November 25, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 487 
keep my bushes free from them in that way I shall try neither 
hellebore powder nor fir-tree oil. My employer told me he would 
rather eat a little toot or lime than risk the effects hellebore 
powder might produce. Another year I shall not wait for the 
caterpillars to make their appearance, but shall employ both soot 
and lime freely. 
No doubt Mr. Taylor’s mode of making new plantations will be 
found a very useful practice for those who have time and money 
at their disposal ; but where planted as I have described other 
means must be found to keep them in health for many years. 
Large Gooseberry bushes mean a quantity of fruit, though it may 
be not quite so large as that on younger trees. Not one mile 
from here I noticed some fine Gooseberry and Currant bushes 
quite leafless, and the Gooseberries were only just changing colour. 
What will be the condition of these bushes next season ?—A. J. S. 
THE RECENT INTERNATIONAL POTATO 
EXHIBITION. 
In a circular issued with his Potato catalogue Mr. William Ker 
of Dumfries states, in reference to the awards at the above Show, 
“ In the class for twenty-four varieties the allocating of the first 
prize gave great dissatisfaction. Mr. Ker’s lot were considered 
decidedly the best, but were disqualified on account of there being 
two dishes very much alike, while in reality they were quite dis¬ 
tinct.” Now Mr. Ker’s collection was not disqualified, and no 
one knew this better than himself ! One of the Judges stated to 
him in the presence of Mr. McKinlay that the collection was con¬ 
sidered by them decidedly inferior to the six collections awarded 
prizes in the class, and the question of disqualification was never 
raised. It is not a little remarkable that a paragraph appeared 
in the Bury St. Edmunds Free Press a few weeks' ago stating 
that the first prize in the leading class was awarded to Mr. Elling¬ 
ton of Bury St. Edmunds, who was awarded and received the 
second prize only.— One Who Knows. 
PLUMS FOR SUCCESSION. 
But for Plums we should have often had a great difficulty in 
making up a dessert for a large party within the last two or three 
years. Good Pears have been few, and those few persisted in 
ripening one at a time, or else at a season when there was little 
use for them. Apples are voted common, although I am sorry to 
say they are far from common in reality ; and as for Peaches and 
Apricots, why the very trees refused to exist. This season the 
growth is exceptionally good as far as the last two fruits are 
concerned, and we may reasonably hope, if the frost comes in 
winter instead of in spring or summer, to see once more some 
fruit on our south walls. Plums are never absent. Once only 
within the last ten years has the crop been a thin one, and even 
then some of the trees bore a full crop. I do not know that 
there is anything particular in my mode of culture, and think 
rather it must be that the soil and climate suit Plums, for trees of 
all ages between five years and forty alike bring excellent produce, 
and are always worth showing to visitors during the autumn 
season if we have nothing else to show. Standard Plums are 
hardly worth taking into consideration now in this locality with 
the exception of Damsons and Winesours, and these in some 
seasons cannot be saved from the birds. I much regret this, for 
Winesour especially is invaluable for preserving, and we must 
endeavour to grow it against walls in the same way as we are now 
obliged to grow the Kentish Cherry. I doubt, however, if trained 
trees of the Winesour are to be had, and I do not think this high- 
flavoured little Plum is known to everybody. It ripens about the 
same time as the Damson or a few days earlier, and I imagine 
would do well under exactly the same conditions. It has no equal 
for cooking or preserving. 
The season during which Plums may be had in abundance 
lasts from the middle of July to the middle of November ; and if 
good quality is studied we cannot do better than begin with 
Early Favourite and Early Rivers (syn. Rivers’ Early Prolific) and 
end with Golden Drop and Late Rivers. Blue Imperatrice and 
Ickworth Imperatrice are fairly good as late Plums, but I am 
inclined to think that Late Rivers surpasses them. Reine Claude 
de Bavay is a most delicious October Plum, being in fact a large 
October Green Gage ; but as I have only one tree of it in bearing, 
I have not proved its keeping capabilities. Washington on an 
east wall here follows closely on the heels of Mr. Rivers’ two 
early seedlings above named, indeed I have only one other variety 
earlier than it, and which I think is Early Blue. Washington is 
the handsomest of all the Plums grown here, and is quite of good 
dessert quality ; true, it does not always fruit as freely when 
trained to a wall as some varieties, but it generally has a fair crop, 
and is altogether a different Plum to^ what it is grown as a 
standard. It is followed by the Green Gage, which is largely 
grown for cooking and preserving. The season during which the 
Green Gage is at its best is very short, and if it is allowed to hang 
on the tree, as many other Plums will after they are ripe, it 
becomes insipid. I therefore find it best to look them over about 
every other day, and gather as many as are wanted for dessert 
just as they become soft. The later-ripened fruits are always 
comparatively tasteless, and are not equal to Jefferson or Kirke’s, 
which makes a good succession. Then we have the White Magnum 
Bonum or Egg Plum, which is highly esteemed for all purposes 
here including dessert; certainly it is not equal to Jefferson in 
flavour, but its beautiful appearance will always tempt anyone 
■who is not a connoisseur, and most people are satisfied with it 
when they eat it. It is, however, as a culinary fruit that it par¬ 
ticularly excels, being quite transparent when cooked and of a 
beautiful colour. Like the Green Gage it soon loses flavour after 
it is fully ripe ; but some of the earlier fruit of Golden Drop 
is ripe by this time, and is more than a worthy successor to it. 
The season of Golden Drop, which is the most useful of all Plums 
for a private establishment, is a long one. Some fruits of it were 
ripe early in September, and there are now (November 18th) suffi¬ 
cient for a dish or two on the trees as well as in the fruit room, 
and the flavour is, or at least was a few days ago, as good as ever. 
The varieties I have named form a good succession. There are 
several other good Plums grown here, and there are also good 
ones which we do not possess in a bearing state. Among the 
former are Imperiale de Milan, of excellent flavour and very 
beautiful appearance ; Guthrie’s Late Green, a useful successor to 
the Green Gage and sometimes nearly equal to it ; Victoria, which 
never fails to produce crops in any position ; and Cooper’s Large- 
Some of the varieties do fairly well on a north wall, where, 
though they do not always ripen their fruit sufficiently for dessert, 
it is always useful for kitchen purposes, and sometimes it will 
come in at a fortunate time to prevent a scarcity. The best of the 
varieties I have proved for this purpose are White Magnum Bonum, 
Golden Drop, Victoria, and Orleans.— Wm. Taylor. 
DIPLADENIA AMABILIS. 
I WISH to say a few words in favour of this beautiful stove 
climber. I grew a small plant in a pot in a vinery, which suited 
it very well till the Grapes commenced colouring and the venti¬ 
lation was increased. At the end of a pit in a house in which I 
grew Melons I then enclosed a space 2 feet 6 inches long, 2 feet 
I inches wide, and 2 feet 4 inches deep, including 1 foot of drain¬ 
age, and planted out the Dipladenia in good soil in March, 1877. 
It soon commenced flowering, and produced between three and 
four hundred flowers that season, making strong shoots as well. 
The next year, still improving, it produced 1388 flowers, and 
during 1879 it afforded 1811 flowers, often having as many as two 
hundred flowers open at once. The plant at first shared the roof 
with a Stephanotis, which I removed last winter, and the Dipla¬ 
denia now occupies the whole of the space. The wire trellis to 
which it is trained is 15 feet long by 9 feet wide, and is 9 inches 
from the glass. Last winter being so very severe injured many 
of the young shoots, and some were damaged by being so much 
entwined. In consequence flowering did not commence till May 
this year, but since then the plant has never ceased producing 
flowers. Every day during October from 100 to 130 flowers 
were open together, lasting from ten to fourteen days, and now 
(November 14th) there are in a temperature of 50° over eighty 
fully expanded blooms. 
My object in writing is to induce others to try it planted out. 
Anyone having a house in which a temperature of 45° to 50° can 
be maintained during the night, with a rise to 60° by day, may 
grow it satisfactorily. I am aware this is a much lower tempera¬ 
ture than is generally considered necessary, but from four seasons’ 
trial I find it quite sufficient, the flowers lasting longer during 
cold weather than when exposed to bright sun. No fire heat was 
employed during June, July, and August, the house being kept 
close. The Dipladenia is singularly free from insects ; I have 
never seen green or black aphides, thrips, or scale attack it, only 
red spider in summer when the plant could not be syringed. 
Mealy bug I have not been troubled with for some years.— 
J. T. Creed, Gardener to T. Srcanmich, Esq., Whittington House, 
near Chesterfield. ______ 
The Increase of Aphides. —Naturalists tell us that so very 
rapidly can the aphides family, or plant lice class of insects, pro¬ 
pagate themselves under favourable circumstances, that nine 
generations may be propagated in three months, amounting to a 
total of 100,000,000,000,000,000. To form some idea of what this 
