August 24, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



169 



at Chilwell near Nottingham, where he haa for some months 

 been suffering from a long wasting illness. 



Mr. Pearson was born in the house where he died on the 

 29th of January, 1819, and was consequently in his fifty-eighth 

 year. Although the three last generations only were nursery- 

 men, the family have been resident in the parish between 

 three and four hundred years, the earliest record of them 

 being in the registry of the parish of Attenborougb, in which 

 Chilwell is situated, in 1527. Mr. Pearson's grandfather, born 

 in 1752, was the first of the family who appears to have been a 

 nurseryman. He was a great florist, and had what was con- 

 sidered one of the best collections of Tulips in England at the 

 time. The Polyanthus and the Picotee were also among his 

 favourite flowers, and he raised Pearson's Alexander Poly- 

 anthus, said to be the best ever sent out. To him also is at- 

 tributed the origin of Pearson's Plate Apple and Pearson's 

 Prolific Nut. He was buried in Beeston churchyard, and a 

 stone there commemorates the resting place of " John Pear- 

 son, Nurseryman." Though the father of this John Pearson, 

 and great-grandfather of our subject, lived in the same village 

 in a property still belonging to the family, there is no evidence 

 that he was a nurseryman, and we therefore infer that the 

 grandfather was the founder of the Chilwell Nurseries. 



There are documents in existence whioh show that the 

 ancestors of the present family were possessed of lands in 

 Chilwell in the time of Cromwell, and there can be no doubt 

 that some of the Pear trees whioh still exist in the extensive 

 orohards still belonging to the family are of very great age, for 

 both Mr. Pearson and his father (who was born in 1778), used 

 to say that they had not visibly increased in size during their 

 lives. 



It was in the year 1843, two years before his father's death, 

 that Mr. J. R. Pearson succeeded to the nurseries at Chilwell. 

 Even then they were among the most noted of provincial 

 nurseries, but it was mainly through the energies of Mr. J. R. 

 Pearson that they were so greatly developed that at the time 

 of his death they are among the most extensive and import- 

 ant in the country. With him his profession was his delight, 

 though he originally had a preference for the law. The way 

 his father led him on to horticulture was by building him a 

 greenhouse to give him a taste for plants. This had the effect ; 

 and while that was the first glass structure ever seen in the 

 grounds, there are now twenty-five of those large handsome 

 structures which have been the theme of many a subject in 

 horticultural literature. Whatever Mr. Pearson did, he did it 

 well and thoroughly, and he brought to bear upon it the 

 powers of a highly educated and intellectual mind, which pene- 

 trated the most minute details of the establishment, and not 

 only guided and directed but influenced those around him. 

 Whatever Mr. Pearson said, did, or wrote, had a cast of origi- 

 nality about it, and his way of handling a subject was sure to 

 attract attention by the air of novelty which appeared to 

 surround it. The pages of this Journal have for many years 

 been enriohed by his literary communications, which were 

 invariably of the most sensible and practical description. Mr. 

 Pearson rarely dealt in theories, his mind was too observant to 

 allow facts to esoape him, and it was upon facts he chiefly 

 relied. All the papers that have appeared in this Journal 

 testify to this ; and so striking often were the subjects he dis- 

 cussed or originated, that they invariably attracted attention 

 and set others thinking in a train in which they never thought 

 before. 



Of late years Mr. Pearson's attention has been mainly given 

 to the improvement of Grapes and of the class of flowers 

 known as Scarlet Geraniums. On both of these he did not 

 enter as many do at haphazard, but he set about his work 

 systematically and with the intelligence with which he was 

 endowed. In his endeavour to obtain new varieties of Grapes, 

 for instanoe, he was not content merely to save the seeds of 

 existing varieties and from these to raise seedlings, but he 

 carefully introduced into the commonly cultivated varieties 

 the elements of a new race altogether, and thereby infused 

 into the Vine of the eastern hemisphere the characters of 

 that of the western. By hybridising the Royal Muscadine 

 with pollen of the Strawberry Grape he succeeded in raising 

 that exquisitely flavoured Grape Ferdinand de Lesseps, and 

 that in its turn has Eerved as the parent introducer of new 

 flavours into other seedlings he has raised. Ferdinand de 

 Lesseps was first exhibited in 1870, when it unanimously 

 received a first-class certificate of merit from the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society. In the same year he exhibited Chilwell 

 White, which also received a similar award. This was in 



almost every respect a white form of the Black Hamburgh. In 

 1871 he raised the large black varieties named Abram Bass, 

 Chilwell Alicante, and Emperor of Morocco, all of which were 

 excellent in flavour, but of whioh we have not heard much 

 since. In the same year he exhibited a fine, large, white Grape 

 with a Frontignan flavour, which he named Dr. Hogg, and 

 which received a firBt-claes certificate. The parent of this 

 was Duchess of Buccleuch ; and while it has the large, taper- 

 ing, and well-shouldered bunch of its parent, the berries are 

 larger than those of any round Muscat Grape, with a richness 

 of flavour equal to that of Chasselas Musqu6. In 1873 

 Golden Queen was first exhibited and received a first-class 

 certificate. It was raised from Alicante fertilised by Ferdinand 

 de Lesseps, and is a remarkably richly-flavoured, oval-shaped, 

 amber-coloured Grape. In 1874 appeared his crowning tri- 

 umph in Grape-raising, and this was appropriately named Mrs 



Fig. 20.— Mr. J. Boyston Pearson. 



Pearson. The origin of it is the same as that of Golden Queen, 

 and it at once was awarded a first-class certificate for the large 

 and handsome hunch, and the exquisitely rich flavour of the 

 berries left not a moment of hesitation on the part of the 

 Committee when they made the award. 



Mr. Pearson's own account of his work in raising new Grapes 

 is as follows : — 



" Some years since, hearing that the native Grapes of North 

 America enjoyed a comparative immunity from the attacks of 

 mildew, I resolved to cross one of them, the ' Strawberry,' with 

 our hothouse varieties. I raised about a hundred seedlings in 

 this manner, using in every case the Strawberry as the female 

 parent. Many of my friends will remember the interest this ex- 

 periment excited at the time from the extraordinary character 

 of the foliage produced. 



" The ' Strawberry ' Grape has small woolly leaves, very little 

 cut, indeed nearly heart-shaped; the seedlings were all deeply 

 cut, some of them small, and some of immense size. I remem- 

 ber the Rev. C. P. Peach of Appleton-le-Street, Yorkshire, asking 

 me for a leaf as a curiosity, which was inches bigger in diameter 

 than a page of the Times. The fruit of these seedlings varied 

 as much as the foliage, being of all colours, and I may add of 

 every degree of nasty flavour, except one or two which were 

 golden in colour and very sweet. Of these I chose one only to 

 keep, which was exhibited in London, August, 1870, and received 

 a firBt-class certificate as ' Ferdinand de Lesseps,' and I think 

 richly deserved it, not so much as a new Grape as a new fruit 

 altogether. With me it is a strong grower, a most abundant 

 bearer, and of a beautiful golden colour. The fruit being scented 

 with Strawberry, and tasting like barley sugar flavoured with 

 Pine Apple according to some, and like new honey according to 

 others, is totally unlike any other known Grape. 



