August 23, 1877. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



147 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



of 



Month 



Day 



of 



Week. 



AUGUST 23—29, 1877. 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Eiaes. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 









Day. 



Night. 



Mean. 



h. m. 



h. m. 



h. m. 



b. m. 









23 



Th 



Reading Show. 



71.8 



49.0 



60.4 



6 



7 5 



7 1 



4 8 



• 



2 23 



235 



24 



P 





71.6 



47.9 



58.7 



5 2 



7 8 



7 12 



5 19 



16 



2 7 



236 



25 



S 



Shotley Bridge Show. 



741 



49.7 



61.9 



5 8 



7 



7 22 



6 80 



17 



1 51 



287 



26 



Son 



13 Sunday after Trinity. 



72.5 



48.4 



60.4 



5 5 



6 58 



7 31 



7 40 



18 



1 84 



288 



27 



M 





73.3 



49.1 



61.2 



5 6 6 56 



7 42 



8 50 



19 



1 17 



289 



28 



Tu 



Pocklington Show. 



72.7 



49.7 



61.2 



5 8 6 54 



7 55 



10 3 



20 



1 



240 



29 



W 



Isle of Xhanet and Chippenham Shows. 



71.2 



47.6 



59.4 



5 10 6 52 



8 11 



11 19 



21 



42 



241 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years 



the average day temperature of the week is 72.4°; anc 



its night temperature 



43.8'. 









THE CULFOED GRAPE-VINE SPOET. 



OSSIBLY it may be in the recollection of 

 some of the readers of the Journal of 

 Horticulture that this very unlooked-for 

 production was described in its pages, as 

 well as in that of some of its contemporaries, 

 during the latter part of the year 1874, and 

 frequently alluded to at periods subsequent 

 to that date ; and it may also be recollected 

 that one or two writers upon the subject, 

 who had not seen the sport in question, 

 appeared to doubt very much the correctness of the 

 opinions formed regarding it by those who had seen it. 



At the time when these doubts were expressed in the 

 gardening periodicals the sport or bunch of Grapes in 

 question was not of course in existence ; and the matter 

 so far as it concerns the general public, or at least the 

 portion of it who felt any interest in the subject, neces- 

 sarily remained in doubt, as during the two succeeding 

 seasonB, although shoots were produced by the spur which 

 had produced the remarkable bunch of 1874, these shoots 

 showed no fruit during 1875 and 1876. During the pre- 

 sent season, however, a bunch is again produced on the 

 same spur, so that anyone who may feel interested in 

 the matter may now examine it. 



As many of your readers, it may well be supposed, 

 have not seen the correspondence which took place upon 

 the subject, or who may have forgotten all about it, I 

 will recapitulate in as few words as possible the circum- 

 stances connected with the case, which are as follows : — 

 Some twenty-five years since a house here was planted 

 with what was at that time considered one of the best 

 late varieties of Grape Vines— viz., West's St. Peter's, and 

 some five or six years afterwards one of the Vines was 

 cut down and grafted with the Black Alicante variety. 

 A few years afterwards three distinct shoots of the Black 

 Alicante had inarched upon them three very distinct and 

 comparatively new varieties— namely, the Trebbiano, the 

 Golden Champion, and Mrs. Piece's Black Muscat, each 

 variety forming a distinct rod, which during several years 

 continued to produce their respective kinds of fruit not 

 apparently in any degree influenced by the stock, or 

 rather the compound stock, upon which they grew. In 

 January, 1874, the Golden Champion rod was cut out 

 altogether, the severance taking place at a few inches 

 below its junction with the Alicante stock; and during 

 that season the two remaining rods — viz., Trebbiano and 

 Mrs. Pince, bore their respective kinds of fruit as usual, 

 with the singular exception of the Trebbiano rod, which on 

 one spur near the centre of the rod produced a bunch 

 entirely different from all the other bunches upon the 

 rod, above as well as below this remarkable sport or de- 

 viation from the normal type of the Trebbiano variety ; the 

 appearance of this bunch being in all respects identical 

 with that of the Golden Champion fruit, samples of which 

 were close at hand and frequently compared with it. 



Upon this circumstance being made public Mr. William 

 Thomson of the Tweed Vineyard, Clovenfords, who was 

 No. 856-Vol. XXXIII., New Series. 



the raiser of the Golden Champion variety, expressed his 

 decided disbelief of the circumstance as related, and 

 assured all who had seen it (he had not seen it himself) 

 that they were deceived by the appearance of a bunch 

 of the Trebbiano variety with unusually well- developed 

 berries, &c. By this time the buds which were upon the 

 shoot which had produced this bunch had been inserted 

 as eyes, and I promised to send a plant to Mr. Thomson 

 as soon as they became established in order that he might 

 fruit it, but from some cause the buds all died. But at 

 the end of the following season I sent him eyes from a 

 shoot which had been produced from the same spur, but 

 which had shown no fruit ; and I think Mr. Thomson 

 has stated that he had succeeded in striking them, and 

 it is possible that some of them may now be in fruit, and 

 if so, it will be interesting to know if they differ in any 

 degree from the ordinary Trebbiano. No doubt Mr. 

 Thomson will kindly furnish this information. 



With regard to the bunch of fruit produced by the spur 

 in question during the present season it is now (August 

 15th) approaching to a ripe condition, and this is very far 

 from being the case as regards the other bunches borne 

 upon the same rod ; while the berries of the former are 

 at least twice as large as those of the latter. 



It has of course been very naturally supposed by some 

 that the circumstance of the Golden Champion variety 

 having for some years grown upon the same stock may 

 in some way have influenced the Trebbiano rod as to 

 induce this production ; and this may or may not be the 

 case. Sports or lusus natures occasionally occur in the 

 vegetable as well as the animal kingdom, when it is, I 

 believe, quite impossible to point to a cause for their 

 development ; and if the existence of the Golden Cham- 

 pion variety upon the same stock as the Trebbiano be 

 supposed to have produced this effect upon the latter it 

 seems Btrange that it should not have been developed 

 until the former was removed. While again, if there is 

 any truth in Mr. Murray's theory of the non-descent of 

 the sap, then the one rod could have no influence upon 

 the other whatever, as it will be seen that it is only by 

 the action of a descending current through the medium of 

 the stock that this could have been effected. — P. Geieve. 



DISAPPOINTED EXHIBITORS OP ROSES. 



In the great (and every year increasing) competition of 

 the present time it stands to reason that many exhibitors 

 at our Eose shows are left out in the cold. No prize card 

 adorns their stands, and after all the trouble they have 

 taken and the expense to which they have been put, not 

 only in rearing their plants but in bringing their blooms to 

 the show, the result is very trying, and they are what these 

 notes are intended to treat of — disappointed exhibitors. 



There are very few of the most successful Bose growers, 

 whether professional or amateur, who have not been in 

 this sad plight some time or other, and I cannot well 

 imagine anything more disappointing. than to show in all 

 the classes at a great show and to be placed in none. 

 But recognising this, let us see what course is open to those 



No. 1508.— Vol. LVIIL, Old Series. 



