Janaajy 12, 1371. ] 



JOTJKNAIi OF HOETICULTtJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



29 



money. People's mental organisations differ -widely, as also 

 their reasoning processes and conolnsions. This was indicated 

 by a field adjoining the Blackberries, -where the owner had evi- 

 dently concluded that the crop for him to raise -was " mullens." 

 We have seen no " mullen " crop equal to them this season, and 

 think -we never saw a better one anywhere. They have grown 

 6 feet high, without any expense of cultivation. The inference 

 we drew was, that a " mullen " soil was also favourable for 

 Blaokberrie.=!. 



By far the largest portion of the Blackberries were the variety 

 known as Wilson's Early. This seedling, of a few years since, 

 ranks in importance with the Philadelphia Raspberry. It is 

 the best Blackberry out, has been tested thoroughly, differs 

 from the Lawton in being ripe when black, is of good size, 

 melting, and juicy, which, with its earliness, being the first in 

 the market and treading closely on the heels of the Raspberry 

 crop, always secures the best price. 



J. S. Collins was receiving 20 cents per quart, wholesale 

 price, at the time of our visit, which, with 14,000 quarts, make 

 the round little sum of 2800 dols. for one day's picking. Can 

 the " muUea " grower show as large a record ? 



One of the most interesting features of the business, to us, 

 was the quiet, thorough, and systematic manner in which 

 everything was done. Each row had a marked stake at the end. 

 Hand A undertakes to pick rows 65 and 56 — was so marked 

 by the clerk in his book, and they were required to pick 

 them clean, and to go back if they were not so. The price 

 paid for picking was li cent per quart, and a constant super- 

 vision being exercised over the work, the hands soon discovered 

 it was easier to pick a row thoroughly than to have to go back. 

 Very few cases occur where they are so continually careless as to 

 require to be discharged. The average is 100 to 150 quarts 

 per day to each hand, but they sometimes run up to 200 quarts 

 per day. 



While a harvest was being evidently reached by the intelli- 

 gent and far-seeing projector of this Blackberry patch, it was 

 also no less a Blackberry festival for the hands employed. On 

 inquiry where they were from, we were surprised to find them 

 to have come mostly from that aristocratic (?) portion of Phila- 

 delphia, Bedford Street. Is it possible, thought we, thus to 

 utilise Bedford Street ? Here were one to two hundred hands 

 employed, of what is known as the very scum of creation, men 

 with their wives and children, gathered about in clumps ; and 

 in passing among them, we did not hear a profane or improper 

 word, all quiet and orderly. The change from damp and 

 crowded cellars and filthy dens and alleys, to the green grass 

 and pure air and beautiful trees of the country, where all 

 Nature was pleasant, and the birds sang merrily, most evidently 

 impressed and reached the latent spark of these depraved 

 specimens of humanity. As they stay over the Sabbath, what 

 a place and an opportunity for those rightly qualified to give 

 religious labour for operating on such a class. 



As the filled boxes are brought up to the clerk, 3-ct. or a 

 larger denomination of tickets are given out, which are always 

 good for the money whenever asked for. The ticket system 

 undoubtedly induces them to save till toward the end of the 

 season. 



A large open shed is erected, with rough tables and benches, 

 which may be called the restaurant, where plain meals are 

 cooked, and provisions sold, of course with the entire absence 

 of intoxicating liquors. The barn as well as shanties erected 

 about, are used to lodge in ; and there can he no doubt the 

 hands return, when the season is over, improved in mind, body, 

 and estate. — {American Gardener's Monthly.) 



December 2oth, 4° below zero. The thickness of the ice on the 

 lake on December 26th was 5 inches. This is the coldest 

 weather we have experienced here since December 25th, 1860. — 

 Wm. Sm-ithe, The Gardens, Elmham. 



THE CANDELABRA-FLOWERED LARKSPUR. 

 I DO not very much affect annuals, although some of them 

 are remarkably handsome, but one was sent to me last year by 

 Messrs. Dick Radclyffe & Co. under a name quite sufficient to 

 deter anyone from growing it — Delphinium Goneolidam cande- 

 labrum flore-pleno. However, I tried it, and can conscientiously 

 recommend it as one of the prettiest things I know in its way. 

 It is dwarf, and the arrangement of the branohlets is exactly 

 like that of a candelabrum. They go out horizontally from the 

 stem, and then the flower stands up in a perpendicular position. 

 It is of various shades of colour, and altogether it is a very 

 great addition to our pretty annuals. — D., Deal. 



Feost and Snow in Norfolk. — Snow 1 foot deep. The ther- 

 mometer (Xegretti's) registered on December 24th, zero; on 



PORTRAITS OP PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 

 FRUITS. 



Oncididm tighinum var. splendidcm (Splendid Tiger-marked 

 Oncid). Nat. ord., -Oichidiacex. Lijm., Gynandria Monandria. 

 — Native of the Irapasan Mountains, Mexico. Flowers pale 

 yellow striped with brown. — [Bot. Mag., t. 5878) 



Paullinia. thaliotrifolia (Thalictrum-leaved Paullinia). 

 Nat, ord., Sapindaceo3. Linn., Octandria Trigynia. — A stove 

 climber with graceful Davallia-like leaves. Native of Eio de 

 Janeiro, Brazil.— (ISmZ., t. 5879.) 



Akistolochia Duchaktrei (Duchartre's Birthwort). Kat. 

 ord., Aristolochiaceaj. Linn., Gynandria Hexandria. — Native o£ 

 the Upper Amazons. Flowers cream-coloured, thickly blotched 

 with reddish hrown.— {Ibid., t. 5880.) 



H-E3iANTHtis TEsuiFLOEus Var. cocciNEUs (Crimson Slender- 

 flowered Hasmanthus). A^«f. o)'fZ.,Amaryllidaceje. Li?m., Hex- 

 andria Monogynia. — Native of Abyssinia. Flowers crimson. — 

 {Ibid., t. 5881.) 



Asy STASIA vioLACEA (Violet- Coloured Asystasia). Nat. ord., 

 AcanthacefB. Z/Mm., Didynamia Angiospermia. — Native of Con- 

 can, western Peninsular India. Flowers pale purple with 

 white hordei.— {Ibid., t. 5882.) 



Pear — BrocTaoortli Park. — " Messrs. J. C. Wheeler & Son, of 

 Gloucester, have acquired the stock, and it was obtained by 

 them from Mr. Lawrence, of Brockworth Park. It is, as we 

 understand, a seedling raised at that place, one of its parents 

 being the well-known and highly-esteemed Louise Bonne of 

 Jersey. 



" The Brockworth Park Pear is a fruit of large size, the spe- 

 cimens figured measuring 6i inches in length and 94 inches in 

 circumference. Its form is oblong-pyriform, blunt and rather 

 unequal at the base, with a stout obliquely inserted stalk about 

 an inch long, set in a shallow basin, and having a small closed 

 eye, with prominent pointed calyx segments. The skin is 

 smooth, pale greenish yellow, slightly dotted, and with a deli- 

 cate irregular tinting of red on the exposed parts. The flesh 

 is very tender, fine-grained, and melting, with abundant rich 

 vinous juice, the flavour very much resembling that of its 

 parent, the Jersey Louise Bonne ; but the fruit is much larger 

 and handsomer than in that variety. It comes into use about 

 the middle or end of September. 



" The tree is described as being hardy, of ornamental growth, 

 and a very free bearer, young pyramids each producing as many 

 as twenty fine Pears. When grown against a wall the fruits 

 are said to average 12 ozs. in weight. Altogether we have here, 

 in the words of one of our leading pomologists, ' a new Pear 

 of the highest merit, taking rank with the finest of our old- 

 established varieties, and one which, extensive as our list of 

 good Pears already is, must yet be added to our collections.' " — 

 {Florist and Fomologist, 3 s., iv. 1.) 



NOTABLE PEARS. 



Autumn Josephine. — A seedling from Josephine de Malines. 

 This fine Pear rivals its parent in all its excellencies, and differs 

 only in the season at which it ripens. 



The fruit is even and regular in its outline, turbinate, and 

 somewhat flattened at the crown. The skin is greenish yellow 

 when quite ripe, and strewn with patches of thin pale brown 

 russet, and with a rnsset patch round the stalk. Bye open, 

 with short erect segments, and set in a shallow depression. 

 Stalk three-quarters of an inch long, woody, and inserted with- 

 out depression. Flesh yellowish, with a pale salmon tinge, 

 like that of Josephine de Malines, tender, fine-grained, and 

 very juicy. Juice rich, sugary, and with a fine aromatic flavour. 



A fine Pear, ripe in the middle of October, and lasting about 

 a fortnight. 



This valuable native acquisition was obtained from seed by 

 W. E. Essington, Esq., of Eibbesford House, Bewdley. The 

 seed, which was obtained from Josephine de Malines, was sown 

 in the year 1856, and scions from the seedhng were grafted on 

 the stock of a worthless Pear tree, which had been cut down in 

 1861. The tree is an excellent grower, and has formed a large 

 head, bearing two bushels of fruits, and it first produced fruit 

 in 1869 



