376 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. L October 21 , isso. 
Show quite as “ round ” as the dish of Early Ohio in question. 
Although I did not touch one of them I saw several removed for 
the purpose of comparison, and noticed the unanimity of opinion 
relative to them. I never hinted at such a thing as “impropriety,” 
for all growers are liable to purchase what is not actually a true 
stock, and exhibit the produce, as I have no doubt Mr. Dean did, 
honestly ; and it is quite clear that the Early Ohio of Mr. Dean 
and the Early Ohio of Messrs. Daniels are not identical. The 
produce of both I assume will be sold, and we shall have two 
Early Ohios instead of one ! If Mr. Dean does not think it of 
public importance that attention should be directed to a circum¬ 
stance of this kind as soon as possible I venture to think he will 
almost stand alone among Potato cultivators. The parentage of 
the Lord Mayor was stated in a report of the meeting of the ftoyal 
Horticultural Society, held on July 27th, to be Extra Early Vermont 
and Early Market. Mr. Dean, however, now states that Early Hose, 
not Early Vermont, was one of the parents. Will he kindly say 
which is correct 1 Probably the latter is, but it would be well if 
the point were authoritatively settled, and no one can settle it so 
well as the raiser of the variety. 
I may remind your correspondent that I was writing about Pota¬ 
toes, not about exhibitors, and the best proof of my absolute impar¬ 
tiality is that I described one of Mr. Dean’s varieties—Mr. Bresee 
—as a splendid long red kidney. Your correspondent does not 
object to this ; yet when I with equal justice referred to the Lord 
Mayor as rather deep-eyed my statement is questioned ! I will 
not say more on this point than that time will prove whether it is 
“rather deep-eyed” or not. I did not question its cropping 
character nor its quality, not knowing anything of either, and 
Mr. Dean’s evidence on those points was not called for by my 
observations. I shall be glad if it proves a variety of real useful¬ 
ness, and ranks in this respect with Schoolmaster, Magnum 
Bonum, and others. The latter variety I referred to in such a 
manner as to render it obvious that its omission from the short 
list of varieties that w r ere shown in the greatest numbers or the 
best condition was a mere accident. 
In some instances Mr. Dean appears to be very particular on 
the question of varieties being distinct, for he says, “ Pride of 
America is but another Snowflake, and Edgcott Seedling and 
Yorkshire Hero are both Lapstones.” There is about the same 
difference, and no more, between Early Ohio as exhibited by Mr. 
Dean and Beauty of Hebron as staged by several other exhibitors ; 
but Mr, Fenu, one of the best judges of Potatoes in England, has 
said of the Lapstone that he considers it as near to perfection in 
quality as a Potato should be ; can he or any unprejudiced judge 
say the same of the Beauty of Hebron ? It is not good with me, 
and I shall discard it with several other varieties that are not tit 
to eat where a good Potato can be grown. I would ask, too, if 
the Yorkshire Hero is identical with the Lapstone, as Mr. Dean 
states, why both varieties are included in Mr. Dean’s list of last 
year, and one priced at 1.?. a peck more than the other ? 
Potatoes are quite sufficiently numerous without adding to the 
already too long list of varieties of questionable distinctness, 
numbers of which are not tit to be placed on a gentleman’s table. 
I have proved this by the best of all tests, and the peremptory 
orders I have received to give the produce of so many of the 
varieties to the pigs.—A Gardener. 
PRUNUS DIVARICATA. 
In the “ Botanical Magazine” for the present month, plate 6519, 
is an admirable representation of the above handsome tree, which 
was briefly referred to in page 275 of the last volume of the 
Journal of Horticulture. In the descriptive remarks accompany¬ 
ing the plate Sir Joseph Hooker gives the following particulars— 
“ This has been for many years one of the most conspicuous 
spring ornaments of the Royal Gardens, where it forms a dwarf 
tree, standing to the west of the Cactus house, near the fine speci¬ 
men of Pinus Coulteri, and so covered with white flowers in March 
or April (according to the season) as to appear as if snowed over. 
The flowers appear with the half-developed leaves, but have never 
been succeeded by fruit. Whether this should be considered 
as anything more than the wild form of the Myrobalan Plum, 
P. cerasifera, Ehr. (see tab. 5931), has been doubted by the excellent 
observer C. Koch, as I have stated under the latter plant; and, 
indeed, the characters whereby most of the native Plums are 
separated are not of very much moment. With regard to P. 
divaricata, however, its leaves when full grown, broadening at the 
base, and appearing with its smaller flowers, and its fruit not 
being intruded at the base, together with its remarkable habit, 
would appear to constitute sufficiently marked diagnostic charac¬ 
ters. The petals, which are almost orbicular in the Kew specimens, 
are more obovate in native ones from the Caucasus, collected by 
Hohenacker, and in others from the Copenhagen Gardens. 
Prunus divaricata was introduced into England in 1822, 
according to Loudon, probably from the Dorpat Gardens, when 
under the direction of its describer Ledebour, and is a small tree 
10 to 12 feet high and broad, forming a hemispherical mass 
on the ground with a singularly graceful ramification ; according 
to Boissier, it has a very wide geographical range, from Macedonia 
to the Caucasus and Northern Persia. The specimen at Kew was 
procured by the late Curator, Mr. J. Smith, from Messrs. Osborn 
of Fulham, about thirty-eight years ago.” 
OLD VICTORY OF BATH MELON. 
I DO not know the origin of this Melon. I imagine it must 
have been raised many years ago, and if I may venture a surmise, 
it has probably descended from seed imported from Cabul. I 
have, however, no hesitation in giving my opinion that the Melon 
sent out by Mr. Gilbert a year or two ago under the name of 
Netted Victory is a totally distinct variety. I grew the Netted 
Victory last year from seed kindly sent me by Mr. Gilbert, so that 
there ought to be no mistake about its being the true variety ; and it 
proved in my hands worthless. It was white-fleshed, small (under 
2 lbs.), without a trace of net, and the flavour most insipid, 
although in the same house and under the same treatment other 
varieties were grown which produced fruit with a flavour leaving 
nothing to be desired. Now the old Victory of Bath which I 
have grown produced a large, rather oval fruit, well netted, with 
deep green flesh and a luscious flavour—a fruit, in fact, worthy of 
being placed on any dessert table in the land. I also received 
from Mr. Gilbert seed of what he called Improved Victory of 
Bath ; that also, I may say, resulted in disappointment. In the 
Journal of Horticulture, vol. xxxvii., page 6, Mr. Gilbert does not 
deny having artificially netted his Melon, and confesses that he 
makes a practice of doing so “ to please the eye ; ” though that 
may be a matter of opinion, but it appears to me that, under the 
circumstances, Mr. Gilbert should not have sent out this Melon 
under the name he did, as, from the evidence before us in your 
pages, it would seem that the Melon in question is of a sportive 
turn, sometimes being netted, sometimes smooth. 
I notice in Journal of Hoi ticulture, vol. xxvii., page 281, Mr. 
Gilbert writes, “ My Victory of Bath Melon has solved the great 
problem of pleasing everybody.” It would be interesting to know 
which of his Victories it is that he alludes to, and how it became 
his. The simplest plan, I might suggest, would be for Mr. Gilbert 
to explain, if he can, the origin of his Netted Victory, as there 
can be no object in keeping the matter secret; but for my part I 
would recommend every Melon grower to stick to the old variety. 
In conclusion I would remark that it is a great pity so many 
so-called new Melons are year after year brought out and certifi¬ 
cated. Nearly every gardener tries to produce a hybrid of his own, 
and confusion becomes worse confounded. I have tried most of 
the new Melons, but there are very few I would care to grow a 
second time. The tw r o best in green flesh of late years are 
Exquisite and William Tillery, and in red flesh are Read’s Scarlet, 
and one I received from Mr. Gilbert called Excelsior. Mr. George 
Abbey’s Read’s x Beechwood x Victory of Bath is also excellent 
and equal to any oft he above.— F. C. Taylor, Montrose. 
As Mr. Iggulden has pointed out, Mr. Pettigrew has made a 
mistake by confounding Gilbert’s Netted Victory Melon with 
Gilbert’s Improved Victory of Bath. I grew the latter many 
years before the former was heard of, and so have numbers of 
other gardeners. The Improved Victory of Bath I have found one 
of the best growers, setters, and croppers of all Melons, and the 
fruit is of very good quality but does not net well. When the 
Netted Victory was sent out I naturally thought it was a netted 
form of the Victory of Bath but was disappointed. Mr. Gilbert 
selected a name for the newer Melon that no doubt accelerated 
the sale of the variety, but it was a mistake nevertheless. Although 
I write under the above heading I am unable either to state the 
origin of the “Old” Victory of Bath or the difference between 
that and the “ Improved ” variety : probably Mr. Gilbert could 
tell us this.—J. D. --- 
I am fully convinced I was wrong in my description of Gilbert’s 
Victory of Bath Melon, and thank Mr. Iggulden for his courteous 
correction in last week’s Journal (see page 315). It. is unfortunate 
and misleading to cultivators that two Melons so distinct in form 
of fruit and flesh should have names so similar. I was misled 
by the name “ Netted Victory ” (as stated by Mr. Iggulden) and 
described it in my note, thinking it was the Melon in dispute— 
namely, an improved variety of the old Victory of Bath, though I 
could see no similarity between the two Melons, as I stated in my 
description of it.—A. Pettigrew, Cardiff Castle. 
Outdoor Chrysanthemums.— Visiting Paris in 1878, I was 
