December 22, 1881.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
557 
obtained quicker by means of grafting than by raising them from 
cuttings, and grafted Hollies grow well in after years. Grafted 
plants of Ilex Hodginsii I do not approve of, as I consider the 
plants grow better and faster when raised from cuttings than if 
worked upon the common variety. 
The stocks for next season’s grafting should be potted at once 
or during the spring. The young plants intended for stocks 
should not be too strong; if about the thickness of a good quill 
they are of a suitable size. Those with leaders and likely to make 
good plants need not be selected for stocks. Where quantities are 
grown plenty of second-rate plants of equal vigour will be found 
suitable. Stunted plants should be avoided, because they cannot 
be expected to thrive after they are grafted. The pots for the 
stocks should be 3 to 4 inches in diameter. One or two crocks at 
the bottom will be ample for drainage. Any ordinary soil with a 
little decayed manure mixed with it will be suitable, and must be 
pressed firmly into 
the pots. The lower 
portion of the stem 
should be trimmed 
clean for 3 or 4 ins. 
before plunging 
them outside. Their 
after treatment 
through the summer 
should be exactly 
the same as advised 
for the stocks em¬ 
ployed for Conifers. 
The operation of 
grafting (fig. S7) is 
generally performed 
as early as conve¬ 
nient after the Coni¬ 
fers are finished ; 
simple splice graft¬ 
ing is, however, 
generally adopted. 
They succeed well 
in a shaded span- 
roofed house that 
can be kept close 
and the temperature 
from falling below 
be kept well supplied with water, and syringed at least twice 
daily, until they become united to the stock. I have seen 
plants afterwards wintered in cold frames, and finally placed 
outside towards the end of February or early in March. Cir¬ 
cumstances sometimes compel this treatment, but it is not to 
be recommended. Hollies, as a rule, take well when properly 
grafted. The house in which they have been placed should if 
possible be devoted to them during the winter. After they have 
become thoroughly united fire heat need be employed only to 
exclude frost. They may be gradually hardened by February, to 
be placed in cold frames where they can be protected for a month 
or six weeks longer. The top portion of the stock can be taken 
off when removing them to the frame. The young plants should 
have a small upright stake to protect the graft from being broken 
before and when first planted out. When thoroughly hardened 
the plants can be arranged outside until a convenient time pre¬ 
sents itself for them to be finally planted out.—W. Bardney. 
50° in their early stages. The plants must 
AN APPLE ELECTION. 
As this has been an exceptionally good year for Apples, and 
brought many almost unknown sorts to the front, I shall be 
pleased to carry out another Apple election if your readers who 
are growers will forward me a list of the best twelve kitchen 
and twelve dessert kinds as a sequence for the season—Blenheim 
Pippin, when named, to be placed in the former. I shall publish 
the result in your paper early in February if possible.— LEWIS A. 
Killick, Mount Pleasant, Langley, Maidstone. 
P.S.—Any notes on the varieties will be welcome. 
[We shall be glad if growers will send lists, with such notes as 
they desire to append, to Mr. Killick at an early date, 60 as to 
enable us to publish the results before the close of the planting 
season.—E d.] 
Leicester Red Celery. —The best Celery I have ever grown is 
Harrison’s Leicester Red (the seed from selected heads in original 
packets obtained through Messrs. Hurst & Son). It is very large 
and of remarkable solidity, the solid portion being quite 3 inches 
thick, crisp, and of a fine nutty flavour. Out of many rows planted 
out direct from the seed bed on hot sandy land at various times— 
early and late—through the past summer and autumn, not a single 
plant has shown signs of running to seed. Better Celery it is im¬ 
possible to have, and as the circumstances attending its position and 
growth this season were not especially favourable for the production 
of good Celery I shall not hesitate to adopt it as a first-rate market 
sort.—T. Laxton, Bedford. 
VIOLET PRINCESS OF PRUSSIA AND OTHERS. 
In reply to Mr. Beachey’s observation at page 515—viz., that 
I may not have given Princess of Prussia Violet a “fair trial,” I 
may state that I have it now in alternate rows with Victoria 
Regina in a frame some 60 feet long and 4 feet wide which con¬ 
tains five rows of plants— i.e., three of Victoria Regina and two of 
Princess of Prussia, and it was grown in a similar manner last 
season, my plants being kindly furnished by Mr. Lee in the 
spring of 1880. 
All our Violets are grown under similar conditions—viz., suckers 
or young rooted runners are planted in spring in well-enriched 
soil, and in late summer or early autumn are transferred with good 
balls of roots to pits or frames. The “new comers” have the 
same fare as the older sorts, hoping thereby to arrive at a satis¬ 
factory estimate of the different varieties—some twenty double 
and eighteen single. 
Princess of Prussia had with me this autumn flowers 1^ inch 
across, exactly the same size as Victoria Regina under the same 
conditions, and has not produced one-half so many flowers as 
Victoria Regina, and it was the same last season, hence no more 
special mention was made' of it at page 408 (Nov. 3rd) than was 
warrantable. Princess of Prussia bears a striking resemblance to 
Victoria Regina, but is not so hardy nor so free either in growth 
or production of runners. It certainly is, as your engraving por¬ 
trays, a fine Violet, but I must say that with me it has not answered 
Mr. Lee’s description as the best Violet for autumn flowering, 
which was given when the plants were sent in 1880. 
Prince Consort has bloomed freely this autumn, yet not so freely 
as Victoria Regina. Some of the blooms of Prince Consort were 
If inch across, with a footstalk 9 inches long ; Victoria Regina 
l| inch, and footstalks 7 inches long. Princess of Prussia 1^ inch, 
and 6 inches in the stem. It is only by comparative experiments 
under similar circumstances, keenly observing and carefully re¬ 
cording the results, that a correct estimate of the different varie¬ 
ties can be obtained. I have the following varieties, and shall be 
glad of any other— 
Singles. —Victoria Regina (Lee), Prince Consort (Lee), Princess 
of Prussia (Lee), Odoratissima (Lee), Argentteflora (Lee), White 
Czar, Albiflora, Odorata, O. alba, Obliqua striata, Rubra simplex, 
Russian (floribunda), Suavis (Russian true), Russian Superb 
(London), Rubra simplex, Devoniensis (?), Crimean (?), Giant (?), 
Czar. 
Doubles —Neapolitans De Parme, New York, Marie Louise (?), 
Marguerite de Savoie, Venice, Princess Louise, and Duchess of 
Edinburgh. King of Violets, Russian or double purple, Belle de 
Chatenay, and its variety caerulea, La Reine, Blandyana, Par- 
masensis plena, Patrie, Queen of Violets, Rubra plena, Arborea 
plena (?), and Arborea alba plena (?).—G. Abbey. 
POTATOES IN RAISED BEDS. 
Potatoes have been so excellent in quality and quantity this 
year that it would appear on first thoughts useless to give advice 
to amateur and young growers, much more useless to give our 
results of the past season’s planting ; and yet on second thoughts 
—and second thoughts are often the best—I send to the Journal 
my experiences, and for this reason—viz., I prepared and planted 
my beds in anticipation of a possible bad season— i.e., a wet spring 
and summer. 
Nothing, I suppose, is worse for the Potato than ill-drained 
heavy soil and a sunless aspect. In this belief I planted all my 
Potatoes this year as follows. A series of beds about 75 feet long 
by 6 feet wide were thrown up at an angle of about from 20° to 
25°. The aspect was south, thus I obtained the maximum amount 
of sun heat and a natural as well as sufficient drainage. Six 
beds were thus formed, paths about 15 inches wide intervening. 
I planted as follows—1, Porter’s Excelsior, the premier position 
nearest the wall ; 2, Beauty of Hebron ; 3, Snowflake ; 4, Inter¬ 
national Kidney ; 5, Magnum Bonum ; 6, Rivers’ Royal Ashleaf. 
Owing, perhaps, to having been planted ten days earlier than the 
Ashleaf, and profiting also by the close proximity to the south wall, 
Porter’s Excelsior was the first to be ripe. Then followed Rivers’ 
Ashleaf, Beauty of Hebron, Snowflake, International Kidney, and 
Magnum Bonum in the order named. I had not a single diseased 
