186 



THE ELOBIST AND POMOIiOGlST. 



least, is very extraordinary. I this season visited Chiswick during my trip to the great 

 Fruit Show; and, although Grapes generally were very good and many very fine, even after 

 the quamity that must have been cut for various exhibitions, all the fruit of Golden 

 Hamburgh was one miserable bunch half shanked. Probably there had been much finer 

 fruit on the Vine, still I expected to find at least a bunch or two fit for table after 

 such a flaming account of it from a correspondent in a contemporary on the 13th of 

 September; but, although the other varieties were wonderful in quantity and generally 

 excellent in quality, every bunch of this particular variety was cut, observe, in eight days 

 after the appearance of the last-named article ; it certainly did not give gardeners time to 

 see for themselves. Surely they woidd keep a week after ripe, even in a cold h' use, for I 

 am not acquainted with any variety that will not keep more than a month on the Vine at 

 any season in any home. As regards planting Vines inside or grafting on Black Hamburgb, 

 I do nut recollect its being mentioned when sent out. arid on my s-pecially inquiring on the 

 subject of ti e man in charge of the lar^e conservatory at Chi- wick, he told me they could 

 not perceive any difference, which is confirmed by a Glouce>-tershire correspondent in the 

 befo'e mentioned contemporary of the 4tb October, who, to clench the subject, after men- 

 tioning the first rate bunches he bad himself grown, states tbat fiimds of his — both amateur 

 and profe.-sional — had obtained first prizes at local shows ; by which we must infer that the 

 Glouces'er people are as famed in fruit-growing as short-horn biecding, and, of course, in 

 competition and judging, are superior to the London exhibitors, which, in my ignorance and 

 incompetence, I had consider* d the test. J would suggest that. Mr. Busby or those most 

 interested in this Grape should offer a prize for, s»y, three bunches, and also f ree Vines in 

 pots at either of the gn at London shows to be d> cided on, of any variety of "White Grape 

 not Muscats or Frontignans, as it would also give the exhibitors the chance, of obtaining the 

 Society's prize for any oiher sort of whi e Grape, excepting Muscats; and, if it should prove 

 superior, it would at once silence any of the incompetei t, and would piobably bring from 

 remote parts of the country some of the magnificent buncht s and berries, as well as the 

 four-pound bunches (which are not to be despised at a London show at any season, especially 

 in May), which some short-sighted people, myself among the number, have only as yet seen 

 on paper. An Observer. 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PliOKAL COMMITTEE AWARDS, &C. 

 {Continued from page 143.) 



Aralia xeptophylla. — Messrs. Veitch & Son : First-class Certificate, April 9. — A 

 slender erect stove shrub, with elegant long-stalked leaves formed of about eight palmately- 

 disposed, long, linear-lanceolate, stalked leaflets, and very graceful in character. 



Asplenium myriophyllum. — Messrs. Veitch & Son, and Mr. Bull, Chelsea: First-class 

 Certificate, April 1. — A charming little Mexican Fern, distributed by M. Linden under the 

 name of A. Jiabellulatum. The plants form spreading tufts of short-stalked fronds, 6 to 8 inches 

 in length, lance-shaped, bipinnate or tripinnate, the pinnules quite small : the lower ones 

 deeply divided into two or three obovate pinnules or lobes, the upper ones oblong or obovate, 

 simple, all being of transparent texture, and having a cellular-looking surface as if void of 

 cuticle. The rachis is dark- coloured, and its point prolonged beyona the upper pinna, and 

 proliferous. 



Aspeentum rachirhizon. — Mr, Bull and Messrs. Veitch & Son: First-class Certificate, 

 April 1. — A graceful Brazilian Fern, introduced by M. Linden under the name of A. rachi- 

 rhince. The fronds are ovate with a long tail-like apex, prolonged in the form of a filiform 

 proliferous rachis several inches beyond the pinnae, bi-tri-pinnate ; the pinnules obovate, 

 the lower ones larger and divided into three or four similar pinnules or lobes, and those next 

 to them having usually one such lobe on the anterior side. The rachis dark-coloured behind 

 towards the base. 



Athyrium Fieix-fcemina, var, Parsonsue. — Mr. Parsons, Welwyn : Second-class Cer- 

 tificate, June 26. — A curious and interesting British variety of Lady Fern, the chief pecu- 

 liarity of which consists in the dimorphism of the fronds. The lower fronds are spreading, 

 but partially fertile, broader and more leafy than the others ; while the central om-s are 

 erect, more decidedly fertile, with the pinnules reduced in size, as well as narrower, and 

 more distantly set upon the rachis. 



Aucuba japonica, var. picturata. — Mr. Standish : Bronze Medal, May 21.— A finely- 

 marked variety, having a large yellow blotch in the centre of the leaves. 



Auriouea Mrs. Eyles. — Mr. Holland, Isleworth : Commendation, April 9, — A distinct- 



