September 23, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 285 
to the beauty of every lawn of suitable extent and every pleasure 
ground in the country. Intending planters should make a note of 
Robinia Bessoniana. 
- Mr. Iggulden has more than once adverted to the use¬ 
fulness of the Egyptian Turnip-rooted Beet. Amongst 
other Beets this variety is largely represented at Chiswick this 
year, and Mr. Barron speaks highly in its favour on account of 
its earliness, excellence, and productiveness. We have long 
grown this distinct and good variety, and find that it is unsur¬ 
passed, if equalled, in quality by another of the long-rooted forms. 
It has less of the earthy taste that is more or less present in most 
Beet, and the absence of which is possibly attributable to the por¬ 
tion that is cooked being produced nearly or quite above ground. 
The Turnip-rooted Beet is not by any means grown so largely as 
its merits demand, and those who have not yet included it in 
their gardens may safely give it a trial. 
- A correspondent describes Chlora grandiflora as 
a splendid plant for pots to flower in spring and early summer. 
Its golden yellow flowers, starry with many petals, produce an 
effect of colour and elegance not easily forgotten. Seeds should 
be sown at once, and its culture should be that of annuals to 
flower in spring. 
- The uprooting of the Edelweiss plant has been strictly 
forbidden in Switzerland. The cantons of Berne and Obwalden 
have issued a police ordinance forbidding the plant being passed 
if it has roots. 
- We have received the schedule of the first autumn Show 
of the Liverpool Horticultural Association, the date of 
which is fixed for November 23rd. It contains six classes for 
Chrysanthemums in pots and seven for cut blooms, the prizes 
ranging from 60,?. to 10s. There are fifteen classes for miscel¬ 
laneous plants, the principal prizes being £5, £3 10,?., and £2 for 
ten'stove and greenhouse plants, not less than four to be in bloom, 
and there are nineteen classes for fruit, the prizes for a collection 
of twelve dishes being £3, £2, £1. Considering the skill with 
which Chrysanthemums are grown in the Liverpool district, and 
the broad and liberal condition that “ specimens may be exhibited 
from any part of the world, and by any person, either for sale or 
for competition, or may be marked not for competition,” a Show 
worth seeing may be confidently expected. The Show is under 
distinguished patronage, and has an essentially practical Com¬ 
mittee, of which Mr. Washington, 37, Aigburth Road, Aigburth, 
is the Secretary. 
•-Mr. Young, gardener to Henry Webb, Esq., Redstone, 
Redhill, Surrey, informs us that he obtained a bushel of Carters’ 
Magnum Bonum Potatoes, which he cut into single eyes and 
planted 30 inches by 18 in sandy soil in April, and he has just 
dug 34 bushels of good sound tubers—the most satisfactory yield 
of Potatoes he has seen on Mr. Webb’s estate for twenty-eight 
years. 
- Mr. Guido Schmitt writes as follows to the Daily News 
on artificial flowers :—“ This article has of late been manu¬ 
factured and used on a constantly growing scale, in spite of the 
improving good taste which shows itself in so many ways. Artificial 
flowers anywhere except on the stage are unaesthetic, and should 
not be considered legitimate ornaments. Ladies and children 
wear them on bonnet or dress, where none but real flowers ought 
to be seen. ‘ They do not last ’ is the excuse ; but in their fading 
and dying lies the tragic poetry of Nature—the fate for the 
living fresh flower. Gentlemen only wear real flowers in their 
button-hole. If they suddenly began to wear artificial ones the 
barbarous ridiculous fashion would strike us at once. Habit 
makes us think that the imitation flower is fit for ladies and not 
for gentlemen, but the hint thereby conveyed is indisputably 
important. No one who has reverence for Nature can, upon 
reflection, admire or wear these sham things. The manufacturer 
of flowers, however wonderful his performance, effects what he 
pretends to be a substitute for Nature ; he merely makes an idol 
full of disappointment.” 
- The American Peach season is now drawing to an 
end. So far there have arrived in Boston upwards of three hun¬ 
dred and sixty cars of Peaches, or nearly two hundred thousand 
baskets, an increase of about 100 per cent, over last season’s 
receipts. The Peach season is a very hard one on the receivers. 
They begin at three o’clock in the morning to gather at the 
freight-yard, are busy throughout the day selling and delivering 
the fruit, and at the close are kept employed until eight and ten 
in the evening sorting and loading the baskets to be returned, and 
making up account of sales. Three or four dealers each handle 
from three thousand to four thousand baskets daily, which come 
from about 1300 shippers. It is estimated that through the 
season, which lasts from five to six weeks, there are about 2200 
different Peach-shippers sending to Boston. Each shipper is 
advised daily of the condition of the market, and the accounts 
are made up and remittances forwarded twice a week. Stating 
the average of the present season’s sales by receivers to have 
been at 1 dol. 20 cents a basket, about 250,000 dols. has been 
sent from Boston to Delaware farmers. The crop is supposed to 
be about a three-quarters one, that is about nine million baskets. 
The crop of 1875, said to have been twelve million baskets, was 
the full season. That year, however, it is thought quite certain 
that the farmers all ran in debt with their Peach business. The 
highest price good Crawfords averaged that year was one dollar 
a basket, and at that they were reshipped from New York, which 
necessitated the paying of two commissions. This year 1 dol. 
75 cents and 2 dols. have been the high averages on lots of choice 
Crawfords .—(American Cultivator.') 
PiEONIES. 
A family of large-growing, showy-flowered plants, remarkable 
for the shrubby habit which one section (Tree Pteony) assumes, 
a character so very rare amongst members of this order. It is 
extremely difficult to understand why such glorious flowering 
plants as the Tree Paeonia and its varieties should at the present 
time be so very rarely seen in English gardens, whilst the herba¬ 
ceous section, although not quite so large, are by no means 
deficient of merit. They are splendid objects in shrubbery 
borders, in the wild garden, or any place where gay and orna¬ 
mental plants arc desired. They are specially valuable for plant¬ 
ing in spots overshadowed by tall trees. Here, where most 
plants drag out a miserable existence or die, the herbaceous 
Pceonies flourish, throwing up their bold compound leaves, and 
unfolding their large and conspicuous flowers, which last for many 
weeks in full beauty. The Moutan or Tree Paeony is not quite 
so hardy as the herbaceous, but the extraordinary size and beauty 
of the flowers should be sufficient reward for any amount of 
trouble. Planted on the lawn and slightly protected in winter, 
they repay this slight trouble a thousandfold by unfolding their 
enormous but brilliant flowers in spring. For wall plants they 
are also admirably adapted, and in such positions can be very 
easily protected. Whilst referring to the subject of protec¬ 
tion, these, and indeed many other plants which require a little 
help to tide them over our peculiar seasons, more often reap injury 
than assistance from the methods adopted to protect them. I 
hold it quite as essential to shelter them from the effects of early 
spring sunshine as from frost. There is more probability of enjoy¬ 
ing the flowers by retarding than by allowing them to be started 
into action early in the season, when we sometimes have strong 
sunshine succeeded by cold and piercing winds. Therefore we 
should advise the protecting material to be only used in cases of 
severe frost, and on bright sunny days through the winter and 
early spring. Of course when used against sunshine there must be 
a space left to allow a current of air to pass through between the 
plant and the material, in order to keep a cool temperature. 
As a genus Pseonia may be thus characterised. Roots in the one 
section fusiform with herbaceous stems. In the Moutan section 
the stems are more or less woody and branching, attaining a height 
of 3 to 5 feet or more ; they have five unequal, imbricate, leafy 
