October 27, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
377 
concert given by the Society in aid of the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent 
and the Gardeners’ Orphan Fund showed a balance of £10 8s. 6d., which 
will be divided between the above charities. A vote of thanks to the 
Chairman concluded the meeting. The following meetings are to be 
held during the first half of the session :—November 3rd, “ Vege¬ 
tarianism,” by Mr. B. Baillie, Chester; November 17th, “ Bouvardias,” 
by Mr. G. Glover, gardener to Sir Andrew B. Walker, Bart., Gateacre 
Grange ; December 1st, “ Culture of Stove Flowering Plants,” by Mr. 
B. Cromwell, gardener to T. Sutton Timmis, Cleveley, Allerton. Lec¬ 
tures have also been arranged on “ Agricultural Chemistry ” by T. Lewis 
Bailey, Esq., Pb.D.—R. P. R. 
A FERTILE BOUGH. 
ABOUT ten years ago in an idle moment I inserted on the lowest 
growth of a Beurr^ d’Amanlis Pear a bud of Passe Colmar. It grew 
freely and soon came into bearing, and has since fruited every year with 
owe their sporting nature to a change of soil or situation ; but this 
is not always the case, as I have known a variety to sport in 
different localities in the same season, and the sports to be 
identical. Take, for instance, the variety called Sunrise, raised 
five years ago by Mr. J. Baxter of Daldowie, a dark rose coloured 
self Viola. This has to my personal knowledge sported this year 
in at least three different localities—namely, at Rothesay, Chiswick* 
and in my own garden at Chingford In each case the entire plant 
has sported ; the sport is a dark striped flower of great size and 
substance, but with the defect of Sunrise—short footstalks to the- 
blooms. I have called it “ Radiator,” thinking this a suitable 
name ; it is the finest striped Viola I have yet seen. 
The Viola called Delicata, a lilac coloured self flower, has also 
sported at Chiswick Gardens into a light striped variety ; it sported 
entirely in every plant. From Columbine we have various spoits, 
the best known of which are York and Lancaster and Lucy Ashton. 
Ardwell Gem has perhaps given us the two most popular Violas of 
to-day — namely, Goldfinch and the sport from Goldfinch, the 
Fig. 51.—A GRAFTED PEAR, PASSE COLMAR. 
increasing crops. Last year it set its fruit so abundantly that I was 
obliged to cut off two out of every three Pears. The crop which ripened 
was prodigious, and the bough required many supports. Two hundred 
and forty-two Pears were actually gathered after about thirty had fallen 
off. The fruit ripened perfectly but was small. Unfortunately I did 
not have it photographed as a curiosity, for such a crop had never been 
seen by me or my friends before. I anticipated that this excessive 
fertility would have exhausted the bough, but the result has proved 
otherwise, for although the crop this year is considerably reduced in 
number the fruit is much finer. Eighty-six of the Passe Colmar Pears 
were gathered a few days ago, weighing 15 lbs., while the stock tree 
Beurr^ d’Amanlis has not produced more than half a dozen fruit, it 
having failed for the first time this year in common with most of my 
Pear trees to yield a crop. I send you a photograph of the bough. 
Fig. 51 represents it.— Edmund Tonks, Pacltwood , October 19, 1S92. 
VIOLA SPORTS. 
Few growers recognise the fact that many of our finest Violas 
are the result of sports from other varieties, and perhaps a little 
information on the subject may be interesting. Violas sometimes 
charming Duchess of Fife. The last-named variety is also 
sporting ; I have this season seen two sports from it, almost pure 
white flowers, one with the markings of Duchess of Fife, the other 
having a dark purple edging, and I think a slight improvement on 
last-named variety. Once a sport is secured it very rarely reverts- 
to the original variety from which it sported. I have, however, 
seen in two instances Goldfinch sport back to Ardwell Gem. When 
a Viola sports in the entire plant there is no difficulty in securing 
it, but the sport very often shows itself in the blooms on a single 
stem of a plant, all the remainder of the plant retaining its 
originality. The various ways of securing a sport are as follows :— 
Take the stem showing the sportive bloom up with as much root 
as it has attached to it, and carefully replant it ; or cut the stem 
through, about 2 inches lower than the joint from where the flower 
stem is, and plant as a cutting. I have secured sports by both 
methods, but I have occasionally failed. 
Young growers like myself have much to learn ; but I am 
very grateful to my old friend Mr. William Dean for information 
on the securing of sports. In conversation with him lately he 
quite agreed that there was an uncertainty, although slight, in the 
securing of sports, and gave me another method by which the 
sport might be secured—namely, by allowing the sportive bloom to 
seed and raising seedlings from it. I have not had an opportunity 
