May 9, 1595.1 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
411 
is another one gay with Polyanthus, or in another direction may be 
found other beds of distinct colours, amongst which White Pottebakker 
was particularly striking. Had time allowed much more might have 
been seen in this pleasant resort, but as the shades of evening were 
commencing to fall, steps were directed homeward, with a thorough 
satisfaction that the time had been well spent.— Wanderee. 
STRAWBERRY LaXTON’S LEADER. 
Messes. Laxton Brothers have sent ns samples of a new Straw¬ 
berry of very great promise. It is the result of a cross between Noble 
and Latest of All, and named Leader. The specimens certainly “ lead ” 
Noble a long way in quality, firmness, and flavour, while not being 
behind it in size. The plants were taken from the ground and potted in 
September last, and the fruits ripened just after Royal Sovereign under 
the same cultural conditions. We figure a typical example, but not 
the largest, which was 7| inches in circumference, and append a 
description :— 
Fruit large, bluntly conical, but occasionally flattened and wedge- 
shaped, and more or less deeply ribbed ; colour glossy crimson, studded 
with numerous yellow seeds or achenes ; flesh scarlet, with a whitish 
band, of good texture; flavour piquant, sweet, with a pleasant aroma. 
The fruits travelled well. 
Since writing the foregoing we have received three fruiting plants. 
These are sturdy in character with very downy leafstalks and strong 
flower stems bearing large flowers like those of Latest of All on one 
plant, the other two plants carrying handsome fruits, the best weighing 
I J oz., and the others very little smaller, with the true Strawberry 
flavour as fully developed as we usually find in fruits ripened naturally. 
The variety cannot be shown in a forced state before the Fruit Com¬ 
mittee of the R.H S. this year, as the crop will be over before the next 
meeting, but it is in the collection at Chiswick, and there we shall look 
out for “ Leader ” in the open ground. 
PRUNINGS. 
Without underrating the weight of diplomas sealed and signed by 
the Royal Horticultural Society, I do not think their face value is of 
such high importance as our young aspirants to fame are inclined to 
imbue them with. I would rather look on these exams and the pre¬ 
paration they entail as a stirring of the mental faculties in the spring¬ 
time of life, whereby the seeds of experience are afforded a well tilled 
medium for germination, to bear sound fruit in the summer of life. The 
gardener in embryo is afforded many opportunities which his forbears 
missed by being born too early. May many a youngster win the maxi¬ 
mum “ marks,” and wear his newborn honours modestly. 
Mr. Wilson’s admirable paper on *• Employers and Gardeners” (con¬ 
cluded on page 328, April 18th), expresses what many feel and think 
and know to be true, but which, by force of circumstances, must have 
remained hidden under the bushel of prudence. Yet, perhaps the man in 
active life with his heart in his work thinks last and least for himself. 
He is a man apt to rise at untimely hours, nor does he seek his couch 
until sundry nocturnal rambles rid his charge of some pest which 
cho iseth darkness for its evil deeds. To rush from a heated house 
coatless or hatless as the first warning note of the coming hailstorm 
strikes the glass is thought nothing of at the time, but it may be sowing the 
seeds of rheumatism. Still is not the earnest, devoted, prudeu gardener 
appreciated ? I dare venture a prediction that any pruning which would 
sever Mr. Wilson from his employer would be painful to both. Let us 
hope for more and closer unity between (I like the old formula) “ master 
and man,” and it is worth striving for by all. 
Truffles (page 357) “ . . . delicious species . . . fungus 
family . . . probably heads the list,” Well, that’s a matter of 
opinion. I do not think we shall ever hear of Truffles for the million. 
Anyway, if our American friends want them, and cannot get the dogs, 
pigs for hunting purposes are, I beb'eve, used in the South of France. I 
have found Truffles under Cedars of Lebanon, and thus discovered them 
through the squirrels, who were continually scratching away the few 
inches of hard, dry soil to reach them. On one occasion in planting 
some Laurels under the Cedars in another part we came across some 
fairly good specimens, which were duly presented to, and appreciated 
by the cook. _ 
Green flies and all the fibers we have fumed in the old-fashioned 
way, and choked ourselves in the fuming, Mr, Bardney (page 334, 
April 18th) likes the new XL All vaporiser. He has liked many things 
in his time, and it is hoped will live long to like more. I have found the 
fumigating sheets invaluable, but not inexpensive. A few thousands of 
cubic feet look big on paper, but do not usua'ly require a great deal of 
glass to cover them. Tbe principle of the vaporiser appears to mark a 
change in the system, as doubtless the atmosphere is by this means 
charged with minute particles of nicotine which pass not away like 
the smoke. 
There is yet one thing wanting—viz., we want these articles a little 
cheaper, for encouraging a freer use of them. Then we shall be happy. 
What severe trials young gardeners of a passing generation were put to 
when boxed up with the burning paper or rag to keep it from flaring. 
Some could stand the ordeal, and some were sickened for days. Well 
do I recollect one summer’s night, when all bands were piped to the 
“ big conservatory,” each with a wire basket, and two with an infernal 
machine—an iron truck, in which heated bars fired the paper—how a 
comrade, feeling those qualms equivalent to mal de mer, escaped in the 
gathering gloom to a broken pane in the sash on the ground level. Alas 
for the sequel! being on his knees with his head protruding from the 
friendly porthole—old “ Spot ”—the governor’s bulldog spotted him, went 
for him, and there was a ” flare.” 
Clianthus Dampieri ? (page 335). I quite endorse all you say about 
this, Mr. Burrows, as a floriferous climber, easy to grow, handsome and 
useful. You describe your fine plant so well that I am at it with my 
pruning knife. Snip ! off comes Dampieri, on goes puniceus, I cannot 
but assume that you have mistaken C. puniceus—the Lobster-claw, for 
0, Dampieri, the gorgeous Glory Pea. The latter is all but of bushy 
habit, and seldom seen in perfection. The best example I have seen of 
it was planted in a compost of loam and leaf mould, and grown in a box 
PIG. 69.— STRAWBERRY LAXTON’S LEADER. 
standing on a coil of pipes in a temperate house, where a free circulation 
of air was maintained. It is easily raised from seed, but not so easily 
reared to perfection. _ 
“ The Old Boy,” or (begging his pardon) “ An Old Boy,” in his first 
paper of “ Bothiana ” thinks of his bothy days. I think a good deal of 
individualism flows out through a pen aside of the subject it is treating 
upon, and when an old boy writes for young ones he recalls the past 
and dips in sympathetic ink. May I suggest, “Old Boy,” that when 
stage No. 1 of a gardener’s life is completed you will then supplement 
“ Bothiana ” with stage No. 2, and give us Gardeneriana ? This, I take 
it, is of no less importance, for there are rocks ahead in the first (Head) 
situation, which, if they do not wreck, are as well avoided. 
Royal Horticultural Society, April 23rd. Medals, certificates, and 
cultural commendations galore. Who was present before I prune? 
So-and-so. Ah 1 be canny then. Fruit Committee, “Countess Melon,” 
I like that name; Strawberries, Kidney Beans, Victor Potatoes, Seakale 
—open air; “valuable,” exac'ly so; “only provided in comparatively 
few gardens.” Humph! could trundle you on a few barrowloads, 
gentlemen, and so could all my neighbours for miles around. Some of 
them grow it no other way. More shame for them. But we all cover 
it with fine sifted coal ashes—burnt ones from the stokehole are best. 
What heads ! how good I but we can have too much of a good thing, 
and with Spinach, French Beans, Ellam’s Cabbage, Asparagus—now 
cut'ing, and the survivors of tbe fittest amongst the Broccoli, why 
Seakale is now a glut in the garden [and kept there !—Eds.]. 
“ Round about Sevenoaks ” went the “ Jaded Londoner ” (page 366, 
April 25th), jostled pell-mell, going and returning. I hope “ the city 
dwellers when they journeyed homewards laden with Primroses and 
other wild flowers ” left the roots behind them. Well, your bank 
(holiday) note, in spite of the weary, weary tone pervading it, shows 
that you enjoyed it. How circumstances alter cases I I say. Oh, for a 
sniff of London town, with its Embankment gardens, people’s parks, 
Kew, Fleet Street, and the quintessence of activity 1 Better wear out 
than rust, “ Wanderer.” _ 
Could “ The Missus” (page 372, April 25th) be induced to procure a 
sketch of that Potato-sorting machine she so graphically describes on 
