426 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 16, 1876. 



cultivate. I would include it for such positions as it occupied 

 in the garden referred to, but would not urge its being largely 

 planted for supplying the markets with fruit, or for giving the 

 best returns to the grower. What I mean is this — that 

 " Wiltshire Rector" might plant it as an espalier in his 

 garden to produce fruit for his own use and admiration, but if 

 he desired to plant Apple trees to produce fruit for selling to 

 his parishioners he can find other varieties which would be 

 better for him and for them. 



Our friend refers also to another Apple that has been fre- 

 quently noticed — the " Greasy Coat "■ — as not, as he knows it, 

 being good. I have very little doubt that the " book name " 

 of Greasy Coat has transpired in the recent correspondence, 

 and that it is the Transparent Codlin, which is a really good 

 culinary Apple ; few better iu its season. It should be grown 

 as an espalier or orchard tree, it being too spreading for 

 dwarf bush cultivation. Its fruit, although large, is not nearly 

 so much bruised by the wind or blown off the trees as is fruit 

 of the Emperor Alexander, and Transparent Codlin is there- 

 fore suitable for growing as an orchard tree. 



Large Apples as a rule are not the best for growing as 

 standards, but there are a few the fruit of which i3 not only 

 firm in itself but is also firmly affixed to the trees. A large 

 Apple of this character is the Alfriston, which is in use from 

 November till April, and is a very valuable kind. It does not 

 usually produce a prodigious crop one year and little or no 

 fruit the next, but is a useful Bteady bearer. I have Eeldom 

 found it to fail in producing a profitable supply of fruit. 



Another Apple which, in my opinion, deserves honourable 

 mention as combining in a high degree " beauty with utility " 

 is Beauty of Kent. It is in use from October to February, and 

 it is as handsome as it is good for culinary purposes. On the 

 Crab stock the tree grows very freely, sometimes vigorously ; 

 and on the Paradise stock in good soil the growth is sufficient, 

 and the crop of fruit is almost invariably good. In some dis- 

 tricts I have heard that trees on the last-named stock are 

 prone to canker, but I have never been troubled with that 

 disease affecting this variety, but I have been rewarded with 

 splendid fruit from ornamental pyramid trees. I have found 

 the fruit more highly coloured from the Paradise than the 

 Crab stock ; but on any stock and under any mode of culture 

 — standards, pyramids, espaliers, and horizontal cordons — I 

 consider Beauty of Kent to be one of the best of culinary 

 Apples. It only fails when all others fail from the effects of 

 severe spring frosts, to which, however, it is one of the last to 

 succumb. Were I making an extensive plantation of Apples 

 I should grow trees of this kind by the dozen, in confidence 

 that the fruit would prove its worth in satisfying the public 

 and myself. I commend this Apple to the notice of " Wilt- 

 shire Rector," and all others whom it may concern, as being 

 very valuable as a free bearer, also beautiful and good. 



I have one more Apple to bring to the notice of our friend 

 as also combining "beauty with utility" — namely, Cox's 

 Pomona. This is a splendid Apple, and excellent for culinary 

 purposes. The tree bears freely in a small state, and its crop, 

 either on cordons, bushes, or espaliers, is extremely handsome. 

 It was raised I believe by Mr. Cox, of Cox's Orange Pippin 

 fame, and I cannot consider any garden complete which does 

 not include these two sterling varieties in its collection. 



The few varieties named are outside the list requested- by 

 "Wiltshire Rector," but they are good, and others are also 

 good of the same season, a season above all others where dis- 

 crimination is particularly necessary on account of the im- 

 mense number of sorts which annually puzzle many who 

 anticipate planting few or many trees. I should be glad to 

 have other mid-season varieties of special merit pointed out, 

 and, if time permits, I will on a future occasion give attention 

 to the sorts which are " beet for the months of April, May, and 

 June." — A Midland Counties Fruit- grower. 



"WINTER SARRACENIAS. 

 The different species of Sarracenia have of late become 

 better known aDd more interesting to cultivators and amateurs 

 since their insectivorous propensities have been so prominently 

 brought before the public by Darwin, Hooker, and others. 

 Their principal value is, however, generally associated with 

 this peculiarity and their curious Bide-saddle flowers in sum- 

 mer. Few, even among plantsmen, have any idea or know- 

 ledge of the marvellous leaf beauty of some of the Bpecies in 

 winter when well grown. At the present moment the large 

 purple pitchers of Sarracenia Drummondi and its white variety 



S. Drummondi alba, are among the most showy and striking 

 objects in the conservatories at Glasnevin. Without seeing 

 them and gazing on the beautifully painted transparencies — 

 for such like are the spreading lids and upper portion of their 

 singular leafy tubes — it can hardly be believed how showy 

 they are when grown and developed as they are at Glasnevin, 

 where the average height of the pitchers varies from 18 inches 

 to 2 feet. 



If we are not mistaken, to Dr. Moore attaches the credit of 

 being the firBt to effect a cross between species of this singular 

 and very interesting genus. The parent plantB he selected to 

 manipulate with were S. Drummondi rubra and S. flava. The 

 reEult was a truly grand cross, quite intermediate in aspect 

 and character with its parents. Its peculiarities are that 

 the coloured winter pitchers are not so bright as are those of 

 S. Drummondi, but very different from those of S. flava. The 

 latter, be it remembered, too, does not make winter pitchers ; 

 whereas those on the hybrid at present are of quite recent 

 growth, 2 feet or more high, and stout in proportion. It seems 

 to us to be unquestionably the finest. — (Irish Farmers' Gazette.) 



ANOHUSA CAPENS1S (the Cape Alkaott). 

 I received through the courtesy of Messrs. Carter & Co. of 

 High Holborn this spring some seeds for trial, and amongst 

 them was {his, which promises to be a most useful addition to 

 our perennial plants. It is vigorous-growing, but not rampant, 

 with lovely blue Forget-me-not-like flowers, and has bloomed 

 continuously from May to the present time, the floweriDg 

 shoots being cut off as they decayed. I presume it is hardy, 

 for it has not been in the least affected by the sharp frosts we 

 have had ; if so, it will be a real acquisition. — D., Deal. 



THE OLD MARKET GARDENS and NURSERIES 

 OF LONDON.— No. 13. 



A writer in a popular journal has lately commented upon 

 the partiality for floral adornment which prevails in the dis- 

 tricts he calls Tyburnia and Westburnia. I do not know 

 whether there is anything in the appearance of these districts 

 which entitles them to be regarded as exceptional, for it is- 

 satisfactory to find a taste for flowers is tolerably general in 

 our London suburbs. In St. John's Wood, adjacent to the- 

 above-mentioned places, flowers are also much the fashion ; 

 and if we are to credit the axiom that wherever people areir- 

 terested in the culture of flowers they cannot be irreclaimably 

 bad, this much-scandalised district may not deserve all the- 

 censure that is applied to it. Like a well-known western; 

 suburb, St. John's Wood has a bad name, yet there cannot be 

 a doubt that there are hosts of persons of good repute living 

 in it, nor can you by any contrivance exclude queer folks from 

 a locality. Evidently, however, the trade of florist is a good 

 one in Paddington and St. John's Wood, though only a small 

 proportion of the plants sold there are grown on the spot. 

 The district was not one remarkable for its nurseries in the 

 reign of George III., when other districts, such as Chelsea, 

 had flourishing establishments, and the reason was the scarcity 

 of residents in the neighbourhood likely to be purchasers cf 

 plants. When Nightingale wrote his history of London in 

 1815 he notified the fact that Paddington was beginning to 

 increase in size, though it grew slowly in importance, since the. 

 houses built were chiefly of a mean sort ; and an account of 

 Paddington written twenty years earlier informs us that cf 

 about 1200 acres of ground belonging to the parish, only eighty- 

 four were under cultivation, and as we know houses were 

 scarce then, the rest was doubtless used for pasturage. 



Going back a good many years we find evidence that a good 

 deal of this part of north London was woodland, though the- 

 precise date when it was cleared is not determinable. Hyde 

 Park to the south was a portion of the same forest or wood, a 

 curious reminiscence of which is extant in what poor Tom 

 Hood the older calls " that bare wood St. John's." There* 

 was, after Borne clearance had been made, a wood which was 

 the property of the Knights of St. John, and as they had also 

 another wood at Highbury named "Little St. John's Wood," 

 some Blight confusion has arisen. The soil here, though clayey, 

 yielded less water than the land farther west, where the cha- 

 racter of the ground is shown by such appellations as Kilbum, 

 Tyburn, Westbourne, and Bayawater. By degrees St. John's 

 Wood was cleared of its'timber, a few trees, chiefly Elms, only 

 remaining to tell the story of other days, and cows fed here 

 peaceably, aa in the adjacent districts of Paddington. A proof 



