252 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 20, 1883. 
flavour. The Cherries do not attain the perfection and flavour of those 
at home. All the stone-fruit-producing trees are 6hort-lived, especially 
those of the Peach, Plum, and Apricot, which scarcely live fourteen to 
sixteen years. This early decline may be owing to the quick luxuriant 
growth and early excessive bearing of fruit, circumstances which produce 
over-stimulation and early exhaustion. The finest Grapes are grown in 
the plains and the slopes of the Mount Lofty range facing the plains. 
Here they grow to a great size, and the summer months ripen them to 
the greatest perfection. The wine produced often contains 25 to 30 per 
cent, alcohol. No doubt the South Australian wine must obtain a 
character in foreign markets. For the last nine years the oi'dium has 
made its appearance in our vineyards, but not with such damaging results 
as in Europe. Also the phylloxera has appeared in the vineyards of our 
neighbour colony, Victoria, to an alarming way, and a good many vine¬ 
yards have already been destroyed. From this it will be seen that the 
Australian vignerons, like the European, have to contend against the two 
greatest scourges which can invade a Vine-growing country. The culti¬ 
vation of the Olive is a great success, and the oil is considered perfect.” 
A PEEP AT APPLES AND FIGS IN SUSSEX. 
I opened my Journal of August 30th on the sunny shore of 
Worthing. Happily this season we have had some sun, and 
also, happily, we have many Apples. My attention was imme¬ 
diately directed to the first article, not only because of its 
subject, but also because of the well-known letters and name 
at the end—“ L. A. K., Maidstone.” Mr. Killick always speaks 
with authority about Apples, and I watch varieties and results 
with much interest. At the same time there happened to take 
place at Worthing a good, though only one-tent show, where 
fruits were in a prominent position; then, of course, I took 
constant peeps into the fruit shops, made inquiries, and made 
excursions, as seaside visitors usually do. 
Everywhere there are plenty of Apples. I have seen in 
different parts of England the same sight—heavy crops of 
fruit, often so bearing down the trees that props were necessary. 
At the Worthing Show I was surprised to see almost all the 
Apples were of the green-coloured varieties, not a single 
Emperor Alexander or Yorkshire Beauty or Worcester Pear- 
main ; plenty of Keswick Codlins, more of Lord Suffields, some 
Ecklinville Seedlings rightly named and some wrongly named, 
and a large unpleasing-shaped Apple, very popular in Sussex, 
called Nelson’s Glory, which does not appear in the “ Emit 
Manual,” though it is in Messrs. R. Smith’s catalogue. One 
dish of Red Astrachan indeed showed their red cheeks, but they 
had been some time gathered, and had none of the beautiful 
bloom on them peculiar to that variety. “ Why do you not show 
better-coloured fruit P” said I to an exhibitor ; “ why not Alex¬ 
anders P” “ Because we cannot grow them,” w T as the reply. I 
saw two fruit gardens near Brighton, both excellent, and one of 
them most excellent, belonging to a gentleman on whom I can¬ 
not say fourscore years have laid their burden, because though 
of that age he was as upright as a youth of twenty and almost 
as active. In his fruit garden I saw Cox’s Pomona, Lord 
Suffield, Beauty of Kent, Cellini, and others of a larger size and 
richer colour than I can grow them in Wiltshire. 
Next as to my own personal experience. My especial pet this 
year is Yorkshire Beauty, which 1 regard as a “great find ” for 
pomologists. It is healthy as a tree, productive, and th e fruit 
in size, colouring, and flavour is excellent. Of another compara¬ 
tively new variety no words can be too favourable. I allude to 
Ecklinville Seedling. It is healthy, vigorous, excellent as a 
cropper of magnificently sized Apples, and of good flavour. Mr. 
Killick speaks of Red Joaneting, or, as I prefer to call it, Mar¬ 
garet; although, casting off the White Joaneting, I intend to 
hold by Margaret. Colour, flavour, shape, earliness, and size 
are in its favour. Worcester Pearmain has very much in its 
favour, but its flavour is scarcely equal to its other qualities, 
though better than Quarrenden, which, like nuts, always seems 
to me to require something to drink after it. 
Why, I would ask, has the Summer Pearmain disappeared 
from catalogues P It is as handsome as any Apple grown, and 
its flavour better than most of our present favourites, Irish 
Peach, of course, always excepted, which is at the head of all 
summer dessert Apples. In reply to Mr. Killick I will add that 
with me it is the healthiest of trees, never cankering, though 
Margaret close by does canker slightly. Duchess of Oldenburg 
is a charming fruit to the eye and of fair flavour. Stirling 
Castle, “a very gem of Apples,” to quote the “Herefordshire 
Pomona,” is beyond praise. Loddington is another first-rate 
fruit, and I find it a better bearer than Gravenstein, which crops 
with me by no means heavily any year. 
Perhaps a few words on the cooking of Apples may not be 
out of place. The best are often utterly spoiled in two ways by 
the cook—first, by being ccoked, especially boiled, too fast; 
second, by that foolish plan of putting, even by grand cooks in 
grand houses, any number of Cloves into the pudding or tart, or 
large pieces of Lemon; the result is Clove tart and Lemon tart, 
not Apple tart. No flavouring should be put in either pudding' 
or tart until the new year begins, and then a very little only. 
If you are cooking Dumelow’s Seedling not at all, even in April, 
as it is as fresh in flavour as other Apples when taken from the 
tree. Cook slowly, and the pudding will be, if the Apples are 
good ones, like cream. As to flavouring, the less the better. 
Six Cloves may be allowed, but I once picked twenty-five out of 
my piece of tart. Each good Apple has a dutinct flavour and 
aroma. Oh, ruthless cook ! destroy them not. 
At Worthing an Apple named Beauty of Hants was shown, 
but it was an Ecklinville Seedling, as Beauty of Hants is irs 
shape conical and highly coloured, and w r as a seedling from 
Blenheim Pippin. May I beg makers of catalogues to enter- 
New Hawthornden as Winter Hawthorne!en without an alias ? as 
Winter best describes it, and keeps it clear from the other fruit 
of that name, which should be called Summer Hawthornden. 
A FIG GARDEN. 
While at Worthing I was driven to see the famous Fig- 
garden at West Tarring, about a mile and a half inland. Its 
size is about an acre. You enter, and a dense mass of Fig 
trees, all standards, are above you ; Fig aroma and Fig foliage- 
envelope you, the sweet scent is in the air, the dark green is 
before your eyes. There is a central path and side paths, all 
narrow-, and so the garden is dim with branches of trees, for the- 
trees all touch each other and join over your head. To one who 
had never seen a Fig garden it was rot only new but strange- 
Truth is not told, I fear, in that garden, for I came upon a board 
leaning against a tree, which stated that this is the oldest Fig 
tree in England, being 800 years old, and was planted by 
Thomas a Becket! No doubt it was an old tree, probably more 
than 100 years old, but not 800. One peculiarity in regard to 
this garden, the continental little bird, the beccafigo, or Fig- 
eater, visits this garden, and one other at Sompting not far off. 
How dees the little fellow know that he shall find out that he 
will be repaid for a fly across the Channel by finding a Fig 
garden at Tarring ? Yerily instinct is wonderful. However it 
may be, he does know, and does come, but to no other places 
save the two named.— Wiltshire Rector 
P.S.— Since writing the above “ L. A. K.’s ” second article; 
“ Main Crop Apples,” has come to hand. Singular to say, 1 
had before me specimens of Red Hawthornden and Yorkshire 
Beauty for comparison before I read it. I have narrowly 
examined them, and believe that though much alike—indeed, 
I may say, wonderfully alike, yet they are not identical. The- 
reasons 1 give are these—in Yorkshire Bear.ty there is a ver¬ 
milion tint lacking in the other; also, though the eyes are not 
quite alike, nor are the stalks inserted in cavities of exactly the 
same shape, neither is the yellow colour of exactly the same 
shade. Both are excellent Apples, but I prefer Yorkshire- 
Beauty. 
CATTLEYA MARGIN ATA. 
Amongst the smaller Cattleyas the species represented in the wood- 
cut (fig. 48) is one of the most handsome, and its beauty has rendered it 
a favourite with Orchid growers generally. It is also one of the few 
Cattleyas that succeed best on blocks, and in this respect it forms a 
charming companion for the fragrant C. citrina, C. Walkeriana, and a 
few others. These, unlike the majority of species, do not produce good 
results when in pots, and the peculiar downward-growing habit of 
C. citrina especially unfits it for that mode of culture. C. marginata is 
a Brazilian Orchid, and was introduced by those celebrated orchidists 
Messrs. Loddiges rather more than forty years ago. It is now included 
in most large collections of Orchids, and fairly good plants can be pur¬ 
chased for half a guinea. One reason why it is a favourite is because 13 
thrives in a cooler temperature than the majority of the Cattleyas, a. 
recommendation of great value where highly heated houses are objected 
to, as they are in many establishments. The cool end of an ordinary 
plant stove or an intermediate house will suit it, and if attention be 
particularly paid to the supplying water frequently little difficulty will 
be experienced with the plant. 
The flowers are of moderate size ; the petals much broader than the 
sepals, but, like them in colour, usually a soft rosy purple, the lip being 
intensely rich crimson, with a narrow margin of white, and a white throat, 
