§^2 
PROGRESS OF HORTICULTURE. 
little curled. As in the last season, so in this, it has proved the best Cabbage Lettuce. From the above 
detail it appears that the above are the best summer Lettuces, and that various others reputed new 
and good, are not deserving of cultivation. — Ibid. p. 26. 
Tlie Barker Nectarine, when first introduced from Mr. Barker of Suedia, was noted as producing 
leaves with globose glands, large flowers, and peaches of little merit. Subsequently, one small twig 
was observed having reniform glands. Buds from this were taken and worked on a tree against the 
south wall, and the fruit proves to be the Nectarine. Leaves with reniform glands ; flowers small ; 
fruit large obovate, dark red next the sun ; pale yellowish green where shaded. Flesh fine, yellowish 
white, rayed with bright red at the stone, from which it parts freely ; rich in this unfavourable 
season (1850) ; but scarcely so aromatic as the Violette Hative. Stone larger than that of the sort 
just mentioned, flattish, obovate. Kernel bitter. This variety is quite distinct from the Stanwick 
Nectarine, originally obtained from the same gentleman, the one having a sweet, the other a bitter 
kernel. — Ibid. p. 25. 
Walburton Admirable Peach. — Raised near Arundel, Sussex, and supposed to be a seedling from 
the Noblesse, which it much resembles, but is more valuable in quality, in consequence of its ripening 
from three weeks to a month later, or about the same time as the late Admirable Peach. Flesh melting, 
parting freely from the stone ; leaves serrated, glandless. Ripe and in fine perfection this season (1850), 
the first week in October. — Rivers in Florist, p. 11. 
Strawberries. — Of these, Keen's Seedling, Princess Alice Maud, British Queen, Old Pine, 
Comte de Paris, and Elton, are recommended as the best by Mr. Whiting ; and Black Prince, Wilmot's 
Prince Arthur, Kitley's Goliah, and Myatt's Surprise, as being worth a trial. — Florist, p. 9. 
Market Gardening. — The land can well sustain so much cropping, on account of the heavy dung- 
ings, trenchings, and hoeings which it receives. If you ask a market gardener what is to succeed 
this or that crop, the answer is " Don't know ; it depends upon what is ready for planting." Continued 
trenching two spades deep seems expensive; but market gardeners know that after an active crop the 
top soil for several inches is quite exhausted, and hence the reason for continued trenching to bring up 
the top soil that but a few months before had been turned down, with a large proportion of dung to enrich 
it, and fit it for active use along with the half decayed manure. The labourers employed on 150 acres 
are seventy during winter, and in summer about one hundred and fifty. The cost per acre is from 
£9 to £10; the tithes being 10s. to 12s. per acre. Some idea of the amount of labour consumed on 
small matters will be conceived when I state that the whole of the frames, amounting to one thousand 
lights, and the hand-glasses to four thousand, are repaired every autumn. — [Gard. Chron., p. 4.) 
Dickson's Emperor Apple. — Size large, form irregular, slightly ribbed, colour yellow, with dashes 
of carmine red interspersed, as well as with numerous minute specks of yellowish straw colour ; the 
side most exposed to the sun coloured with a rich reddish brick colour ; stalk unusually short for so 
large a fruit, indicating that it will not be liable to be blown from the tree by the wind, an important 
merit ; eye very large, irregular, and very deeply sunk, cavity for seeds small ; flesh yellowish white, 
juicy ; flavour excellent, keeps till January ; bears abundantly as a standard, and is certainly one of the 
very best apples in existence. It was raised at Seacliffe Gardens, near Prestonkirk, Scotland, by Mr. 
Arthur Calder, the gardener there. — N. B. Jour, of Sort., p. 27. 
Grafting Cacti.— Mr. J. C. Bidwell, of Tinana, New South Wales, recommends Cereus triangu- 
laris as being a superior stock for grafting the trailing kinds upon. He states it will bear great heat, 
considerable coolness, any amount of wet above ground, and in rich soil will make a shoot six feet 
from a cutting of six inches in one season. " My advice to gardeners in England who wish to procure 
gigantic specimens of slow-growing Cacti in a short space of time, is to procure plants of C. triangu- 
laris, plant them in any rich soil, give them plenty of heat and water ; when high enough, stop the 
shoots, in order to make the angles thicker, and graft at a time when the stock is attempting 
vigorously to sprout at every eye. A graft of C. Mallisonii, three inches long, six months after, has 
seventeen shoots all pushing at the tips : eight of the largest are twelve to fifteen inches long, and 
none of the rest less than six inches." The original plant of C. Mallisoni, growing in the same place 
in the same time, barely replaced the shoot taken off to graft. — Gard. Chron., p. 22. 
Oxalis Bowei, in the open garden. " The earth was removed to the depth of two feet ; I then in- 
troduced eight inches of drainage, laying on the top of it a layer of fresh turf, with the view of 
preventing the soil falling into the interstices. I then filled up the bed with equal parts of well-rolled 
turfy loam and leaf-mould intimately mixed together. In May I turned out the plants, and placed 
them so that the bulbs might be three inches below the surface. Thus circumstanced, I have never 
found them to receive any injury, with the exception of the foliage being destroyed by frost. They 
flower beautifully every autumn." — Ibid. p. 39, 
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