November n, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 435 
some pans 2 feet in diameter filled with Tritonia aurea were 
remarkably fine ; the bulbs appeared to have been packed to¬ 
gether as closely as possible, and the effect of the rich masses of 
flowers was extremely good. I never before saw Tritonias nearly 
so effective. 
Narrow pits are devoted to the growth of Figs and Melons— 
Figs on one side and Melons on the other. Negro Largo Fig was 
remarkably fine. Another pit contained Cucumbers on one side 
and Tomatoes on the other, while others were accommodating 
Vegetable Marrows and Dwarf Kidney Beans, which in this cold 
district have to be grown under glass. There are also some large 
vineries, and the crops of Grapes were very heavy, it being neces¬ 
sary to obtain as many bunches as possible for the requirements 
of the family. Mr. Culley is unquestionably a skilled gardener 
and industrious, or the plants, fruit, and gardens generally could 
not be maintained in such good condition.—A Rambler. 
REMOVING AND REPLANTING OLD VINES. 
In order to dispel all anxiety respecting removing old Vines 
that are not succeeding so well as may be desired, I will relate 
the success of one that was removed under the most disadvan¬ 
tageous circumstances. A large estate having been sold for 
building upon, the workmen were engaged in taking down a 
vinery, in which the Vines had a very fair crop of Grapes about 
the size of Peas. The stems were severed about 3 feet from the 
ground, and the sap ran out in such profusion that the soil 
appeared as if water had been poured upon it. One of the men 
picked up a Vine with about a foot of thick root and a few fibres; 
I took this and planted it, for experiment, in one of my plant 
houses, without any preparation of border, the soil being light on 
gravel. The stem started into growth and made several good 
shoots the same season. The following year it grew vigorously; 
the third, it bore a fair crop of Grapes ; and the fourth it had 
nearly filled the house, and produced over five hundred bunches. 
It continued to grow very freely, and produced a full crop every 
year. The house was 30 feet long—much too small for it, and I 
was very much inclined to lead it into an adjoining house. The 
variety was unnamed, but was a good and useful one. The 
bunches were of moderate size, berries roundish, rich amber 
colour when ripe, and possessed a rich, sweet, musky flavour.— 
R. C. 
FANCY PANSIES.—No. 1. 
These once-despised flowers have so rapidly increased in public 
favour as to now require no apologist. Their beauty and variety, 
their free blooming and rapid growth, their hardiness and easy 
culture, have been the passports that have carried them to a 
high place in the estimation of all who have given them a tithe 
of the attention they deserve. Florists of the good old school 
have hesitated and been lost. Four or five years ago judges, 
whose eyes and minds were filled with Roses and other more 
pretentious and fashionable flowers, were wont to pass by boxes 
of beautiful but unorthodox Pansies with the contemptuous 
remark, “A mongrel loti” or with the singularly inapplicable 
designation, “Belgians!” Yet everyone liked, and likes, the 
flower, but their special attention has to be in a measure forced 
before they will take the trouble to minutely examine them. I 
have a friend who is a rosarian and orchidist; he will talk for a 
month about his favourites, do anything for them—get up in the 
middle of the night to make sure that he has latched the Orchid- 
house door, or protected from imminent rain a light Rose he 
intends showing on the morrow. Why, I have actually kept 
watch and ward with him through a short summer’s night to 
protect the queen of flowers from the molestation of midnight 
marauders who were a good bloom or two short, or who were 
wishful of a dark Rose or a light to give variety to their box. 
But no foster-parent is he of the Pansy. Any that are given to 
him he plants in his stiff soil, rank with Rose food, and then 
leaves them to their fate—a hapless one. Yet he is enthusiastic 
in his admiration of them, and is no mean judge of their true 
merits. Perhaps this seeming indifference is a wise disposition 
of power. The best results follow an intelligent specialist—he 
aims at perfection, and generally succeeds to a certain extent. 
That fancy Pansies have a bright future is as certain as that 
show Pansies have had a glorious past. “Your fancy Pansies 
are really magnificent,” was the involuntary admission of Mr. 
Rabone, the skilful custodian of Alton Towers, “ the fairy land of 
Staffordshire,” when he was acting as Judge at the Stone Show 
in July last. The remark applied to a display of thirty-six 
varieties, staged for a special prize, for even there there is no 
open class for Pansies. However, they shared honours with the 
new Rose Mrs. T. Jowitt, which is a Staffordshire Rose, by the way, 
having been raised at Newcastle, and this tribute to their beauty 
and variety from one who revels in all that is good and orthodox 
is borne out by the increasing demand. In a conversation a few 
weeks ago with Mr. W. M. Welsh, one of the firm of Messrs. 
Dicksons & Co. of Edinburgh, who have for many years had a well- 
deserved fame for Pansies and Violas, he said the demand in 
Scotland was three times as great for fancies as for shows ; and I 
have good reason for knowing that his experience tallies with 
that of Messrs. Downie & Laird, and of Mr. Paul of Paisley, and 
these are giants of the Pansy world, and raisers of a very large 
majority of the really good varieties now in cultivation. “ Depend 
upon it,” wrote the latter about twelve months ago, “fancy Pansies 
are the Pansies of the future, not only for exhibition purposes 
but for general bedding,” and I believe he is right. Stand by 
the boxes at a show and listen to the remarks of the visitors. It 
will be found that those which attract most attention are the 
fancy varieties, with their crimson and black, amaranth and 
primrose, scarlet and white, chocolate and yellow, cardinal and 
straw, iudigo and magenta, mulberry and fawn, pink and lemon, 
lilac and orange, and a hundred other combinations of charming 
hues. This admiration, of course, is reflected in the demand, and 
consequently nurserymen propagate extensively of those most 
marketable, and sparingly of those for which there is but little 
sale. To be sold out of fancies and to have a large stock of 
shows is a state of affairs decidedly uncommercial, and will be 
speedily remedied by many of the show varieties being allowed 
to go out of cultivation. I was not a little delighted, about three 
months ago, when Mr. Mawley of the National Rose Society paid 
me the honour of a visit, that he carried away to his southern 
home a few fancies in preference to shows. But it is always so 
now. “ With the exception of one or two really good dark seifs 
don’t send me any of the old sorts,” may be accepted as a fairly 
accurate representation of the radical change that has taken 
place. 
I disclaim any idea of disparaging show varieties ; I love them 
much, but the fancies more. The former have seen their day for 
the present, and the latter are well to the front. May they occupy 
their present position as long and as worthily as their predecessors. 
—M. H. Miller, Lech. 
NOTES ON BIRDS. 
It will not require a very “learned” contributor to the Journal 
to answer the questions of “A. M. B.” on page 389 as to the colour 
of the bill of the blackbird. The colour varies according to the 
age of the bird and also in the sexes, the hen never attaining the 
brilliant golden hue of the bill—so far as I have observed—but 
what is best described by the “orange tawny bill.” The bill of 
the male bird varies according to its age until about twelve 
months old. When the bird is fully fledged its bill is a dark 
shade inclining to black, but becomes blacker until about six 
months old, when it is gradually streaked and mottled with 
orange, becoming by degrees a fine golden yellow in the winter. 
I was interested to-day (November 1st) in watching no less than 
five male blackbirds (not one of which had a yellow bill, although 
the old birds about have) under one Pear tree in my orchard 
turning over manure which had been applied a short time ago as 
a top-dressing, and on driving them away and examining the 
manure I found it contained an immense quantity of grubs or 
maggots, which the birds were feasting upon. 
In the interesting communication of “ A Surrey Physician,” 
page 398,1 notice he remarks the swallows did not leave until the 
21st October. I referred to my diary of dates of arrival and 
departure of the birds of passage, and find the swallows finally 
left here on the 15th of October, and house martins on October 16th. 
The latter birds have been unusually scarce with me this year, 
and in other places I have noticed the great decrease. On the 
front of one house I counted thirty-three nests, and this year 
there were only five. Last year I had just a dozen pairs round 
these premises, this year only three pairs. This is very strange, 
as there must have been nearly one hundred young reared last 
season. It is a pity people will not give themselves a little trouble 
to fix up a piece of board about a foot square under the nest to 
prevent the dung from a martin’s nest becoming a nuisance, from 
which cause thousands of these useful and innocent birds are 
destroyed by having their nests knocked down by thoughtless 
people, instead of using every means to encourage and protect 
them. I could not help noticing one case in particular at Strat- 
ford-on-Avon when visiting the poultry and dog show on the 
12th of October. A late brood of martins were still in their nest, 
which attracted my attention about opposite Shakspeare’s birth¬ 
place, and turning to look I observed them directly over a bust 
