December 22 , 1881.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 561 
but to which I attach much importance, and which is seldom or 
never mentioned by cultivators. I have no doubt that the fruit 
appropriates the materials as fast as the leaves manufacture them. 
If not, then the crop is not a full one. I consider my Vines are 
exhausted, temporarily, by the time the fruit is ripe. While they 
are ripening I take care to feed them liberally on till the leaves 
turn yellow. As the fruit is rapidly used, I keep on firing after 
it is ripe and after it is cut on into autumn till they are no more 
fit to store future supplies. I feel certain that this enables the 
Vines to recoup their strength to the full. Further, I start them 
early enough in spring to allow of all thi3 being done with the 
sunlight of August, September, and October. 
So much for this house. And now for the two before men¬ 
tioned. The only real difference resulting from the different 
system of treating young Vines is, that restricted Vines are just 
two years longer in arriving at the full bearing stage, and cannot 
in the meantime produce so much without exhaustion. In the 
one case it only takes three, in the other five. Mr. Iggulden 
grows and ripens a certain amount of growth the first year. I 
grow and ripen twice as much, taking into account the thicker 
canes and longer laterals. Mr. Iggulden will certainly do it in 
less time ; but I consider it more economical to keep fire on a few 
weeks longer, for in the end time is saved. Mr. Iggulden thinks 
he takes less out of his borders. This is only looking at the sur¬ 
face. In the longer time taken to fill the house quite as much 
will be cut away before the house is filled as in the other. The 
one system needs more taking out the first year, but I consider that 
is hardly worth considering. More, it is no great task to put into 
the borders exactly what is taken out, for that is easily ascertained. 
The idea that any great amount of the Vine’s food comes out of 
even the best border is, I think, a mistake. I will endeavour to 
reply to Mr. Taylor and another correspondent in a future issue. 
—Single-handed. 
There is one point belonging to this subject which has puzzled 
me many times, but which “ Single-handed ” in scientific way 
disposes of very summarily. He says at page 420, “ Mr. Iggulden 
thinks, at least he says, that great masses of roots are useless in 
spring because they do not move when the buds move. No, they 
do not, and neither do they when the roots are few. And why 
should they ? What would it benefit a Vine before it has its 
leaves mature enough to elaborate sap, to be filled with watery 
crude sap fresh from the roots ? Until Vines have made leaves 
working roots are not wanted ; they must both work together.” 
“ Single-handed ” has written so much that is sound and good 
that we have come to look on him as a scientific authority of late, 
and treat anything he might say as almost beyond question : that 
is my excuse for again reverting to the subject. 
In the first place let me assure your correspondent that leaves 
and roots do not always work together in the case of the Vine, 
but that during one part of the season the leaves are active by 
themselves, and at another time the roots only are active. This 
happens, too, with all deciduous plants with which I am 
acquainted, but as far as I know the Vine is unique in its habit 
of growing full-sized leaves before root-action commences. The 
last-mentioned part of the subject is now generally known and 
acknowledged, but the other part to which I have alluded appears 
not to be so well known, at any rate it is not known to “ Single- 
handed.” It is this : that the roots of a healthy Vine continue 
active long after the leaves have fallen. I am not now speaking 
of cases where the leaves fall prematurely from bad treatment, 
as happily I have had no experience with such Vines of late years, 
but after the leaves have naturally assumed their autumn colours 
and fallen one by one the roots will be found to be in an active 
condition, probably more so than at any time of the year. This 
lasts for several weeks ; indeed it often happens that when Vines 
in pots which have been treated in a common-sense sort of way 
are placed in warmth for forcing, that the roots are still active 
and remain so till just before the buds start, when they go to 
sleep, some of them probably for ever, and a new start is made 
after some of the leaves are full grown. The leaves themselves 
are the indicators of the time when this happens, for the bluish 
colouring matter may be seen in patches before it has mingled 
with the yellowish material already in the leaves to form the 
bright green. So you see the question “ What would it benefit a 
Vine before it has leaves mature enough to elaborate sap to be 
filled with watery crude sap fresh from the border ?” does not 
carry in itself its own answer, as “Single-handed” seems to 
have supposed it would. 
That there is circulation and elaboration without foliage I have 
had ample proof. I can mention the case of a Peach tree which 
one season was overdosed with an insect-killing compound and 
lost its leaves before the fruit had fairly stoned, yet this same 
tree swelled its fruit buds and carried an excellent crop the 
following year ; and we all know, or ought to know, that the roots 
of Plum stocks under favourable conditions commence action 
by Christmas time, and, of course, they cannot be active without 
supplying the plant with something. Your correspondent’s 
reasoning on this head is a remnant of the old resting-and-drying 
theory, which has hindered the progress of horticulture for ages, 
and which I had fondly hoped was all but exploded. 
Another remnant of it is clinging to “ Single-handed ” 
when he says, “ The idea that Vines when extending their shoots 
in spring need support, leads many to supply liquid manure to 
their borders when neither leaves nor roots are at work.” Allow 
me to inform your correspondent that winter, after the cuts from 
pruning have healed, is a very good time to apply liquid manure 
to an inside border, and that it may be used stronger then than 
is safe at any other time. 
A Vine border should never be allowed to become dry, especially 
in autumn or winter, and nobody ought to know better than your 
correspondent that the manure is not poured into the Vines as if 
you were pouring soup into the stomach of a sleeping man. It is 
applied to the border, which, if well made, has the power of 
getting rid of surplus water and retaining the solids for future 
use.—W m. Taylor. 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF ^CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
I quite agree with Mr. Moorman in his’able and interesting 
remarks upon the Chrysanthemum (page 365) that a new classifi¬ 
cation of the Japanese varieties is necessary, but I would class 
them in three divisions as follows—Ribbon varieties, Twisted 
varieties, and Thread varieties. 
The first or Ribbon varieties would comprise those of which 
the florets are reflexed and droop below the calyx—namely, Meg 
Merrilees, Baronne de Prailly, Fulgore, Gloire de Toulouse, Tri- 
omphe du Nord, Fulton, Elaine, Madame C. Audiguier, Arlequin, 
Rosa Bonheur, Triomphe du Chatelet. and others. The second 
or Twisted varieties would include Yellow Dragon, Grandiflora, 
Hero of Magdala, James Salter, Chang, &c. Thirdly, the Thread 
varieties would be such as Cossack, Gold Thread, and Madame 
Godelet. Then we have many of our best varieties with their 
florets erect or partly so—namely, Sarnia, Ethel, Fair Maid of 
Guernsey, Peter the Great, Daimio, Madame Lemoine, Jane 
Salter, Solid Levant, Erecta Superba, Oracle, Diamond, M. 
Maney, La Nuit, Bouquet Nationale, and others. The beauty of the 
Japanese consists in their great diversity of colour and form, and 
these characteristics are making them worthy rivals of the in¬ 
curved varieties. There are two varieties of Japanese, or rather 
now classed as such, which might with advantage be added to the 
large Anemone-flowered—namely, Duchess of Edinburgh, and a 
variety I bought under the name of Minnie Chate. The former 
has pure white guard florets with a pretty mauve centre, the 
latter has lilac guard florets with lilac centre.—W. Etherington, 
Swanscombe, Kent. 
We are informed by Mr. T. Jackson, the Honorary Secre¬ 
tary of the Kingston and Surbiton; Chrysanthemum So¬ 
ciety, that the Exhibition for 1882 has been arranged to be 
held on November the 16th and 17th. The Society has also voted 
£30 of the balance of thi3 year’s funds towards a second challenge 
cup, to be competed for on similar conditions to their first, which 
is now limited to three competitors. The first challenge cup was 
contributed by the President and Vice-Presidents, and we think 
the executive have made a very wise provision for their future 
prosperity by offering a second cup. 
- Lieut-Col. Hill writes to us as follows—“ A gardener 
here tells me that he gathered ripe fruit of Early Ascot Peach 
six or seven years ago on a garden wall the first week in June. 
Poor Early Beatrice is nowhere. I should like to hear through 
the Journal if anyone else has done such a thing. He also tells 
me that a Weymouth gardener did the same. 1 intend seeing him 
