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JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 27, 1876. 



lapwing cries away." And be had noticed also the bird's habit 

 of avoiding being seen by running close to the earth — "Like 

 a lapwing he runs close to the ground." Even Milton blunders 

 in his natural history, Shakspeare never. He who so accu- 

 rately noted a Cowslip as to write — 



" On her breast 

 A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops 

 F the bottom of a Cowslip " 



(and whoever saw a Cowslip without the five spots?), as accu- 

 rately marked the habits of the lapwing. — Wiltshire Rectos. 



ROSES AT KENSINGTON. 



"Will you come into my garden ? 

 Says the spider to the fly." 



The clever spider being your Sub-Editor, the poor fly your 

 humble correspondent. I was staging Roses in all the amateur 

 classes, judging the nurserymen, and then was allured into 

 taking notes for you. What wonder that I was, as I was con- 

 solingly informed, "too late " for your last issue ? 



The date of the Roses at South Kensington was not the 

 fresh leafy month of June, but the 19th of July, torrid and 

 thirsty almost as was the Wyld Savage, as a dissenter once 

 called your mild correspondent, punning upon the name of my 

 poor benefice, Monkton Wyld, and yet the Show was grand. 

 Let me preface my remarks on the Roses with a growl, it is but 

 a little one, and best to have it over at first. Why will not the 

 Society have more Judges? I was present as your "chiel 

 taking notes," but I found that only three Judges, and two of 

 these no one, as far as I could learn, had ever been heard of as 

 rosarians, were told-off to judge Roses, Lilies, Fuchsias, green- 

 house plants, et id omne genus. So I helped to judge the 

 nurserymen with Mr. Quennell, and retired to a discreet dis- 

 tance when the amateurs were judged. I was ill-used. Every- 

 one but two Judges admitted that my beloved Teas were very 

 close indeed for first, Mr. Quennell being rather doubtful 

 whether I was not first ; but at all events I was easy second, 

 and here I was placed a poor third, feeling in the same position 

 as the man did who was assured that, though he was nowhere 

 in Roses, he was easy first in moss. 



And now for the profession. The nurserymen staged some 

 very fine stands. Mr. Cant of Colchester was again first, show- 

 ing that he is at least this year nulli secundus — all through the 

 year with the exception of the Alexandra Park, where he had 

 to contend with his great Cheshnnt rival, who was almost on 

 the spot. Among Mr. Cant's beautiful Roses were marvellous 

 fresh and good blooms of La France, Marechal Niel, and Emilie 

 Hansburgh. A grand Rose is this latter for the late shows, 

 hardly a stand was seen without a good bloom of her. He 

 showed also his new seedling Prince Arthur. This is a great 

 desideratum, rather like General Jacqueminot, but with more 

 substance, and the colour more after Duke of Edinburgh. His 

 Teas, of course, were very fine, notably La Boule d'Or, the diffi- 

 cult Rose to bloom. This, however, is just the season for it. I 

 for one had it in every stand, and Captain Christy showed it 

 fine in his twelve, where, by the way, he was first. Mr. Cant 

 also had a bloom of Princess Beatrice which astounded me. 

 In fact all Mr. William Paul's novelties have this year been 

 shown remarkably well. Star of Waltham is a very great ac- 

 quisition. Duehesse de Caylus, and Francois Michelon, Marie 

 Rady, and Madame Victor Verdier, and especially that gem of 

 the purest water, Duehesse de Caylus, were all grand. 



Messrs. Cranston & Mayes were second with a very even stand 

 of blooms, which, though not in anything like their best form, 

 were yet very good for the time of year. Etienne Levet, Rey- 

 nolds Hole, Marie Rady, and Emilie Hausburgh were very fine. 

 Mr. Prince of Oxford came third with his seedling Briars, and 

 here, as a proof of the superiority of his stock for Teas, he 

 showed us a Marechal Niel which was undoubtedly the bloom of 

 the Show. The rest of his blooms, with few exceptions, were a 

 little coarse. Alfred Colomb, however, he showed Bplendidly, and 

 also Marie Baumann and ComteEse de Serenyi, which novelty, 

 by the way, was in many stands, and always good. Mr. Keynes 

 of Salisbury was fourth. He had a bad back row, and was all 

 through overblown. He showed, however, a very fine bloom of 

 the old variety Black Prince, whioh Mr. Cant also had in his 

 twenty-four, very fine. 



In Class 2, for twenty-four (amateurs), Mr. Davis of Wilton 

 Park, Salisbury, was first, and I was second. Mr. Davis showed 

 some splendid blooms. In Class 3, twelve distinct (amateurs), 

 Captain Christy was first with a very fine stand, containing a 

 bloom of a Ro3e which he called Souvenir de Colommer, which, 

 if not Marie Rady, must be her elder brother. But the complef e 

 prize list has been given, so I will Eot write any more about the 

 prizewinners. 



The florist flowers were so beautiful and of such marvellous 

 form, the finished work of such artists, that an outsider like my- 

 self could only sigh and wonder. I have finished my work this 



year, and have chronicled the last of the metropolitan shows, 

 and enjoyed the finest show that I have ever seen at Kensington. 

 — John B. M. Camm. 



SIR JOSEPH PAXTON STRAWBERRY. 



I hope " J. T." and " W." have quite satisfied themselves 

 that they have obtained a true sample of Sir J. Paxton before 

 making such an onslaught upon the merits of one of the most 

 useful Strawberries in cultivation. This at least has been my 

 experience of its value for the past seven years. In flavour it 

 may be a little deficient, but what Strawberry will command a 

 better sale or travel better than Sir J. Paxton ? 



It may, perhaps, interest " J. T." and " W." to know that in 

 July, 1874, 1 planted twelve hundred plants, and in July, 1875, 

 I had a fair crop of fruit, and I fearlessly assert there were not 

 twenty unfruitful plants out of the twelve hundred. Of this 

 season's produce I am quite unable to speak, for I left the 

 county in November last. ' 



My very first acquaintance with this valuable Strawberry 

 dates back to the time when the plants were 15s. per hundred. 

 Sterile plants there are to be found in every variety, but I 

 have found but very few in Sir J. Paxton. Some years since 

 I received from a nurseryman plants of President, but not ten 

 out of the hundred were fruitful, and what was more annoying 

 to me, these few fruitful plants were not President. Three 

 years since I received plants of President from a brother gar- 

 dener; these I know were pure enough, but unfortunately 

 three-fourths proved barren, and thus ended my experience 

 of President. Now, the simple cause of eo many complaints 

 against the different varieties of Strawberries arises from the 

 fact that all unfruitful plants as a rule produce the greatest 

 numbers and finest plants, and from these are often planted 

 large plantations of Strawberries. The purchaser is well 

 pleased at his fine healthy plants; but, sad disappointment 

 and disgust is in store for him, and all owing to inexperience 

 of those employed to raise the plants, and a libel upon a valu- 

 able and choice fruit the result of inexperience. 



My advice to " J. T." and " W." is to plant Sir J. Paxton 

 from fruitful parents, 18 inches between the plants and 36 

 between the rows, on any soil in a good state of cultivation, and 

 I venture to predict a satisfactory result; but poison the ground 

 with rank dung, pu,t in the plants as thick as French Beans, 

 and the result will be a harvest of leaves and no fruit. — 

 D. Bkown, Hiddlesboi'ough-on-Tees. 



VARIETIESTOF ORCHIS LATIFOLIA. 



This is one of the most beautiful of our native Orchids ; it 

 has shown a marked liability to diverge into permanent, and in 

 more than one instance into very charming varieties. One of 

 the most noteworthy of these, or we should, perhaps, say the 

 most so of any of them, is the very distinct and striking 

 variety discovered by Dr. Moore some dozen years since in a 

 meadow at the base of the Dublin mountains during a botanical 

 exploration in that district. This is a very vigorous and robust 

 form both as regards stem and foliage, the former together 

 with the scape growing to a height of from IS inches to 2 feet. 

 The raceme of flowers nearly equals that of the Madeiran 

 Orchis foliosa, and has greatly the advantage of it in respect 

 of colour, that of the Irish plant being of an intense rosy 

 purple. Besides its stately form and the richness of its flowers, 

 this variety is further remarkable for its precocity in flowering, 

 for it flowers fully a fortnight earlier than the typical form. 

 For this reason Dr. Moore, by way of distinguishing it, aptly 

 gave it the provisional name of 0. latifolia var. prascox. 

 Another very remarkable (rait in the character of our plant is 

 its tendency to seed, the readiness with which the seed ger- 

 minates, and the precocity of the seedlings in growing into 

 flowering plants. Only three roots were transferred from the 

 original habitat to Glasnevin, and one of them, at all events, 

 found suitable and evidently agreeable quarters in the interest- 

 ing bit of artificial bog there. Here it soon formed a stout 

 tuft, producing several flower stems, forming during a great 

 portion of the month of June each year quite the feature of 

 the interesting spot in which it luxuriates. Now, not alone 

 in the immediate quarters of the original plant are flowering 

 speoimens to be seen, but scores of them elsewhere in the 

 garden, as, for instance, among the pots of alpiues, where the 

 seed has germinated spontaneously. What makes this more 

 singular is, that a similar tendency to produce seed is not at 

 all a characteristic of the normal form of the plant. 



