Angust 22, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
149 
old stock having produced five bushels of fruit the third year 
after the grafts were inserted. 
Mount Pleasant is indeed a pleasant place, pleasant by the 
splendid scenery in the distance and by the fruit and flowers 
immediately surrounding the house. It was made pleasant also, 
very pleasant, to the visitors by the genial welcome they 
received and the manner in which their wants were antici- 
pated and gracefully supplied by Mrs. Killick. 
Amongst those who accepted Mr. Killick’s invitation were 
Mr. Henry Webb, Mr. John Lee, Hammersmith; Mr. Lane, 
Great Berkhampstead ; Mr. William Paul, Waltham Cross ; 
Mr. Dancer, Chiswick ; Mr. Harrison Weir, Mr. Haycock, Mr. 
Record, Mr. West, and other local gentlemen, and your 
obedient servant—J. WRIGHT. 
SCHIZANTHUSES FOR SPRING DECORATION. 
ALL, I think, who have seen these beautiful annuals well 
‘grown will admit their beauty. There is no mode that I am 
aware of at all comparable for bringing out the full beauty of 
these plants equal to that of sowing the seed towards the end 
of the present month, and growing and flowering the plants 
in pots in the greenhouse or conservatory. 
The finest examples of culture that I ever remember having 
seen were grown by your veteran apiarian contributor Mr. 
Pettigrew. It is nearly thirty years since I saw the plants in 
the excellently furnished conservatory at Cheetham Hill near 
Manchester, and they haunt my memory still. They were 
dazzling masses of beauty some 4 feet high and 3 feet through, 
and were produced in fruiting Pine pots. For elegance com- 
bined with brilliancy I have never seen plants to equal those. 
i have grown plants frequently after the same fashion, but 
specimens of equal size to those referred to I have never been 
required to produce. I have been in the habit of flowering 
the plants in 7 and 8-inch pots, which have been fully large 
enough for the structure in which they were arranged. Other 
plants were wintered in 5-inch pots and planted out in the 
mixed borders of the flower garden, and during the months of 
vune and July few, if any, plants in the garden were more 
admired. 
The plants are of easy culture. The treatment usually given 
to Mignonette suits them admirably. The great point is to 
sow the seed thinly and never at any time to permit the plants 
to become drawn. Before they touch each other in the seed 
pots they should be thinned. If only small plants are re- 
quired to flower in 48-sized pots the seed should be sown in 
60-sized pots, allowing three or four plants to remain in each 
pot. If large brilliant bushes are required sow the seed in 
5-inch pots, and leave from seven to nine plants in each accord- 
ing to the size of pots the plants are to be flowered in. One 
shift before winter is usually sufficient, or, if necessary, the 
plants may be wintered in the seed pots. After sowing the 
‘pots should be placed in cold frames, but the lights should be 
drawn off on every favourable moment, and especially at nicht 
when the weather is settled. The best mode of wintering 
them is to plunge the pots in ashes in a pit or frame haying a 
southern aspect, the plants being close to the glass and pro- 
tected from frost. 
Early in the spring, when fresh growth commences, they 
require shifting and to be placed in the lightest and best 
ventilated position at command, yet must be secure from 
severe frosts, which at that period of the year are often pre- 
valent. They thrive best in soil that is rather light but rich, 
and after the blooming pots become filled with roots clear 
weak liquid manure given twice or thrice a week is highly 
beneficial ; copious supplies of water are imperative. If the 
plants are neglected in this respect the foliage assumes a sickly 
hue, and not only mars the beauty of the plants, but impairs 
the size and colour and shortens the duration of the flowers. 
Given the treatment required, and it is simple enough, few 
plants will be more attractive in May and June than these gay 
yet chaste and too-seldom-seen annuals. 
All the varieties are worthy of culture, a few of the most 
effective being retusus and its white variety albus ; papiliona- 
ceus, quite butterfly-like ; pinnatus grandiflorus, and Walkeri. 
a aamere growing only one variety I should choose retusus.— 
ST. SWITHIN PEAR. 
To the many achievements in the way of raising new fruits 
the Sawbridgeworth Nurseries haye added a new early Pear 
which will add to their well-won reputation. The earliest of 
all Pears is Doyenné d’Eté, a small kind which decays as fast 
as it ripens, and which if not gathered rather before it ripens 
on the tree is little better than worthless. The new Pear, 
which has been called St. Swithin from its ripening in the 
middle of July about St. Swithin’s day, is superior to Doyenné 
d’Eté in every respect. It is larger, it keeps longer after 
being gathered, and it is of superior flavour. 
Fig. 20.—St. Swithin Pear. 
The fruit is rather below medium size, obovate or pyriform 
the two forms being shown in the accompanying illustration. 
Skin smooth, grass green, thickly dotted and mottled with 
tusset and sometimes with a faint brown blush on the side 
next the sun. Eye small and closed, with incurved tooth-like 
segments set even with the surface without depression. Stalk 
| from half an inch to an inch in length, inserted without de- 
pression. Flesh yellowish white with a greenish tinge, tender, 
Juicy, and sweet, with a fine brisk flavour. 
St. Swithin Pear was raised from the Calebasse Tougard, a 
remarkably prolific Pear. The seedling has the same character- 
istic. It ripened in an early summer by the 16th of July, but 
this year it was later. The growth of the tree is not vigorous, 
but it forms a compact pyramid. The flavour of the fruit is 
more sprightly and brisk than the Doyenné @Eté. Altogether 
it will be found a pleasant addition to the summer garden Pears, 
A VISIT TO THE EXETER NURSERIES. 
For some time I haye been intending to write an account of 
a visit I paid to the extensive nurseries of Messrs. Lucombe 
and Pince at Exeter, but the pressure upon your space has of 
late been very great, and I have been very busy ; but now that 
the great shows are over, and that autumn flowers alone 
attract attention, a few notes upon the subject of my visit may 
be acceptable. 
As many of your readers are aware the sole proprietor of 
these nurseries is Dr. Woodman. There is no Lucombe and 
no Pince, though on one occasion Dr. Woodman averred the 
contrary. 
On the evening of one of the most successful Rose shows ever 
held, whether at Exeter or elsewhere, Dr. Woodman was return- 
ing home from the hospitable abode of “ Hercules”’ when he 
suddenly became convinced that a fire of some magnitude was 
raging near his place. He asked a bystander where the fire 
was. ‘ They say it is at Pince’s,’ was the reply. “ Pince’s! 
What do you mean by Pince’s? I am Pince.” His stables 
