July 26, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
GO 
caucasicum and Crocuses. They also eat the Crocus bulb 3 during 
summer. They attacked Lettuces and Cabbages last winter for the first 
time in my experience, and kept up the taste for them till the arrival of 
summer. Blackbirds are comparatively harmless in a wet season ; slugs 
and worms are then plentiful, and they are not pressed for food. 
During the drought of the present season Currants had to be netted five 
weeks before ripening. Birds were so hard pressed that they were glad 
of anything. It is interesting to see blackbirds throwing themselves 
against nets protecting wall fruits ; they soon find out that the net will 
give sufficiently to allow them to get their beak into the fruit, provided 
they throw themselves with sufficient force against the net. The only 
remedy is to keep the net well off the trees by means of forked sticks, 
and to stretch the net as tightly as possible when it is put up. I am 
very averse to killing if it can be at all avoided. Blackbirds and 
finches are partially defeated by gathering fruit as quickly as possible 
when it is sufficiently ripened. 
Three years ago some of us had a lesson from wasps on the proverb, 
“ Not to leave till to-morrow what can be done to-day.” A gardener 
noticed a few wasps in a vinery one Saturday. The necessity of protec¬ 
tion was obvious, but he left it till the Monday. The intervening Sunday 
was a hot day, and on the Monday morning there were absolutely no 
Grapes left to protect. Another case I knew where the gardener w T ent 
to pick his Gooseberries, but when the nets were removed he found the 
bushes quite bare.—B. 
TWO PRETTY - ROSES. 
In few gardens are any of the numerous species of Boses now grown 
The abundant and handsome progeny which have been obtained by 
Fig 14.—Itosa alpina. 
cultivators of the Rose in the past fifty years have ousted the typical 
species, some of which possess a modest beauty that is gradually be¬ 
coming more recognised and appreciated. These so-called “single” 
Boses are, however, rarely seen except in botanic gardens, and two of 
these which have been so preserved are represented in the accompanying 
woodcuts—namely, Rosa alpina and R. sericea, attention being speci¬ 
ally called to them as charming, free, and graceful plants. 
R. alpina (fig. II) is the first of Lindley’s tribe Pimpinellifolire, 
which also includes such pretty species as R. stricta, R. sulphurea, and 
R. myriacantha. It is a native of Europe, and was known to and 
mentioned by most of the old authors under an alarming number of 
names, all of which have given way in favour of that adopted by 
Linnaeus. It attains a height of 8 feet as the maximum, but is usually 
much less, the flowers being solitary and of a bright rosy-blush colour. 
Several varieties of this are known, differing in unimportant characters, 
such as the depth of shade in the flowers and peculiarities of the 
fruit. The specimen figured was grown in the Trinity College Botanical 
Garden, Dublin. 
R. sericea (fig. 15, p. 73) is one of the Caninae group, and was well 
figured in Lindley’s “ Monographia.” Our specimen, however, repre¬ 
sents a variety with much larger flowers than that, and is rather closer 
and more sturdy in its habit. It forms a kind of connecting link 
between the European and Indian Roses, having R. canina on the 
former side, and R. indica on the latter ; but it belongs more distinctly 
to the Asiatic species, being itself found at Gossam Than, whence it 
was some time ago introduced to England. The flowers are slightly 
cupped, pale pink or blush, almost white in the centre ; and the leaflets 
are small, with several deep serratures at the apex. 
MR. LAXTON’S NEW PEA EVOLUTION. 
I have sent for your inspection a sample of Mr. Laxton’s 
new Pea Evolution, and which, in my opinion, promises to he 
a first-rate midseason variety, and being a robust grower and of 
branching habit the individual peas should be sown 1 foot apart, 
otherwise the haulms, which are from 4 to 5 feet high and 
heavily cropped with large v,mil-filled p ds of the Pride of the 
Market type, will not have sufficient room to develope themselves. 
As an instance of this, I may state that when i received my 
packet of Evolution on the 11 th of March 1 resolved to make 
the most of the hundred which it contained, and therefore two 
days later sowed them in small pots filled with light mould 
(putting one pea in each pot) and put them into heat, and so 
soon as they came up and atta ned a height of 6 inches a short 
stick was put to each plant for support. A couple of weeks 
later these Peas, having been gradually hardened off, were trans¬ 
planted in rows ti inches apart in the row, and although they 
looked very thin in the rows for some time, it is obvious enough 
now that the result would have been better if the young plants 
had been G or ( J inches further apart. And as a proof of this 
asseition, several ranks of that excellent variety, Culverwell’s 
Giant Marrow, in other parts of the kitchen garden are every¬ 
thing that could be desired, and these, which in some cases 
transplanted and in others sown in the drills, vere allowed 
12 inches in the rows. Therefore the results of these sowings 
of expensive Peas points to a practical conclusion—viz., that no 
matter how cheap the seed, providing it be good, do not on that 
account sow it too thickly, as by so doing the seed is not only 
unnecessarily wasted, but the object aimed at—a good crop, is 
reduced to a minimum.— H. W. Waed. 
[The Pea Evolution appears to be a good variety, the pods 
of moderate size, containing eight to ten peas, but the specimens 
sent were too advanced to test their quality satisfactorily. 
Oulverwell’s Giant Marrow, also received, is a very fine variety, 
the pods of great size, and containing nine to eleven large peas 
of good quality.] 
HISTORY OF THE FANCY PANSY. 
It is evident that the Fancy Pansy is now firmly established in 
popular favour, and as there is evidently a still growing popularity for 
it, I think it will be as well if the early history of this flower is given 
at once, so that in the future it may be known when this form was in¬ 
troduced and who first took it in hand. Mr. Miller in the Journal of 
the 19th inst. (page 40), clears up a little of the fog which has hitherto 
surrounded the Fancy Pansy, and shows us that Mr. John Downie 
exhibited some six kinds at the Botanic Gardens, Regent’s Park, in 1852, 
but from that time until about 1858 this type of Pansy was an unrecog¬ 
nised and almost unknown flower amongst florists. 
In the Journal of Horticulture of June 28th (page 539), in your notice 
of the meeting of the Scottish Pansy Society in the Waverley Market, 
Edinburgh, the following paragraph appears:—“At the dinner in con¬ 
nection with the above Society, Mr. Ross, Laurencekirk, replying to a 
vote of thanks to the Judges, spoke of the high quality attained by 
Fancy Pansies, as demonstrated by those shown in the Waverley Market 
that day. When he first got them he thought so slightly of their qualities 
as to throw the entire lot out, and for years he had disliked them ; but 
now they were quite as good in all qualities as the English (Show) Pansy, 
and eclipsed them in size of bloom, richness, and variety of colouring. 
It may be stated that the Fancy Pansy is of Belgian origin, and was 
taken in hand first of all by Mr. Downie.” As there are misconceptions 
existing as to the early history of this flower, and as no other person can 
speak with greater authority on the subject than myself, I venture to 
trouble you with a few remarks. 
I believe it was in 1858 that Mr. Andrew Henderson of the Welling¬ 
ton Road Nurseries, London, wrote tome when I was residing in Shipley, 
to say that on a recent visit to France he had met with some new form a 
of blotched Pansies, but as he could not grow them in London, asked if 
I would undertake to grow them, and his firm would take all the plants I 
could raise. We agreed as to terms, and I took them in hand. To Mr. 
Andrew Henderson, who is now the proprietor of the Pine Apple Place 
Nurseries, therefore, belongs the credit of first introducing the improved 
forms to English growers. The experience of the first year decided mo 
in going on with their culture ; but many of my old florist friends, 
amongst them my old friend Mr. Downie, ridiculed me for growing 
