J-une 22, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
501 
- Weather at Swaistmore. —With the exception of 0 02 inch 
of rain that fell on the 15th we have had thirty rainless days. The last 
previous rainfall was 015 May 20th. The total rainfall for the year 
up to date is now 6 87. Many shrubs that have been established for 
•ten years are exhibiting a serious appearance for want of moisture, 
The heat during the last six days has been intense. A thermometer 
hanging on a north wall directly in a draught registered on the 19th 
88 °. Another with a northern aspect and hanging in the shade in the 
kitchen garden, reached 95°.—E. Molyneux. 
- Double Flowers. — A correspondent inquires how double 
flowers are produced. Many double flowers of gardens were first found 
wild. The florist, however, can produce double flowers. He watches 
this tendency in nature. If a flower usually has five petals, and he 
discovers that some of the stamens have somewhat of a petal-like 
character, the pollen is taken from these flowers and others in a normal 
condition fertilised with this pollen. This tendency once started is 
then given to the progeny. Almost any species of plant will, says 
Meehans' Monthly, in this way be capable of producing double flowers* 
It is surprising that with this knowledge, more attempts at this line of 
improvement in ordinary garden flowers are not made. 
- A New Luxg for London. —The Metropolitan Public Gardens 
Association added another open space to Hackney in the north-east of 
London on Thursday last. This new lung is situated in St. Thomas’s 
Square, Mare Street, the site being given by the Governors of St. 
Thomas’s Hospital. It has been tastefully laid out by the Associa¬ 
tion, while its future maintenance will be looked after by the Hackney 
Boards of Works. It was opened by Countess Brownlow, who on 
arriving was presented with a bouquet by Miss Holmes, the 
daughter of the Association’s Secretary. The Earl of Meath presided 
over the gathering, and said that during the last ten years the Association 
had been enabled to throw open to the public no fewer than seventy- 
two grounds at an expenditure of something like £30,000. In addition 
to that they had prevailed upon the London School Board to open 
178 of their playgrounds on Saturdays—practically the only day in the 
week which the children had to themselves. In the streets the Associa¬ 
tion had planted 2240 trees. 
- Horticulture in Kussian Schools. — There is now a 
general tendency in Russia to introduce some teaching in agriculture 
and horticulture into the primary schools. Both private persons and 
the provincial authorities freely give grants of land to the schools and to 
the teachers’ seminaries for their fields and orchards, and in many 
schools the plots of arable land and gardens attended to by the pupils 
become small centres of agricultural and horticultural education. In 
Caucasia, says J\ature, the same tendency is even more pronounced, 
and no better idea can be given of the extent of this new movement 
than by giving the following facts relative to the primary schools of 
Kuban, a province of Northern Caucasia. This year ten schoolmasters 
have been invited to attend the leetures upon sericulture and bee-keep¬ 
ing at the schools of the Cossack villages, Armavir and Labinskaya. 
The inspector of the schools has acquired, with the modest grant of 
£35, thirty appliances for raising silkworms, and five arrangements for 
each school for pumping out honey from the bee hives, and preparing 
the artificial wax honeycombs, in addition to which ten schools have 
been supplied with apparatus for silkworm culture, while others have 
been supplied with seeds of plants of special use to bees. All schools 
which have gardens of silkworm trees have been supplied with seeds of 
the tree, and 20,000 young trees have been distributed among them. 
Fourteen schools are expected this year to carry on the silkworm 
culture, and ten other schools are already carrying on experiments 
relative to the same. 
ABOUT HULL. —II. 
Hesslewood. 
Hesslewood is so near the pleasant village of Hessle on the 
Humber side that ten minutes fair walking would probably suffice to 
take anyone to it from the station, unless, indeed, his powers as a 
pedestrian were extremely limited. The entrance lodge stands at the 
junction of four roads, one finger post pointing to Hessle, a second to 
Cave, a third to Swanland, and a fourth to a place of which the name 
was nearly obliterated, but apparently the river. I declined an unneces¬ 
sary inquiry, and entered the gates of Hesslewood. The estate is in the 
occupation of F. R. Pease, Esq., and the gardens are in charge of an 
old acquaintance, Mr. George Picker, formerly gardener to Mr. C. B. Shea 
at Foots Cray. He is a cultivator of much intelligence, and is doing 
good work in his new sphere. 
The grounds have considerable attractions, and exhibit their fullest 
beauty in the ample leafage of summer. They are well furnished 
with noble timber, amongst which some fine Evergreen Oaks are very 
conspicuous. Vistas of the river have been opened here and there 
amongst them, and the Humber at Hessle is not a mere line for the eye 
like the Thames at Twickenham, which is a streak of light so to say, 
with no pretence of filling the vision. The northern river must be 
nearly three miles across here, although its mouth is twenty-five miles 
away, and from angles which carry the eye up the stream towards its 
junction with the Ouse quite a broad sweep of water is viewed. This is 
a great advantage to the place, and the effect is not much less where the 
line of vision extends direetly across the river to the swelling wolds of 
Lincolnshire beyond, for the shadows and glows upon them give 
pleasing effects. In the midst of vernal beauty it is an evil impulse 
which calls up thoughts of autumn, and conjures up ghostly visions of 
troops of fog fiends creeping up the valley, but they tell me that the 
terror of the Thames side has not serious dimensions in the East Riding, 
Happy Hessle! 
What Mr. Picker does in the flower gardening way must be left to 
some future historian to say, for his plants were still under cover at the 
time of my call, and his plans locked within his breast. He has estab¬ 
lished a somewhat extensive rockery, and is adding other features of 
interest. The evidence of eyes and ears would suggest the reflection 
that Hesslewood as it is to be will be a polished and improved edition of 
Hesslewood as it is. In a hundred ways, little and big, the present 
chief is endeavouring to improve his charge and do credit to himself. 
His ideas are good, his taste evidently sound, his execution work¬ 
manlike. It is pleasant to see how, among the many bright and 
beautiful plants in the garden, Roses flourish as though thoroughly 
at home. Their growth is stout, vigorous and healthy. The more 
modest Pansies and Violas are also a sight to see. It is a glad recogni¬ 
tion that heat and drought cannot quench their instincts for lavish 
blossoming, though like all things sentient, they would doubtless be 
grateful for genial showers. In its rich abundance of these delightful 
flowers, and in ample masses of autumn-sown annuals, what is known as 
Mrs. Pease’s garden is a charming picture, bright, fragrant and informal. 
From among a series of more than usually disjointed notes, some of 
which will have to go by the board, I will mention some very fine 
specimens of the old golden Gymnogramma. They are of considerable 
dimensions and in good health. There is also a grand plant of Davallia 
Mooreana. Hesslewood does not indulge itself in giants in a general 
way, but these Ferns are beyond the average size. There are some 
fine specimens, too, in the way of Hydrangeas, huge plants in No. 1 
pots, and 4 to 5 feet through, which are likely enough to find their way 
into the flower garden ere long. Another plant worth mentioning from 
its unusual dimensions is Lapageria alba, which is in admirable con¬ 
dition. A feature of the house containing the broad-backed Gymno- 
grammas referred to are some splendid baskets of Adiantum cuneatum. 
If not the most beautiful of basket Ferns the old Maidenhair is well 
worthy of being grown for the purpose. The Hesslewood plants are of 
large size, well furnished, and in perfect health. Dwarf Gannas have 
nothing to boast of on the score of size, but they have in other respects. 
There are some seedlings 15 to 18 inches high that are now blooming 
well, and proving very valuable. The seed was gown in September last. 
Amongst several attractive varieties was a fine scarlet. It is worth 
while reflecting how useful these plants are for flowering under glass, 
and how readily they may be raised. Carex marginata grandis is held 
in high esteem, and the stock of it is large. The greenhouse, gay with 
Zonal Pelargoniums, Heliotrope, Musk, Choroxemas, Petunias, various 
Grasses, Saxifraga pyramidalis, Liliums, Fuchsias, Gladiolus The Bride, 
Begonias, Nicotiana affinis, Streptocarpus, and a fine variety of 
Mignonette called Sutton’s Giant, hardly, perhaps, calls for any special 
comment, save to observe that it is full of healthy and profusely 
flowered plants admirably disposed. 
Circumspection is required in writing about one important item in 
the fruit department—the Vines. A doubt may be frankly expressed 
whether they would satisfy many critics. Assuredly they do not satisfy 
Mr. Picker himself, and it is safe to say that if he had had the training 
of them they would not display their present appearance. In addition 
to remedying the effects of what may be mildly described as a certain 
eccentricity in the matter of training, he is waging a determined battle 
with that sad pest mealy bug. He is such a determined man, and so. 
deeply interested in bis work, that he will eventually succeed in boths 
He has done a great deal in eleven months, and ere another year has 
passed he will have done much more. The bush fruit out of doors 
is being skilfully managed. Time is found to top and thin Currants 
and to insure finer fruit by dressings of potash and bone rnanure. 
Currants are also extensively grown on walls. Mr. Picker is evidently 
devoting great care to the whole of the fruit, and in due course the 
collection will be one to be proud of, as indeed will be the whole of the 
beautiful place under his care. 
Swanland Manor. 
“ Swanland Manor, a mile and a half from Ferriby Station, about two 
miles fromTranby Croft,” was my instruction in this connection. I dis¬ 
dained the station, and went, as I had come from Hull, by road. It is a 
delightful walk from Hesslewood, leaving Tranby Croft on the right, and he 
would be asdifiScultto please as Mark Tapley himself who did not enjoy the 
route, even though conscious of missing the beautiful avenue at Ferriby 
House (Mr. John Ostler’s), which could have been seen from the road in 
walking up from the station. As we cannot get through the world 
without sacrifices this had to be borne philosophically. The proprietor 
of Swanland Manor is James Reckitt, Esq., one of Hull’s prominent 
men, a supporter of what superior persons call cheap culture for the 
