418 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND C01IAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 12, 1885. 
although a late Pear, we have found to succeed better in the 
open than when grown against a south or west wall, but in 
the north no doubt it requires the benefit of a wall. What do 
others say on this Pear ? — A. Young. 
VENNS’ EARLY DWARF CABBAGE. 
Varieties of early Cabbages, like some other things, are 
no doubt too numerous. However, when such a meritorious 
Cabbage as the above comes in our way we are bound not 
only to recognise it but to record the fact. After having 
grown it for three seasons I am persuaded that it has no 
superior. Among the many varieties we have grown this is 
the earliest, the dwarfest, and the hardiest, and so true is 
the stock that every plant is the very counterpart of its 
fellow. Another pre-eminent quality is it will not prematurely 
run to seed. Mr. Venns has frequently sown seed of it in 
March and allowed the plants to stand in the seed bed all 
summer, planting them out in the autumn, and not one of 
them has ever “ bolted.” It is of a most distinct character, 
and is easily known among other varieties. 
In the autumn of 1883 I had the pleasure of sending 
some plants of it to Mr. Muir, Margam, who has great experi¬ 
ence with vegetables new and old, and in the Journal of 
Horticulture, May 29th, 1884, Mr. Muir writes of it thus :— 
“ It is the most compact growing, earliest, and best of all our 
spring Cabbages this season. Not one of the plants bolted, 
and every one formed a massive head of fine quality. It is 
very distinct, and is certainly meritorious enough to be dis¬ 
tributed as new.” 
I feel sure it will become one of the most popular of early 
Cabbages. To growers for market it will be quite a boon, 
as it attains to a fine size, turns in quickly, and has a taking 
appearance. This variety is in the possession of Mr. P. 
Venns, gardener to T. Tate, Esq., Allerburn House, Alnwick, 
by whom it has been selected and saved with the greatest of 
care for several years. I am so highly pleased with it that 
I have advised Mr. Venns to distribute it, and seed will 
shortly be offered in the advertising pages of the Journal of 
Horticulture. 
I may add that I have not the slightest inteiest in the 
distribution of this variety, my only object in writing being 
to see a sterling article put into the hands of the public ; and 
as vegetable-growing has been quite a fancy here for many 
years I am not without experience in judging on this matter. 
—Joseph Oliver, Eding ton Parle Gardens, Alnwick. 
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE YORKSHIRE 
ASSOCIATION OF HORTICDLTOR1STS. 
ADDRESS BY THE REV F. D. HORNER. 
[At the last annual meeting of the above Association, held at the 
rooms of the Paxton Society, Wakefield, the Rev. F. X). Horner delivered an 
interesting address upon the general objects of the Association, and this 
was supplemented by a lecture on the Auricula. We have been favoured 
with the MSS. of both these, and as they are of far more than local interest 
we present them to our readers. ] 
C Continued from page 398.) 
The earliest known florist varieties whose names have sur¬ 
vived are a green edge and a white edge that were alive in 1757. 
Their names, Rule Arbiter and Hortense, do not convey much 
meaning to us now. We only gather that, thus early, the grand 
class distinctions of edge were by that time attained and marked; 
but richness, decision, and purity, not common even now, were 
presumably far less developed than in the green, grey, and white- 
edged flowers To look back through five and twenty years is to 
come to early days in the florist life of most of us, and all the 
great flowers m the three edges which we had then inherited 
were but three or four in each class. In green edges, always 
accounted first, by rarity, difficulty, and power, were Leigh’s 
Col. Taylor, Booth’s Freedom, Page’s Champion, and say 
Litton’s Imperator Jn the greys, Old Ringleader (Kenyon), 
Lancashire Hero (Lancashire), and Geo Lightbody, then a seed, 
ling of Mr. Richard Headly’s only just about to come into cir¬ 
culation. In white edges, Taylor’s Glory, Heap’s Smiling Beauty, 
Ashworth’s Regular. 
The seifs of the period had the beauty and softness of 
colouring that these flowers seldom lack, and Campbell’s Pizarro 
was the coming! champion, but none of them was perfect. 
Selfs are always largely produced by seed from the edged 
varieties, and it was supposed from this, that in trying for 
edged ones, seifs would abundantly come by the way and be 
prizes thrown in for nothing. It was by no means so. They 
are not to be thus lightly won. As a matter of fact I have 
never, to my knowledge, raised a first-rate self from edged 
parentage. All my best have been from carefully crossed see d 
of self parents. I do not say it has never been, or may never be, 
that a green edged flower may give a good seedling self, but an 
edged flower does not seem to know what a good self ought to 
be, judging from the many wild guesses and attempts over which 
it wastes such quantities of its seedlings. 
In speaking of the properties of the florist Auricula, I will 
mention at the same time the faults and difficulties that have 
stood in the way. Some have of late years been overcome, 
notably that of the central notch in the petal of the self. The 
perfectly smooth round petal is a great point of beauty, and no 
self now not “ rose-leaved ” will hold any place as a first-class 
flower. 
The pip' or disc of the flower should be circular and flat. 
This is the best form for displaying the peculiar beauties of the 
Auricula. A conception of it in a diagram may, without douht, 
look stiff and artificial enough; but it is not so in Nature, where 
every touch of softness and fulness, and every display of feature 
is added on those lines of beauty that man can imagine, but to 
which he cannot give the gentleness and touch of life. Im¬ 
mensity of size in an Auricula is no magnitude of grace. No 
flower that I know suffers so much loss of beauty and refine¬ 
ment for being overgrown, or constitutionally big, as the 
Auricula. If ever a bloom is as large as a crown piece it is 
irremediably coarse. The size of a half-crown is too much, and 
that of a florin looks quite enough. At a shilling it begins to 
look small, and sixpence is too little. The number of pips that 
a plant will carry and finish well depends upon its vigour. A 
self will always carry more than an edged variety. The plant is 
often more vigorous, and the footstalks on the stem often longer 
and more yielding. 
Eleven or twelve good pips are quite enough for a self to carry 
web, while less than seven will look a small truss. Seven good 
ones on an edged variety are much more for it than the like 
number on a self. Five upon an edged variety begin to look a 
small truss. Nine good pips will form a very handsome one. 
Any more that are left in will perhaps either overlap others or 
show inequality of size and weakness in one or more important 
points. 
On an Auricula truss every pip has a wonderful individuality, 
and this must be preserved by not suffering it to be crumpled 
and blurred by overcrowding. 
A very important feature of each flower is its tube, which 
should be circular and golden, well enriched with its coronet of 
proud gold-dusted anthers around its mouth. Faults of tube 
are pale green colours instead of gold or fading tones of yellow, 
as also a serrated edge and too great width and an irregularity 
of outline. 
Next upon the flower’s face lies a circle of white meal— 
technically the paste. This should be circular, dense, sharply 
cut, smooth, and snowy white- Its faults are thinness, narrow¬ 
ness, and waviness of outline. A bad paste and poor tube are 
both of them grave faults, visible through any brilliance of other 
properties. The golden tube and brilliant paste ought to be 
points in every flower. They are constant properties common 
to all the classes, and should be strong in all. 
The next circle of colouring outside the paste is the ground 
orboiy. Colour, a velvety black, violet, chocolate, or maroon, 
or a tint difficult to describe. 
It is a very beautiful feature and intense contrast to the 
paste, It should be perfectly free of any speck of meal, a velvet 
band, and solid on its inner edge near the- paste. On its outer 
edge it flashes with pencillings of heavier or lighter style towards 
the edge of the flower; but these pencillings should in no part 
reach the petal rim. Faults of body are numerous. It may be 
too narrow, and look scratchy—too broad, and dash into the 
edge. Its colour may change as the flower ages, and the velvet 
may die off upon it prematurely. Meal may be scattered over it 
and make it impure. 
The edge itself is a most beauteous and coveted feature in the 
Auricula. It is the outermost ring of colouring, and is a circle 
of pure green, or pearly grey, or snowy white, recording to the 
total absence or varying depth of meal upon it It is a difficult 
property, in the green and white classes especially, and its faults 
are not being pure from dots of meal, or from a tendency in some 
white edges to lose its whiteness for a damaging tint of yellow. 
Sometimes it is not broad enough, and less often too broad. 
