536 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 18,1890. 
reddish tint on a yellow ground. The lip is long and broad, pale 
yellow spotted with red. The raceme was about 4 feet long, bear¬ 
ing numerous flowers. 
MAKING USELESS PExAR TREES USEFUL. 
I read with much interest your leading article in the Journal 
of November 17th on the above subject, and it is a very important 
one to which unfortunately far too little attention is paid generally. 
The failure in obtaining crops of fruit on many Pear trees will 
remain until far more attention is paid to the adaptability of sorts 
to situations, and the prevention of too free a growth. With too 
many persons an idea prevails that any varieties of Pear trees, pur¬ 
chased at sales by auction, and whether there or from nurseries, 
at the cheapest possible price, are suitable, and that it is only to 
plant to procure fruit. 
In the favourable districts of England many Pears produce 
good crops of fruit, when it is almost impossible to get crops in 
the smoky districts of large manufacturing centres ; and in these 
last named places where gardening is so difficult under the many 
existing disadvantages, there is frequently a great desire to battle 
with these difficulties, and to secure good crops of fruit. Much 
valuable information is to be gleaned from the article referred 
to, and it will be well if amateurs who wish to grow fruit well 
will study what is recommended by Mr. Smith. 
The immediate neighbourhood of Birmingham is pretty well 
known as not being one of the best for gardening generally, and the 
Edgbaston district has a very large number of excellent gardening 
establishments, with an immense area of glass throughout those 
gardens, and Birmingham holds its own as a plant growing district, 
and high class cultivation is the rule. But our springs and 
autumns are often sunless and moist, and outdoor fruit crops of 
Apples, Pears, Plums, Cherries, Damsons, Filberts, &c., are most 
uncertain, from the non-enjoyment of a clearer atmosphere and 
other necessary adjuncts to successful outdoor gardening. When 
at the Botanic Gardens towards the end of November Mr. Latham, 
the Curator, showed me some excellent examples of two varieties 
of Pears—Beurre Diel and Doyenne du Comice, grown by 
E. M. Mole, Esq., in his garden in the Westfield Road, Edgbaston, 
within a mile and a half of the centre of Birmingham. In a corre¬ 
spondence since with that gentleman I found that his views as to 
the treatment of Pear trees was very much in unison with Mr. 
Smith’s. I have since had an opportunity of inspecting his 
garden, and he has kindly given me his views in writing, which I 
have pleasure in giving below. Fruit growing in the immediate 
district of this great city is, as I have already said, most difficult, 
that is, to secure crops of really good fruit. Mr. Mole has made a 
study of the matter, and is a follower of the teaching of Mr. Rivers, 
Mr. J. Wright, and other safe authorities, but he acts also from 
his own, in some cases dearly bought experience, from buying 'in 
sorts which have been recommended, and after seasons of waiting 
have had to be rooted out, as too uncertain in cropping, or 
worthless. His garden all round is a marked example of first-class 
culture, and his Pear trees, especially on the walls, show they 
have received great attention. They are well trained, not over¬ 
crowded with spurs, but make clean good growth. 
Mr. Mole pays particular attention to the summer pruning of 
the trees, removing what wood is not required, and laying in any 
new wood he wishes to retain. He always makes a point of 
thinning out his fruit as early as it can be done with safety, so as 
to secure a moderate crop of fine fruit rather than a larger quantity 
of inferior size and quality, and in removing any foliage which may 
cover the fruit to ensure full exposure to the sun. As flowers are 
grown on the borders, a little artificial manure is given when the 
border is forked over for planting out in June. If any trees 
grow too luxuriantly Mr. Mole adopts root-pruning, also the 
greatest care is taken in training the trees and thinning out flower 
buds when a heavy bloom is showing, and his treatment clearly 
shows that with good attention, and adopting proper methods, good 
fruit can be obtained even under very adverse circumstances. 
The following are Mr. Mole’s observations which I have re¬ 
ferred to .— 
“ After twenty years’ experience my opinion is that it is useless 
to attempt growing Pears in this neighbourhood on pyramids. A 
good bloom may be had occasionally, but this, as a rule, is destroyed 
by'frost or ungenial weather, and even when a few Pears do set 
the chances are that the season will not be good enough to ripen 
them. If you have a sheltered garden and wish to try pyramid 
Pearsj then Williams’ Bon Chretien is the only one worth planting, 
and under favourable circumstances the fruit from this, when you 
get it, will be very good. 
“ A south wall is the bes f , and for this I should recommend 
Beurre Diel and Doyenne du Comice. The former is an excellent 
bearer, grows large fruit, and is a very good eating Pear. Th& 
latter is superior, the finest Pear I have grown, but it is much more 
shy in bearing than Beurre Diel. Durondeau succeeds, and Marie 
Louise I should also have. The latter wall do, though not quite 
so well, on an east or west wall, and on such walls you can also 
plant Souvenir du Congies and Jargonelle. Those named are 
ample and better than more, unless it is wished to grow a variety 
for experiment as I have done, and I could give a long list of Pears 
I have tried and thrown away after years of perseverance with 
them ; good varieties, no doubt, in some parts, but useless here. 
“I should have the Pear trees upright trained, asm No. 4 sketch 
in Rivers’ catalogue, as by these you could cover the wall quicker, 
and as you can grow four trees where you would put one horizontal 
trained, there is a better chance of having fruit. Single cordons 
are also recommended, but I have not tried them ; they, perhaps, 
have the advantage of being easier to manage. 
“ As to Apples for cooking these will do well as pyramids or 
bushes, and Lord Suffield, Ecklinville Seedling, and Cellini are 
what I should recommend, three sorts being ample. There may be 
many others equally good, but the above I know succeed. For 
dessert I must say the same as for trying Pears on pyramids. You 
may grow them to look at if you like, and this may satisfy some, 
but they are not, as a rule, worth anything tor eating, being 
deficient in richness and flavour, therefore, I say, keep your pyra¬ 
mids for kitchen Apples. If a portion of a south wall can be given 
up two dessert Apples might be tried—American Mother and 
Cox’s Orange Pippin (upright trained or single cordons), both 
excellent Apples for dessert when they come to perfection, which 
they probably would on a south wall. 
“ I need hardly say that success cannot be expected without 
giving care and regular attention to the trees in training, summer 
and autumn pruning, syringing, careful examination for destructive 
insects, and root-pruning when this is desirable. But it is a very 
pleasurable occupation, and one not difficult to acquire a knowledge 
of to anyone taking a personal interest in such matters, and look¬ 
ing after the trees themselves. My knowledge was gained in the 
first instance by reading ‘ Rivers’ Miniature Fruit Garden.’ ”— 
W. D. 
THE ORIGIN OF THE FLORIST’S CHRYS¬ 
ANTHEMUM. 
[A Paper by the late Mr. Shirley Hibberd, read at the Centenary Conference of the 
National Chrysanthemum Society, November 11th, 1890.] 
(Continued from page 521.') 
In our observations of garden favourites we learn that varia¬ 
tion is subject to laws of which we know at least something, 
though it is but little considering the vastness of the subject. One 
thing we know, that the great law of like begetting like holds good 
here as in the rest of creation. Yet even in the most extravagant 
departure from types the law is illustrated, for when we can trace 
new forms to their parentage we find they represent their origin 
fairly enough, though perhaps in a way we could never have pre¬ 
dicated. When the waggish soldiers at Scutari grafted the tails, of 
rats on the snouts of other rats, and so got up a new species which 
they called the truncated or proboscis rat, they were not much more 
extravagant than the florists, only less honest, for the thing was a 
cheat, but a florists’flower, however far removed fromits natural pro¬ 
totype, isareality of Nature,and like the truncated rat whenexamined, 
reveals its origin. You see the variations of the Chrysanthemum 
are accomplishments of Nature in the first instance, but they repre¬ 
sent the taste, fancy, or fanaticism—call it what you will—of man, 
because he takes pains to divert Nature from her wonted course,, 
and as regards results will keep and perpetuate only what pleases 
him ; and one consequence of this is that with all our wide range 
and great number of varieties, we do not possess all the materials 
needful to the inquiries before us, for in fact man would be sure to 
destroy the best evidences, which would be the varieties differing 
but little from the original types, and probably he would preserve 
nothing until he had obtained some very great remove between 
which and the type the connecting links were lost. 
We have to make the best of the case as it stands. It may be 
said at starting that as regards form the flower presents fewer diffi¬ 
culties than as regard size and colour. The ray florets are drawn 
out to an extravagant length in the Spiderkry and the disk is con¬ 
tracted proportionately. It is the parallel of our elastic cord that 
served for an illustration of identity. The foundation of every 
group was imported. But the European cultivators have enlarged 
the groups and greatly improved the forms, and I use the term 
“ improved ” in full consciousness of all that it implies. But please 
observe how the florists have been working with Nature, and I may 
say under her dictation, without exactly knowing it. The incurved 
flower when perfect is absolutely sterile. In a cold climate this is 
possible, for cold causes the florets to curve inward, and suppresses. 
