September 13, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



217 



fine runners, but aleo good crowns ; the same of Sir J. Paxton 

 and Lucas. Filbert Pine ia a good fruit, but weak habit in 

 my soil, and requires a stronger soil and good management. 

 Bonne Bouche is a good sort but uncertain. 



I am sure " Amateur, Cirencester," is right when he says 

 with proper care and attention Strawberry beds may be made 

 to last many years. One of mine has been in bearing for 

 more than ten years — I think twelve, but I am not quite cer- 

 tain — and is only this year condemned, not because it has 

 ceased fruiting, but because the whole quarter has to be cut 

 up.— C. P. Peach. 



In the present season we began gathering from Black Prinoe 

 the last week in June ; then followed Keens' Seedling, Presi- 

 dent, Sir Joseph Paxton, Refresher, and Reeves's Eclipse. 

 Dr. Hogg will persist in coming with a white end, giving it the 

 appearance of an unripe fruit, which detracts from its quality, 

 otherwise it is a noble variety and one of the best Strawberries 

 I know ; it deserves extensive cultivation. British Queen with 

 me has the crown and shall wear it. Elton Pine I am still 

 gathering (7th September). Through the season they have 

 been in succession in the order named ; finer fruit I could not 

 desire, and the crop everything that could be expected con- 

 sidering the season. The soil is a strong retentive loam resting 

 on a clay subsoil. 



One of the best Strawberries for preserving is the Roseberry. 

 It is seldom seen now. We do not hesitate to preserve any 

 kind, but take them as they ripen, but I prefer Sir Joseph 

 Paxton and Reeves's Eclipse. They are firm useful kinds, 

 good for market purposes, bearing carrying well. — Fkagakia. 



CHESHUNT HYBBLD ROSE. 

 I have just seen in a letter from the Rev. C. P. Peach that 

 the writer has doubts as to the merits of the Rose referred to 

 above. I ask permission to reply, chiefly that I may have an 

 opportunity of expressing the sincere and universal regret 

 which Mr. Peach's illness and absence have oaused to the floral 

 brotherhood, together with our heartfelt hope that we may 

 welcome him next season in our gardens and at our festivals ; 

 and to state, secondly, that had he seen the Cheshunt Hybrid 

 as it has bloomed and is still blooming in my rosery, he would 

 agree in pronouncing it one of the most beautiful and bounti- 

 ful of Roses.— S. Reynolds Hole. 



LILIUM AUEATUM CULTURE. 



Me. Wood, Sir Erskine Perry's gardener, has four plants, 

 single bulbs, in S-inoh pots, and about 140 blooms on the four 

 spikes, and magnificent blooms they are. The best plant has 

 forty-two blooms on the stem, and with the pot is 10 feet 

 6 inches high. 



Mr. Wood's mode of culture is to pot the plants as soon as 

 they cease blooming, shaking them clean out of the old soil and 

 potting them in loam, leaf soil, peat, and road sidings, chiefly 

 sand that ia washed off the roads, in equal parts of each : if more 

 of any of the ingredients is used it is peat. The bulbs are 

 potted very low — more than half way down the pot. The soil 

 is then placed over them to the top of the pot. They are then 

 plunged on the north side of a wall, and sheltered from rains 

 or snow by light screens such as pea sticks or anything not 

 perfectly watertight, and there they remain until the growth 

 appears through the soil, when they are removed to a cold 

 house. When fairly in growth strong liquid manure is used 

 every day until the bloomB expand. As this is the period for 

 repotting, a reoord of Mr. Wood's successful practice may be 

 useful to other oultivators of this fine Lilium.— W. Mowbray. 



I enclose you a photograph of a Lilium auratum of, to me, 

 an unusual kind which bloomed about a month ago. There 

 were Beventy-three blooms all out at once upon a Bingle stem ; 

 the cluster of flowers forming almost a cube 14 inches each 

 way, but the blooms were mainly on two sides — back to back — , 

 and at the top. The stem was 4 feet 10 inches in length. At 

 the bottom it was about an inch wide and half an inch thick. 

 At the top, where the blooms were, it was 3 inches wide and 

 about one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness. I enclose two 

 sections of the stem, the smaller one being taken 27 inches 

 from the bottom, and the wider one 48 inches from the bottom. 

 The blooms were from 4 to 5 inches in diameter, beautifully 

 formed and nicely marked. The photograph will not give you 

 any idea of the beauty of the blooms, as they were falling 



before the plant was taken to the photographer, but it will 

 give you an idea of the plant. Every bloom would have been 

 perfect, but there was not room for all of them to expand fully. 

 I obtained the bulb from Mr. Granger, florist, Ashton-under- 

 Lyne, last spring, and I understand that he has grown similar 

 plants for three or four years, but I have not heard of them 

 elsewhere, and I have searched your volumes for four or five 

 years without finding any allusion to them. — W. M., Thorn- 

 clijfe, Dukinfield. 



[The stem of the Lilium is fasoiated, and the flowers are on 

 each side of the stem thus flattened. We never saw before an 

 instance in the Lilium, but it ia of frequent occurrence in 

 other plants, especially Asparagus. — Eds.] 



HEREFORDSHIRE CIDER FRUITS. 



I think it would be a subject of great interest to those who 

 like myself add to their other hobbies some knowledge of the 

 best cider and perry, as well as dessert and culinary fruits, 

 and at the same time prove of no small advantage to the public 

 as bearing on the successful manufacture (at present a com- 

 parative failure) of a national beverage, if our brother pomolo- 

 gists would avail themselves of the opportunity our Journal is 

 now bringing prominently forward, of comparing notes on the 

 leading varieties, not only those now flourishing in tha heyday 

 of their maturity and fecundity, but, scarcely less interesting 

 study, those gradually subsiding, slowly but Burely, into ob- 

 scurity and decay. 



May I give you a practical illustration of my object ? I would 

 venture to ask of your readers for a description and perhaps 

 afterwards for a sample of one of the most oelehrated — if not 

 the cider Apple par excellence of Devonshire, the Royal Wild- 

 ing. So celebrated was this Apple at least some 150 years ago 

 that an old writer of that period states, " No leas than 200,000 

 graftB of that variety were propagated in Devonshire and the 

 neighbouring counties in ten to fifteen years." 



Now, the Royal Wilding is stated by Batty Langley, the 

 author I have just quoted, to have been raised in Devonshire,, 

 and gives a plate and description of the Apple, which if correct 

 does not at all tally in size or shape with the Royal Wilding 

 of Herefordshire (an Apple I may mention en passant we never 

 dream of making into good cider, except in combination with 

 other fruits) ; indeed so marked ia the difference, that until I 

 am in a position to draw a comparison I must go so far as to 

 question their being the same variety. — The Herefordshire 

 Incumbent. 



[We should be glad if some Devonshire correspondent would 

 send us specimens of Royal Wilding to this office. — Eds. J. of H.] 



NOTES FROM CORNISH GARDENS. 



LAMOBRAN— Supplementary. 



Everything in the garden at Lamorran bears the stamp of 

 originality, affords evidence of an intelligent grasp of the 

 nature and requirements of every tree and plant, and shows 

 that it must be owing to want of thought aa much as to want 

 of pains that better general results are not obtained in so 

 many other gardens. Some Grape Yines planted in an orchard 

 house may be usefully turned to as an example of thia : with 

 the exoeption of shortening and thinning of the wood after 

 the leaf falls the growth is suffered to ramble about untrained 

 and almost unchecked ; the berries are thinned , but the bunches 

 are left on with what at first sight appears an almost reckless 

 profusion. There they hang so thick as often to touch each 

 other, large clusters colouring and swelling capitally, without 

 a sign of shanking or disease of any kind, excellent bunches 

 of Alicante and some of the best fruit of Lady Downes' Seed- 

 ling that I have seen this season. Ownera of small gardens 

 having little professional assistance would do well to apply 

 this senBible, natural method of Grape-culture in their own 

 practice. To make it quite clear its chief pointa may thus be 

 set forth : Let the roota have plenty of rich soil. Encourage 

 every shoot to grow as long and strong as it will. Avoid pinch- 

 ing and nipping off any of the growth excepting when it becomes 

 much crowded, then thin slightly. Give copious supplies of 

 water and air — plenty of air night and day when the weather 

 is warm and genial — closing your ventilators only to exclude 

 cold or high wind. Prune away weakly growth and thin-out 

 and Bhorten strong growth in winter, but do not prune to a 

 single eye, rather leave 6 or 8 incheB of stout young woocJ 

 with two or three plump buds, and you will have healthy Yinee 



