September 28, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



277 



fully coloured fruit freely. I am strongly tempted to add more 

 of my favourites, but refrain, as I remember I am writing for 

 very small gardens, and am anxious that these notes may 

 prove of real assistance to the owners, who ought certainly to 

 waste none of their space upon any but the choicest of fruits, 

 flowers, and vegetables. 



Nectarines. — Many sorts of great excellence worthily claim 

 attention, but I think on the whole that Stanwick Elruge is 

 quite the best of them for a small garden. It never disappoints, 

 always yielding an abundant crop of really fine, handsome, 

 and rich-flavoured fruit, and the wood growth is healthy and 

 vigorous. For an early kind we have none equal to Lord 

 Napier; and for a late one to follow the Stanwick Elruge, Pine 

 Apple worthily ranks first. 



Figs. — In the south of England we are able to obtain a 

 supply of ripe Figs from trees growing in the open air ; the 

 best and most reliable variety being the old Brown Turkey. 

 I have had very old and very young trees of it, and have found 

 all of them extremely fertile. For a couple of other sorts I 

 can recommend White Marseilles and Grizzly Bourjassotte. 

 The growth of this last is with me only of medium strength ; it 

 would, therefore, probably prove suitable for a small garden. 



Cherries. — Of these the best sort for a small garden is in 

 my opinion Imperatrice Eugenie. Its growth is robust and 

 compact, yet tolerably free, and its large, handsome, and 

 delicious fruit clusters so thickly upon the branches as to 

 render the picking a tedious and difficult operation. For a 

 couple of other sorts I cannot do better than to take the 

 Kentish and the Morello, both of well-known excellence for all 

 culinary purposes, the Morello also affording some excellent 

 dishes of late fruit for eating. I may add that this trio is 

 selected from nearly thirty sorts which 1 have in cultivation. 



Plums. — There are so many kinds of Plums of equal merit 

 that selection is moBt difficult. For dessert I may take the 

 old Green Gage, with Bryanston Gage and Purple Gage ; for 

 cooking, Early Rivers, Victoria, and Belle de Septembre. 



Apricots. — Kaisha has proved best with me in health, vigour, 

 and fruitfulness. The fruit is large and excellent, and I am 

 induced to draw special attention to it as it flourishes in soil 

 that is not considered favourable to the Apricot, other sorts 

 being much diseased or dying outright in a season or two after 

 planting. 



Pears and Apples, with some hints as to aepeots, will be 

 noticed in a future communication. — Edwabd Luckhubst. 



THE ROSE ELECTION. 



An' why shouldn't I zay zummut about the Rose, though 

 I be but a poor ignorant Zummerzet chap ? I'ze alius loved 

 the vlower, and cultivated eet likewise zo var as my means and 

 my toime would permit. Aye ! an' I've zhow'deet too at exhi- 

 bitions near where I bide, an' now an' then have had a prize. 



An' I tell'e what the Rose wants, an' that is a loo zittuation 

 an' a roit down good zoil. Not too much dung ; I doant hold 

 with overveeding ought, be eet pigs or vlowers. Moderazun is 

 my maxum in all things, an' vor all, whether man, brazten, 

 or vlowers. 



I'ze but a wee beet o'groun', such as the chaps who writes 

 zo lamed to'e about Roses would tarn up their nozes at, but 

 yet eet is large enuff for taters, greens, an' Roses too. What 

 dooes I think is the best stock vor Roses ? Why, stocks err all 

 one to I. The only thing I'ze cares about is to have a large 

 stock ov them — at least as many as my groun' 'ill hold. In 

 the fall I goes round the highways, an' byeways too, an' 

 where I dare I pulls out a good young Dog Rose Briar, takes 

 him home, an' puts he in the ground before he knows he's 

 been disturbed. I doant care about hacking the roots like 

 zome does, but just cut with a knife or sharp hook — the oldest 

 works off — leaving the tender young roots, which should be 

 on all Briars, to grow. I buds he next zummer, an' not till 

 the following spring do I manure him, but then doant I jist 

 liquor him up in the growing time, perticular when the bud 

 begins to swell. I'ze a wee bit ov a zesspool, or zome zich 

 contrivance, into which all the zlops err thrown during the 

 whole year, an' about once a-week I gee's them Roses zich a 

 zoaking. An' doant they buds thrive ! I never stops the 

 shoot ; I ties eet op as eet grows to a stake, an' encourage eet in 

 iv'ry way the vurst year to grow ; but the zecond year I cuts 

 eet down to about a' ninch vrom the baze. Then doant eet jist 

 zhoot an' burzt on all zides, zummet like 'Sparagrass buds. An' 

 now as to zorts. Well, I knows a good vew, but iv I was to 

 name 'em to 'e perhaps ye'd zay to I, " We knows that bevore, 



my lad, thanks vor nothing." Well, may be you're roit, but 

 yet I mun just name a vew. ^r_.2fff|fi 



There's those blezzid Tea-zents. Oh ! what loovely blooms 

 they be in this coontry. I knows, or at least chaps zay, that 

 oop the coontry the Tea wo'n't do out ov dooars ; but yer an' 

 down the coontry they grows an' flourishes loike meadows 

 drezzed with guano. An' yer I mun tell'e a bit ov an anecdoot 

 about this blezzed guano. A varmur chap went to buy zome 

 ov a agent, an' couldn't remember how eet were named. " Yer, 

 maister," he zays, " I wants zome ov that 'ere stuff. I doant 

 know what the hangment ye calls eet, but eet stinks zummet 

 loike owlets' muck." Eh, zurs, an' what foine stuff this 'ere 

 guano is vor them Teas, too, in the spring ov the year. Vurst 

 there's Cloth of Goold, that grand goolden vlower, which 

 'squire tells I iz zo hard to bloom, but with I eet does as well 

 as any other. Eet is a rare beauty is Cloth ov Goold. I nivver 

 tiches mine wi' a knive, but when eet grows beyond all bounds 

 jist take a reaping 'ook an' cut down great branches ov eet. 

 This Rose is quite different from any other yeller Rose in these 

 parts. Eets growth is most vigorous, eets habit erek, an' eets 

 blooms more comely than eether Marechal Niel or Solfaterre. 

 Eets only beat by one, according to I, an' that's that lovely, 

 dilicate, charming Marie Van Houtte. A vollum might be 

 written about this Rose; no words, howiver, that I can com- 

 mand will describe eet to 'e. I zend 'e a bloom by this poost, 

 an' you can zee vor yourzelves what Bhe be loike, though, ov 

 course, ye must take into account that she's been tozzed about 

 in the Gurt Western Mail avter travelling thurty miles in a 

 mail cart ; but do 'e zay if I be not roit in what I zays ov her. 



Then there's those two -delaitful zisters ; one zeeming to 

 blush at beholding t' other's loveliness, t' other turning pale wi' 

 doubt whether she be as vair as her ziater, an' them be Sou- 

 venir d'un Ami an' Souvenir d'Elise. Talk to I ov yer Hybird 

 Perpetuals, where's there one that can hoold a candle to these 

 two darlings ? Whoy, iv I, gurt hulking coarze brute ov Zum- 

 merzet chawbaacon, as noo doubt ye and yer readers will call 

 I, coould perduce or zend out, or whativer ye call it, zich a 

 vlower as ayther of those I 'u'd gladly zing, Nunc dimittis. 

 The man who zent them out is a man whose praise ought to 

 be zung in ivvry place by oold an' young — I were gwain to zay 

 deef an' dumb vor the zake ov the rhyme as 'twere, but that 

 'u'd hardly doo. An' then, zurs, there's that zweet companon 

 ov theirs — rival we mus' n't, inferior we can't, call her — that 

 Rose whose vorm is loike a " Vennus de Medicine " [we pre- 

 sume Venus de Medici is here alluded to.— Eds.] an' colour 

 a zoft warm flesh loike that tinted statute ov her I zaw when 

 I went to the Gurt Exhibition. Avter her comes a Rose not 

 yet zo well known as those aB I've named, but which bids vair 

 zoon to rival 'em, an' that is Souvenir de Paul Neron. 'Tis 

 a moighty long unzootable name, but that's his oonly vault. 

 I wish 'twere Souvenir de Madam Paul, or zummut else, vor 

 he has no more connection or zemilitude to the gurt hulking 

 begger Paul Neron than a Dayey be to a Dandelion, or a zweet 

 Vilet to a Toadstool. This is a delicate white in colour, wi' a 

 darsh ov pink deepening to the zentre. Eet should be cut 

 when 'tis about ha'f open, as when vully expandeed 'tis loike 

 oold zider, a leetle vlat. Then comes Rubens. Now, zurs, I 

 ventur' to think that this Rose ia a leetle neglicted, an' dooes 

 not receive the 'tention he dezerves. In the autumn 'specially, 

 an' I should imagine all the yer round iv zhaded vrom the zun, 

 the tints ov its various peetals err what I oalls zooperb— zoft 

 but distinct, vlooding the rose in a zea ov the lightest rose, or 

 vilet rose, if there be zich a colour. But I be a poor hand at 

 describing, and no doubt ye knows all about it, much better 

 too than I. Yet iv I'm ax'd to zay what I calls the best Roses 

 I zay the Teas, out an' out, vor they put to shame, not only 

 in delicacy ov colour, but perfection ov vorm, all Hybird Per- 

 petuals that have iwer been zeen, or, I think, will iwer be 

 zeen by — A Zumhekzei Yokel. 



[The specimen of Marie Van Houtte was the finest bloom 

 we have ever seen of the variety, not excepting blooms which 

 have been so well exhibited by the Rev. J. B. M. Camm from 

 Dorsetshire. — Eds.] 



THE POTATO CEOPS IN IRELAND. 

 Foe some time past I have been watching the Journal to see 

 if anyone would tell about our wonderful crop of Potatoes this 

 year. In the first place, Potatoes were much later in being 

 planted this season than usual, our spring being very wet and 

 cold. It was almost May before they were all planted. How- 

 ever, the weather became very hot, attended with showers ; the 



