August 8, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
105 
Seedless berries are a consequence of immature wood and 
imperfect impregnation, and is more frequent in the case of 
those Vines that are very luxuriant. Thoroughly ripened wood 
and plump well-developed eyes usually afford bunches that 
set the berries well. Muscats, for instance, have the wood well 
matured set well in a night temperature of 60° to 55°, whereas 
those haying the wood imperfectly ripened set as indifferently 
in one of 75° to 70°. Some Grapes, such as Black Damascus, 
Lady Downe’s, Mrs. Pince, Black Muscat, and Muscat of Alex- 
andria, are notoriously bad setters, and have a number of 
stoneless berries. Setting is promoted by brushing the bunches 
lightly when they are in bloom with a camel’s-hair brush, or 
gently tapping the fuotstalks of the bunches with the finger so 
as to aid in the distribution of the pollen, and the mainte- 
nance during that time of a medium temperature of 75° to 70° ; 
but as before stated, thoroughly ripened wood is of primary 
importance.—G, ABBEY. 
ORIGIN OF LORD SUFFIELD APPLE. 
I HAVE been anxiously waiting for an answer to your query 
as to when and where Lord Suffield Apple was raised; but I 
did not see a reply in my weekly friend, consequently I have 
made inquiries and learnt from an old inhabitant of Taunton, 
a small village within a mile of Ashton-under-Lyne, that Lord 
Suffield was raised by Thomas Thorpe, a hand-loom weaver of 
Boardman Lane, Middleton, near Manchester, but he could 
not give me the correct date of its raising, but that it was let 
out in 1836 or 1837, himself purchasing three buds from Thorpe 
at 3d. each in the year 1840, a tree of which stands still in his 
garden. The Apple was called Lord Suffield on account of 
Lord Suffield being then lord of the manor of Middleton,— 
Fir Bos. 
A TRIPLET OF ROSE SHOWS. 
THE wide-spread popularity of the Rose is to be measured 
in various ways. The innumerable host who grow the flower ; 
the enormous quantities sold every year by a large number of 
growers ; the acres that these growers cultivate ; and last, not 
least, the exhibitions at which it is sometimes the sole flower 
exhibited, and at others where it is the piece de resistancc—all 
bear witness to the fact that it is the most popular of all 
flowers. And of these exhibitions it is not merely our great 
shows which bear witness to it—the great National Show at 
the Palace or at Manchester with -its ten thousand visitors— 
but places where one would hardly expect to find it vie with 
each other in offering homage to the Rose ; and haying lately 
assisted at three of these minor exhibitions, a few notes as in- 
dicating the progress in fayour of a flower dear to most readers 
of the Journal may not be unacceptable. Never would one 
more like to realise Sir Boyle Roche’s notion of having the 
power of being in two places at once than during the Rose 
season. I was; on account of this unfortunate inability, unable 
to be present, as I had been inyited, at Newcastle, Reigate, 
Maidstone, &e., my duties to the National hindering me in 
some cases and previous engagements in others, and so one had 
to be contented with seeing less. My first visit was to 
UPPINGHAM, 
A very quiet, quaint, old town in Rutland, out of the way, and 
might perhaps never have been known to the outer world but for 
the energy infused into an old institution by the Rey. E. Thring, 
who, undertaking the charge of the Grammar School when there 
were twenty-seven boys, has by his wisdom, indomitable energy, 
and capacities as a leader of men (and, which is perhaps as difii- 
cult, of boys), made Uppingham School famous, and has done, what 
perhaps was never before attempted—migrated with his whole 
school when an epidemic of typhoid broke out, carried them 
away to Borth, and brought them back again when there was a 
clean bill, the school suffering no way in either prestige or num- 
bers by its strange vicissitudes. Amongst the old institutions of 
the town is what is called the Feast Week, and it was a happy 
thought to give the holiday folks an opportunity of rational en- 
joyment by holding a flower show on one of the days. This was 
the second time that it had been attempted, and I hope that both 
the extent of the exhibits and the number of visitors will warrant 
its continuance. 
The Show was held in the cricket ground belonging to the 
school, the authorities of which were deeply interested in the 
success of the day,and the Exhibition was arranged in three tents. 
It will not be needful to enter into any detailed account of it; 
suffice it to say that the large plants exhibited by Mr. House 
sustained his well-earned reputation, and that cottagers exhibited 
very creditable collections. The Roses were mainly contributed 
by Mr. House of Peterborough amongst nurserymen, and by_the 
Rey. W. H. Jackson of the Manor House, Hambleton, amongst 
amateurs. Amongst the blooms exhibited by the former were 
fine examples of Charles Lefebvre, Horace Vernet, Alfred Colomb, 
Marguerite de St. Amand, Maréchal Niel, John Hopper, «ce. ; 
while Mr. Jackson’s blooms, of good average size, were clean and 
regular in shape. Amongst them were many of the old favourites 
as well as some of the newer varieties. The Rev. G. Christian 
also exhibited some good flowers, especially Teas, and the interest 
excited in the stands evidently showed that a Rose fever was be- 
coming preyalent in the neighbourhood, far better than the typhoid 
which sent Uppingham to the sea. It was a very hot day, and L 
was not therefore sorry that I had arranged to leave for Scotland 
by the night train, although it was rather hard work, but at ten 
o’clock the next morning I found myself at 
HELENSBURGH, 
Where a Rose show pur et simple has been organised and under 
the indefatigable management of Mr. Galloway, of the firm of 
Galloway & Graham, is evidently taking the leading position in 
Scotland. I recorded the Exhibition last year, and showed how 
Messrs. Paul & Son and Mr. Cant met in friendly rivalry, and how 
I endeavoured very earnestly, as a Secretary of the National, to 
impress upon them the need of alteration in two particulars—one 
that of confining their Show to one day, the other of exhibiting 
their Roses without any added foliage. This year they have 
adopted both of these alterations, and in one to the manifest ad- 
vantage of the Show, while I hope the other will be equally so to 
its financial condition. As I have already mentioned, they adopt 
here a very original plan in the setting-up of their Roses. The 
stages are arranged as tables with tubes in them, and each ex- 
hibitor, instead of putting up his own stand, has to place them in 
the spaces allotted to him. It is to my mind an inconvenient 
and undesirable plan. It certainly puts all in one sense on an 
equality, but then it is liable to create confusion and give no 
opportunity, in the case of closely contested stands, of comparing 
them ; and all who have to judge Roses know often how very de- 
sirable this is, and how it often settles a disputed point. Nor was 
exact uniformity attained, as the flowers of one exhibitor were 
placed some 2 inches high out of the tubes, and I cannot but think 
that a change would be hailed by most exhibitors as a boon. Mr. 
Cranston, who seems this year to have been ubiquitous, entered 
the lists alone of English growers ; and Mr. Dickson of Newtownards, 
Treland ; Messrs. F. & A. Divkson of Chester, so that it was truly 
an international contest; and in this case the laurels went, and 
deservedly, to Ireland, for the collection sent from there by Mr. 
Dickson of Newtownards was a really grand one, as its placing 
Mr. Cranston second will prove. But let it be said that the latter 
was not in good form; his Roses lacked freshness, whereas 
Mr. Dickson’s were beautifully fresh and bright. AmonSst them 
is a variety I have not seen elsewhere—Alexander Dickson, a fine 
showy flower, something in the style of Madame Schmidt. What 
was especially noteworthy here was the manifest improvement 
that had taken place amongst the local amateurs, and this is the 
most satisfactory result that the promoters could expect. To 
obtain external help is well enough, but after all what one wants 
to see is local growers stirred up, and I am sure this has been the 
result here. I have been present at three of their exhibitions, and 
beyond any manner of doubt this was the best of the three. The 
arrangements for the Show were excellent, the Judges were ad- 
mitted in good time, and the kindness and courtesy of all concerned 
in the Show made eyerything agreeable. I cannot forbear here 
telling a story relating to myself. We were sitting together in 
the evening in the garden of my friend Mr. Galloway looking at 
his fine beds of Gladiolus, and at the same time enjoying our 
tea, when one of the friends present said, “I must tell you what 
happened to me some time ago. I was in the garden talking with 
my brother [I think he said] with the Journal in my hand and 
I said to him, ‘There is something from ‘D., Deal, in the paper 
to-day.’ The old seryant overheard me, went into the house, and 
said to her mistress ‘Eh! ma’m; but the maister says .ther’s 
something aboot the deil in the paper to-day.’” The third Show was 
NEWTON STEWART, 
And I have a peculiar interest in it; it was originated by one 
who was then a perfect stranger to me. He knew me only then 
by the Journal, and when I received a most pressing invitation 
from the Rev. G. W. B. Mackenzie to go to Galloway to judge 
at a Rose show I did not think how much I should afterwards be 
mixed up with it. Together we remodelled the arrangements, he 
by his energy sustained it, and I thought when he wens to far-off 
Ceylon that there would be an end of it and my intercourse 
with Newton Stewart. I was heartily glad, then, when I was 
asked once more to take my place to meet its kind and genial 
inhabitants. The Show was held on the 23rd (the same day as 
the National Carnation and Picotee Show at South Kensington, 
at which I was consequently unable to be present), and here 
again the same result was obtained as at Helensburgh, a very 
marked improvement in the local exhibits both amateur and pro- 
fessional. Messrs. Dickson of Newtownards again contributed a 
