December 7, 1882. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 519 
Peter the Great, Moris. Crousse, Madame Audiguier, Pdre Delaux, 
King of Crimsons, Fleur d’Hiver, Baronne de Prailly, Criterion, 
Comtesse de Beauregarde, &c., fully justify all that was anticipated 
of them ; and certainly it was impossible not to be struck with 
the immense size of some of those exhibited at the Aquarium. 
Some of them were 9 and 10 inches across. And they have another 
advantage : they refuse to submit themselves to the friseurs, or, 
rather, they can do little for them. Many of them, too, when 
grown to a moderate size are excellent for bouquets and vases— 
better, indeed, than the larger and more formal incurved varieties. 
I was not particularly struck with the specimens in pots, and 
fancy that I have seen them better grown. It is difficult to avoid 
formality in training; and as in the large pot Roses, I am not sure, 
however wonderful they may be for their size and the multitude 
of blooms, yet smaller plants more naturally grown are to the 
general run of people more acceptable. 
Surely it is one great advantage that this flower possesses over 
many others, that it is everybody’s flower. From the palace to 
the cottage all may, and many do grow it. It thrives in the 
murky atmosphere of our great towns, and, moreover, at a season 
of the year when few other flowers, except in the case of the 
wealthy, are to be had. It is pleasant to go into a greenhouse 
and find it filled with floral beauty in foggy November or chill 
December ; it is pleasant to go into an exhibition hall and find 
it filled with an attractive collection of flowers ; and for these 
reasons I think the fashion for the Chrysanthemum is not likely 
to pass away, as has been the case with some other flowers.— 
D., Deal. 
[King of Crimsons is neither a new nor a Japanese variety.] 
THE CUCUMBER DISEASE. 
Mr. John Gadd’s communication on this subject (page 470) is 
interesting, and I must congratulate him on getting rid of the 
disease so quickly. At the same time I must tell him that if his 
plants had the particular disease I wrote about in the Journal for 
November 9th much severer measures would be necessary for its 
eradication. The affection he speaks of appears at the roots of 
the plant, and has often been described in this Journal. The 
disease I mentioned has not, as far as I know, been described any¬ 
where ; and although specimens have been sent to scientific men, 
nothing satisfactory has yet been made known concerning it. The 
roots in my case are not affected ; the disease shows itself first in 
the fruits, and then in the foliage and branches. Exudation of a 
gummy substance from the fruits, stem®, and leaves is the prin¬ 
cipal feature ; the fruits also curl round and generally refuse to 
swell, while those which do swell have patches in them which are 
hard and bitter. Cuttings from my plants carry the disease with 
them for certain, and it is almost certain that seed would do 
so too. 
Mr. Gadd did not even clear his house, if I understand him, but 
kept the plant he had raised from a cutting in it. My houses 
were cleared several times, scalded, fumigated with sulphur, lime- 
washed and painted, seed obtained from a healthy source, and all 
to no purpose. I therefore think Mr. Gadd was extremely lucky 
in getting free as easily as he did. I said in my former paper 
that nothing short of complete isolation and seed from a healthy 
source will suffice ; since then I have had further testimony that 
the isolation to be complete must include the attendant and his 
implements, for a nurseryman of my acquaintance has told me 
that he has been trying the isolation plan this summer and failed. 
I asked him what he had done as regards the attendant and his 
tools. His answer was that he could not manage to have a sepa¬ 
rate man to look after a Cucumber frame, and he did not think it 
necessary. But if the disease is of fungoid origin, as I suspect it 
is, we can easily understand that if the attendant does not carry 
it from one lot of plants to another it is more owing to good luck 
than good management; and I would advise that any nurseryman 
who unfortunately has the disease in his plants, and cannot afford 
complete isolation for a fresh stock, should give up the cultivation 
of Cucumbers for one season. It cannot possibly pay him to grow 
diseased plants, and in attempting to make it do so he may be 
spreading the infection far and wide.— Wm. Taylor. 
Earthworms in New Zealand.— The following interesting ob¬ 
servations form part of a communication from Mr. A. T. Urquhart to 
the Editor of the New Zealand Journal of Science, and appear in the 
September number of that periodical. In October, 1875, I dug a 
trench on some newly cleared land—a raised beach at Manukau 
Harbour. The section then showed about 4£ inches of black mould, 
and a horizontal layer 1 inch thick of burnt clay, wood ashes, small 
stones, and pumice lying on a brownish-green arenaceous clay. The 
vegetation cleared was the growth of some thirty years. A portion 
of the land was left undisturbed. Measurements again taken a few 
days ago gave an average depth of 1J inch of turf, 5f inches of black 
mould, and there was no perceptible difference in the layer of ash. 
An angular block of Trachyte about 25 lbs. in weight, placed in May, 
1875, had sunk 1 inch, allowing for the turf. As the results of some 
accurate calculations as to the number of worms per acre, Mr. Urqu¬ 
hart gives results so considerably higher than Henson’s, that he 
would have hesitated to publish them were he not in a position to 
prove them. Henson, it will be remembered by the readers of Darwin 
on “ Vegetable Mould,” calculates that there are 53,707 worms per 
acre in garden mould, and above half that number in corn fields. 
Mr. Urquhart’s estimates, founded on digging about a quarter of an 
acre, as well as by a large number of tests on various parts of the 
fields—some that were under pasture for over sixteen years—gave 
from four to twenty-six earthworms per each square foot. The 
alluvial flats, slopes, and richer portions of the upper lands would 
average eight to the square foot, or say 348.480 per acre. In the 
uncultivated Fern lands worms are scarce. In New Zealand worms 
not only leave their burrows but climb up trees in search of food, 
this chiefly in the night time, though often until a late hour on damp 
warm mornings.— {Nature.) 
SCRAPS ABOUT FRUIT. 
Ringer and Tom Montgomery Apples. —These are quite 
distinct Apples. Tom Montgomery has been grown in this neigh¬ 
bourhood extensively for many years. It was said to have been 
a seedling of Tom Montgomery’s, but some doubted this. It is 
the same Apple as has been mentioned repeatedly in your pages 
lately—viz., Early Julien. This variety was sent here with a 
number of others from the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens, 
and was recognised as Tom Montgomery, and when cut and tasted 
quite agreed in every respect with that variety. Ringer is an 
Apple of the Keswick Codlin shape, not so elongated, but a good 
hardy kitchen Apple.— Ayrshire Amateur, Kilmarnock. 
The Prune and Cluster Damsons. —I have a dozen trees 
of Prune Damson, none of which have ever borne a heavy crop, 
and I believe this to be the case generally. Twice only have I 
seen it with a full crop—in the deep rich loam of Mid-Kent and 
in the equally good soil of the Chilwell orchards near Nottingham. 
The Kent trees were closely pruned espaliers, and the Nottingham 
trees were unpruned standards, which proves that in a really good 
fruit-growing soil it will answer, but without it it fails. Cluster 
Damson, on the contrary, answers as well in our poor thin soil 
as it does in the Kentish orchards. Its growth is singularly robust, 
free, and healthy, and the fruit, always abundant in all favourable 
seasons, clusters so thickly upon the branches as to quite hide 
them from view. There can be no question that it is the best of 
all Damsons for market fruit-growers.— Edward Luckhurst. 
Pear Beurre d’Anjou. —This proves a really first-class Pear. 
The fruit is very handsome, of large size, very sweet and juicy, 
with a delicious acidity and pleasant aroma. The crop this year 
was full and fine, the first dish of it being ready for table the 
beginning of November, and the ripe fruit keeps so well that it 
will probably be good till Christmas. The tree is an espalier of 
the palmette verrier form ; and although it is not a large tree now, 
it came so slowly into bearing that I have not hitherto been able 
to fully appreciate its great excellence.—E. L. 
Kittatinny Blackberry. —Your correspondent (see page 
474) should plant the Blackberry just mentioned in a favourable 
situation in the kitchen garden, say along his rows of autumn¬ 
bearing Raspberries, in rows 5 feet apart and 3 feet between the 
canes in the rows, and tie them to a couple of wires or pieces of 
string strained to small posts or sticks the entire length of the 
rows. This done, a good mulching of half-decayed stable manure 
should be placed between the rows ; and next summer train the 
young canes or suckers proceeding from those planted now to the 
wires, one on either side the parent plant, cutting away all super¬ 
fluous canes as the work proceeds, and in other respects treating 
them the same as summer-bearing Raspberries, for like them the 
Bramble bears fruit on the preceding year’s shoots. I think the 
result will be such as to amply repay him for his trouble.— 
H. W. Ward, Longford Castle. 
Useful Plums. —Plums that hang long on the trees are in¬ 
valuable to those who have large provision t) make for dessert 
and culinary purposes. No Plum in cultivation at this season 
stands higher in the estimation of cultivators than Coe’s Golden 
Drop. When in prime condition the fruits are like honey to the 
palate, when partly shrivelled they are all that can be desired as 
a Plum. Reine Claude de Bavay under the same circumstances 
is a suitable companion to Golden Drop. They are worthy of all 
