September 29, 1888.) 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



363 



main more than one year, and my last four years' ex- 

 perience has been on both rich loam, and light sandy 

 soil. I see on p. 203, Mr. Burbidge, when quoting 

 me, seems to misplace my words ; he there represented 

 me to have said that drying or rather cleaning 

 and storing Narcissus bulbs was an advantage to 

 them ; he again says the only point of difference be- 

 tween us is this question of drying, cleaning, and 

 storing the bulbs. I have looked over my papers, 

 and fail to find the words in the form as set forth by 

 Mr. Burbidge on p. 63 ; what I recommended was to 

 dry them in trays and plant the bulbs at once after 

 having been cleaned (not store them); also on p. 490, 1 

 there stated, if stored in bulkafterhavingbeen cleaned 

 they will become mildewed, and if spread out they 

 will get deteriorated. The only two points of differ- 

 ence between Mr. Burbidge and myself is the ques- 

 tion of drying and cleaning. Mr. Burbidge thinks a 

 bulb is being starved when out of the ground, whereas 

 I believe there is no more danger, but a gain by a 

 bulb being out of the ground a month or sis weeks, 

 having a rest, than there is for a man having six or 

 seven hours sleep out of twenty four ; and cleaning 

 is just as conducive to its health as it is for a man to 

 have a good wash after a night's rest before starting 

 work. There was a time when it was my custom to 

 lift and plant, but after commencing to sell, I was 

 obliged to dry and clean my bulbs before sending 

 them out to my customers. Those unsold and 

 planted later than those that had not been cleaned 

 and dried, came up earlier and flowered stronger — so 

 much so, that the difference was discernible 50 yards 

 away ; therefore my custom is dig, dry, clean, and 

 plant. There may be soil and situations where it 

 may not be necessary to go to all this trouble and 

 expense. I have simply given my experience as I 

 have found it. James Walker. 



A PROLIFIC OAT-PLANT.— Whilst out shooting 

 a few days ago, one of my sons found amongst some 

 young underwood an Oat-plant, which struck him as 

 of such unusual growth, that he subsequently fetched 

 it for me to see. It has apparently all sprung from 

 one grain, and consists of sixteen stems, each of 

 which carries the following number : — 

 Stem, No. 1 



13>; grains Stem, No. a 



74 grail 



A total of 181S grains, besides many which had been 

 previously picked by birds. The plant is about 

 6 feet high. I am sending the root for your inspec- 

 tion. J. T. Rogers. 



CHANGE OF COLOUR IN DAHLIAS.— Could you, 

 or any reader of the Gardeners Chronicle, tell me 

 the cause of this great change. Last year I had a 

 quantity of Dahlias, many different colours. They 

 were taken up and stored in the autumn ; this 

 season they were planted at the proper time and way, 

 but, to my astonishment, nineteen out of twenty 

 came when in flower a lovely white. Old Subscriber. 



HARDY FRUITS AT STOKE COURT, SLOUGH.— 



When looking through the gardens at the above 

 place, a few days since, I was particularly struck with 

 the quantities of hardy fruit hanging on the various 

 trees, and perhaps a few notes on some kinds that 

 are fruiting so freely this season may be acceptable. 

 The kitchen garden is surrounded with high walls, 

 and in addition it is well sheltered on the northern 

 side by a broad belt of Spruce Firs. On entering a 

 •door from the north side a row of Apple trees laden 

 with fruit first attracted attention. These trees 

 ■were at one time kept pruned and restricted in 

 bush form, and very few Apples were obtained 

 from them. Some twenty years since Mr. 

 Maher, the present gardener, not being satisfied 

 with the crops produced, allowed the branches 

 to extend, merely thinning them occasionally when 

 required ; and since this mode of culture was 

 followed good crops have annually resulted. The 

 trees are now 1.5 feet to 20 feet high, with long 

 spreading branches, almost touching the ground, and 

 on more than one occasion the surplus from the 

 sixteen trees has been sold hanging for £20. The 

 varieties are Ribston Pippin, Blenheim Orange, 

 Wellington, Fearn's Pippin, Dutch Mignonne, Cox's 

 Orange Pippin, Cornish Aromatic, and Gooseberry 

 Pippin, the latter a late and remarkably good keeper. 

 Among Pears, Beurro Bosc, Marie Louise, and Brown 

 Beurre were well cropped ; and a large standard tree 

 ■of Knight's Monarch was carrying a heavy crop, but 



in a very backward state, and not likely to come to 

 maturity this season. Last year the fruit from this 

 tree was of excellent quality, a hot season suiting 

 this variety. I was also surprised to find the Peach 

 crop generally on the walls very good. Part of the 

 trees are protected with a coping of glass 3 feet 

 wide, and others with only a double thickness of 

 netting, the fruits under the latter being quite as 

 abundant as under the portion that had received the 

 glass protection. Waterloo and Hale's Early had 

 already been gathered ; Crawford's Early, Goshawk, 

 Crimson Galande, and Dr. Hogg, very heavy crops, 

 nearly ripe ; Vanguard, good, and said "to be a certain 

 cropper ; Walburton Admirable, rather late, and 

 will need several weeks of fine weather to ripen ; 

 Lord Napier and Pitmaston Orange Nectarines had 

 good crops, the former ripe. Of Plums, I noticed 

 Golden Drop, Kirke's, Washington, Angelina Burdett, 

 and Victoria, with very heavy crops of nice fruit. 

 C. Hcrrin, Dropniore. 



THE MUSCAT HAMBURGH GRAPE.— This, per- 

 haps the finest flavoured of all Grapes, may be grown 

 successfully in a lower temperature than generally 

 accorded Muscats. Some of the best examples I 

 have yet seen were grown in a small span-roofed 

 house where very little fire-heat was used, sufficient 

 only, in the early season, for excluding frost from 

 bedding plants stored in the house. I believe im- 

 perfect fertilisation has also much to do with the 

 poor samples of this Grape often seen with small 

 berries. To avoid this, with a soft brush we brush 

 the bunches over daily when in bloom, having pre- 

 viously used it to set Black Hamburgh bunches so 

 that it is full of polien when applied to the Muscat 

 Hamburgh. I enclose a small bunch, the last one 

 of eighteen cut from a Vine growing in a Peach- 

 house which has been open night and day since the 

 Grapes commenced colouring, and where the tem- 

 perature through the season seldom exceeded 60° 

 from fire-heat. H. [The bunch was well set with 

 fine berries. Ed.] 



DAMAGE TO THE TREES IN BATTERSEA PARK. 



— Some ten days ago, when taking a walk through 

 Battersea Park, I was terribly grieved to see the way 

 in which the roots of the trees were being mutilated 

 by the drainage works now going on. A trench 

 about 4 feet deep had been cut, and was then re- 

 maining open, within 4 feet, or thereabouts, of the 

 Elms on the one side, forming the beautiful avenue 

 which extends from the entrance near the station 

 across the Park past the subtropical garden. Very 

 great and creditable care has been bestowed on 

 these trees for some twenty or twenty-five years till 

 they have become really handsome specimens when 

 the work of years is thrown away bv ruthlessly 

 cutting off all the roots on the one side of the left- 

 hand row : many of these roots are as large as one's 

 wrist ! Who is responsible for this ? The act is so 

 inconsistent with horticutural (or arboricultural) 

 practice, and so at variance with other parts of the 

 management in the same Park, that it does not seem 

 credible that those who have the direct charge of the 

 grounds could have sanctioned it. Had the channel 

 for the drain been made through the centre of the 

 avenue little or no harm would have been done to 

 the trees. G. E. 



NEW VEGETABLES.— Mr. Wilkes is doubtless an 

 excellent gardener, but I think, in the estimation 

 of most readers, he puts himself out of court in the 

 matter of capacity to distinguish between the merits 

 of allied varieties of vegetables when he intimates 

 his inability to find any appreciable difference between 

 New Intermediate and Long Bed Surrey Carrot. 

 That he should have only seen the former, now very 

 popular and almost universally grown Carrot at 

 Shrewsbury leads to the inference that in not having 

 grown it himself he is behind the age. But thus it 

 is that we find some critics railing against new 

 things without having grown them. I believe most 

 gardeners will admit that there has been with nearly 

 all kinds of vegetables a remarkable advance in 

 quality during the past twenty years ; indeed, it 

 would be impossible for so enterprising a body as 

 our seed trade h to stand still and accept what is as 

 finality. Now and then such a very fine vegetable 

 as the Autumn Giant Cauliflower, New Intermediate 

 Carrot, the Seville Longpod Bean, or similar novelty 

 bursts upon us suddenly, but generally improvements 

 are slowly progressive, as in the case of Peas, Potatos, 

 Cabbages, Onions, &c, so that the improvements 

 fail to strike us as being so very remarkable, and yet 

 they are so. Any check to this development would 

 mean to the seed trade stagnation and ruin. Peimit 



me to say that I have not asserted that Sutton's 

 Little Gem Cabbage is a development from Little 

 Pixie Cabbage. I only referred to those kinds in 

 conjunction in a previous note to illustrate the pro- 

 gress of development in vegetable improvement, but 

 I have not the least knowledge as to whether there 

 is any lineal connection between the kinds named. 

 Sometimes kinds of very dissimilar character will 

 produce others equally dissimilar after intercrossing. 

 It is hard work to fix and maintain these breaks, 

 and on the whole most admirably do our seed trade- 

 accomplish it. A. D. 



HEATED BORDERS IN THE OPEN AIR.— I send 

 you a Pine-apple, and some Peacli and Nectarine 

 fruits ripened in my " Hypocaust," or heated earth 

 garden, in the open air. One Peach and one Nec- 

 tarine, supplied by Mr. Rivers for the purpose, with 

 the fruit well set, were plunged in the hot earth, and 

 the Pine-apple, a small-fruiting sucker, was planted 

 right out. This was in the first part of June. The 

 Peach and Nectarine never suffered a check and are 

 now in healthy and luxuriant foliage. The fruits I 

 send were attacked by slugs and so dropped. The 

 Pine grew strongly, and the fruit, about the size of a 

 green Walnut when put out, had become yellow and 

 perhaps ripe, ten days before. R. Trevor Clarke. 



Societies. 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL. 



Tuesday, September 25. — A small meeting took 

 place at the Drill Hall, James Street, Westminster, 

 on the above date, Dahlias and Roses being the 

 chief attraction, the former by Messrs. Turner. 

 Slough ; Keynes, Williams & Co., Salisbury ; West, 

 Brentwood: and Rawlings, of Romford; and Roses 

 by Messrs. W. Paul & Son, Waltbam Cross. 



A splendid group of Guernsey Lilies, from Baron 

 Schroder's garden ; a collection of hardy plants from 

 Mr. T. S. Ware ; Nepenthes from Mr. B. S. Williams, 

 Holloway ; and fruit from Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons' 

 nursery were the other items of interest. 



Floral Committee. 



Present: G. F. Wilson, Esq., in the chair; and 

 Messrs. W. Bates, H. Herbst, \V. Wilks, T. Baines. 

 R. Dean, B. Wynne, J. Dominv, H. M. Pollett J 

 O'Brien, W. Holmes, E. Hill, G". Duffield, W. Gold- 

 ring, J. Walker, W. H. Lowe, and J. Fraser. 



Messrs. J, Veitch & Sons, Royal Exotic Nurseries, 

 Chelsea, showed a group of hardy shrubs, the most 

 conspicuous object being several flower-spikes of 

 Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, about IS inches in 

 height : they had been cut from plants planted in 

 May last ; Berberis Thunbergii in fruit, and with the 

 autumnal red tint on its leaves, was also a prettv 

 object ; also in berry, were Cotoneaster uniflora anil 

 Crataegus pyracantha Lalandei, which last is a re- 

 markably pretty thing and very useful for decorative 

 purposes; Daphniphyllum glaucescens viridis was 

 also shown. There was also a fine Canna from 

 the same firm, named Geoffroy St. Hiliaire, with deep 

 red-brown foliage and rich scarlet flowers of large size, 

 the whole plant being rather tall ; Louis Thibaut, 

 yellow spotted with rich red, was another prettv 

 Canna, Several trusses of bloom of hybrid Rhodo- 

 dendrons completed the group. 



Several named Cannas were also sent by Messrs. 

 H. Cannell & Sons, Swanley, Kent, and made ag< od 

 display — Gerard Audrian. Indian -yellow flushed 

 orange, and Paul Bert, orange-scarlet, being specially 

 noticeable. The same firm also showed a collection 

 of fine single and double blooms of tuberous Be- 

 gonias, Chrysanthemum Sam. Henshaw, a lake- 

 coloured Japanese variety, of the style of Madame 

 Audiguier : and the yellow Juarezii Dahlia. 



A few specimens of late flowering Asters, of the 

 Lilliput section, and spikes of the sweetly-scented 

 Hedychiura Gardnerianum were sent from the 

 Society's Gardens at Chiswick. 



In one corner of the hall a brilliant show was 

 made by a large group of Nerine Fothergillii. sent 

 by Mr. H. Ballantyne, gr. to Baron Schroder, The 

 Dell, Egham. The plants were well grown and 

 vigorous, presenting a sheet of bright colour. 



Mr. B. S. Williams, Victoria and Paradise Nur- 

 series, Upper Holloway, N, showed a collection of 

 Nepenthes, in fine specimens, numbering about thirty 

 plants, Excelsior, with numerous large pitchers, 

 Mastersiana, amabilis, and Dormaniana being best 

 shown ; and Hookeriana, Williainsi and intermedia 



