September 16, 1880 . ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 263 
within the past fortnight, and it is still more so in Ulster. The 
observer can see the patches of Champion as he drives by at a 
considerable distance, while the haulms around of other varieties 
are long since withered. Visiting at Carlow, a typical eastern 
county, I examined stalks here and there and found the Potato, 
though not large, perfectly free from blight, and when well cooked 
—and I will recur to that point—of excellent quality, mealy, and 
dry. This was particularly the case when grown in a tolerably 
rich dry upland. A friend of mine had a quantity in a sandy 
moor, and these were not of such good table quality, but fine for 
seed, for which purpose they were grown. The stalks of those are 
still green. They were marked by blight spots on the leaves, but, 
unlike other varieties, the fungus appears to be unable to make 
any great progress in destroying the stalks or stems, I presume 
owing to their firm, fibrous, woody nature. So much for the east 
of Ireland. Now for the west, which is of much more importance, 
as the people subsist to a much greater extent on the Potato crop, 
as they have no Wheat nor black Oats to depend on. There the 
peasantry were dependant on charitable aid in many cases, and 
their Champion Potato is later still ; while leaving Sligo, Mayo, 
and Galway a week since they were still green, and in no case 
had been using for eating purposes. How can this be the same 
Champion referred to by Mr. Luckhurst and others, and that had 
been using in England a month since, and that your correspon¬ 
dents noted as being blighted before that time 1 —W. J. M., Clonmel. 
AUGUSTE JURIE PEAR. 
Having been certificated on August 24th by the Fruit Com¬ 
mittee of the Royal Horticultural Society, this Pear demands 
further attention. The fruit as grown at Chiswick is’above medium 
size, 3^ inches long and 2£ inches wide, obtuse ovate ; skin green, 
becoming yellowish green as it ripens, with a thin speckled coat of 
russet on the side next the sun, and strewed all over with russet 
patches. Eye closed with tooth-like segments, and set even 
with the surface ; stalk from 1 to 1^ inch long, inserted without 
depression ; flesh crisp, rather granular, sweet, briskly flavoured, 
and with a fine melon flavour. A valuable early Pear, ripe 
in the middle of August, and which is well worthy of general 
cultivation. 
This Pear was raised at the Ecole d’Horticulture at Ecully, 
near Lyons, under the direction of our friend, the late M. Wil- 
lermoz. It originated from seed of Beurrd Giffard, sown on the 
11th of August, 1851, and it was named in honour of M. Auguste 
Jurie, President of the Horticultural Society of the Rhone. The 
fruit as it is grown in this country varies very considerably from 
that grown in France. There it is shorter than with us ; the 
stalk is also shorter and the colour much brighter. Our friend 
Abbd Dupuy describes it as orange yellow and bright red on the 
side next the sun, and ripening in the end of July and beginning 
of August. It is thus that some of our countrymen make such 
mistakes in giving descriptions of fruits, which are mere transla¬ 
tions from foreign works, and not made from the fruit itself as 
grown in this country. The fruit represented was grown in the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardens, where the tree grows well 
and bears freely as a pyramid. 
PICTORIAL PERIODICALS. 
Referring to coloured plates of flowers “ An Artist ” writes: 
“ These appear to be becoming a drug in the market. Once they 
were framed and cherished by gardeners, now they decorate tool 
sheds and such places, and appear to be very attractive to spiders, 
which veil them with their slender network. These plates are 
