September 24, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
267 
significance. In culinary Apple3 I find Lord Sufiield heads the 
list, followed by Cellini, Dutnelow’s Seedling, Keswick Codlin, 
Alfriston, Ecklinville Seedling, Golden Noble, Warner's King, 
and Winter Hawthornden. 
In the poll taken for the whole of Great Britain the varieties 
are placed in the following order—Dessert Apples: King of the 
Pippins, Cox's Orange Pippin, Ribston Pippin, Kerry Pippin, 
Blenheim Pippin, Irish Peach, Devonshire Quarrenden. Stunner 
Pippin. Culinary Apples: Lord Sufiield, Dumelow’s Seedling, 
Keswick Codlin, Warner’s King, Blenheim Pippin, Winter 
Hawthornden, Cellini, Kcklinville Seedling, Stirling Castle. The 
Editor remarks that whilst the returns are valuable, as showing 
the extent of appreciation in which certain varieties are held 
throughout the country, they cannot be accepted as complete and 
reliable lists, inasmuch as many excellent varieties of Apples are 
comparatively unknown in certain localities, and are therefore 
placed lower down the list than their merits deserve. The most 
popular Apple was Lord Sufiield, having received 101 votes out 
of a possible 130, King of the Pippins standing next with ninety- 
eight. The most popular dessert Apple in England is Cox’s 
Orange Pippin, but it is evidently not so well known in or so well 
suited for the colder climate of Scot'and. The list of synonyms 
given in the report is also most interesting and instructive, but 
we need not enter upon that subject just now. 
_ Speaking from the experience gained in the immediate dis¬ 
trict, there are about thirty varieties of Apples which are in 
demand greatly in excess of the rest. For Lord Suffield the pre¬ 
sent demand is practically unlimited, and this is closely followed 
by Blenheim Pippin, Eclinville, Stirling Castle, Cellini, Malt¬ 
ster, Cox’s Pomona, Warner’s King, Alfriston, and others; 
whilst of dessert kinds Cox's Orange Pippin, Irish Peach, 
King of the Pippins, Worcester Pearmain, and Kibston Pippin 
hold the lead. Two varieties, Frogmore Prolific and Lane’s 
Prince Albert, are likely to become favourites, as there is a 
marked increasing demand for them. Trees trained as pyramids 
are in strong force just now, and with careful management are 
effective and profitable. Unless orchards are laid down as 
pasture for grazing, standard trees, with stems not more than 
3£ to 4 feet are preferable to the tall-stemmed trees very com¬ 
monly planted. 
THE PEAK. 
The cultivation of the Pear is of much more moment com¬ 
mercially than has been apparently realised. In the older 
orchards we find Catherine Pears, red and white (called com¬ 
monly *• Cattens ”), Hessle, Green Chisel, and Swan Egg but 
very few of the better Pears are properly grown and carefully 
gathered for market. Amongst the better kinds suited to this 
district are Beurre d’Amanlis, Doyenne d’Ete, Jargonelle, 
Williams’ Bon Chretien of the early varieties; Beurre Superfin. 
Glou Morceau, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Marie Louise, Winter 
Nelis, amongst the mid-season varieties ; and Bergamot 
dEsperen, Beurre Ranee, and Easter Beurre of the later 
kinds. I have amongst my memoranda a note of a crop of 
Beurre d’Amanlis grown in the open orchard within a few 
miles of Chester, having realised last season 3d. per lb. whole 
sale. In the same orchard the better class Pears are grown 
both on pyramids and standards of quality equal to any Pears 
to be found from the southern counties, or even Jersey. 
Of Plums very few varieties are found to do satisfactorily 
as standards in this locality. Victoria, Pershore, and Denbigh 
Seedling are amongst the best, Victoria being the most reliable 
of all. I visited a fruit orchard a few days ago where the trees 
are so laden as to be unable to carry the fruit, and the proprietor 
informed me that his trees of this variety never fail him. Two 
yesrs ago the demand for Pershore Plum was so great that I 
believe the stock of every nurseryman in the kingdom was ex¬ 
hausted. For Damsons we are here in the centre of one of the 
best of districts, but Cherries are not grown as they are in the 
southern counties. Two years ago I walked over the borne farm 
of private gentleman in the southern counties, and he showed 
me a Cherry orchard which he had just planted of 200 acres. 
Cherries grew on the trees whilst sheep were pastured on the 
farm. Shortly afterwards, in a neighbouring county, I found an 
orchard of Walnuts containing something like 400 trees, the pro¬ 
perty, too, of a private grower. Besides all these tve have 
Apricots, Peaches, Nectarines, Nuts, Mulberries, Chestnuts Crabs, 
Barberries, and other fruits, which we must leave for some other 
time. 
(To be continued.) 
EARLY-FLOWERING CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
“ We have another dinner party, and there is hardly a white 
bloom of any kind left. Can you send me a few of those early 
white Chrysanthemums you were speaking about ? I have no 
white flowers left at this dull time.” So wrote a gardener to 
me the other day whom I had visited a few weeks before, and 
where I admired the contents of the numerous stoves and green¬ 
houses under his charge, mostly filled with choice Orchids and 
a thousand other plants. I was informed the family was away, 
or else I should not have found such a display of bloom at that 
time of the year. It is when the families return home after their 
summer tours, and commence giving entertainments and ex¬ 
change congratulations, that gardeners find their resources so 
sorely tried, especially at this season. When I first spoke to 
this gardener on the subject of early Chrysanthemums, I am 
afraid there was rather a feeling of contempt for what are 
so generally looked upon as “ common.” Some remark that 
that they are dirty loo ring, others that they seem out of place 
so early in the season, but I am pleased to find many have re¬ 
cognised their mistake, and have only been too glad to grow a 
quantity of such varieties as Madame C. Desgrange, Mrs. Cul- 
lingford, and La Vierge. These early-flowering Chrysanthe¬ 
mums are the most useful plants that can be grown during the 
months of September and October, when there is no doubt 
that gardeners find it difficult to meet the demand for cut 
flowers. Chrysanthemums go a long way in decorating, and 
greatly relieve the pressure upon more valuable plants, to say 
nothing of the long time they remain fresh; a bloom, for in¬ 
stance, of Madame Desgrange can easily be kept upon the plant 
for three weeks, and then last for ten days in a cut state. 
It is fifteen years since I commenced a collection of these 
early-flowering Chrysanthemums with a view to keep up a dis¬ 
play of bloom in the herbaceous borders. They were certainly not 
very inviting for cutting or for the conservatory, but a great 
improvement has been effected since that time. Then we only 
had the small Pompons, and could not boast of a really pure 
white; now we have many white varieties as pure as can be 
desired. The first improvements that came into notice were 
St. Mary and Soeur Melanie, both very free and quite white. 
The former is a very early bloomer, opening as early as May, 
and giving three distinct crops of flowers during the season; the 
latter is an October variety, and has been often noticed in these 
pages. After these came Madame Jolivart, an excellent variety 
both for habit and freedom in flowering, but it is only pure 
white under glass. Quickly following these introductions came 
Madame C. Desgrange and La Yierge, without doubt the two 
rfiost valuable white varieties known up to the present time. 
The former was introduced about eleven years since, but was not 
much admired until five or six years ago. Even then it was 
generally described as a loose white flower with yellow or green 
centre. Whatever it was then, it certainly is a pure white flower 
now if well cultivated and bloomed under glass or canvas. As a 
market flower it is more valuable than Elaine, having a lighter 
and more attractive appearance, but it does not come into com¬ 
petition with Elaine, as it is fully two months earlier. Flowers 
of Madame Desgrange, too, are far superior to white Asters, and 
give four to six times the number of blooms for the same space 
and labour. La Vierge may be described as a much-improved 
Soeur Melanie, only rather earlier. It is a medium-sized reflexed 
flower, opening its blooms early in October, thus connecting the 
link between Madame Desgrange and the earliest of the late 
varieties, such as Lady Selborne and Elaine. With such very 
late varieties as Princess Teck, Miss Marechaux, Mrs. Carey, and 
others, we now have pure white Chrysanthemums quite eight 
months out of twelve. Other fine white early Chrysanthemums 
are Mrs. Cullingford, a very fine white hybrid Pompon, a variety 
raised by Mr. Alfred Salter. Equally as fine as a garden flower 
or for the conservatory are White St. Crouts, Virginia, and La 
Nirge, the latter a late October variety. 
Turning to the coloured varieties, I need only say that as 
great improvements have been effected in these as in the whites. 
1 will mention a few of the best—Lyon, a very fine purple flower, 
one of the very best; Anastasio, light rosy purple; Flora, very 
fine yellow, replacing Precocite ; Filberta, fine yellow; G. Wermig, 
the new yellow sport from Madame Desgrange; Frederick 
Marronet, a bronze Pompon; Mons. Pynaert Van Geert, a beau¬ 
tiful Japanese, yellow striped bright red; Nanum, blush white; 
La Petite Marie, white with yellow tint, exceedingly dwarf; 
Isidore Feral, a Japanese flower, rosy lilac and golden centre, 
very fine ; and Alexandre Dufour, a very fine medium-sized 
Japanese, bright purple, late October variety. The whole of the 
varieties mentioned in these notes, except Nanum, are intro¬ 
ductions of the past twelve years. They do not comprise all the 
best sorts, but outside the enthusiast, the whole of the previous 
introductions might well be swept away. There are several new 
varieties of the present season very promising, but it would be 
well to reserve mention of them till further trial. There is one. 
