180 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 8, 1870. 



shall expect to show some good examples of them this 

 autumn. 



I have this year had a beautiful show with Arab and Egyptian 

 Queen, among Golden Geraniums. I much prefer the Eicolors 

 to the Tricolors, for a Bhow en masse ; they seem to me to make 

 a far brighter bed. 



I have tried a great many different Cucumbers during the 

 last year. Two plants of Carter's Champion were placed in my 

 frame, heated with hot-water pipes, the last week in October, 

 and I cut fruit from them up to May, when I wanted my frame 

 for Melon plants, so cleared them out. I had the pleasure of 

 giving away seven Cucumbers for Christmas-day, and during 

 the whole winter I never was in want of that useful fruit. — 

 Stiff Soil. 



P.S. — I should have said that I tried Paterson's Bovinia, 

 with the rest of the Potatoes ; I had literally nothing but haulm 

 for my pains. 



NOTES ON STRAWBERRIES. 



"Doctor Hogg (Bradley). — Very large, handsome, rich, a 

 great bearer, and of very healthy growth. Perfection." Having 

 grown this Strawberry for the last three years, I can endorse 

 the above description as given in the catalogue of Mrs. Nichol- 

 son, of Tarm, for 18G8 — 69. 



The soil of this garden is not one favourable to the Straw- 

 berry, being of a light character, of no great depth, and resting 

 upon what we in Derbyshire call a " ratchelly " bottom — that 

 is, a substratum of loose stones, and inert, hungry sandy 

 matter, which probably in its turn rests upon the rock, as a 

 solid floor of gritstone rook crops out some 50 yards from the 

 south-western corner of the kitchen garden wall, and at no 

 great depth from its level. I found some years ago that that 

 type of a good Strawberry, the British Queen, would neither 

 grow nor bear satisfactorily here, and consequently the variety 

 ceased to be grown, along with some others which at different 

 times have shared the same fate, such as Old Pine. Filbert 

 Pine, Oscar, Carolina Superba, Crimson Queen, Rivera's Eliza, 

 Eimberley, &c. Out of a somewhat large number of varieties, 

 I three years ago reduced my principal stock to three — viz., Dr. 

 Hogg, La Constante, and Sir Joseph Paxton, with smaller 

 quantities of Sir Harry, an excellent Strawberry, Elton Pine for 

 late crop, and Black Prince, which is still a useful early kind. I 

 have for trial next year, and awaiting the trenching of a piece 

 of ground for their reception, runners of Lucas, Vicomtesse 

 Hericart de Thury, Mr. Radclyffe, President, Cockscomb, and 

 John Powell nicely established in small pots. I am afraid I 

 shall not greatly improve on my three favourites as given 

 above, or notably on the first-named and surn'ect of my text, 

 Dr. Hogg, though I suppose that it has in Mr. Radclyffe a 

 formidable rival for honours in this class. I must say, how- 

 ever, as an honest chronicler of facts, that Sir Joseph Paxton 

 (for the first time with me) has this season been affected with 

 mildew to a serious extent. I am afraid there must be some 

 hereditary predisposition to that disease on the part of Sir 

 Joseph Paxton, as I see Mr. Douglas reports the same at page 

 140. I see at page 121 that John Powell is placed in the 

 index expurgatorius. 



I find that in this soil it is very undesirable practice to fruit 

 the same plants more than three years, but by securing runners 

 early, and layering them in pots, I obtain well-established 

 plants that produce a fair quota'of fruit the first year of fruit- 

 ing ; the second year the fruit will be both fine and abundant ; 

 and probably the third year there may be an abundant crop, 

 but the fruit will be very sensibly less in size. I am not cer- 

 tain but that, if ground and time were plentiful, it would not 

 be better to take but two crops off the same plants. On soils 

 more congenial to the plant, the necessity for a constant mi- 

 gration of the Strawberry quarter may be less. To all cultiva- 

 tors of light-land gardens I would say, in the present state 

 of my experience with reference to the different varieties of 

 Strawberries, commend me to Dr. Hogg. — W. Hudson, Chase 

 Cliffe, Derby. 



THE COMMON BERBERRY. 

 In most shrubberies which have been established for aDy 

 length of time will be found a plant of this in the background, 

 cut and hacked as if its presence there were only tolerated as 

 a nuisance, yet the wild Berberry, when grown to perfection, is 

 one of the most handsome of our deciduous shrubs, especially 

 when covered with ripe fruit. Some years ago I was forcibly 

 struck with this on visiting Drumlanrig Castle, the princely 



seat of the Duke of Buccleuch, in Dumfriesshire, where single 

 specimens of this shrub were dotted about amongst Spruce 

 Firs and other Conifers on the more distant parts of the lawn. 

 Instead of the miserable, one-Bided, half-cut-away objects we 

 often meet with in a mixed shrubbery, there were single speci- 

 mens of conical shape loaded with the ripening fruit, and look- 

 ing, when seen from a distance, like so many huge Fuchsia 

 bushes, differing widely from the miserable objects we often 

 see struggling for an existence amongst plants of more robust 

 growth. Despite the cutting it experienced on account of its 

 medical virtues, it still struggled on, but at Drumlanrig it was 

 all in its glory. Whether the rainy climate, or the soil par- 

 taking of the Scottish Highland character, was more favour- 

 able to it than other lowland parts I cannot say, but cer- 

 tainly the plants which I saw there in the early part of Sep- 

 tember were models of beauty, and I believe had received very 

 little, if any, pruning. The handsome fruit of the wild Ber- 

 berry certainly entitles it to more attention than Berberis 

 dulcis and some similar species ; for although these flower 

 pretty well, they bear but little fruit, and very often none at 

 all ; while the wild Berberry is as prolific as a Currant or any 

 other fruit. — J. Robson. 



GROWING ZONAL GERANIUMS FOR 

 EXHIBITION. 



Years ago, when one saw in a schedule of prizes a class for 

 three, or four, or six " Scarlet Geraniums," the intending ex- 

 hibitor had no difficulty in understanding what was required, 

 for at that time the number of varieties was limited to those 

 having more or lesB of this shade of colour in the flowers. 

 Then, when with an increase of varieties came some having 

 flowers with quite pale colours, the limitation of "Scarlet 

 Geraniums," though always widely interpreted as inclusive of 

 a certain class rather than of a certain shade of colour, was 

 felt to be somewhat absurd ; and in time that gave place to 

 " Zonal Pelargoniums," the former again widely interpreted 

 as taking-in all that section known as " Scarlet Geraniums," 

 though having flowers of various hues and leaves destitute of 

 the zone common to many of them. A better botanical know- 

 ledge also led to the substitution of the generic term Pelar- 

 gonium for Geranium. A wonderful improvement has gone on 

 in these plants during the past twenty years ; and tracing 

 forwards from the circle of bright colour in the flowers of the 

 well-known Tom Thumb, it has been seen to change, like a 

 chromatrope, into a wondrous variety of shades of colour and 

 types of flowers, that now form at summer and autumn ex- 

 hibitions some of their brightest and most effective features. 

 The general term " scarlet," still found in some schedules of 

 prizes, has become a misnomer. We are no longer confined 

 to that sole colour, but have a range from the pureBt white, as 

 found in Purity, to the deep crimson scarlet of Sambo. Thus 

 it is easy and possible to stage, in a collection of six, nine, or 

 twelve plants, as many shades of colour ; and there is not a 

 good variety in cultivation at the present day of which a well- 

 grown plant does not constitute a striking and beautiful object. 

 But classes and varieties have developed as well as colours; 

 and the Zonal Pelargonium, swelling into importance with its 

 high-sounding name, has assumed double forms that bid fair 

 to become formidable rivals to the single varieties, either for 

 exhibition or for decorative purposes. It is true the range of 

 colour in the flowers is as yet somewhat restricted ; but that 

 is a drawback that probably will not long exist, wiilst it is 

 also largely compensated for by the more permanent character 

 of the flowers, which retain their petals and consequent use- 

 fulness for a much longer period. The Nosegay section has 

 usually a separate class also allotted to it, because it differs in 

 its general features somewhat distinctly from the original 

 Zonal kinds ; but later varieties have exhibited such an ap- 

 proximation in the form of the pip to that of the best of the 

 Zonal section, whilst retaining all the Nosegay freedom of 

 growth and floriferous character of truss, that we may naturally 

 look by-and-by to such a fusion of the two divisions as shall 

 result in one improved type that will swallow up the dis- 

 tinction, but leave us, nevertheless, a section perfect in beauty 

 and in form, and possessing all those features that make the 

 Nosegays so popular both for bedding and pot-culture. 



Perhaps it will not be out of place to state at the outset that 

 there is no exhibition plant that appears more to dislike train- 

 ing, or less to require a formal severity of shape, than the 

 1 Pelargonium ; and yet, in spite of these facts, there are to be 



