February 2, 1882.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
91 
crisp, and tender ; very sweet and of delicious flavour. There is 
however considerable difference in it. Fruit fully exposed 
becomes tinged with crimson, and is invariably good ; but that 
which is much shaded by foliage remains a greenish yellow, and 
is decidedly inferior in flavour. It is the best American Apple I 
have tasted, and I regard it as indispensable. Cockle’s Pippin is 
a useful late dessert fruit, keeping well. The flesh is firm, juicy, 
sweet and pleasant-flavoured, but not rich. The tree is a good 
specimen, quite healthy, and it had an excellent crop of fruit. The 
growth of Cornish Gilliflower is somewhat slender, but is quite 
healthy and of a peculiar dark brown hue. It had a few good 
fruits of delicious flavour. The fruit keeps well, and is said to be 
good till May. Adams’ Pearmain is a fine espalier, which came 
into fruiting before any of the others, and always has some fruit 
every year. The peculiar shape of the fruit renders it easy of 
recognition, but its flavour is quite second rate. 
It will be seen that the foregoing are all dessert fruits, to which 
I confined the espaliers, as I have only a few trees of that form ; 
but it by no means follows that kitchen sorts cannot be so grown 
advantageously. All free-cropping sorts are especially suitable 
for it, and of, such I may select Keswick Codlin, Cellini, Duchess 
of Oldenburg, Warner’s King, Calville Malingre, Borovitsky, 
Golden Noble, Winter Hawthornden, Fearn’s Pippin, and Nelson 
Codlin.— Edward Luckhurst. 
BLUE ROMAN HYACINTHS. 
I HAVE no idea of the origin of the blue Roman Hyacinth, 
and waited last week before replying to your correspondent, 
thinking that some of your readers would have furnished infor¬ 
mation on this point. In my previous notes I gave the plant the 
credit of producing flowers suitable for cutting, so we are agreed 
upon that point. Any fragrant flowers produced during the winter 
months are invaluable, especially for those who grow them for sale ; 
but I think this Hyacinth will not attain the popularity that the 
white Roman has. Where flowers are required not only for cutting 
but for decorative purposes in pots, both for the conservatory and 
dwelling-rooms, those that can be used for all purposes are doubly 
valuable ; but for decoration in pots the blue Roman is straggling 
and useless—unless Messrs. Jones & Sons have some secret in 
growing them to keep their foliage dwarf. The Editor did not 
state if the specimen sent would prove serviceable for decoration. 
I have not found them of the same use as the white variety except 
for cutting. If useful for turning out of the pots and packing 
into baskets that have to be filled with flowering plants, in the 
same way as the white variety is employed, I should have recog¬ 
nised its worth. On the contrary its long foliage is straggling 
and unsightly. For growing in pots Scilla siberica far surpasses 
it in compactness, neatness, and beauty. Messrs. Jones & Sons 
say when I can advance something better they will discard it. 
I have no wish that they should do so, and am pleased to find it 
proves of service to someone. 
The bulbs of the large-flowering Hyacinths, such as Charles 
Dickens, Grand Lilas, and others that are forced, and the bedding 
kinds that flower outside, are laid in soil until they are properly 
ripened, and then early in the season packed thickly together in 
pans and boxes to be in due time forced into flower. These prove 
useful for cutting and placing in baskets and vases. They can be 
had in flower by Christmas. These bulbs are often thrown away 
by many, but are very serviceable to us, and what are not retained 
for this purpose are planted out in the borders and yield flowers 
for cutting about Easter for church decoration. Nurserymen are 
only too glad, as a rule, to dispose of the small bulbs amongst the 
bedding varieties for a low price ; and the small spikes are 
serviceable for associating with the scarlet, pink, and other varie¬ 
ties of the Due Van Thol type of Tulips, while the larger bulbs 
can be retained for flowering in plant houses.— Cultivator of 
Bulbs. 
[We shall shortly publish some notes on Roman Hyacinths. 
Although the foliage of the plants sent by Messrs. Jones was not 
so sturdy as the white Roman Hyacinths, yet the pot containing 
thirty spikes of flowers would have been suitable for a conser¬ 
vatory. The leaves ranged from 9 inches to a foot in length, and 
the flower spikes from 10 to 11 inches. The chief value of the 
variety, however, appears to consist in affording flowers for 
cutting.—E d.] 
Profagating the Hollyhock.— Provided old Hollyhock plants 
were potted in the end of autumn, a good supply of cuttings will 
be ready for taking now, inserting them singly in small pots. If 
a little bottom heat could be given without artificial top heat, that 
would be the best treatment to give them; but such conditions are 
not to be had in all gardens, and therefore a good plan will be to 
keep the cuttings in a cool house covered with something to keep 
evaporation from the foliage at as low an ebb as possible. The suc¬ 
ceeding crop of cuttings will be most safely managed by splicing 
