THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
213 
flowers ; Marathon, dwarf nosegay, with narrow-petalled flowers ; 
and Wellington, deep crimson, are really first-class, and should be 
added to the most limited collection. One of the most distinct and 
beautiful bedding fgeraniums in the market is Hibberd’s Feast of 
Moses, which produces a profusion of bright mauve-tinted pink 
flowers. Hibberd’s Lilac Banner is a splendid lilac-coloured bedder. 
CHOICE APPLES FOR SMALL GARDENS. 
BY JOHN SCOTT, 
Merriott Nurseries, Crewkerne, Somerset. 
planting apple trees in small gardens it is of vast 
importance to select those kinds only which produce 
heavy crops of fine, well-flavoured fruit, and which are, 
moreover, thoroughly reliable. Varieties which produce 
fine fruit, but are shy croppers, or those which only bear 
good crops every few years, are alike unsuitable for the small garden, 
although they may be of considerable service in places where there 
is sufficient space to grow a large number of varieties. There is 
an abundance of varieties which may be planted with the greatest 
degree of confidence, but owing to the large number in cultivation, 
it is by no means an easy task for those who have not paid consider- 
able attention to the apple tree, to select the right ones. At the 
present day, I suppose we have over 3000 varieties of the apple 
cultivated in our gardens and orchards. My own collection numbers 
over 1200 sorts, not counting cider sorts, and is yearly increasing ; 
not that I consider, by any means, so many kinds useful to any 
one individual. My aim in gathering together so many varieties of 
fruits is, to be able to distribute the best sorts only throughout the 
country, and to each locality as far as possible the kinds best adapted 
to it. It is no great task to get together a collection of apples, but 
it is something different to get them correct to name ; no one but 
he who embarks in forming a large collection of apples can tell the 
diflBculties that have to be encountered. When you take up the 
nursery catalogues and tick off all the sorts you find new to you in 
name, and then order them, what a melange of sorts one gets ! I do 
not think there is in the kingdom a collection that is anything like 
correctly named. When I receive any sorts wTongly named, or that 
I think wrong, I send to all the best nurseries I know for the same 
sorts, and when I have got them — in some cases a dozen trees all 
under one name — I plant them side by side to see how many of 
them are alike, and w'hen I find a fair proportion having the same 
character, then I conclude I may with some degree of safety select 
those that are alike as the true sort. By this means I have no fear 
■of distributing varieties wrongly named : a matter of very great 
importance, for notliing is more annoying to the private cultivator 
Jnly. 
