736 



THE GARDENERS 1 CHRONICLE. 



[December 22, 1888. 



with the Rose. The fungi and moulds affecting 

 Roses are only incidentally mentioned, and the 

 reader may be referred to the list given in our Rose 

 Supplement some years since. 



It remains to be said that the quarto edition before 

 us is well and attractively got up ; but for those who 

 do not mind dispensing with the coloured plates, 

 the 8vo. edition, otherwise identical, will be suitable. 

 In one form or another it is quite indispensable to 

 the library of a rosarian. 



MARKET APPLES. 



Much attention and consideration have of late 

 been given to the Apple, and it is to be hoped that 

 the readers of the articles on the subject, and the 

 country in general will derive benefit therefrom. A 

 remarkable fact connected with some recent discus- 

 sions may be noticed in reference to the varieties 

 most generally recommended for planting. These 

 comprise varieties which are very limited in number, 

 and mainly of recent introduction, somewhat large 

 in size, and seldom include the names of well-known 

 and tried fruits. 



I will admit that large fruits are the best for 

 marketing, and have thus decided advantages, though 

 unless they are also hardy, and good croppers as 

 mature trees, they are wanting in essentials. For 

 my own part, I prefer to place reliance more on the 

 older and well tested kinds than on newer ones, 

 some of which produce a few good specimens, but 

 which are not good growers and bearers. 



I am bold enough to say that Blenheim Orange, 

 although not a good bearer when young, is not to 

 be set aside in favour of any other, its handsome 

 form and great merits having obtained for it general 

 favour — so much so that its name has become a 

 household word ; and, however plentiful the crop of 

 Apples may be in any particular year, this variety 

 will always command a ready sale at paying prices. 



The Apple named Dumelow's Seedling, now so 

 generally called Wellington, or Normanton Wonder, 

 has become very popular owing to its excellence as 

 a good keeper and cooking variety. The variety has 

 obtained a degree of favour to which its excessive 

 acidity does not entitle it. Certainly it has the 

 merit of being clear-skinned, and it often has a 

 pretty red tinge on the sunny side. During the pre- 

 sent season this Apple has sold at 7s. or 8s. per 

 sieve, and Gs. per sieve net has been returned me 

 from the Borough Market. I have never known it 

 so acid as it is this season, and I think its generally 

 acid juice will eventually tell against it for general 

 cultivation, for when cooked a very large quantity 

 of sugar is needed to make it palatable. Against 

 this variety I would place Waltham Abbey Seedling, a 

 most vigorous-growing variety, a nearly constant 

 bearer, somewhat resembling Dumelow's Seedling in 

 appearance, but when ripe of a more yellow colour, 

 and sometimes assuming the form of Golden Noble. 

 It is excellent when cooked, the fruit turning to a 

 rich amber, and requiring scarcely any 3Ugar. 



Again, old Dredge's Tame is a much neglected 

 variety. It is a free and healthy grower, an early 

 cropper, and it might be termed a constant and heavy 

 cropper. The fruit is above the middle size, the skin 

 green, mottled, and much striped with red ; it is in 

 season from October to March, and is adapted either 

 for cooking or dessert. Winter Pearmain again 

 seems quite lost sight of, whilst King of the Pippins 

 receives very general praise, though of the two names 

 I believe the former to be the correct one ; whether 

 this be so or not, the variety is such a heavy cropper 

 as a standard, as to cause the fruit sometimes to be 

 too small to fetch a fair market price. Hence it 

 would be preferable to plant Cox's Orange Pippin 

 instead. 



Norfolk Beefin has been recommended, whilst 

 Striped Beefin is nearly identical. It is a supe- 

 rior variety, beautifully striped or coloured with red ; 

 better adapted for the market, and an equally good 

 cropper, but it seems to be quite forgotten. A young 

 tree which I have here bore an excessive crop this 

 season, and though the fruits, owing to the great 



number, were very small, the net price I got from the 

 Borough Market was 4s. per sieve for some thirty half 

 sieves. 



Much has been said in favour of Lord Suffield— 

 it is a fine acquisition as an early variety, but owing 

 to its loose habit of growth high winds cause much 

 loss in exposed places. Though fruiting at a some- 

 what younger period than other varieties, it possesses 

 many good points. The sturdy, ever sure Hawthorn- 

 den is often overlooked by framers of lists, but it is 

 a valuable fruit. My trees bear abundantly, and I 

 can usually gather fruit during July and the first 

 fortnight in August, the net returns for which have 

 this year been 5s. per sieve. 



The fact really is that growers of small trees can 

 form no real estimate of the capacity of the same 

 trees when fully grown. Most growers of small 

 trees, of necessity, have to transplant them periodic- 

 ally, a proceeding predisposing them to early bearing. 



As regards the peculiarities of the cropping of 

 Apple trees this year, I observed that the healthier 

 any tree happened to be, the less fruit did it carry. 

 All the trees bloomed profusely, and in size the 

 blooms were never finer ; still an exceptional 

 scarcity of pollen was noticeable. Out of a planta- 

 tion of Dumelow's Seedling, the three weakest 

 carried very heavy crops, although the trees were 

 but a dozen years old, and one of them produced 

 5 bushels of very fine fruit. Beyond this I remarked 

 that the largest and healthiest trees produced freely 

 upon the weakest branches — especially upon such 

 branches as when young had been injured by 

 American blight, so that wounds or burrs exist near 

 their base. 



I find it difficult to reconcile the two facts of 

 large healthy trees laden with very fine bloom, 

 which expanded at a late and vei y favourable season, 

 bearing a very thin crop of fruit, whilst trees about 

 equal in size, adjoining, of the same variety, planted 

 alike, bloomed together, and bore heavy crops of 

 very fine fruit. The trees grow on grass land, and 

 the wood of each tree is well ripened, and the fruit 

 buds prominent on all alike each autumn — and as 

 they now are — all are treated alike, receiving a 

 thin mulching of very finely sifted ashes in November, 

 with a slight dressing also of stable manure about 

 midwinter, with triennial thinnings of the shoots. 

 Nevertheless, the fact of the extreme fruitfulness 

 of the branches injured by American blight proves 

 that less than a full quota of support from the roots 

 suffices ; and towards this end our efforts should be 

 directed. William Earley, Ilford. 



CHRISTMAS ROSES. 



I hope we may have the nomenclature of the 

 various Helleborus niger a settled question before the 

 nineteenth century comes to a close, otherwise we shall 

 only have confusion, and that in another generation. 

 I do not mean a settlement from the botanical 

 point of view — but from that of the florist. There 

 is not a doubt but that we have two varieties of 

 Helleborus maximus or altifolius, the one not so 

 early or so robust as the other, the weaker plant 

 coming from Austrian Tyrol, bordering on Italy, 

 and I believe recognisable to some as Helleborus 

 altifolius of Heine. This plant is now made to fit 

 that of Mr. Poe's Riverston variety, of which latter 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle gave its readers a full- 

 page illustration. I take a great interest in all 

 the Hellebore group, and must say that this variety 

 of altifolius, though very beautiful, is not Mr. Poe's 

 plant, and, sending it out as a match, will only cause 

 confusion. The Riverston Hellebore has got strong 

 vigorous foliage, the leaves a glossy or shining shade of 

 green, The leaf-stalk is apple-green ; and the flower- 

 stem mottled purple. The blooms are very large, 

 pure white, with the style or stigma pinkish-purple. 

 It flowers early, in fact it was in flower on 

 November 5. The flowers appear in pairs, and are 

 of the size of those of H. maximus. 



Then we have another introduction, a rather late- 

 flowering variety, with interesting dark foliage and 

 flower-stems, and the blooms purple on the outside, 



a greenish white when first opening, the entire bloom 

 toning off purplish. This plant, named caucasicus (?) 

 is, when grown under glass, an excellent variety ; 

 the flowers are then almost white, and it is a profuse 

 bloomer, and one which I confidently recommend for 

 its vigorous growth and continuous habit of flower- 

 ing. It is made to fit H. vernalis, but any one 

 looking at the plate of vernalis, as referred to by 

 Mr. Brockbank, of Manchester, in your paper last 

 year, will at once see that vernalis has apple-green 

 foliage and leaf-stalk, and the flower-stems at the 

 base slightly mottled with pink. The true vernalis 

 flowers with me in January and February, and the 

 climate is much more changeable than in London. 

 H. caucasicus is vernal in its blooming, but it is net 

 the plant figured as vernalis. This variety of cau- 

 casicus has come into my possession through different 

 channels, and is no doubt a collected plant. The 

 last consignment of the common form of niger 

 reached me from the Channel Islands. If we were 

 to stick by the old botanists, it should, indeed, be 

 designated the Black Hellebore. It is dark as auy 

 " nigger " in flower-stem, root, and leaf-stalk. 

 ".Apple Blossom" is a good name for H. rubra. I 

 am glad to see it adopted. Some of my own seedling 

 Christmas Roses, sown July, 1887, will flower this 

 season. W. B. Hartland, Cork, 



CRATAEGUS MEXICANA VAR. 

 CARRIERII. 



Por the specimen from which our illustration (see 

 fig. 104), was taken we are indebted to the courtesy of 

 W. G. Gumbleton, Esq., Queenstown, Co. Cork. It is a 

 very handsome free-flowering Thorn, which origin- 

 ated, according to M. Carriere (see Revue Horticole, 

 1883, p. 108 c, ic color) as a seedling from C. mexi- 

 cana. The foliage turns in autumn of a rich bronzy- 

 red, and remains on the tree for a long period. 

 According to the plate in the Sevue Horticole the 

 haws are about three quarters of an inch long, oblong 

 obtuse, and of a deep scarlet hue. It appears that 

 some differences of opinion arose among the Paris 

 botanists as to the name to be applied to this hand- 

 some species. We are unable to offer any opinion 

 of our own upon the subject, and hence confine our- 

 selves to the reproduction of the statement made by 

 M. Carriere, and to the chronicling the good opinion 

 which Mr. Gumbleton — no mean judge — expressed 

 to us as to the value of this tree for ornamental 

 purposes. 



Useful Inventions. 



SUBSOIL BORER. 



Theee are often occasions when an exact know- 

 ledge of the distribution — the thickness, slope, and 

 area — of a varying subsoil is of value. It may be 

 useful in deep draining, in well sinking, and in 

 seeking suitable material for altering levels, for 

 mixing with surface-soil or for making roads and 

 paths. 



In many parts of the country subsoils vary much 

 in thickness and in character within the distance of 

 a few yards, and in such cases the maps published 

 by the Geological Survey, even the new maps which 

 give the " drift " distribution, are of but small prac- 

 tical use. An exact detailed knowledge of the area is 

 what is wanted, and this can be ascertained only by 

 actual trials. 



It has long been felt that our old methods for 

 deep boring are cumbersome and costly, and only the 

 prospect of considerable profit leads to their employ- 

 ment, while the methods for shallow boring are 

 mostly unsatisfactory from their failing to bring up 

 good samples of the materials bored into. 



A revised, and, in the northern part, much modi- 

 fied, map of the Isle of Wight, at,e , on the recent 

 survey work of Mr. Clement RpM and Mr. A 

 Strahan, and prepared by H. M. Geological Survey, 

 has drawn attention to a new form of borer that has 

 been employed in. this work, and also in part of the 



