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JOUBNAL OF HORTIGULTDKR AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Angnst 2i, 1871. 



South Devon this ia so general, not that it is peculiar, for there 

 is an orchard of Eig trees at Tarring, near Arundel, in Sussex. 

 It is peculiar, however, to Devonians that they call Raisins 

 Figs. With them a Plum pudding is " a figgy pudding," and 

 they have this nursery rhyme — 



" When I brew and when I bake 

 I'll give yon a figgy cake." 



This application of the name of one of their own fruits to one 

 of foreign growth, merely because they are alike sweet and 

 have their seeds inside, is only a single instance out of many 

 instances of their adoption of terms from their favourite pur- 

 suit, gardening. One more only will I quote, told me in reply 

 to a query why a sailor no longer escorted a Torquay damsel, 

 " Oh ! she 's given him Turnips." Let me tell a tale of warn- 

 ing to others who may write "Bits" about Devon. Mr. 

 Saunders, host of the Devon Arms in this city of villas, has 

 harvested this season a noble crop of White Spanish Onions, 

 averaging 17 inches in circumference. " He grew 350 lbs. in 

 weight on two-thirds of a yard of ground," said our informant. 

 " Dear me ! " said an old gentleman from Cheapside, " they 

 must have grown a-top of one another ! " By " a yard of land " 

 our informant meant what is elsewhere called a pole or perch, 

 and Mr. Saunders's Onions were grown on a bed 33 feet long 

 and 5 feet wide. 



I have spoken of gardening as a favourite pursuit of the 

 Devonians, and the evidence is everywhere. Each villa is set 

 like a jewel in a garniture of gardening. Every cottage in every 

 lane has flowers on and around it — and what lanes are they ! 

 banks feet high, not 8 feet apart, clothed densely with Ferns 

 and wild flowers, crested with Nut trees, and thickly over- 

 arched with the noblest of Beeches, Elms, and Oaks. A fine 

 summer evening's wandering in the Cockington lanes is a luxury 

 never to be forgotten — so beautiful, so refreshing, so cool, though 

 not so cool as Kent's Hole, that storeplace of records for the 

 anthropologists. The temperature there never varies, it is 32" 

 day and night all the year round. Let that vagrant bit remain, 

 for I will at once return to the love-of-gardening evidence by 

 adding that little market gardens and vast orchards crop out 

 everywhere — market gardens, the owners of which are unknown 

 beyond their immediate vicinities. I travelled on to Berry 

 Head ; and there at some .300 feet above the sea's level, and on 

 that furthest narrow promontory of Devon, I was brought to a 

 pause by a board inscribed, " Gann, Nurseryman and Florist," 

 and there within walled enclosures were acres of fruits, flowers, 

 and kitchen-garden stuff. 



Berry Head will be associated in my memory with the Heli- 

 anthemum polifolium, for there for the first time I found that 

 rare white Rock Rose ; there grows also the Trinia vulgaris, 

 Honewort. Of other not-common plants I noticed but few. 

 Crambe maritima, Sea-kale, on Shapton Sands,! notice chiefly 

 hecause it was thence Mr. Curtis obtained the plants from which 

 he introduced it into our kitchen gardens in 1795. On the 

 Paignton Sands is Erodium maritimnm. Sea Storksbill, and 

 on the banks near is Tamarix anglioa, English Tamarisk, the 

 sprays of which add such grace to bouquets. I know of no 

 other places than Babbicome Downs and Daddyhole Plain near 

 here where the Bupleurum aristatum. Narrow-leaved Hare's-ear, 

 is found in England. Of Ferns, Stewart states that the Maiden- 

 hair, Adiantum Capillns-Teneris, is to be found in some cre- 

 vices of wet rocks at Mudstone Bay, near Brixham ; the Tun- 

 bridge Filmy Fern, Hjmenophyllum tunbridgense, at Bickleigh 

 Vale and Eeckej Fall, and at the place last named the Hyme- 

 nophyllum unilaterale. At Holne Chase, about twelve miles 

 from Toiquay, Mr. Stewart says, " I have gathered fronds of 

 Osmunda regalis which measured 10, 12, and 13 feet." The 

 Adder's-tongue, Ophioglossum vnlgatum, is found about the 

 Torre Abbey pastures. 



I have just alluded to the orchards, and I will add that 

 they would puzzle, astonish, and horrify even the "hairy" 

 of you two " old Gooseberries." They would puzzle, because 

 he would see thousands of trees in thousands of orchards, 

 all differing and all nameless, because seedlings. The pips 

 were and are sown wholesale, and the products are ungratted. 

 Ha would be astonished because of the numbers and size of 

 orchards, all of Apple trees, that occur on each side of each 

 lane lor miles around Torquay. 1 regret to hear that they 

 bear on the average this year less than half a crop, for this 

 is the birth-district of the best cider. He would be horrified 

 by the total defiance or ignorance of all fruit-culture evinced. 

 Trees with crowded branches and crowded together are every- 

 where, and I have not feen one orchard so cared for that I 

 could justly say, " That orchardist deserves a crop." 



Now for " a few " breakfast, and then off for Coombe Royal, 

 but before closing I need add that " few " is the Devonian 

 for " little."— G. 



DOUBLE LILIUM TIGRINUM— LARGE 



ANTHURIUM SCHERZERIANUM. 



I HAVE sent you a flower of Lilium tigrinum flore-pleno, 

 which is really uncommon as yet, and from its value and beauty 

 deserves attention as a very fine addition to our Lilies. The 

 flower sent is from a small bulb in a pot, which under this 

 condition is most beautiful, and I expect when cultivated out 

 of doors it will prove itself still more so. We have several 

 pots of this Lily in flower just now, and some of them have 

 been open three weeks, and are still beautiful. 



I have also sent yon a flower of our variety of Anthurium 

 Scherzerianum, the spathe of which is 6 inches long ; but this 

 is not the longest, one of recent formation is nearly 7 inches 

 long. The flower sent opened up last April, which shows the 

 value of this splendid plant in all its varieties. The remainder 

 of the flower-stem of the variety sent, which I have not put in 

 the box, from want of space, is 17 inches long.— H. K. 



[Both of these are very beautiful indeed, the Anthurium 

 marvellously so ; this is the finest spathe of Anthurium, and 

 the Lilium is the most double, we have ever seen. — Eds.] 



THE SOIL SUPPLY OP GARDENS. 



We recently commented on the water supply of gardens, and 

 now we propose to offer a few remarks on the very important 

 question of the soil supply of gardens. It need not be said 

 that these twin elements rank of the very first and highest 

 importance in nearly all the operations of the horticulturist. 

 Destitute of them, he might give up his occupation ; inade- 

 quately supplied with them, he is almost as badly off as the 

 Egyptians when called up to render their tale of bricks without 

 a supply of straw. It is on the plentiful supply of water, and 

 soil of certain qualities, more than anything else, that the 

 character of garden produce depends. At least all other appli- 

 ances, however correctly handled, cannot insure success in the 

 absence of good water and soils. 



Gardeners have in numerous instances to put up with much 

 that is most trying and unreasonable connected with their 

 supply of soils for potting and other purposes. It would be as 

 reasonable to expect the farm steward to send prime sirloins to 

 the larder or fat oxen to a cattle show without supplying him 

 with plenty of proper food to feed them with, as it is to expect 

 the gardener to produce first-rate plants and fruits without a 

 proper supply of soil. Fortunately for the farmer, he can 

 manufacture or grow the greater portion of what bis oxen re- 

 quire, but gardeners cannot manufacture " turfy loam " and 

 " fibry peat." No nobleman or gentleman ever expects the farm 

 to produce prize animals on dry bents or chaff', and yet such an 

 expectation would only equal in absurdity the expectation that 

 fine Pine Apples and other pot plants can be reared on road 

 scrapings, or clay, or any other composts equally unsuitable to 

 the best cultural results. That policy which compels gardeners 

 just to take any sort of soil that they can get, and prohibits 

 them from taking a supply of that which is proper, is not only 

 an unreasonable but a short-sighted policy on the part of the 

 employers. We have known gardeners connected with large 

 landed estates obliged to take road scrapings to pot with, and 

 to pot their Pines in clay mixed with chopped straw and leaves, 

 while plenty of good loam could be had in the nearest meadows. 

 Not only is this a stupid policy, but the apprehensions which 

 lead proprietors thus to refuse proper soil are entirely delusive 

 and without foundation. They will not allow the gardener to 

 break into the meadow, because they fear that by so doing 

 their lands will be sadly and permanently deteiiorated. Even 

 if he offers to replace it with a richer and better grass-pro- 

 ducing soil, the offer is seldom reassuring, and in some cases 

 not entertained for a moment. We are not now supposing 

 cases for the sake of a purpose. Indeed, we venture to assume 

 that a large proportion of gardeners can endorse from their own 

 experience what we are stating. 



We once held a situation where we were driven, as the saying 

 is, " to our wits' end " for want of soil to pot with. At last, 

 after a sort of special pleading, and a controversion of the ideas 

 of the proprietor — and always, in this battle, his lieutenant the 

 farm bailiff — permission was obtained to test our statements in 

 the corner of an old meadow. Of course, it was not expected 



