JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
354 
found in private collections in Ireland. It is said to be hardy, 
but the foliage could scarcely be as fine as under glass. That it 
enjoys considerable moisture is proved from its location here near 
a miniature fountain and artistic reservoir.—W. J. M., Clonmel. 
ROSES AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. 
A few notes, especially on the newer varieties that were exhi¬ 
bited at the last meeting of the Society, may not, perhaps, be 
unacceptable to your readers, at least the numerous rosarians who 
regard the Journal as almost an official organ on all that concerns 
the queen of flowers. But before I enter upon my theme I must 
add my word of approbation to the chorus of praise which greeted 
Mr. Boscawen on his exhibiting such a magnificent specimen of 
the fine old Orchid Cattleya Skinneri. Mr. Boscawen brought 
this Cattleya three hundred miles, travelling all night, and reach¬ 
ing South Kensington just in time to stage his plant, which so 
worthily won a silver Flora medal, and many of us thought it 
deserved a gold one. But after all there is nothing like the Rose, 
and the splendid collections staged by Messrs. George Paul and 
Fig. 80.—Nepenthes compacta. (See page 355.) 
James Yeitch well repaid those who journeyed to Kensington on 
the chance of seeing their favourite flower. Besides fine examples 
of older varieties Mr. George Paul showed what is much more 
interesting—a collection of new or comparatively new Roses. 
These were small plants and had not many blooms on them, so 
that my judgment may not be based on very good premises ; but I 
examined the blooms carefully and did my best to form a correct 
estimate of their merits. 
First there was Souvenir de Victor Verdier, a good Rose of a deep 
rich colour, somewhat in the way of Horace Vernet. Then came 
Comtesse de Mortemart, which in my opinion is bad in every way ; 
while Jules Chretien was a splendid bloom, globular in form and 
grand in colour, as was also Madame Ducher, H.P. It a little re¬ 
sembles Madame Furtado in form and exactly in colour, and appears 
[ May 5. 1S81. 
to be a good grow'er. Charles Darwin also took my fancy, being 
grand in form and bright as to colour at an early stage ; but as 
the buds open fully the colour becomes dull and cloudy, and the 
Rose falls off sadly. Ferdinand ChafEelle is no gain in any way, 
while Paul Jamain and Edouard Andre are both good. Madame 
Eliza Taissor is an ugly expanded flower, thin in the centre. 
Mdlle. Julie Dymonier is a lovely Rose, pale flesh in colour 
fading off to pure white. It reminds me of that old Rose rarely 
if ever seen now, Louise Magnan, being globular in form and 
good in every way. Comtesse de Choiseuil has a very good form, 
but does not stand the sun and appears to be a bad opener, but 
in the bud is superb. Gloire de Bourg-la-Reine has a good deep 
colour, but is very thin. Mr. Paul also showed two seedlings 
unnamed, one of which pleased me much, being of a deep rose 
colour, having a grand globular form, somewhat in the way of 
Madame Clemence Joigneaux as to colour. The other seedling 
did not take my fancy. 
Messrs. Veitch exhibited a beautiful collection of half-standards 
in pots, which were much admired. I was surprised to find what 
a beautiful pot Rose Mrs. George Paul is, also Olga Marix, which 
out of doors is worthless. Madame Lacharme, the Tea Madame 
Maurin, Catherine Mermet, a bloom of which last-named in my 
opinion was the finest flower in the Show, and Emily Laxton were 
all very good, and the collection as a whole highly interesting to 
rosarians.— -Wyld Savage. 
OXLIPS. 
Having read in your Journal many letters respecting Oxlip, 
Cowslip, and Primrose culture, I think it may interest some of 
your readers to learn the result of an experiment I have tried. 
In the autumn of 1879 I found some pods of seed on an Oxlip 
plant which had never before produced seed, and as soon as ripe 
I gathered them and sowed the seed in a pan. A number of 
seedlings soon appeared, which I pricked off into a large box as 
soon as they were large enough. In the spring of 1880 I planted 
the seedlings, which I found numbered about one hundred, into a 
bed of ordinary garden soil. A few bloomed the following 
autumn, producing Primrose flowers both yellow and pink. The 
plants grew to a large size, and this spring have all bloomed freely 
with the following result—Fifty-four ordinary Primroses of various 
shades of yellow and pink, thirty-nine producing bunches of 
Primrose blooms on a high stem, in the way of Polyanthus—these 
also contain many shades, some very rich crimson ; six red Cow¬ 
slips, but not one of all the number resembles the parent Oxlip. 
—Rosewakne. 
EXTENSION-TRAINED PEACH TREES. 
I am pleased to see your correspondent and my old “ mate,” 
Mr. Pettigrew, .recommending this system. I am not one who is 
going to maintain that it has never been practised before, but 
Mr. Pettigrew does not, according to his own admission, “ go 
the whole hog ” in the matter. He pinches off the laterals, but 
leaving them is an important part of the system, and it is the 
only way to dissipate the over-luxuriance of strong shoots and 
extend the tree rapidly. I would just remark, too, how singular 
it is that when anyone brings out a new, or supnosed new idea, 
there should always be so many who have, unbeknown, been 
practising exactly the same thing for, say, half a century or there¬ 
about. Up till the period when I published my account in all 
the papers of setting Muscat and other Grapes in a minimum 
temperature of 50° and lower, it was an accepted idea taught by 
the most noted authors, that a temperature of from 70° to 75° was 
the secret of setting Grapes, and in every calendar those figures 
were given ; but no sooner had I written than there were ever so 
many claimants to the low-temperature system, who had never, 
some of them said, adopted any other practice ! Yet they had 
permitted writers to go on from time immemorial almost to re¬ 
commend the very opposite, and had never once opened their 
mouths. And now, although there is not a work on gardening 
where the extension system of Peach culture is advocated or 
described, it is discovered that numerous friends and others have 
been going on with the same ail their lives, but they have only 
j ust found courage to say so. It is of course, quite possible that 
a gardener living at John o’Groat’s and another living at the 
Land’s End may be carrying on similar practices, but when one 
does not know what the other is doing, and finds no mention of 
his opinions or practices in the numerous gardening periodicals 
and books, he may be excused for-thinking that such practices are 
not common, and it need not “ amuse ” a gardener of experience 
and information to discover as much. 
Pebmit me to thank you for your fair and impartial review of 
