October 19, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



345 



and are^oonstantly coming in. It was decided not to publish 

 names till the list was a very long one. 



The privileges which can at present be stated as accruing to 

 the guinea fellowships are admittance to all the Society's shows 

 in London and in the provinces, and to all minor exhibitions of 

 fruit and flowers held at the fortnightly Committee meetings, and 

 daily admission to the Chiswick Gardens (Sundays excepted). 



I, the undersigned, authorise you to add my name to the list 

 of Fellows of the Royal Horticultural Society paying an annual 

 subscription of one guinea, upon the understanding that I incur 

 no further liability. 



*I further oonsent to my name being placed on the list of the 

 Committee now being formed to aid in obtaining a large acces- 

 sion of Fellows at the same rate of subscription. 

 Signature, 

 Address, 



*This to be struck out if there is an objection to joining the 

 Committee. 



NOTES OF A SCOTTISH TOUR.— No. 5. 



HELENSBURGH, LOCH LOMOND, AND EDINBURGH. 



I have already, in writing of the West of Scotland Rose 

 Show, alluded to the thriving watering place Helensburgh, and 

 to the thoroughly hospitable character of the welcome I re- 

 ceived ; my recurring to it again is for the purpose of saying 

 a few words on the establishment of Messrs. Robertson & Gal- 

 loway. I am the more induced to do this because of the very 

 prominent position taken by Mr. Galloway as an exhibitor of 

 one of my favourite flowers — the Gladiolus, and I was naturally 

 desirous of seeing him and his flowers at home. Unfortu- 

 nately, as far as the nursery was concerned it was an unpro- 

 pitious time, for they were about to remove, and consequently 

 everything was in a transition state ; but I saw enough to con- 

 vince me that the same energy and ekill which have enabled 

 one of the firm to occupy so leading a position as a grower of 

 Gladiolus is being carried out in the other departments of the 

 busrmss. 



It is at Mr. Galloway's own house or cottage that the cul- 

 tures of the Gladiolus are carried on ; and I was perfectly 

 astonished to find so small a space occupied by them, when 

 I recollected .that he had come up some three hundred miles 

 and had beaten, and well beaten, our champion grower on his 

 own ground (a feat he has since repeated at the last Crystal 

 Palace Show), and to find that he only grows about two thou- 

 sand bulbs in all. And what is still more remarkable, he has 

 violated all the rules given as to growth, for the bulbs have 

 been planted in the same ground year after year, and there is 

 nothing which we have all insisted upon more than that the 

 ground should be changed every year. I could not find that 

 there was any special mode of culture, nor was the soil anyway 

 xemarkable. There must be something in the management of 

 the spikes when they commence flowering that tends to this 

 success, for at the time of my visit the plants were not a bit 

 stronger than my own — I question if so strong, but I could not 

 ■exhibit such spikes as he produced at the Crystal Palace. It 

 may give some idea of the general character of his plants when 

 I say that theBe two thousand bulbs are planted on a piece of 

 ground that measures only 2200 square feet, and that out of 

 them Mr. Galloway had out 258 blooms of fine quality, mostly 

 with eleven or twelve flowers out on each ; that he had exhi- 

 bited at thirteen different shows including the great inter- 

 national one at Dundee and the Crystal Palace, at each com- 

 petition he had invariably gained first prize, and that even 

 when brought into competition with such renowned growers 

 as Mr. Kelway. It is evident, if we are ever to have autumn 

 shows again about the metropolis, account must be taken of 

 Mr. Galloway as a most formidable competitor. 



There were many charming villa residences about Helens- 

 burgh of which I should have liked to have seen more had 

 4ime permitted. My most kind ho3t, Mr. A. Craig Robertson's 

 beautiful house and grounds were in their way the very per- 

 fection of arrangement, and a few years will add greatly to 

 their charm ; and I have no doubt there were many others. 

 The residence of Mr. Crum Ewing, M.P., too, seemed to pre- 

 sent many attractions, while the shores of the Garelock contain 

 many favourite homeB of Roses and other flowers. 



And what shall I say of Loeh Lomond, Loch Katrine, and 

 the Trossacks ? The hope of many years was at last fulfilled ; 

 and a most pleasant day, made doubly so by the valuable 

 escort of my excellent host, enabled me to see the last of the 

 European lakes that I hoped to visit. In my salet days I had 

 visited the Italian, and in mature years the Swiss lakes. I 

 had as a young man explored the beauties of Windermere and 



the other English lakes. Killarney, Lough Neagh, and the 

 other Irish lakes were familiar to me ; and now I have seen 

 the cbiefest of the Scotch lakes. It would ill become me to 

 attempt a description of this day's charming tour ; moreover, 

 I must stick to my last and keep to horticulture. And here 

 let me say I was (as your correspondent would have seen had 

 he turned to a baok number of these notes) equally struok 

 with himself with the extreme beauty of Tropfeolum speoiosum, 

 which grows so luxuriantly all along this region of Sootland, 

 perfectly hardy, and, as I was told, almost a weed in some 

 places. Whether in our drier climate we shall succeed with it 

 I know not, but I mean to try it this year (having been pro- 

 mised some roots of it) in various aspects. One great point 

 is, I believe, to leave it undisturbed; and it will be almost 

 necessary with us to give some protection to the roots in 

 winter, removing the covering as soon as ever the roots begin 

 to move. It is somewhat singular that so beautiful a plant 

 should be so rare in the south of England, but a great many 

 persons to whom I have spoken about it do not seem to know 

 it even by name. 



If it be difficult to desoribe such scenery as Looh Lomond 

 and the Trossacks, it is equally so to describe the exceeding 

 beauty of Edinburgh. I have seen many cities, but I confess 

 I was never more impressed with the beauty of any than with 

 that of the modern Athens. Some cities, as Naples, owe nearly 

 all to nature ; others, as Paris, nearly all to art. And if there be 

 nothing in Edinburgh to vie with that wondrous view over the 

 Bay of Naples, with Vesuvius towering above and Isola and 

 Procida set as gemB in the blue sea, or nothing to compare with 

 that view, equally wonderful in its way, which one gets, or used 

 to get, in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, there is such a 

 combination in the queenly city of the north gathered into so 

 small a compass that it may fairly claim a chief place amongst 

 the cities of Europe. Its old town with all its quaint buildings 

 (where one might fancy oneself in Paris), and historic memo- 

 ries, the old Castle looming over all ; the splendid new town 

 with its grand architecture and the surrounding scenery, com- 

 bine to make a place of which any people might well be proud. 

 It holds a high place too in the opinion of horticulturists, as 

 there are here many firms well known throughout the world — 

 Lawson's, Dickson's, Downie & Laird's, and many others. Here 

 again time was the enemy I had to contend with, and could 

 only pay a hurried visit to the winter garden and nursery of the 

 latter firm. These have already been described in the columns 

 of the Journal, and I have only to add that I never saw 

 Pansies and all the Viola genus in such numbers as I saw 

 them in this nursery. Delphiniums, Pentstemons, and Phloxes, 

 too, were in large quantities, for it is mainly for these despised 

 florist flowers that Messrs. Downie & Laird are so famous, 

 and I could only regret that my time was so hurried. More- 

 over, the season was rather too far advanced to see Pansies 

 in their beauty ; but we all know how very successful Messrs. 

 Downie & Laird are in their culture, and how many fine 

 varieties they are constantly introducing. 



And thus finished my rambling notes of a most pleasant 

 tour, in which I have endeavoured to note what may be in- 

 teresting to my fellow gardeners, and to show them that with 

 all their difficulties of climate, our brethren across the border 

 are setting us a good example of what ought to be and may be 

 done, and so valete. — D., Deal. 



TOMATOES AND THE POTATO DISEASE. 



Your correspondent Mr. A. Boyle (page 305) is undoubtedly 

 right in considering the disease of Potatoes and that of To- 

 matoes to be quite identical with each other. The Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley was the first to point out this fact many years ago, 

 and I have repeatedly referred to the matter in my recent 

 papers upon the Potato disease. The disease of the two plants 

 is in every way the same. Mr. Moorman's suggestion (page 

 327) that other members of the Solanum family besides the 

 two above mentioned may also suffer from the Potato disease, 

 is also well known to be correct. Mr. Berkeley detected the 

 fungus of the Potato disease upon the Petunia ; it is also not 

 unfrequent on Solanum Duloamara. 



Tour practical readers will see at a glance that it is not 

 necessary for Tomatoes to be in the neighbourhood of diseased 

 Potatoes for them to take the disease. As both Potatoes and 

 Tomatoes are liable to the same murrain, and as other mem- 

 bers of the Solanum family are also liable to it (and at least 

 two members of the Sorophulariacese are liable), it is only 

 reasonable to suppose that all these plants become affected 



