444 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



June 15, 1912. 



many specimens of the parental type. As 

 they developed, however, it was s-oon seen 

 that a number of them were extremely un- 

 like the rest, the little fronds bearing almost 

 thread-like subdivisions, and these being 

 separated and specially tended, eventually 

 produced some thirty plants of the most 

 remarkable type. 



The normal sized half-inch pinnules grew 

 in many cases to over two inches in lengthy 

 very slender and lineal until near the tip, 

 where they expanded into a fan-like ar- 

 rangement of points. The most unusual 

 feature, however, was that, while the 

 parental pirnnse Avere w^idest near the mid- 

 rib of the frond and narrowed regularly, 

 as we have seen, to a slender point, the 

 pinnse here were narrow near the midrib, 

 and the linear pinnides grew longer and 

 longer as they approached the terminal, 

 which consiste<l of a long serrated tongue 

 with an expanded fan-like end. These fan- 

 shaped tips, though tassel-like, appeared 

 to consist of short pinnuloid extensions 

 rather than crests proper, and were evi- 

 dently extensions of the parental tendency 

 to tip expansion. Of the very long hair- 

 like growths, and their lengthening in the 

 revers<' dii t'ction to the normal, the parent 

 form did not betray the slightest sign. 

 Although all but one of the thirty plants 

 were singularly alike, there were marked 

 individual differences in the ultimate de- 

 velopment of their growth. 



The exception, named plumosum 

 (Green), assumed a beautiful decomposite 

 development, since instead of the long pin- 

 nules, the pinnie divided and sub-divided 

 on feathery Hnes^ the fronds were broader 

 and more imbrioate in growth, and hence 

 quite distinct. Of the remaining seedlings 

 a good percentage reprmluced the parental 

 form exactly, while the balance presented 

 several grades of reversion, some present- 

 ing the broad, stalkless pinnviles of aculea- 

 tum, while several, strange to say, had 

 unmistakahly the plainly stalked pinnules 

 of P. angulare. This naturally suggests 

 the idea that the original wihl find of P. 

 apuleatum pulcherrimum, as the plant was 

 named, owing to its exceptional l>eauty, was 

 and is a hybrid between the two. 



On sowing, however, by way of test, from 

 one of the reversions which most nearly ap- 

 proached P. angulare, nothing but a batch 



of unmistakably aculeatums resulted, 

 though Mr. Cranfield reports that one gra- 

 cillimum occurred in his sowing, showing 

 that the sportive tendency in that direction 

 had been inherited. No variation at all oc- 

 curred in the writer's batch. A peculiar 

 feature in this case is the sharp line drawn 

 betAveen the gracillimums and the rest, only 

 one plant appearing, which we named 

 dimorphum, and w^hich resembled the 

 parent strongly, but in which the lengthen- 

 ing tendency of the sub-divisions showed 

 itself erratically in some of the fronds, 

 hence the name. 



A second batch raised from the spores of 

 another season, discovered in some quan- 

 tity on another plant, but, of course, a 

 division of the original, hence pra/ctieally 

 the same, vielded very srfmilar results, but 

 on a largf'r scale. In the progeny, how- 

 ever, which inherit-ed the true pulcherri- 

 mum character, a number showed very 

 little of this until planted out, when the 

 coarser set of first fronds was followed 

 by fronds of even improved pulcherrimum 

 type, whicli, at the time of Avriting, pro- 

 mise to become very handsome indeed, 

 seemingly as a sort of after-thought on 

 their part, since they began very unpro- 

 misingly as apparent reversions. 



We have here consequently a case in 

 which the s])ores from one and the same 

 symmetrical and constant plant are en- 

 dowed with the faculty of producing several 



quite distinct types, and in fairly defi- 

 nite ratios since the proportions in which 

 the gracillimum, pulcherrimum, and rever- 

 sional types occur are about the same witli 

 both sowings, with plumosum thrown in 

 as a fourth, though solitary, exception. 

 None of the reversions showed the faintest 

 trace of the characters of the rest \ all the 

 sections stood clearly apart. Even the 

 theory of a hybrid origin of the parent, 

 which is by no means established, affords 

 no explanation, since P. angulare, the pos- 

 sible other parent, has yielded no' sport on 

 similar lines except perhaps plumosum, 

 and in any case a wild hybrid, is little 

 likely to be other than a normal form as 

 would also presumably be the P. aculeatum 

 concerned in the cross. 



Chas 



Drurry, V.M.H., F.L.S. 



MARKET GARDENERS AND 

 RAILWAY COMPANIES. 



As the outcome of uegotiationti carried on 

 between the Agricultural Organization So- 

 ciety and the railway companies a short time 

 since, the latter have agreed to make special 

 provision for ciicunibens in the General Rail- 

 way Clarification of Goods by entering- 

 cucumbers, in causes or boxe8, or in baskets 



with wicker or wooden lids, owner's 

 risk." 



This announcement is of interee^t from the 

 point of view both of the market gardening 

 irdustry and of the circumstances under 

 wbich the concession has been secured. 



The production of cucumbere, mainly 

 under glas8^ has undergone very considerable 

 expant^ion of late years in various parts of the 

 country, and more especially so at Worthing, 

 v\'here the glass-houses devoted to the raising 

 of vegetables, fruits, and flowers for the mar^ 

 ket have a total length of over thirty miles, 

 while the output there of cucumbers alone, 

 apart from other commodities, is estimated 

 at about 1,2(X> tons a year. Hitherto, how- 

 ever, there havS been no special entry of cu- 

 cimbers in the General Eailway Classifica- 

 tion, in which they have counted as " vep-e- 

 tablets," either " liot-hoiise " or" " not hot- 

 liouse." Inasmucli a> all tlie cucumbers at 

 Worlliing are grown iin;U'r glass, they have 

 thus come under the definition of " vege- 

 tables, hot-house," and have been allotted to 

 Class 4, and charged the rates of that class 

 when consigned from Worthing; though it is 

 alleged that f rom London the cucumbers are 

 reconsigned by Metropolitan dealers to 

 Northern markets "vegetables, not hot- 

 house," thus coming under Class 2, and so 

 being carried at cheaper rates. 



It lias also been especially complained by 

 the Wort fling market gardeners that they 

 have paid much higher rates than the 

 growers in the Broxbourne, Enfield Lock, 

 and Waltham Cross districts of Hertford- 

 shire, Middlesex, and Essex respectively, w^ho 

 have the advantage of sending their cucum- 

 l>ers to the Northern markets, as "vegetables 

 packed," at "exceptional" and certainly 

 much lower rates; though, in point of fact, 

 these exceptional rates apply only to mini- 

 n!um consignments of either "one ton or two 

 tons, which aljow of the railway company 

 running a through truck to di-stination. 

 7he rail traffic 'in cucumbers from the dis- 

 tricts in question to the North generally 

 movea in these ((uantities, while the average 

 consignment from Worthing is between 1 c\vt. 

 and 5 cwt. To the Covent Garden Market 

 the growers in the three districts mentioned 

 — situate at distances of frojn twelve to 

 <5eventeen miles from Loudon — can forward 

 by road motor, and from Broxbourne, it is 

 understood, no cucumbers at all are sent to 

 London by goods train. 



The AV^orthinor growers have hitherto been 

 unable to consign direct to the Northern 

 markets, and they have had to submit to 



of those markets 



advantages 



bourne 



seeing the 

 gained by errow 



other districts, by wholesale dealers in Lon 

 don handling the Worthing supplies, or by 

 importers of Dutch cucumbers received via 



Hull, and distributed by rail throu^hont 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire under the desii^^ 

 tion " not hot-house." 



Certain material concessions were obtain^l 

 from the London, Brighton, and South Coast 

 Eailway Company, but the Worthing growers 

 especially desired that cucumbers should 1 

 placed in Class 2 of the General Railway Cln' 

 sification (on the same basis as tomatoes, 

 wicker baskets) and thus be charged, on ail 

 the railways alike, a lower rate than'if they 

 were carried in Class 4. At the request of 

 the AVorthing and District Market Gro\vei>>' 

 Association, the Agricultural Organizatioa 

 Society — ^to which the Worthing Association 

 is affiliated — took the matter up, while on the 

 suggestion of the railway goods managers, a 

 deputation, representing the two societies 

 mentioned, waited upon them at the Railway 

 Clearing House, the final outcome of the nego- 

 tiations being the making of the desired con- 

 cession, as stated. 



The fact that this result should have been 

 brought about through the instrumentality 

 of the Agricultural Organization Society 

 affords gratifying evidence of the useful pur- 

 pose which tha;t body is able to fulfil, not only 

 in its efforts to improve the general agricul- 

 tural conditions of the country, but also ^ 

 an intermediary l>etween growers and rail- 

 way companies in the attainment of improved 

 transport facilities on an organised basis. 

 The granting of the concession asked for is 

 also no less evidence of the desire of the rail- 

 way companies to encourage the efforts which 

 the federated agriculturists are making to 

 better their economic outlook. 



Under the new arrangement in regard to 

 classification. Worthing growers will be able 

 to consign their cucumbers to Liverpool, 

 Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Not- 

 tingham, and Leicester, instead of having to 

 be content to forward them only to London 

 dealers, who themselves would undertake the 

 further distribution ; and in this way there 

 should be, in addition to a saving in railway 

 raters: (1) a saving in intermediate profits; 

 (2) decreased risk of gluts in the Covent Gai- 

 den Market ; and (3) the obtaining of bettiT 

 prices, not only on this account, biit through 

 the direct dealing with the great centres of 

 population in the North. 



These various advantages constitute impor- 

 tant phases of that system of "scientific mar- 

 keting" of English-grown market-garden 

 produce, which it has been one of the main 

 purposes of the agricultural organization 

 movement to effect. Thev are of still 



greater importance in view of Mr. Euncimaii s 

 announcement that the Board of Agriculture 

 is creatinor a Horticultural Branch which, it 

 is understood, will include, in addition to 

 horticulture in general, market gardenmsf, 

 flower and fruit growing, and nursery gar- 

 dening. The scientific production it \\iu, 

 presumably, be the special purpose of tjic ne^^ 

 branch to promote, will obviously fail to 

 confer adenuate advantaQTCv^' to the gj^^yfj^ 

 unless it is supplemented by the scientitc 

 distribution, which can alone render produc- 

 tion sufficiently remunerative as a business 

 proposition. 



Outdoor Tomatoes.— These have 



made verv rapid growth during the long 

 period of "^dry and sunny weather; "^^^^^^J" 

 five-inch pots are showing strong 



spikes. They now need a full southern 

 aspect to be successful with them. A site on 

 walls of outhouses, and even boardings lacing 

 south, will generally ensure profitable crop^ 

 of fruit. Very little soil will be ne^eo 

 when first planting, rather deferring tiiis 

 till good trusses of fruit show, applying tins 

 by frequent top-dressing as the roots pro- 

 trude from the .soil. This plan will be foima 

 to counteract excessive growths, making 

 fair balance of flower and growth combinea. 

 A hard bottom is perhaps the best of au 

 for tomatoes, that possessing a hard as 

 bottom for preference. Well ram this, ana 

 place small hillocks of turfy loam, and a 

 slight dressing of burnt garden refuse is ai| 

 that is necessary. Water as required, ana 

 for the final top-dressing use a good sur- 

 facing of horse droppings and a little soot to 

 finish swelling up the fruit. 



