October 11, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



287 



beautiful shrubs ; there is always something new to be seen 

 amongst them. Bat can the same tale be told about Verbenas, 

 Geraniums, Calceolarias, &c. ? Not at all, when they begin to 

 bloom about the end of Jane, so as to have any show ; they are 

 the same day after day till the rain and cold in September 

 destroys them. To my way of thinking they become insipid, 

 and I only wonder how gardeners of otherwise good taste 

 should care about such heavy monotonous masses. It is rare 

 where the hobby of bedding-out is carried on so largely that 

 everything else receives the attention it requires. About three 

 years ago I went all the way to Lamport Hall to see that cele- 

 brated miniature rockery erected by Sir Charles Isham, and it 

 certainly took me by surprise, and all done by the worthy 

 Baronet's own hands during a period of nearly thirty yearB, 

 and it far surpasses anything I ever saw; and next to it is 

 Hoole House near Chester, but they are quite different. I saw 

 Chatsworth, also Eaton Hall and Alnwick Castle, when on my 

 tour to merry England. The beauties of Chatsworth, as the 

 house and its surroundings, surpassed anything I ever saw, 

 but Lamport Hall and Hoole House took me far more by sur- 

 prise than any of the places I visited. I was much surprised 

 and pleased this season with a place near Falkirk, Mayfield, 

 belonging to Provost Russell. The evergreen and deciduous 

 trees and shrubs were worth looking at, and then they are in 

 beauty every day in the year, and the heights and colours may 

 be so arranged as to give an artistic appearance to the scene. 

 This seems to me far better than to see beds of bare Boil 

 f decorating " the lawn for nearly eight months in the year. 

 Fine shrubs and trees, some few of the best bedding plants, 

 and some spring and autumn-flowering plants, should be em- 

 ployed in due proportions, and I believe more pleasure and far 

 less expense would result than by indulging in the modern sys- 

 tem of garden decoration. — J. Addison, Ormiston, Edinburgh. 



THE INFLUENCE OF SCION UPON STOCK 



AND vice versd IN THE CASE OF THE VINE. 



Foe a considerable number of years we have experimented 

 ■with a view to prove the influence which certain Vines, as 

 stock, produced on others when grafted on them, as well as 

 the influence which one variety as a graft exerted on others as 

 stocks. So far the results in some caBes have been inBtruotive, 

 while in others they have been both instructive and most in- 

 teresting. In grafting Gros Guillaume on the Muscat and not 

 allowing the stock to make any growth, not even to develope 

 a single leaf, the result was bunches somewhat more compaot 

 than the general run of Gros Guillaume bunches, more regular 

 and larger-sized berries, and a colour exceeding in density any 

 other Grape except the best-finished examples of Black Ali- 

 cante. This variety, grafted on the Muscat and allowed to 

 develope itself in the proportion of one to two rods of the Muscat 

 on which it is grafted, has been very much increased in fruit- 

 fulness, and bears freely on the short-spur system of pruning. 

 The shape of the bunch has, however, been entirely changed ; 

 the large Bhoulders characteristic of Gros Guillaume when well 

 grown being wanting, the bunches having assumed a long 

 tapering shape. The colour of the berries has not been 

 nearly so dense — in fact they have been more of a grizzly 

 colour, some berries colouring to nearly black on one side and 

 grizzly on the other. The flavour has been appreciably im- 

 proved, and the wood of the Vine ripens very rapidly and per- 

 fectly. On the other hand, the effect of one strong limb of 

 ■Gros Guillaume on the two limbs of the Muscat is to deteriorate 

 them, as well as to influenco the character of the foliage con- 

 siderably. Ab compared with other Muscats on which no 

 other Grape has been grafted the limbs are weak, there being 

 a tendency to Bhank in the bunches, and the foliage goes off 

 early in the season with streaks of straw colour, much the 

 same as Gros Guillaume goes off streaked with claret and 

 •crimson. The two Muscat limbs are also much more subject 

 to scorching from intense sunshine than are the Vines entirely 

 Muscat. These effects are distinctly realised and are very 

 conspicuous at the present moment, an entire Muscat being 

 beautifully green in foliage, and the Vine next to it with two 

 Muscat rods and one of Gros Guillaume, with the Muscat 

 portion of the foliage going off into straw-coloured streaks, 

 like the Gros Guillaume ; the fact being that the latter is 

 deteriorating the character of the Muscat, while the Muscat 

 stock and limbs are exerting a most marked influence on the 

 Gros Guillaume. 



Gros Guillaume grafted on the Black Hamburgh comes very 

 Sne in berry and colour for about three years, after which it 



deteriorates, becoming lesB fruitful and much smaller in bunch 

 and berry. On one Black Hamburgh grafted with Gros Guil- 

 laume we have allowed a spur of the Black Hamburgh to grow 

 on each side of the stock, about 6 or 8 inohes below the union 

 of the stock and scion. This was allowed in order to see the 

 effect of a large spread of Gros Guillaume foliage on the small 

 amount of Black Hamburgh stock growth. Last year, as it 

 happened, there were two bunches on the Black Hamburgh 

 spurs, and there was no appreciable effect on the fruit, but the 

 leaves assumed the shape of those of the Gros Guillaume, and 

 went off in autumn with exactly the same crimson colouring of 

 that variety, while no other Hamburgh foliage in the same 

 house did so. This season there is just one bunch on the 

 Hamburgh spurs (they having apparently become Ibbs fruitful) ; 

 but that bunch, although hanging over the hot-water pipes, 

 has just, like those of Gros Guillaume on the same Vine, 

 begun to colour, while the Hamburgh bunches round about it 

 are black. The berries are also much less in size than the 

 other Hamburghs. The foliage on the two portions of the 

 stock are this year again much more cut and pointed, and will 

 no doubt change, like those on the main limb of Gros Guil- 

 laume, into crimson as they ripen. 



In the case of Muscat Hamburgh it has been found that, 

 grafted on Black Hamburgh and the stock and scion allowed 

 to develope in nearly equal proportions, the bunches set better, 

 form more compactly, coloor better, and are less subject to 

 shank than when it is grafted on the same stock and no 

 growth allowed on the Btock ; the result in the latter case 

 being large-framed bunches, with more stoneless and shanked 

 berries. 



Duke of Buccleuch on a Muscat stock, with also a limb of 

 Gros Guillaume, does not succeed well at all. The berries 

 shank very much. In fact, the fellow scion robs and cripples 

 it. On the Black Hamburgh the Duke does well, with the 

 stock allowed to develope itself in about equal proportions; 

 but from an eight-years experience of this Grape we conclude 

 that it does beBt on the Muscat stock, the Vines being allowed 

 to grow in equal proportions. The Vines on which it was thus 

 grown were, however, destroyed. This Vine does very well on 

 its own roots when properly established. 



The Grizzly Frontignan has done best on the Muscat stock, 

 the latter being also allowed to make growth in about equal 

 proportion. 



Trebbiano grafted on Muscat, and grown in proportion of 

 one rod to two of the Muscat, does better than on its own 

 roots ; but from its very robust habit it has proved injurious 

 to the Muscat. 



From our experience we conclude that any Grape grafted on 

 a given stock derives very little, if any, benefit or harm from 

 the stock after a very few years, if the^stock is not also allowed 

 to make growth. — (The Gardener.) 



A USEFUL PEAR. 



A pyramid tree of Beurre Goubault in my garden, about 

 12 feet high and 6 through, regularly bears year after year 

 from 150 to 200 fruit, and I now send you a portion of a branch 

 to Bhow that in this unfavourable season it has maintained its 

 fruitful character. Though not to be compared with the best 

 autumn Pears, Buch as Beurre Superfin, Louise Bonne of 

 Jersey, Comte de Lamy, Thompson's, and General Todtleben, 

 it has a fine flavour and the great merit of ripening gradually 

 over a period of two months without going at the core, my 

 single tree affording a constant supply from the middle of 

 October to the middle of December, though in some Beasons it 

 comes in a week or two earlier or later ; but this has been my 

 experience with nearly all kinds of Pears. It is necessary to 

 note that it generally remains quite green when fully ripe. — 

 Essex. 



[The branch received fully sustains the free-bearing charac- 

 ter of this Pear, for on a length of a little more than a foot 

 are eight excellent specimens. — Eds.] 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



Me. Addison says that no one shall make him believe that 

 the disease did not exist previously to 1816. He is quite right, 

 for I have seen the disease in Potatoes in 1836. I do not write 

 to please Mr. Addison, nor do I wish to contradict any other 

 writer, but what I have seen I believe in, 



Another writer Bajs that no one can tell the cause of the 

 disease, and that the diseased Potatoes infest the land. My 



