428 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 16, 1378. 



My own opinion is, and I express it diffidently, that Gari- 

 baldi is not the same as Visoomtesse He'rieart de Thury. I 

 have grown them both side by Bide, and the former had, in 

 my oase, rounder foliage with shorter footstalks, also Bhorter 

 fruit stems and rounder fruit than the latter. Garibaldi, with 

 me, was more compact in habit than the " Viscomtesse," and 

 although both produced fruit in the autumn, Garibaldi pro- 

 duced it the more freely. 



I remember when visiting in Lincolnshire a few years ago 

 admiring a wonderful border of Strawberries in the gardens of 

 Blankney Hall. It was late in October, and the crop then ripe 

 was almost if not quite as fine as crops usually are in July. 

 Mr. Frisby gathered diBhes regularly for dessert, and I think 

 he told me he did so every year with the same variety similarly 

 treated. The plants which were fruiting so freely in the 

 autumn had been forced in the spring and afterwards planted 

 out in rich soil in a cool situation. I know that plants of 

 Keens' Seedling will occasionally produce fruit in the autumn 

 after having been forced and planted out, and that more cer- 

 tainly will Viscomtesse Hericart de Thury, but I have not 

 found either of them so constant in this respect as Garibaldi. 

 I do not now force Strawberries, but if I did I should rely on 

 this variety as not only one of the earliest, but also — which is 

 equally valuable — as being the latest Strawberry in cultivation. 



It would be useful to know if Mr. Frisby still grows Gari- 

 baldi and if he considers it identical with Viscomtesse Hericart 

 de Thury, also if Mr. Bennett 13 of the same opinion. A soli- 

 tary plant in a pot is not sufficient to enable a decision to be 

 arrived at ; and although the members of the Fruit Committee 

 may and doubtless have had practical experience with Straw- 

 berries having these names and had proof that they were 

 synonymous, yet that does not quite prove enough, for they 

 may not have grown the veritable " Simon Pare," the true 

 Garibaldi. — A Retired Gaedeneb. 



WEST'S ST. PETER'S GEAPE. 

 ' I have often wondered why it is that this Grape is not more 

 grown than it is. I believe it will not be found in one vinery 

 out of every hundred at the present day. It was always a 

 favourite with me, and it is to my mind the most refreshing 

 and agreeable Grape grown. It has, moreover, come under 

 not only my own but many others' observation, that invalids 

 have decidedly preferred it to any other Grape, whioh is a 

 good eriterion of its highly refreshing and thirst-satisfying 

 qualities. For this alone I contend that my favourite should 

 be thought more of than it is, for I believe that half, and more 

 than half, of the Grapes grown or kept after this season are 

 eaten by invalids. It is well known that Lady Downe's is 

 very agreeable, and has a very refreshing quality about it ; 

 but its hard skin is oftentimes an objeotion to the invalid, 

 while West's St. Peter's cannot be objected to on that score, for 

 it has a very tender skin. I intend making a new plantation 

 of it this year, and I hope those who have Vines to plant will 

 bear this variety in mind, and I am convinced they will not 

 regret having planted it. Of course it is not a sensational 

 Grape, and can scarcely be called an exhibition Grape, but it 

 is strictly an eating Grape, and above all an invalid's Grape, 

 and it will hold its own against all comers. — K. 



through a long life of scarcely interrupted health I h»va par- 

 severed, and probably shall parsavara as long ai I pos3333 the 

 power." The " Athananoi" epitomised as follows the chief 

 of his scientific services. 



When young Mr. Knight's educitioawa? so much neglected 

 that when, at the aga of niaa years, ha was sent to school at 

 Ludlow, he wa3 scarcely able to do mora than read. Bat the 

 days of his childhood had not b3an passed without employ- 

 ment. Ha had a great turn for the observatiou of natural 

 phenomena, and having bean left to oocapy himself in the 

 country in what way ha pleased, he had already formed a close 

 practical acquaintance with such plants and animals as Here- 

 fordshire could furnish. Eventually he graduated at Baliol 

 College, Oxford, and subsequently occupied himself with re- 

 searches into various points of vegetable and animal physiology. 

 One of the most remarkable of his early investigations was 

 contained in a papar read before the R:>yal Society in 1795 

 upon the inheritance of disease among fruit trees, and upon 

 the propagation of debility by grafting. The county of Here- 

 ford had long been celebrated for the produce of its orchards, 

 and the cider made therefrom was in high esteem ; but towards 



THOMAS ANDEEW KNIGHT. 



This well-known pomologist and first President of the Royal 

 Horticultural Sooiety was the younger brother of Richard Payne 

 Knight, the writer of many observations on " Taste." They 

 were the sons of the Rev. Thomas Knight of Wormsley Grange 

 in Herefordshire, and where the subject of our notes was born 

 on the 10th of October, 1758. 



" My father," said Mr. Knight in a communication to us, 

 "was a man of much learning and acquirements. Having 

 great power of mind, and living in an extremely quiet and 

 sequestered spot, he was supposed by his ignorant neighbours, 

 in their language, ' to know everything.' " He died at an ad- 

 vanced age, when Mr. Knight was an infant, and as evidence 

 of the respect his knowledge obtained him, whenever in child- 

 hood his son sought for information upon any unusual subject, 

 he was told " that his father would have answered him, but 

 that nobodynow could." "Being born in the midst of orchards 

 I was early led," oontinues this distinguished horticulturist, 

 " to ask whence the varieties of fruit I saw came, and how 

 they were produoed. I could obtain no satisfactory answer, 

 and was thence first led to commence experiments, in which 



i" 



/.€ x 



Fig. 61.— Mr. T. A. Knight. 



the latter part of the last century the trees of the most es- 

 teemed sorts, whioh had been eulogised by the county poet 

 Philips, became gradually less productive, their vitality being 

 nearly exhausted. Still the old practice of grafting young 

 stocks with the debilitated shoots of these trees generally pre- 

 vailed, till Mr. Knight, after a long course of interesting ex- 

 periments, satisfied himself that there is no renewal of vitality 

 by the process of grafting, but merely a continuation of de- 

 clining life, and that young grafted stocks soon beoame as 

 much diseased as the old parent trees. He then commenced a 

 course of experiments by fertilising the blossoms of some hardy 

 Crabs or Apples with the pollen taken from the flowers of the 

 most celebrated dessert and cider fruits, and Bowing the seeds 

 thus artificially impregnated. From that time Mr. Knight 

 was looked up to in this country as a vegetable physiologist of 

 a high order, a character which he ably sustained by various 

 experimental researches into vegetable fecundation, the ascent 

 and descent of sap in trees, the phenomena of germination, 

 the influence of light upon leaves, and a variety of similar 

 subjects. In 1797 he published a small work called " A 

 Treatise on the Culture of the Apple and Pear, and of the 

 Manufacture of Cider and Perry;" in which he recommends 

 raising new kinds from seed, and suiting the sorts produced 

 to the peculiarities of soil and climate, which are found to have 

 so great an influence on the quality of cider. Mr. Knight cfid 

 not confine his experiments to the improvement of the Apple 

 only, but he raised many Pears most valuable for the dessert, 

 and so hardy as not to require the warmth and shelter of 

 walla, and consequently capable of being cultivated by every 

 farmer and cottager in the country. His seedling Plums, 

 Strawberries, Nectarines, and Potatoes are also of great value, 

 and an important addition to the luxuries and neoessaries 

 of life. 

 The great objeot of this distinguished man seems to have 



