72 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
NOTES. 
I. 
Theke are now growing at Chiswick plants of a very interesting Vine 
called 'Pearson's Ironclad,' which is said to resist the Phylloxera better 
than any other Grape known. Its history is worth recording : — An 
English gentleman named John Pearson went out from Chester to North 
America with William Penn, and named his first settlement ' Chester,' 
which is now a large city on the Delaw^are Eiver. He afterwards 
moved on, and became the first settler at Darby, near Philadelphia, in 
Pennsylvania, where the family have now lived for more than 200 years. 
In 1872 Mr. Alexander W. Pearson, a descendant of John Pearson, 
began the regular cultivation of Grapes at Vineland, New Jersey ; and a 
relative living at Darby sent him some cuttings of a Vine which had 
long been known there as the ' Ash ' Grape, because it grew on the 
property of a Mrs. Ash, who was great-great-grandmother of l\Ir. Alex. 
W. Pearson. This Vine spread entirely over a huge forest tree, and was 
in great repute as being the only wild Vine in the neighbourhood of 
Darby which bore fruit of real value. It was, of course, well known to 
the early settlers, who all used to come to it for fruit, of which it was 
said to yield as much as two tons a year. Its trunk was almost 12 inches 
in diameter. Mr. A. W. Pearson grew the' cuttings of this Vine when 
first sent to him at Vineland simply as a relic of his family's antiquity, 
and on account of its having been the first native Grape known to 
William Penn and his companions. As soon as it fruited he noticed 
that it was not a Labntsca (the common ' Fox Grape ' of the 
American woods), but an Jilstivalis, or possibly a hybrid between 
the two. It was of value for wine mainly on account of its fiavour 
and its remarkable colour — a rich purple, so intense that the juice 
w^as often used as a substitute for ink, and letters written with it nearly 
twenty years ago are said to be as fresh now as if they had been written 
with ink yesterday. When, however, " grape rot " became epidemic in 
New Jersey, on all the varieties of the Lahrusca, Mr. A. W. Pearson 
noticed that the ' Ash ' Grape, as he still called it, was proof against 
the rot, although its leaves suffer from mildew in wet summers. Its fruit, 
however, never rots with that most dreaded disease in America, the fungus 
Phoma iLvicola, which ruins the Lahrusca, and it was for this reason 
that he re-named it 'Pearson's Ironclad,' and called public notice to its 
fungus-resisting qualities. Subsequently, when the Phylloxera invaded 
and ruined all the Viniferas, he observed that the ' Ironclad ' was 
apparently untouched by it. This, however, was not quite the case, as 
further observation showed that the ' Ironclad ' appeared to be the 
natural home of the Phylloxera, which would go to it in preference to 
any other Vine ; but the strange thing is, they do not seem to hurt it, as it 
is so vigorous that it makes new roots as fast as the old ones become 
infested. It then occurred to Mr. Pearson that this ' Ironclad ' might 
be found useful in Europe as a stock on which to graft the Viniferas, and 
