 

 the principle that the firmer the surface on which 

 the Onions are growing the better is it for the fine 

 development of the bulbs, especially in filling out 

 the base, and getting it full and plump instead of 

 hollow. A hard surface is of small moment, pro- 

 vided it is kept well moistened by rain or by means 

 of the watering-pot. The soil for exhibition Onions 

 is prepared about the month of October. A piece of 

 ground being selected, a spit is dug out, and li to 

 S inches in depth of good mellow manure is placed 

 upon the subsoil, after being well forked up and 

 loosened ; then the spit from the adjoining soil is 

 laid upon the manure, and so the work goes on until 

 the whole piece is prepared. This is allowed to 

 remain until January, when a good coat of scut is 

 laid upon the surface, and it serves the double pur- 

 pose of destroying insects and fertilising the Onions. 

 In two or three days, if the weather is favourable, the 

 surface is gently forked over, and made firm. It is 

 then ready for the plants raised from seed, sown in 

 pans or boxes in January, and they are transplanted 

 to the beds. If the spring proves dry, the young 

 plants are well watered, so that no check is received 

 from drought, and throughout the summer no cluck 

 is put upon the use of the watering-pot ; and a daily 

 supply almost is given, whether or not it promises to 

 rain. 



Top-dressing is followed by some growers, and 

 eschewed by others. Mr. Wingrove. of Rousham 

 Park, one of the best growers for exhibition in the 

 present day, uses as a top-dressing manure from a 

 spent Mushroom bed ; but another, equally success- 

 ful, never top-dresses, but waters abundantly. 



One grower, who has to deal with a light soil of a 

 shallow nature, uses for manure good fresh cow-dung, 

 which he regards as more cooling and lasting, but he 

 never top-dresses, preferring that the roots of the 

 Onions should go downwards instead of rising to 

 the surface, as the Onions are likely to suffer in hot 

 dry weather in consequence, unless abundant] v 

 watered, if. D. 



Plants and Their Culture. 



Bulbs for Forcing. — The first lots of these should 

 now be put in. When very early flowering is 

 desired it is much better to plant early than to sub- 

 ject the bulbs to hard forcing later on, as the flow* rs 

 will have more substance and will last longer in a cut 

 state if they have not been forced too much. Inputting 

 them in consideration should be given as to whether 

 they are merely grown for the production of cut 

 flowers or are to be used as decorative plants. If 

 for the former purpose then boxes will be more mi it- 

 able than pots. These boxes should be about 

 inches deep, and of such a length and breadth as 

 is most convenient ; but for decorative purposes pots 

 had better be employed. A practice which largely 

 prevails in the market trade is to first put all the 

 bulbs in boxes, and when they have made a little 

 growth, transferring them to pots, when, by selecting 



