60 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Jaauarj 26,18*» 
Sprouts but other vegetables as well. The absurdity of the pre¬ 
ference for mere bulk is far too prevalent. Large Brussels Sprouts 
are invariably loose and deficient in quality, and surely to the eye, 
of nice appearance. They are not solid enough to begin with, and 
when cooked there is no getting the water out of them without 
squashing them out of shape in the process. The smaller bullet¬ 
like sprouts boil as whole as a Potato, are easily dried without 
smashing them, and are of much milder flavour. The most perfect 
forms of this fine green that I have met with are the “ Northaw ” 
and “ Ne Plus Ultra.” Their stems are densely set with solid 
sprouts about twice the size of a marble. Largo Beets, Celeries, &c., 
are invariably coarse. The smaller sorts of Cabbages are also the 
best. As a blanched or hearted Cabbage what can be finer than 
Chappel’s Colewort ? 
Potatoes are also mentioned. For a special object, and by 
command, I have probably grown the largest Potatoes of some 
sorts that have ever been produced. I have had bushels of 
Walker’s Regent over 2 lbs., and one tuber 41 lbs., but I have 
no hesitation in saying that the usefulness of the Potato, for 
human food especially, is in inverse ratio to its size. The chief 
secret of having the finest Potatoes in the finest possible condition 
on the table is to have them properly cooked. They should be 
cooked in their jackets. The larger ones should be rejected and 
the smaller ones preferred, because in cooking a large Potato 
properly to its centre, the outside and best part of it is spoilt. 
Besides this, all large Potatoes deteriorate towards their centre. 
A friend in writing to me a few days since, referring to the absurd 
craze for size, says :—“ I was very much struck by what Mr. Charles 
Van Geert of Antwerp said to me two or three years since when 
admiring the pretty little even-sized Potatoes that came to table, 
none of which was larger, and some smaller, than a hen’s egg. 
I asked him what variety it was, as I had noticed them wherever 
I had been in Belgium. He said they were just the same as we 
had in England, only the small ones were sorted out. Then he 
added. What you give to your pigs we eat, and what we give to 
our pigs you eat.” Now if what has been remarked above about 
the relative cooking and other qualities of large and small Potatoes 
be correct, the Belgians are right and we are wrong. If the raisers 
and exhibitors and vendors of the deluge of huge worthless 
Potatoes that have been showered on us of late years had directed 
their energies to quality and moderate size, and if judges had set 
their face in the right direction, we might have been better off 
to-day. Not one of twenty of these monsters is fit for human 
food, and our very oldest are yet the very best. 
Nothing stems the craze for mere size in fruits and vegetables 
more effectively than having to meet the demands of a first-class 
French cook, backed by the refined tastes of a nobleman and lady. 
The gardener who has to do with such soon finds out that monsters 
will not suit. I remember some very large coarse Celery being 
once sent from a distance to a cook I served for many years to 
show him how much larger it was than a fine type of Incomparable 
White which was exclusively grow'u to meet his wants. The 
former soon found its level at his hands. 
The Scotch have a saying that “ Gude gear is pit up in wee 
booke,” and the rule liolds tlie field. It is true of fruits and 
vegetables just as it is true of beef and mutton. The larger, as a 
rule, the more coarse and deficient in flavour are the products of 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms. — D. Thomson, Drumlanrit/. 
“TURNER MEMORIAL” PRIZES FOR 1888. 
An idea prevails that the prize money available from this fund 
should be set apart to give prizes for florists’ flowers only. This is an 
error. The expressed wishes of the Committee w'ere, that as the late 
Mr. Turner had a mind in active sympathy with every branch of horti¬ 
cultural work, and had introduced new varieties of fruits and vegetables 
as well as flowers, prizes should bo given for fruits and vegetables. 
Acting on this assumption the Trustees have decided to give a fresh 
prize of £10 at the Grand Yorkshire Gala, York, 13th to 15th June, for a 
collection of ten distinct varieties of fruits. The Society wall give £5, 
£3, and £2, as second, think and fourth prizes. At the Crystal Palace. 
on October 11th to 13th, the following prizes for twelve dishes of vege¬ 
tables, distinct—first prize £4, second £3, third £2, fourth £1. The,se 
prizes are open to gentlemen's gardeners only.— JAS. DOUGLAS, lion. 
Sro. to “ 'Tnrnrr Mcmorinl" Fund, 
DEATH OF MR. JOHN DAY. 
On Sunday, January 15th, died a distinguished amateur 
orchidist, Mr. John Day of Tottenham, and numbers of horticul¬ 
turists besides those specially interested in Orchids will learn the 
news with deep regret. For many years Mr. Day devoted himself 
earnestly to the cultivation and study of Orchids, during which 
time he formed a most extensive and valuable collection that was 
famed throughout Europe for the number of varieties it contained. 
All who had the pleasure under the guidance of the proprietor of 
inspecting the houses crowded with choice Orchids prior to the 
great sale will not readily forget the quiet enthusiasm with w'hich 
he regarded his plants. It will be in the memory of many that the 
principal collection was sold in 1881 in four portions, realising a 
total of £7000, amongst which the celebrated Cypripedium Stonei 
platytsenium was sold for 140 guineas, with many other valuable 
plants that were confined to the Tottenham collection. Since then 
Mr. Day has devoted his attention to a few plants, but has been a 
frequent visitor to all the leading trade and private collections of 
Orchids around London, and has sketched some hundreds, probably 
thousands, of the most notable Orchids he saw in his travels, filling 
about fifty large books, a collection in its way scarcely less remark¬ 
able than the plants he formerly cultivated. Mr. Day had also 
travelled in India and South America and the West Indies, both as an 
observer and a collector, by which he gained much information that 
he not only utilised himself in the culture of Orchids, but which 
he was also always ready to communicate to his friends. In a 
general way he was reserved, and of late years did not enjoy good 
health. Innumerable plants have been named in his honour, also 
after his sister, Mrs. Wolstenholm. 
WARNE’S ORCHID PROTECTOR. 
One of the troubles of an Orchid grower is to prevent slugs, 
ants, woodlice, and other insect pests reaching the plants, injuring 
young flower spikes, or disfiguring expanded flowers. When pots 
are placed directly on the shelves this is not readily accomplished, 
even when the stages themselves are isolated by means of saucers of 
water surrounding the sup¬ 
ports, but it is far better to 
isolate the plants individually. 
Then if proper care has been 
exercised in examining the 
peat, moss, and crocks before 
using them, there will be little 
difficulty in keeping such 
enemies at a safe distance. A 
capital contrivance for the 
purpose is the saucer and 
stand shown in fig. 8, which 
is manufactured by Mr. Conway G. Warne, Weston-super-Mare, and 
which has been patented. As will be noticed, it is of similar design 
to that employed in Mr. W. Lee’s Orchid houses at Leatherhead 
and illustrated in these p.ages a year or two since, but it differs in an 
important particular—namely, the centre is hollowed so that water 
can pass freely from the pot placed upon it, and when pots are 
stood upon a perfectly flat smooth surface there is always a danger 
of interrupting the drainage. The saucer is filled with water, serving 
as an effectual barrier to most insects, and further affords a constant 
supply of moisture, which evaporating steadily beneath the foliage 
is very beneficial. 
DENDROBIUM STRATIOTES. 
Of the numerous Dendrobiums now in cultivation perhaps there 
is scarcely one to equal D. stratiotes in singularity of form and 
distinctness of colouring. Last September a plant was shown at 
South Kensington from the Burford Lodge Gardens, Dorking, that 
indicated the peculiar characteristics of the species in a remarkable 
manner, and it then formed one of the most prominent features of 
the meeting. The specimen had a short raceme of four flowers, as 
represented in the woodcut (fig.')) which faithfully pourti’ays their 
