JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 18, 1880. 
November and December ; after that period the production of 
flowers is comparatively easy.—W m. Bardeey. 
APPLE AND PEAR TREES WHICH CANKER AND 
WHICH DO NOT CANKER. 
It may, perhaps, serve a useful purpose for me. to give a list of 
the Apple and Pear trees which I find either are apt to canker, 
or which are free from that injuring and deforming disease. The 
time of planting is again upon us with its pleasures and hopes. 
I say pleasures, for I own to feeling very pleased when I receive 
my annual bundle of young trees. I undo them in a flutter, and 
examine each, its growth, its shape, its size. I always assist at 
the planting itself, seeing that my man plants and not buries, and 
that he treats the tender infants with every care, avoiding all 
rough usage. I own to having pleasure when I see a new comer 
safely and uprightly in the soil. There is, however, the future to 
think of. Will the tree grow, fruit well, and will it be free from 
disease ? Of diseases I will now r speak only of canker. My soil 
and climate are good ; the former loam on a sandy clay, the latter 
that of the Bath district, and my garden is on a south-west slope 
and well drained ; yet some trees canker and some are wholly 
free from this disease. 
Side by side stand a Dumelow’s Seedling and a Striped Beefing. 
The first is perfectly healthy, the second badly cankered. I would 
say as to Dumelow or Wellington I do not know its equal in all 
respects, and think better of it each year. Worcester Pearmain 
free from canker, Beauty of Kent dies of it. Loddington Seedling 
perfectly healthy, Joaneting cankers a little. Lord Suffield free, 
so Duchess of Oldenburgh, but not entirely free is Margaret. 
Irish Peach, best of all summer dessert Apples in every respect, 
is perfectly healthy. Emperor Alexander, Cox’s Orange Pippin, 
Summer Golden Pippin, New Hawthornden, healthy ; while Cox’s 
Pomona, Golden Pippin, and Betty Geeson all canker slightly, 
the Pomona the worst. Lewis’s Incomparable free, so also Gra- 
venstein, but not quite free Sturmer Pippin. Annie Elizabeth 
healthy, while old Hawthornden cankers worst of all. Yet who 
would be without it 1 I find it lasts and fruits well about twenty 
years and then dies of canker. Keswick Codlin, Ecklinville 
Seedling, Warner’s King, and Stirling Castle all free. I consider 
Ecklinville Seedling one of the best possible Apples—hardly eleven 
others equal to it. Stirling Castle is a charming little fellow, 
bearing almost too abundantly, but is a picture in blossom and 
with fruit. Gooseberry Pippin cankers badly, so Cellini, but not 
so Peasgood’s Nonsuch, Tower of Glammis, and Bedfordshire 
Foundling. 
Next I come to Pears, and how much I wish that people would 
not overpraise so many varieties of these fruits. I sometimes 
think that writers pen their commending descriptions in France 
or Jersey and not in England. I only know of one Pear—the 
Jargonelle—which can scarcely be overpraised. It is exactly like 
the Gloire de Dijon among Roses. As there may be and are Roses 
of better shape and finer colour, yet “all round” none equals 
“ old Glory.” So of the Jargonelle Pear. It grows magnificently, 
it fruits regularly and abundantly, and knows not disease ; it suits 
all climates and all tastes. There are indeed finer-flavoured Pears 
and more delicate to the palate, but all round none equals the old 
Jargonelle. In five and twenty years I have never known it fail, 
and by gathering its fruit at various times I make it last quite a 
month for the table, and have also a large number stewed, and 
none are better for that purpose. Next in order happens to come 
Williams’ Bon Chretien, a shy, very shy, bearer with me, and 
somewhat inclined to canker. This and the further-named are all 
pyramids, Jargonelle only on a high, very high, wall. Seckle 
cankers badly, and I break off branch after branch. I think it a 
Pear not worth growing ; with me the fruit is small and poor. 
Soldat Esperen, or Soldat Laboreur I think well of; its growths 
Poplar-like and pleasing : it does not canker, it fruits regularly, 
and with artificial heat ripens well. Beurrd Hardy is also per¬ 
fectly healthy. Beurre Diel cankers slightly, not so Beurre 
d’Amanlis. Winter Nelis utterly fails with me as a pyramid, 
while Bergamotte Esperen answers perfectly—a healthy variety ; 
it crops regularly, and the fruit if put in a box near a stove ripens 
well, and is of delicious flavour. With Summer Doyennd also I 
am perfectly satisfied, and agree with Mr. Rivers that it is “the 
very best very early Tear.” Beurrd Giffard, though placed among 
the dozen best Pears in catalogues, and growing well and fruiting 
well, is to me so very disagreeable in flavour that I have expelled 
it. Madame Treyve, most healthy, needing root-pruning vigorously, 
but on the whole a satisfactory Pear. Napoleon, healthy, but not 
yet fruiting like Beurre Hardy. Louise Bonne of Jersey with all 
its excellencies I find rather apt to canker, while Josephine de 
Malines is perfectly healthy. Among Apples I omitted Hamble- 
don Deux Ans, which with me as an espalier cankers badly. 
My plan is, so far as my limited room allows, to increase the 
number of those Apples which prove with me the very best, such 
as Lord Suffield, Ecklinville Seedling, and Dumelow’s Seedling. 
No words can overpraise them or Irish Peach. Some others 
answer fairly, while a few I get rid of if wholly unsatisfactory. 
This allows me room to try some that I hear or see of reputed 
excellence ; but I must own as to Pears I am not by any means 
satisfied, and should be glad to hear of some thoroughly satis¬ 
factory as pyramids, praised but not overpraised. With many 
I find there is vigour and freedom from disease, but in spite of 
root-pruning no satisfactory crop, while with others disease. I 
should be glad to have more as “ all round good,” as Jargonelle, 
Summer Doyennd, and Bergamotte d’Esperen, and I think my 
experience is that of many more. Has it come to this, that in our 
changed climate Pears to prosper must have w r alls 1 Bush fruit is 
satisfactory if there be knowledge and care. Raspberries and 
Strawberries are also satisfactory, but neither Plums, save the 
very hardiest, and Pears only a very few do well in the open. Of 
course I put out of reckoning such very bad summers as that of 
1879. There is hope for us next year, as the abundance of sun 
this summer appears to have ripened the wood well. 
As to Apple culture, I should like to see it greatly increased, for 
it is, if judgment be exercised, a sure crop. Why, then, should we 
owe so many thousand sacks to America when w'e might grow all 
we want at home ? One thing people seem to shrink from—viz., 
grubbing up old useless Apple trees. There are two other Apples 
I think very highly of—namely, Duchess of Oldenburgh and 
Annie Elizabeth, neither can I do without the Old Keswick 
Codlin. One hint let me give to those circumstanced as I am 
with only a small garden. I never grow any Apple that will not 
cook. There are plenty which are good at dessert wdiich will also 
if necessary boil or bake well. A few years ago I disposed of all 
the “ leather coats.” I exterminated Braddick’s Nonpareil, Pit- 
maston Nonpareil, and another, being determined that all my 
Apples should do double duty. This plan I recommend to others 
unless they have large gardens or are content with fewer varieties 
than I am, though I rather expect as my fruit experiments con¬ 
tinue I shall have to come down to fewer varieties than I 
anticipated. 
I should be unfeignedly glad if any amateur would state what 
Pears he has found do well, thoroughly well, as pyramids, being 
satisfactory in growth and fruit in average years.— Wiltshire 
Rector. 
OXFORD BOTANIC GARDEN.—No. 2. 
Last week I very briefly reviewed the history of this Garden 
from its establishment until the present time, but there are some 
portions of that history which deserve fuller notice, especially as 
regards the most eminent of the gentlemen who held the profes¬ 
sorship of botany. For this reason a few additional particulars 
concerning their lives and works may suitably precede my notes 
on the plants contained in the garden. 
Returning to near our starting point, I have already stated that 
Dr. Robert Morrison was the first professor appointed, and perhaps 
there was at that time scarcely another man equally well fitted for 
the post. He had long been an ardent student of botany, had 
most creditably superintended the Duke of Orleans’ noted garden 
at Blois, and was subsequently appointed superintendent of the 
Royal Gardens in England by Charles II. When in 1669 he applied 
for the professorship at Oxford, for which provision had been 
made by the Earl of Danby, he had acquired considerable fame 
by his writings and learning. It is said, probably with some 
degree of truth, that his “Hortus Blesensis ” contributed greatly 
to the success which attended this application, as it was for that 
period a really advanced scientific work. Not only was classifi¬ 
cation attempted on a reasonable basis, but the spontaneous 
generation theory that was then accepted by many who held high 
positions in the scientific world was directly and lucidly opposed. 
Having obtained the appointment, however, he commenced a series 
of lectures which were exceedingly well attended, but the “His- 
toria Plantarum Oxoniensis ” that he subsequently engaged in 
preparing occupied so much of his time that they were partially 
discontinued. This great work Morrison did not complete, but 
after his death in 1683 the younger Bobart finished a portion of it. 
Passing over a period of about forty-five years, which requires no 
further mention than w r as accorded last week, we come to the 
appointment of Dillenius as professor. This celebrated botanist 
w r as a native of Darmstadt in Germany, and first owed his repu¬ 
tation to a w r ork he published on the plants around Giessen, at 
which university he was educated. Dr. William Sherard when 
