170 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 24, 1876. 



*' Here was at least a great curiosity, a pretty scented fruit, 

 which few with their eyes shut would take to be a Grape. But 

 everyone does not like barley sugar, or n6w honey either, and 

 then, unfortunately, the berries were little larger than those of 

 the Frontignan, and the huncheB scarcely so long, and though 

 ' Ferdinand ' found many admirers, I never recommend anyone 

 to plant it who had not seen and tasted it. 



" I next tried what the effect of crossing Ferdinand with other 

 Grapes would give, and raised another large batch of seedliDgs, 

 some also from other crosses, which were all planted together. 

 Some of these were exhibited 6th September, 1871. From them 

 the Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society selected one 

 for a first-class certificate, and as the Chairman, Dr. Hogg, ap- 

 peared much struck with it, I named it after him. Now I had 

 great doubts about the value of this variety, and told the Doctor 

 so, and also the Committee. I knew it was a seedling from the 

 Duchess of Buccleuch, and never could make up my mind what 

 was its other parent, or if it had been crossed at all. Knowing 

 that all the race of Grapes, comprising Muscat, Muscadine, 

 ChaBselas Musqiie, and Joslin's St. Alban's, which were the 

 result of a cross between the Muscat of Alexandria and Royal 

 Muscadine, to which the Duchess of Buccleuch belongs, were, 

 though very high flavoured, dreadfully subject to crack, I feared 

 the same might be the case with mine, and never would recom- 

 mend it to anyone. Besides growing in a north border of a 

 Geranium house, it never was very well ripened, and appeared 

 not to retain its high flavour after it was ripe. With these ideas 

 I let anyone who chose to have it take it at 10s. 6d. a plant, 

 and aB may be imagined, made little of it. Now, when it is out 

 and in other hands, aB many no doubt have heard, it is proving 

 one of the hest Grapes in cultivation. With me it has never 

 cracked a berry, and whilst quite equal in flavour to the Duchess 

 of Buccleuch, it is twice the size, bunch for bunch. While Buch 

 men as Spencer, Speed, Dr. Hogg, Woodville, Petch, &c, are 

 praising it as one of the best new Grapes — indeed Mr. Petch 

 says, the best new Grape — I have the satisfaction of feeling I 

 gave it away ; never mind if I made money by it and everyone 

 abusing it, I should have found that harder to bear than my 

 fiiendB' laughter now. 



" Coming now to the ' Golden Queen,' it is a seedling between 

 Ferdinand de Lesseps and Black Alicante. It fruited for the 

 first time in a pot standing on the border of my Fig house. 

 Finding it had made a root through the bottom of the pot, I 

 broke the pot to pieces and hilled-up the ball with fresh soil. 

 No one expects a Vine that has fruited in a pot to do much the 

 following year, but to my surprise this carried thirteen bunches, 

 perfect in every reBpect. 



"The butch and berry are exactly alike in shape to the 

 Madr6sfield Court, but in colour is a bright gold. The flavour 

 is that of a Muscat of Alexandria without any of the aroma 

 peculiar to the Muscats, being, in fact, a rich, fleshy, Bweet 

 Grape. The foliage shows its hybrid origin, being strong, dark- 

 looking, and feeling to the touch more like that of a Fig than a 

 Vine. The wood is a bright cinnamon in colour, and taking 

 fruit and Vine together, it is perhaps the most beautiful Vine 

 ever seen growing. From the large amount of water used in 

 the Fig houBe and the little heat employed, mildew attacked 

 most of the Vines in the same house, but the robust foliage of 

 this variety appeared almost mildew-proof. Lastly, only two 

 kinds under these unfavourable circumstances were really ripe 

 in the house, and the Golden Queen was one of them : many 

 have only half ripened their wood, and the thinnest shoots of 

 this are as dark in colour and as hard as the thickest. 



" The Committee which awarded it a first-class certificate 

 was the largest I ever saw sit at Kensington, and I am told 

 there was not a single opponent, and on my rejoining the Com- 

 mittee I was not only congratulated but received a number of 

 orders from some of the best judges at the table. 



" I will not give thiB Vine away as I did ' Dr. Hogg.' If I do 

 not receive from one to two hundred orderB I will keep it till I 

 do, having Bpent hundreds of pounds in raising seedling Vines 

 without any remuneration ; and having a really good thing that 

 I can recommend without fear, few will blame me for expecting 

 a little return for trouble taken and money spent. Having an- 

 ticipated as far as possible every question likely to occur to my 

 friends, let me conclude by saying that I Bhall receive their 

 orders with pleasure and thanks, and they shall be executed in 

 the order they are received," 



In his efforts to improve the race of bedding Geraniums Mr. 

 Pearson had a definite object in view — of imparting to the 

 floriferous Nosegay section the broadness of petal of the or- 

 dinary Zonals. How he succeeded is a simple matter of 

 history, and the successive batches of Chilwell Geraniums 

 were always looked to as possessing qualities of a high order. 

 The colours are now so varied, the trusses so fine, and the 

 habits of the plants so good, that they have attained to a fore- 

 most place amongst summer decorative plants both for the 

 flower garden and the conservatory. For the past few years 

 the finest beds of Geraniums in the London parks had their 



origin at Chilwell, and at the present moment these Geraniums 

 occupy commanding positions in the parks of Hyde and Batter- 

 sea. The newest varieties sent out during the present year are 

 exceedingly fine, notably Mrs. Lancaster, pink, grand, rich, and 

 massive ; Louisa, lovely pink with darker spots ; Mary Gregory 

 and Mrs. Pearson, rose; Frederick William and Capt. Holden, 

 plum-coloured; E. Davies, purple crimson; Leopard, salmon ; 

 David Thompson, crimson ; and Lord Zetland, Havelock, and 

 Wordsworth, scarlets. These are amongst the most striking 

 varieties which have ever been raised, and are worthy of the 

 latest efforts of one of the most successful hybridisers. Mr. 

 Pearson was an active member of the Pelargonium Society, 

 in fact was one of its originators, and continued to the end 

 one of its best supporters. He was also for many years a 

 member of the Fruit Committee of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society. 



Mr. Pearson's contributions to horticultural literature extend 

 over a number of years, and some of the most important of 

 them have appeared in the pages of this Journal. He is also 

 the author of several useful treatises. His " Hints on the 

 Construction and Management of Orchard Houses " has gone 

 through four editions, and "Vine Culture Under Glass " has 

 passed through three editions. Both of these are most re- 

 liable guides on the subjects upon which they treat. 



The Chilwell Nurseries will, as a matter of course, be con- 

 tinued in all their wonted vigour. The same spirit that ac- 

 tuated their predecessors governs the present family, and the 

 business will be conducted under the title of " J. R. Pearson," 

 as before. 



ORNAMENTAL AND USEFUL TREE-PLANTING. 



No. 2. 

 Whatever change the use of ironolads — (the drawback to Oak 

 timber in immediate contact with iron is its powerful pyro- 

 ligneous acid, which corrodes the metal and deteiiorateB the 

 wood. For this cause the Indian teak and the Angelique of 

 Guiana are in request for the backing of armour plates, but 

 ■ for the floating hearts-of-oak which won our naval supremacy 

 Mr. Leslie does not hesitate to set up the British Oak as the 

 standard) — and the demand for Larch to furnish railway sleepers 

 may nave wrought in the economic pre-eminence of the Oak in 

 point of dignity, ornament, and ancestral associations, it must 

 Btill rank as foremost of English trees. " A Larch may buy a 

 horse before an Oak can buy a saddle ;" but where is the Larch 

 or Larch grove that can pretend to a credit like that of some 

 of the Oaks in the New Forest, in Arundel Park, in Bagot's 

 Park, at Moccas, Holme Lacy, or a hundred other places ; 

 gigantic of girth, weird, gnarled, and massive of limb; and 

 even in age vouchsafing such a prolixity of shade and Bhelter 

 from their still leafy tops, that we can well believe the stories 

 told of a troop of soldiers bivouacking of old under one such 

 sylvan canopy? In point of duration the Larch is a mere 

 fungus to the Oak, of which Djyden's couplet understates the 

 truth in saying — 



" Three centuries he grows ; and three he stays, 

 Supreme in state ; and in three more decays." 



The Salcy Forest Oak in Northamptonshire could have told 

 if gifted with speech of thrice five, not thrice three centuries ; 

 the Winfarthing Oak (Norfolk) was an old one at the Con- 

 quest ; and there is a fair show of Oaks still in English counties 

 that can sustain a claim to sexcentenary or semi-millenary 

 honours. But where would have been their glory had our 

 remote ancestors regarded the economic return of planting, 

 and had the "dirty siller" been its sole or chief incentive? 

 It is permissible in the planter to bestow half an eye on this, 

 in so far as, in choosing nurses for the Oak which he should 

 plant wherever there is soil congenial, he selects suoh trees as 

 yield a quick and ready return, and pay — even the longest 

 spared of them — their debt to the axe, or even the Oaks they 

 have nursed attain to even the average honours of maturity. 

 There is, we believe, little doubt of the superiority of the wavy- 

 leaved Oak, with its fruit stalked and its leaves sessile (Quercus 

 pedunculata), to the flat-leaved (Q. sessiliflora), which has its 

 leaves stalked and its fruit sessile, or close to the branches. 

 Selby considers both to be rather varieties of a single species, 

 while Laslett doubts how the timber can be distinguished with- 

 out access to the converter. Intermediate varieties are doubt- 

 less by no means uncommon ; but though the sessiliflora is 

 now determined to have furnished the roofs of Westminster 

 Hall and others of our oldest buildings, till lately supposed to 

 have been Chestnut, the pedunculata is still more esteemed in 



