October 4, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



2G9 



prizes are provided by Mr. Charles Turner, Slough, and are won 

 — first by Mr. Miller with Yorkshire Hero, second Mr. W. Fiulay 

 with Lapstone Kidney, third Mr. Thos. Wraight, gardener to 

 Major Curtess, Eye, Susses, with Jackson's Kidney. Twenly- 

 one competitors. 



Messrs. James Cutbush & Son, Highgate, give the prizes in 

 the class for the best dish of any coloured kidDey varieiy. There 

 are twenty-one competitors, with the following result : — First, 

 Mr. J. S. Evenden, Loogfield, Dartford, with Superior; secnud, 

 Messrs. Virgo & Son, nurFerynnen, Guildford, with Early Ver- 

 mont; third, Mr. JameB Pink, also with Early Vermont. 



In the class for the best dish of Snowflake the prizeB are given 

 by MesBrs. Edward "Webb & Sons, "Wordsley, Stourbridge. The 

 awards are— fir6t, Mr. Pink; second, Messrs. Biies & Sons; 

 third, Mr. E. Farquhar, gardener to Col. W. C. Gordon of Fyvie. 

 Twenty-one competitors. 



Mr. J. Cattell, Westerham, provides prizes for the best dish 

 of Euby Potato, which are won as follows -.—First, Mr. Chas. 

 Eoss, gardener to C. Eyre, EBq., Newbury; second, Messrs. 

 Lott & Hart ; third, Mr. Pink. There are ten competitors. 



For the best dish of Porter's Excelsior the prizes are given 

 by Messrs. Thomas Gibbs & Sons, Down Street, Piccadilly. The 

 successful competitors are — first, Mr. Pink ; second, Mr. Eoss ; 

 third, Mr. John Belliss, gardener to Major Thoyts, Reading. 

 Nine exhibitors. 



The last class in the schedule is for the best dish of School- 

 master, the prizeB being given by Messrs. Barr & Sugdeu, 12, 

 King Street, Covent Garden. There are eight competitors, with 

 the following result — FirBt, Mr. J. B. Hall, Gillingham, Kent ; 

 second, Mr. E. Bennett, Enville, Stourbridge; third, Mr. T. 

 Worsfold, Horsham. 



The varieties named in, the four last olasses are for some 

 reason or other excluded from competing in the other classes for 

 single dishes. 



In the Miscellaneous classes Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Eeading, 

 'exhibit a fine collection of Magnum Bonum; Messrs: James 

 Carter an imposing stand of 180 varieties, including some supe- 

 rior produce from Sandringham ; Mr. Turner, Slough, splendid 

 examples of Schoolmaster ; and Messrs. Daniels, Bros., Norwich, 

 a sensational stand containing five hundred named varieties. 

 Mr. Porter, Old Meldrum, also stages a fine miscellaneous col- 

 lection. Messrs. Kelway exhibit Gladioli, and Mr. Turner 

 Pompon Dahlias. The Exhibition, which continues until 

 Friday evening, ia highly worthy of extensive patronage. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 

 A Fulham correspondent writes : — "On the morning of 

 ihe 25th ult. we had a foretaste of winter; the thermometer 

 registered 6° of frost, and the gardens about here presented 

 the aspect of Christmas. We have recently had dense fogs 

 -until about midday. Crops are beginning to 6how symptoms 

 of drought — for instance, Savoys, Spinach, and other green 

 -crops are suffering for want of rain." 



It may be interesting to some of your readers to know 



that quite one-half of the enormous crop of Tomatoes in the 

 market gardens about Fulham were destroyed by the disease, 

 which seems to be becoming an annual occurrence. But with 

 ■this loss the firm of Messrs. Bagley have been sending to the 

 market one thousand baskets of Tomatoes per week, three 

 baskets being equivalent to a bushel. The plants are grown in 

 4he open fields and are trained to short stakes. 



A correspondent, " G. C," states that for the last 



"three years he has washed his Potatoes at the time of taking 

 them up, as he can then pick out the bad tubers much better. 

 When the Bound tubers are" thoroughly dry he stores them 

 away, and has not found 1 per oent. go bad afterwards. The 

 kinds grown are Haigh's Kidney, Mona's Pride, and Paterson's 

 Victoria. 



We have received from Mr. Joseph Bentley, Lincoln, 



heads of Veitch's Autumn Giant Cauliflower. They are 

 admirable examples of culture of one of the most valuable of 

 autumn vegetables. 



Wateecresses. — At the meeting of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society on Tuesday Mr. Shirley Hibberd of Stoke 

 Newington exhibited a dozen pans of Watercresses, grown 

 in the manner he has practised and recommended for some 

 jearB past. One of the advantages of this system is that the 

 plants are under complete control to be placed in the sun or 

 the shade, or during winter in heated plant houses, and can at 

 all times be supplied with pure water, and thus be preserved 

 from contamination by the pollutions common to rivers, 

 •brooks, and even Watercress beds. The pans in which the Cress 

 is grown measure from 15 to 20 inches across, and from 6 to 

 "9 inches deep. The pans are filled with rich loamy soil inter- 

 mixed with lumps of chalk or old mortar, and then very small 



cuttings are inserted. These soon become strong plants, and 

 in from fifteen to twenty days they may be gathered from, the 

 produce being tender and delicate in flavour, and of the most 

 beautiful appearance. The twelve panB shown have been regu- 

 larly gathered from for the table for a period of six weeks, and 

 their fresh and robust appearance indicated that they might be 

 cut from for another six weeks without being exhausted. 



One of the most attractive and elegant of variegated 



plants of easy culture is Hemerooallis flava variegata. We 

 recently observed it at the Crystal Palace, where Mr. Thomson 

 had it in excellent condition and regarded it favourably as a 

 taile and general decorative plant. Its leaves are clearly 

 striped and arch in a pleasing manner. It was growing in a 

 warm greenhouse, and the temperature appeared to suit it 

 admirably. 



In the south of Devon the Beech trees are loaded 



down to the ground with nuts. I never saw such a bearing 

 before. The trees have an elegant appearance, and the squirrels 

 have a fine time of it, for not only the Beech-nuts but the 

 Hazel-nuts are abundant ; but acorns are very scarce. — South 

 Devon. 



Mr. Harding, gardener to the Eev. W. Arthur, Clap- 

 ham Common, has, we are informed, been appointed to the 

 charge of the Dowager Marchioness of Huntley's garden at 

 Orton Langueville. Mr. Harding is known as a successful 

 exhibitor of Chrysanthemums and vegetables at the Eoyal 

 Horticultural Society and other metropolitan shows, and he is 

 au occasional contributor to the columns of this Journal. 



NOTES FROM CORNISH GARDENS. 



TREGOTHNAN, THE SEAT OF VISCOUNT FALMOUTH. 



"Down a shady vale" passes the road by which I went to 

 Tregothuan. Lofty trees shut it in and overhaDg it ; not 

 those awe-inspiring " monarchs of the forest " which we 

 admire — almost worship, but a motley crowd of wildings 

 with just enough fine trees among them to show that neither 

 Boil, climate, nor trees are at fault, but that man's fostering 

 care is wanting ; not that we should like to see an ardent 

 improver let loose upon the woods, for the trees are so lofty 

 and so old that sound .judgment, practical skill, and an 

 artistic eye are now more requisite for their treatment than 

 when they were younger. They afford proof that a judicious 

 clearance of weakly growth is a fundamental rule of forestry 

 to which due weight is not given, although it is fraught with 

 such momentous consequences. Why do I dwell upon this 

 wooded valley, and not hasten at once to the gardens to which 

 it leads ? Because it is literally a garden itself — just one vast 

 fernery, such as I had never seen before. On all Bides — from 

 the road down to the margin of the stream, away up the steep 

 and undulating slopes far as the 6ye can reach among the soft 

 light of Nature's arcades — there are thousands of Ferns, most 

 of them magnificent specimens of elegant form and extra- 

 ordinary size, for they are not all crowded together in one 

 continuous mass, but are dispersed in clumps and singly in a 

 wild but charming manner, sometimes clothing an entire 

 slope with their charming frondage, and frequently, much 

 more bo than is usual, standing out alone on little hillocks 

 and promontories, showing their large size and graceful pro- 

 portions in a way as striking as it is singular and pleasing. 

 1 had no idea that Scolopendriums would grow to suoh a size 

 as I saw them here by hundreds. The plants were doubtless 

 very old, each having some dozens of glossy green fronds- 

 long, broad, and recurved — springing from the crown in circles, 

 drooping gracefully outwards tier above tier, forming such large 

 bold tufts as to worthily rival the grand old specimens of 

 LaBtrea Filix-mas, the PolystichumB, and Osmundas with 

 which they are intermingled. Eight up the stems of many of 

 the trees and along the branches 50 or 60 feet from the ground 

 Polypodium vulgare was growing in perfect health, imparting 

 to the trees an odd sort of Jack-in-the-green appearance, more 

 curious than beautiful. 



Well, my walk from Lamorran to the gardens of Tregothnan 

 was among those wonderful Ferns for the greater part of the 

 way ; it was therefore a pleasant walk, and when I reached 

 the gardens another extraordinary sight awaited me at the 

 very entrance — an avenue of Camellias, or rather a double 

 row of them standing out upon the turf on each side of the 

 path which swept onwards into the interior of the Ehrubbery. 

 E very plant was a perfect specimen — globular in outline with 

 the foliage large, green, glistening with health, and so dense 

 as to conceal every trace of branch and stem. I have applied 



