462 
JOVRNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Jti:e 11,1891. 
(rilande or Noir de jMinfcreuil; Am5den, ani Alexander. Eirly 
Rivers is one of tlie best early varieties, also Early Grosse Mig- 
nonne and Belle de Yitry, whica I hive been unible to identify, and 
it is said to be a local variety possessing mu ;h merit. Madeleine 
Rouge or the Red Magdalen also sucoeeds well. 
The trees are cropped heavily, indeed they are allowed to carry 
on an average tvice as many as we should here. A tree covering 
10 square metres of wall space was pointe 1 out as having borne 
400 fruits last season, and this was not regarded as an exceptional 
crop but about the average. One effect of this continual heavy 
cropping is that the vigour of the trees is kept within reasonab’e 
bounds lifting and root-prunmg being rare’y practised. A little 
manurial assistance is afforded in the shape of stable or farmyard 
manure applied as a light mulching, as much for the sike of pre¬ 
serving the moisture in the soil as for its fertilising quilities. 
Various forms of training are adopted, but that most in favour is 
the palmette verrier, which has been several times strongly com¬ 
mended in this Journal, and especially by Mr. Edward Luckhurst 
soma yea's ago. This form has been proved to be more easily 
retained in useful bearing condition than any other, the strength 
of the tree is more equalised, and the crops more even. 
In one important respect the French horticulturists unquestion¬ 
ably take the lead of the British, and that is in the recognition 
accorded to the necessity for practical and scientific education 
in what may be termed the demonstrative form. AtMontreuil, for 
instance, classes of young students are taken round by qualified 
men, and all the details of Peach culture fully explained and 
illustrated, the pupils being tested individually both as to their 
theoretical knowledge and manual skill. I understand that 
M. Chevalier has been appointed official instructor, and, judging by 
the manner in which he discoursed upon the occasion of my visit, 
he must be an admirable teacher. The preceding is only an out¬ 
line sketch of the Peach gardens, and is intended merely to 
indicate the salient features; to do full justice to the theme a small 
treatise would be requisite.— Lewis Castle. 
DR. HOGG’S TULIPS. 
'•Florists' Tulips are fascinating flowers when you under¬ 
stand them.” Such was the remark of a visitor at fhe recent 
Temple Show as he was examining the blooms from Mr. Walker and 
Mr. Lakin. He confessed he did not understand them as he would 
like, and some of them which he appeared to admire the most 
would be the least appreciated by the learned florist. I am some¬ 
what of a novice among Tulips, still just able to weed out the bad 
from the good, especially as I have lately taken a lesson from a 
master who undoubtedly knows them and grows them well when 
the Fates are not unkind. 
After an examination of the Temple exhibits and the privilege 
of a talk with the Doctor over them, I ventured to ask if I could 
see his collection at home. “ Yes, certainly,” was the reply, “ if 
you do not mind a journey into Sussex, and the flowers are now I 
think about at their best.” His “ little place,” as he calls it, is 
most delightfully situated between Tunbridge Wells and East¬ 
bourne. That is as near as I can tell, and as the Tulips are over it 
will be near enough at present, as they cannot be seen again until 
next year. I am bound, however, to differ entirely from the 
Doctor in the description of the “ place,” for if all the beautiful 
tract of country were mine, a diversified expanse of hill and dale, 
woods, copses, and green fields almost as far as the eye can see, and 
a quaint Old World village nestling in the centre, I should feel 
myself a man of large possessions. But let that pass. On the 
southern side of a sunny slope, with a view to the distant sea, we 
find ourselves under a sheeting tent, on a brilliant day, and com¬ 
mence a talk about Tulips. 
The Doctor’s chief Tulip bed is planted in the orthodox form 
of seven bulbs in a row, ci’osswise. It runs east and west, and 
there were upwards of GO rows of plants, most of them flowering. 
A stout and lofty span-roofed framework is erected over the bed, 
covered with sheeting, which on the south side reaches to the ground 
to keep the sun from the blooms. On drawing aside the veil at 
one end, we found ourselves in a dazzling house of Tulips. “Just 
in time,” was the involuntary observation as we walked down the 
south side to enjoy the feast of beauty, such a feast as few see in 
these days, and not soon to be forgotten. A rail is affixed on posts 
along that side of the bed a foot or so high, on which the rows are 
clearly numbered, and with book in one hand and wi’^e hook with 
wooden handle in the other, the back blooms are drawn forward 
and examined, the name of any variety in the bed, though known 
by the owner, being verified in a moment on reference to the book. 
For instance, we ask the name of a grand bizarre, the fifth bulb, 
we will say in the tenth row, and there it is sure enough in bed and 
book as George Hayward ; and that dainty rose, the sixth in the- 
fifteenth row, is Aglaia ; this charming bybloemen, the third in thej 
twentieth row, Talisman ; and so on through between two and 
three hundred varieties, the book revealing the name of every one 
in a moment, without a label of any kind in the bed. 
There are Tulips from many collections in England, and 
several from different continental sources, but there is no 
mistaking the superiority in form, substance, and accuracy of 
the best of English florists’ Tulips over all others tha,t are- 
grown in comparison with them. The “ amateurs’ ” Tulips, asi 
they are cal'ed on the Continent — the term being equivalent 
to our designation “ florisls ”—are in general appearance attractive, 
and the colours of some compel admiration, but in most of 
the blooms these are where they ought not to be—running right 
down to the base of the petals, and in some other respects- 
irregular. Many of the petals are also too long, pointed, and 
flimsy—licking the close cup-like shape and stout texture of 
the best English forms. These, too, are clear at the base, as-- 
if a sun was set at the bottom of the bizirres, and the most 
silvery of moons in the roses and bybloemens, lighting up the 
colours of the flamed and feathered petals there displayed in 
beautiful regularity and indescribable hues. 
Some of the varieties stood out bold and clear in character 
ani markings from the great assemblage, and in examining them: 
for identification over and over again they proved among the roszs 
to be such varieties as Annie McGregor, Alice, Heroine, Lady 
Sefton, Aglaia, Mabel, Lizzie Watkins, and Triomphe Royale ; 
among hjjhlcemens Adonis, Anastasia, Richard Yates, David Jackson,. 
Duchess of Sutherland, Everard, Lord Denman, Mrs. Jackson,. 
Talisman, and Violette Aimable ; among hizarres Ajax,_ Colbert, 
Dr. Hardy, Dr. Horner, George Hayward, Lord Lilford, Sir Joseph 
Paxton, Vicar of Radford, Victor Emmanuel, and Vivid. These 
are only a few of many that stood out as fair and gorgeously 
equipped aristocrats in the mixed community, and very mixed it 
is and diversified, of the Tulip world, represented in—as the rustics 
love to call their native county—the “ Kingdom of Sussex.” 
In a critical examination of hundreds of blooms not a few 
of the names were crossed out in the book, a sure and certain 
sign that the varieties will not have a place of honour in the 
covered bed again. Evidently the Doctor intends having a 
c' llection as choice as he can obtain, and when he has a definite 
object in view he is not deterred by triflei from accomplishing it : 
and probably since that day of weeding he has travelled hundreds 
of miles in quest of his favourite flowers. Of that quest they are 
worthy, so rare are they, and so different from and superior to the 
vast number that are known to the majority who grow Tulips for 
“ decorative purposes.” The educated florist grows them for this 
and more. 'They are to him intellectual productions ; he sees in 
them the beauty that has been provided by years of care and 
patient waiting by floral devotees, whose characters and attainments 
are stamped on the blooms. 
The Doctor has other beds than the one under the covered rouf 
with hundreds of plants in them ; glossy self-coloured “ breeders 
with the gold or silvery basal discs, and one here and there 
“ breaking ”—bursting into flame, so to say, from the glowing 
embers of colour that have remained stationary for no one knows 
how long. You may wait years for the new life you hope to see 
start from these probationers and place them on the roll of fame ; 
but there is this to say about them—they are beautiful during all 
the time of waiting, when they are good, and the florist knows. 
quite well those that are well worth keeping. 
There is a great deal beyond Tulips to see and admire in 
Dr. Hogg’s domain ; his ornamental trees and shrubs, fruit collec¬ 
tions (so full of promise), and wealth of hardy flowers. He has 
changed the whole face of the district, erecting mansion and smaller 
yet commodious and charming subsidiary residence, renovating 
cottage homes, planting everywhere, and making gardens—not of 
the stiff, formal, please keep-off-the-grass order, but enjoyable 
unconventional gardens, with a great deal of nature about them ; 
and now having done that he appears to have returned to his first 
love—Tulips, for which he won prizes now many long years ago, 
and all who know him will share most heartily in the hope that 
they will afford him real pleasure and true intellectual enjoyment 
for many years to come. 
After the pleasant greeting, the enjoyment of all that was good 
for me, and the needed Tulip lesson, I left as the shades of evening 
came creeping over the weald, br'nging with them the songs of 
