August 12, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
137 
leaves and placed in a glass bowl, and will form a fit companion 
to Marica cserulea, It may be grown in a greenhouse during the 
summer months, but should be kept in a warm house the remain¬ 
ing part of the year, should be exposed to full sunlight if possible, 
and will succeed in an inverted bellglass, shallow tub, or flower 
pot, with any kind of soil, and fresh water once a week.—J. U. S. 
NEW PEA JOHN BULL. 
This new main crop Pea is a 3-feet bine wrinkled variety of 
first size and quality, raised by Mr. Laxton from a cross between so closely packed in the pod. 
Yeitch’s Perfection and Laxton’sJProlific Longpod. In the trials 
at the Experimental Garden at Girtford, where during the past 
season Mr. Laxton has been testing a very large collection of 
named and unnamed varieties, the two which have stood out 
most conspicuously are John Bull as a 3-feet, and Telephone as a 
tall variety. The former is a very vigorous but compact-growing, 
handsome-foliaged, branching Marrow, having very closely-filled 
pods containing from nine to thirteen large peas in each, and 
ripening a few days before Yeitch’s Perfection. The dry seeds 
are of a deep greenish blue colour, wrinkled and fiat from being 
As a general 
Pea Jfor its regular 
Fig. 28 —Pea joiix bull. 
habit of growth, its handsome appearance, its fertility and rich 
flavour, Mr. Laxton considers this the best Pea he has raised, and 
unapproached by any other variety of its class. The pods, which 
are usually produced in pairs, have only a slight curve, and in 
shape and size are the beau ideal of a fine show Pea, being larger, 
deeper in colour, and less curved than those of Marvel. Sown on 
the 11th of March this year John Bull was ready to gather on the 
11th of July. 
Mr. Laxton’s appreciation of this Pea has led him to adopt it 
largely as a stock variety for crossing with the dwarf and tall 
early and late varieties. From the same parentage Marvel, and 
it is said also Telegraph and Telephone, have sprung, although 
from the size and shape of the pods and other characteristics the 
origin of the two latter may, perhaps, be credited to a cross with 
Superlative, of which variety Mr. Laxton has a very fine selection 
with large and better filled pods. 
This is the description that was referred to on page 122 last 
week, but the engraving was not completed in time for insertion 
in the same issue. _ 
Desfontainia spinosa in the North of Ireland.—As my 
residence is in the county of Donegal I have put the hardihood of 
