216 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I September 6, 1888. 
decidedly the most effectual remedy. I have mentioned the tem¬ 
perature above, because, though I have cleared many plants of 
insects by dashing water against them at 130° and 140°, one 
experiment, at least, seemed to tell me but too well that the Hoveas 
would not endure it.—F. R. H. S. 
SPORTS. 
The account of the sport which “ Duckwing ” has succeeded in 
propagating is interesting, and is just what is wanted if we are to learn 
anything of the nature of sports. It is plain that the Comtesse 
d’ Oxford class is inclined to sport. I had a bloom of Mrs. Baker a few 
days ago, which was almost entirely splashed with white, after the 
fashion of Pride of Reigate, but it did not seem worth propagating. 
I hope that “ Duckwing’s ” sport may turn out well ; but, as I said in 
my last, he is lucky if he has hit upon a new and distinct shade in this 
numerous class. 
THE ROSE SEASON. 
It is early to offer any general remarks upon the Rose season ; but 
now that September has arrived, I should like to continue my quota of 
observations on the weather in Suffolk during the summer months. 
May was very dry, and so was the early part of June. The hay was 
pining for rain during the whole of the growing season, and drowned 
directly it was cut. All through June we were looking for the burst of 
sun which so wonderfully changed the season of 1887 from a late into 
an early one ; but it never came, though we had not much rain. July 
found us still hoping, but in vain : the cold and the wet increased. A 
good deal of rain fell during the first week ; but in the neighbourhood 
of Ipswich, which has, I believe, about the lowest average annual rain¬ 
fall in England, we had not much actual flooding rain till 
the last week of the month. Still July produced 5'20 inches, and we 
certainly had rain enough and to spare. Wet Julys I can remember, but 
never such a cold one. Never before, at any rate, did I have to go and 
warm my numbed fingers at a fire after cutting for the National Rose 
Show. Not a Rose opened or grew on the way to the Crystal Palace on 
that exceptionally cold night, and never surely was there such blowing 
of buds to be heard during “ setting up,” and such manipulations with 
budding knives and pencils to be seen. 
EELS AND ROSES. 
My Roses were fully out on July 16th, about ten days late. On that 
evening I noticed the “Midsummer Dors” (small cockchafers) swarm¬ 
ing for the first time. These are generally very punctual at the end of 
June. On the morning of July 31st I went into my rosery to cut a nice 
lot of blooms, as I had hoped, for a wedding, and brought back in my 
basket eight fine eels, which I found in the Rose beds, washed out of 
the little stream which supplies my pool. I was very nearly sending the 
eels instead of the Roses. Stewed eels is not, I fancy, a usual dish at a 
wedding breakfast, but for my own part I would sooner have had them 
than those drowned, battered, and mudsplashed Roses. 
A GLIMPSE OF SUMMER. 
The only summer weather we have had was between August 6th and 
15th, and the effect on the Roses was very remarkable. Varieties which 
open badly as a rule came out at once under the usual influence of a 
hot sun. In other seasons 1 have known blooms of La Boule d’Or stand 
for a week on a south wall in cloudless weather in July, and not open 
too much ; but during the second week of the past August they completely 
expanded in the open bed in two or three days. 
OUTSIDE THE ROSE GARDEN. 
Everything has naturally been very late. The most noticeable in¬ 
stance that I observed was that of some fine old Lime trees in a park in 
this neighbourhood. These were in full bloom and filling the air with 
fragrance on August 15th. Bedding plants have been poor and annuals 
fair. Trees and shrubs do not seem to have made more growth than last 
year. Plenty of Pears, but no Apples. Strawberries poor, tasteless, and 
decayed. Raspberries, Gooseberries, and Currants were very large crops, 
but of course deficient in flavour. On the whole, I think, the season has 
been wonderfully productive considering the weather.—W. R. Raillem. 
THE MIRABELLE AND GREEN GAGE PLUMS. 
I send you some fruit raised from the Mirabelle Plum. The 
other seedling trees have produced small Mirabelle Plums. This 
variation gives some indication of the possible origin of the Green 
Gage.— T. Francis Rivers. 
[This letter is short but suggestive. The origin of the famous 
old Green Gage has not been traced. The fruit sent by Mr. 
Rivers undoubtedly gives some indication of that origin, resembling 
very closely that of the Green Gage. One of the many French 
synonyms of the old favourite is Mirabelle Vert Double, or Double 
Green Mirabelle, whatever that may mean. The “ Fruit Manual ” 
contains the following historical notes relative to the Green 
Gage :— 
“ This universally known and highly esteemed fruit has been longer 
in this country than is generally supposed. It is said to have been 
introduced at the beginning of the last century by Sir Thomas Gage of 
Hengrave Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds, who procured it from his 
brother, the Rev. John Gage, a Roman Catholic priest, then resident in 
Paris. In course of time it became known as the Green Gage Plum. 
“ In France, although it has many names, that by which it is best 
known is Groisj Reine Claude, to distinguish it from a smaller and 
much inferior Plum called Reine Claude Petite. The Green Gage is 
supposed to be a native of Greece, and to have been introduced at an 
early period into Italy, where it is called Verdochia. From Italy it 
passed into France, during the reign of Francis I., and was named in 
honour of his consort Queen Claude; but it does not appear to have 
been much known or extensively cultivated for a considerable period 
subsequent to this, for neither Champier, Olivier de Serres, Vautier, nor 
any of the early French writers on husbandry and gardening, seem to 
have been acquainted with it. Probably about the same time that it. 
was introduced into France, or shortly afterwards, it found its way into 
England, where it became more rapidly known, and the name under 
which it was received was not the new appellation which it obtained in 
France, but its original Italian name of Verdochia, from which we may 
infer that it was brought direct from Italy. It is mentioned by Parkin¬ 
son, in 1629, under the name of Verdoch, and, from the way in which he 
speaks of it, seems to have been not at all rare, nor even new. It is 
also enumerated by Leonard Meager in the 1 list of fruit which I had of 
my very loving friend, Captain Gurle, dwelling at the Great Nursery 
between Spitalfields and Whitechapel,’ and is there called Verdocha. 
Even so late as the middle of the last century, after it had been re¬ 
introduced, and extensively grown under the name of Green Gage, it 
continued to bear its original title, and to be regarded as a distinct sort 
from the Green Gage. Hitt tries to describe the distinction ; but as he 
tries also to show that, the Reine Claude is distinct from the Green Gage, 
his authority cannot be taken fcwwnore than it is worth ; a remark which 
may safely be applied to all the pomologists of the last century. Miller 
laboured under the same hallucination as Hitt, for in his Dictionary he 
says, speaking of the Grosse Reine Claude, ‘ this Plum is confounded by 
most people in England by the name of Green Gage,’ 
“We have seen, therefore, that the generally received opinion that 
this valuable Plum was first introduced to this country by the Gage 
famiiy is incorrect, but that it must have existed for considerably 
upwards of a century, at least, before the period which is generally given, 
as the date of its introduction.” 
THE ROMANCE OF SEED-SOWING. 
( Continued f rom page 172 .) 
IV. —Rupture.— By this I mean the various methods by which seed 
vessels— i.e., fruits—dehisce or open of their own accord, either in part,, 
when the wind usually shakes the seeds out, or through their entire 
length, in which cases the contained seeds are more or less forcibly ex¬ 
pelled. In this latter case there is complete self-dispersion, whereas in 
the former the opening of the vessel is the only part of the process 
entirely performed by the plant. Let us first glance at a few cases of 
complete self-dispersion. 
In Bitter Cress (Cardamine hirsuta), a very common weed on dry, 
open banks, the pod at the proper moment when the seeds are ripe sud¬ 
denly rolls its two side walls outwards and upwards, and the seeds, 
lightly attached to a central delicate membrane, are scattered 6 or 7 feet 
away from the plant. Even a puff of wind is sufficient to effect this 
purpose. Wallflower acts similarly, but with less force, as may be seen, 
in any garden. 
Among our wild Geraniums there are many interesting cases. Herb 
Robert, which everyone knows, has five seed vessels arranged around a 
central elongated column. Each vessel is prolonged upwards into a 
thin rod, which is at first attached to the column, but is slowly sepa¬ 
rated from it; the flower, which after blossoming turns downwards, 
now becomes erect, the rods become highly elastic, and presently 
separate from the column with great force, often scattering themselves; 
and their attached vessels to as great a distance as 20 feet. We may 
find scores of these flowers in the woodlands, each of them with the; 
erect central column alone remaining perfectly bare, and we must look 
for some time to find the scattered seed vessels far away. 
In another, Geranium dissectum, or Jagged Crane’s-bill, the rods, 
remain clinging to the column together with the five vessels, the seeds- 
only being thrown off. Curiously enough, the vessels split open on the. 
side turned towards the central column, and it would almost seem as if 
this were useless, but the plant has its fashion of overcoming this 
difficulty. Just before the vessel splits the rod curls outwards, placing 
the vessel horizontally, and so at right angles to the column. The 
vessel gradually opens as the rod curls still more upwards, a delicate- 
fringe of hairs keeping the seed safely meantime, until, when the rod 
has gone far enough to place the vessel nearly upside down, the hairs 
give way, and the seed is ejected. In this species, therefore, we should* 
find the column not bare, but surrounded at its top by the five curled-up 
rods, each carrying its empty vessel with the inner face split and looking 
upwards. 
