334 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[September 22, 1888 



these and cause them to rot. If, in cases where it 

 is difficult to keep them, the bulbs were taken up for 

 the winter, they would most likely succeed J. 8. 



Useful Inventions. 



Messes. Cheal & Son, Lowfield Nurseries, 

 -Crawley, have lately introduced a novel flower- 

 holder, which is very suitable for use in staging 

 flowers at exhibitions. Fig 44 is an illustration of 

 -a frame which is constructed to carry ten blooms, 

 the stalks of which are pushed through the loop, and 

 'led down the centre stem to the water-tube in the 

 box ; another form is made with the water-tube 

 joined on, and the frame may be then used for hang- 

 ing on walls, &c, for decoration. Visitors to the 

 more recent meetings of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society at Westminster will remember having seen 

 ■these frames used for Dahlias, in which way the 

 single varieties are displayed to advantage. 



Fruit Register. 



LE LECHER PEAR. 

 This is a seedling between Williams' Bon Chretien 

 and Bergamotte Fortunee, raised by M. A. Lesueur, 

 of Ypres, and recommended in the Bulletin d'Arbori- 

 ,c dture as one of the best winter Pears. The fruit 

 is large, pyriform, yellow, spotted with drab spots ; 

 stalk short, eye shallow, flesh white, juicy, sugary 

 brisk, and perfumed, free from concretions. Season, 

 from January to March. The Pear is sent out bv 

 MM. Transon, of Orleans. 



Strawberries. 

 M. Burvenich describes and figures in the Bulletin 

 ■d' Arboriculture for September some new Strawberries. 

 1, Cerberus, is a seedling from Sir Joseph Paxton, 

 and produces Cockscomb-like three-lobed fruit ; 2, 

 Madame Frederick Burvenich, a conical fruit, of fine 

 appearance ; 3, Jean Marie de Smet, a seedling from 

 Louis Vilmorin, and a large Cockscomb variety. 

 All three are recommended by a highly competent 

 .and judicious authority, M. Burvenich. 



PENTAPEKA SICULA. 



It seems rather surprising that Messrs. Behtham 

 and Hooker should have retained this genus as sepa- 

 rate from Erica, when the only difference appears to 

 be that the parts of the flower in true Heaths are in 

 fours, while in this Sicilian representative they are 

 in fives. P. sicula, a native, as its name implies, of 

 Sicily, is a low-growing shrub, with fine hoary leaves, 

 and pale pink flowers of a globose form. The plant 

 is very rare in gardens, though figured long ago in 

 Link and Otto's Icones, i., t. 19. Our illustration 

 <fig. 45) was taken from a plant in the Royal Gardens, 

 Kew. 



The Flower Garden. 



Mixed Borders.— At this time of the year these 

 •require to be looked over frequently, if they are to 

 present a well-kept appearance. Work of a routine 

 •character in them will consist of keeping down weeds 

 and in cutting off dead stems and leaves from 

 plants that have flowered, in clearing away hardy 

 annuals as they go out of bloom, except where seed 

 is desired. See that all flowering plants of 

 Chrysanthemums, Michaelmas Daisies, Pyrethrum 

 ■uliginosum, Helianthemums, and others, are kept 

 securely fastened. Where the re-arranging of 

 borders will be carried out during the ensuing 

 autumn and spring, the present is an opportune time 

 for taking notes of height, colour, habit of each 

 species, putting these particulars on a label. 

 Likewise transplant seedling Foxgloves. 



Common Shrubs. — The propagating of many of 

 these may now be proceeded with, in the case of 

 Aucubas by cuttings, Rhododendrons by layering. 



Choose a well-drained border for cuttings, and a 

 light sandy compost should, if possible, be used 

 abont the cuttings. After putting them in, press 

 them down quite firmly. Conifers, and many ever- 

 green subjects, are best rooted in sandy soils on a 

 shady border under hand-lights, or in pots in cold 

 frames. The planting season is fast approaching, 

 and where much work is contemplated, the requisite 

 materials must be got in without delay. If peat or 

 loam comes from a distance, push forward the cartage 

 of it while the roads are in good order. Let the 

 nurseryman have orders for the delivery of planting 

 stuff, or, what is better, go to the nursery and make 

 your own choice, in which case select young free- 

 growing shapely plants in preference to old ones, 

 which rarely do well. 



Carnations and Picotecs. — Those that were layered 

 early are now rooted, and should be cut off and 

 planted either in narrow beds or in borders, using 

 a compost of fibrous loam and leaf-mould about 

 the plants. The soil round about the roots should 

 be made quite firm in planting. For late layers a 

 fortnight or three weeks hence will be early enough 

 in most parts of the country. Nothing is gained 

 by planting with few roots. J. Horsefield, Heytcsbury. 



Home Correspondence 



NATIONAL FRUIT-GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. — I 



imagine that the correspondent whose interesting let- 

 ter is quoted in the article on p. 270 of the issue of 



Fig. u.— cheal's cut-flower holder. 



September 8 last has not read his Chronicle of late 

 days very carefully. This will be seen on comparing 

 his remarks with the matter of two articles on pp. 61 

 and 186, where the whole subject under consideration 

 seems very fairly considered. Perhaps your corre- 

 spondent will kindly refer to the articles in question : 

 what appears to be original in his letter is the project 

 of a society under the above title. But why a fresh 

 society, when we have, or are in process of receiving, 

 a rejuvenated Royal Horticultural Society? There 

 seems to be a great desire to break up the bundle of 

 wood into distinct sticks ; but surely this is wrong. 

 Perhaps the old Society is greatly to blame for the 

 weakness of the central point of attraction — cer- 

 tainly some sign ought to be given during the coming 

 autumn and winter by which the degree of vitality in 

 it could be measured. All local societies — fruit, 

 vegetable and flower — should be gathered under its 

 maternal wing, and some kind of union effected 

 between this great organisation and the great repre- 

 sentatives of arboriculture and agriculture. But I 

 need not repeat what has already been published in 

 your columns in the pages above noted. It is 

 pleasant to note that English resources and require- 

 ments are receiving, at last, fitting consideration. 

 Old Crab. 



THE JARDIN DES PLANTES. — The paragraph on 

 " Origin of Botanic Gardens " ( Gardeners' Chronicle, 



p. 243) should have had " in Paris " added to it, 

 since it is a little misleading as it stands. The 

 Oxford garden was made about the same time as the 

 Jardin des Plantes, but there were at least four other 

 botanical gardens established on the Continent at an 

 earlier date, viz., Padua, 1545 ; Montpelier, 1558 ; 

 Leyden, 1577; and Leipsic, 1580. Our own John 

 Gerard and Jean Robin were contemporary pro- 

 prietors of private botanic gardens, and Robin paid 

 Gerard a visit in London prior to the publication of 

 the Herbal in 1597, in which he tells us Robinus sent 

 him the pale double Daffodil (=N. eystettensis) 

 " from Orleans and other parts of France " — a state- 

 ment quoted by John Parkinson in his Paradisus of 

 1629. This has long been popularly known as " Queen 

 Anne's Daffodil," and seeing that Robin introduced it 

 to England, it seems very probable that he or his 

 contemporaries so named it ater Queen Anne of 

 Austria, the Queen of Louis XIII. F. W. B. 



NEW VARIETIES OF CABBAGE.— I beg to thank 

 " A. D." for his reply to my query, regarding Little 

 Gem Cabbage, and at the same time assure him I 

 had my seed of that variety direct from Sutton & 

 Sons. I certainly only grew a limited quantity — 

 about 150 plants of each variety- but I think it 

 would be easier to detect any variation in that 

 quantity than if the plot had been larger, as the soil 

 would be more uniform in quality. The seed of 

 Little Pixie was not, however, from that firm, and in 

 that probably lies the difference, if Little Gem is a 

 selection from Little Pixie, as selections cannot well 

 be made without deterioration of stock. I have 

 known Little Pixie about twenty years, and I think 

 I can detect a little difference in what I grow now to 

 what it was then, in that the heads appear to be 

 broader at the base, and not quite of the same green 

 colour, but the main characteristics are the same, 

 viz., its extreme earliness, compactness, and mild 

 flavour. I think if " A. D." were a practical gardener 

 he would hardly be surprised to find one variety of 

 vegetable, under two names in the same catalogue, 

 as, I am sorry to say, it is often the case, now 

 selections have become so popular with our great 

 seedsmen. I fear the great advance in garden pro- 

 duce spoken of by " A. D." is rather chimerical, as I 

 fail to see, in looking over collections of vegetables 

 at our shows, any very great advance on what these 

 were twenty years ago. 1 certainly was struck with 

 some New Intermediate Carrots I saw at Shrews- 

 bury the other day, but they were very much like 

 Long Red Surrey ; but perhaps the difference was so 

 infinitesimal I could not discern it. In conclusion, 

 selections are, as a rule, very good ; but when sent 

 out as a distinct variety they soon revert to the old 

 type in the bands of other seedsmen, hence so many 

 synonyms and so much disappointment. John WilJces, 

 Creswell Hall Gardens, Stafford. 



EARLY SPRING FLOWERING CROCUSES.— Amidst 

 a great wealth of early spring flowering plants in the 

 hardy flower garden, the numerous species of Cro- 

 cuses now in cultivation hold a foremost place. We 

 usually grow a group of some forty species and 

 varieties under glass, not forcing them in any way, 

 and they are certainly very charming. Whether 

 cultivated in pots, so that they can be placed in a 

 cold pit or frame, or planted out to be protected by 

 some .temporary glass appliance, they are worth all 

 the care that may be required to maintain them in 

 vigorous health. If planted out it is worth while to 

 make the soil suitable for them. A mixture of 

 loam, decayed manure, leaf-mould and sand suits 

 them admirably. Plant them about 2 inches deep. 

 They are all hardy enough, but should be protected 

 in some way. J. Douglas. 



TRITOMA UVARIA are now in full bloom here, 

 and many plants have sixty fine spikes, which make 

 very grand display. The plants stand in the clumps 

 of Rhododendrons, on the edge of a lawn. The mix- 

 ture of peat and leaf-mould of the beds suits them 

 well, and they stand the weather without any pro- 

 tecting. I also plant Anemone japonica, the red 

 and the white varieties, and varieties of Gladi- 

 olus, amongst the Rhododendrons — an arrange- 

 ment which has a pleasing effect when the Rho- 

 dodendrons are out of flower. W. Smyth, Basing 

 Park, Alton. 



CRACKING OF BLACK DAMASCUS GRAPE.— 

 After promise of a good crop of Black Damascus 

 Grapes, I find the berries, just half coloured, crack- 

 ing in such numbers that the crop is practically 

 spoilt. I believe this Grape has a bad reputation for 

 cracking, but is there any one fault of cultivation to 



