28 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ J 'nnary 9, U90. 
In what glowing terms do they describe the varieties that are to 
prove such a boon to mankind. Disease-proof, disease-resisting, such 
enormous crops from so few pounds of seed, such cooking qualities 
—nothing that is good appears to be forgotten. To say that a certain 
Potato is disease-proof, is, in my opinion, a bold statement to make. 
No matter how sound the stock may have been, I doubt if there exists 
a variety which is not liable to the murrain, any more than there is any 
human being who is not liable to any malady common to mankind. I 
grew seven varieties last season, and only the following will be retained 
Sharpe’s Duke of Albany.—This did not crop heavily, but the 
quality was such that my master said he had never eaten abetter Potato. 
We used it as a second early. It was not disease-proof, but I shall plant 
it freely this coming season. 
Stourbridge Glory.—Not disease-proof, but it is the best late Potato 
I have grown. It did not crop heavily, but, like Duke of Albany, the 
quality made up for all deficit. 
Snowdrop, though a good Potato, will be planted sparingly, on 
account of its taking the disease so readily. 
Magnum Bonum.—This still holds its own as being a fair cropper and 
of good quality, though not disease-proof. 
It seems at the present time that quantity and size are more valued 
than quality and a fair crop ; indeed the tendency of the age seems to 
be to get everything as big as possible, but I cannot regard bulk as the 
standard of excellence in Potatoes.—J. M., North, Aston. 
Mr. D'OmbeAIN says in his brief preface to the issue of :his work 
for 18‘J0, that though his “ little craft is not so bulky as some of its 
predecessors, yet may prove that, like the old Spanish galleons of 
former days, she carries a valuable freight in a small space ”—a little 
mixing of genders, perhaps, but the craft is well laden, and is not so 
small as to need the smallest apology. Sixty-seven pages of well 
printed letterpress is surely sufficient, especially when we find this so 
good, and varying as it does from grave to gay. Besides the Captain’s 
contributions on Mr. E. N. G. Baker and his triumphs, and the season’s 
review, Mr. C. E. Fraser discourses on Eose-growing in the Mauritius, 
the Eev. H. Temple Frere contributes “ Notes by an Old Fogey ” on the 
Eoses of past days, Mr. Alexander Hill Grey sends “ jottings ” such as 
only he could jot—readable, amusing, yet not devoid of useful hints — 
Mr.' John Harkness defends the Manetti as a stock, and gives his 
reasons, adducing also supporting testimony in its favour. Mr. George 
Paul tells which he has found the best autumn Eoses ; Mr. T. W. Girdle- 
stone descants on decorative Eoses, and amongst others names three 
“which no one need fear to plant boldly in groups—Hon. Edith GiifarJ, 
Madame Lambard, and Marie A"an Houtte.” The closing chapter is, as 
usual, on the “ Weather of the Eose Year,” by Mr. E. Mawley—a 
subject which few could treat so interestingly. We have only further 
to mention that the work contains an admirable portrait of Mr. Baker, 
and that Messrs. Bemrcss & Sons, Old Bailey, London, and Derby, are 
the publishers. 
Lokg Names. 
Tue Secretary of the E.H.S., as quoted in your last (page 10), has 
many sympathisers in his lamentation over Eose nomenclature. It is 
earnestly to be hoped that what he writes will be attended to. No Eose 
ought over to have more than two names. At the same time it may be 
remarked that the Eose public, to a certain extent, has the remedy in 
its own hands. Judges will hardly demur at a title cut short, and even 
French families will be played out at last. The British public has a 
way of its own in dealing with such difficulties. Just as printers will 
make sense out of copy submitted to them, not always to the satisfac¬ 
tion of the writer, so if names are not English they have to become 
such. What is the history of the “ Bull and Mouth ” in the City ? It 
commemorates the taking of Boulogne harbour in the reign of 
Henry VIII. Henri Quatre at another time made sense, though hardly 
appropriate, as Angry Cat, and when his master brought home the new 
mare Desdemona, the groom at once recognised in her name Thursday 
morning. Sailors are great hands at this, witness “ Hirondelle,” Iron 
Devil ; “ Bellerophon,” Billy Euffian. Dean Swift derived “ Ostler ” 
from Oat stealer, and “ breeches ” from bear-riches, but that perhaps 
was a little far-fetched. I think it is Dean Hole who has introduced 
ns to Senna Tea Vaisse, and Glory to thee, John, or Die John, as may 
be preferred. I myself can add another, met with only the other day, 
which is a case, however, rather of lengthening thfn of shortening. 
The well-known Niphetos is Greek for the snowy one ; this is more 
often called Niphdtus, orNiph^ter, from which the transition has been 
rapid to St. Peter. Perhaps a unique instance of a Eose being 
canonised. There are saints, however, that deserve it less.—A. C. 
Dressing Eoses. 
As no one has replied to my friend Mr. Pemberton’s letter in last 
week’s Journal, and as I believe it is calculated to do considerable 
injury to the cause for which I know he is as anxious as anyone—the 
well-being of the Eose and of the National, I do not think it ought to pass 
unnoticed. May I not ask my good friend whether it is not a very 
unusual thing, when a motion has been put forward by the Committee 
of any Society, that any member of that Committee should consider 
himself absolved from hiS allegiance so far as to find fault with that for 
which, even though he were not present, he is responsible ? However, lot 
that pass. 
If I understand Mr. Pemberton’s contention aright, it is that (I) 
dressing is necessary in the case of some Eoses, but that it is difficult to 
ascertain where the dressing oversteps the limits of the manipulation. 
Allow me to say that when the subject was discussed Mr. Pemberton’s 
name was mentioned with this adjunct. No one could object to the 
dressing which he gives his Eoses, and admiration was expressed at the 
skilful way in which he made them display their charms to the best 
perfection, and such dressing the rules of the Society acknowledge to 
be fair. (2), He seems to think it would be impossible to distinguish 
when a Eose was overdressed. This is one of those things which sound 
very well in theory, but which practice very soon demolishes. When 
you see a Marie Baumann so treated as to resemble in form and outline 
an A. K. Williams, when you have a La France with all its outside 
petals turned back, or a Madame de Watteville made into an imbricated 
flower, or a box of Teas with the centre standing up erect, and the 
outside petals lying flat on the board, there can be no doubt as to how 
that has arisen, and it is practices such as these which the new clause 
condemns. I think Mr. Pemberton must recollect some Eoses at the 
Crystal Palace Show which were glaring examples of this overdressing» 
I believe that the object is to make the Eose look large, and that this 
rage for size is at the bottom of all the mischief. 
But the strangest part of Mr. Pemberton’s letter is that wherein he 
infers that the disqualification extends to the box, and not to the bloom 
only, and that the decision is to be left to some other authority than 
that of the judges, whereas it is with them that the decision is specially 
designed to rest ; indeed it simply amounts to this, that in a box the 
one “rule in method of judging” would meet the case. The judges 
go through the boxes where points are to be considered, and they discard 
amongst the bad blooms those that they consider overdressed, and as in 
ordinary judging they give no statement as to which Eoses they consider 
bad or good, no more will they be called upon to declare which blooms 
they consider overdressed. Mr. Pemberton is too experienced a judge to 
require any help from others, and I think most Eose-growers would be 
satisfied that he would as readily discard the overdressed Eose as any 
one of them. 
After all, the flagrant cases in which this practice has been adopted 
are very few, and the object of the Committee in adopting the rule was 
to prevent its spreading; and now that it has been condemned I know 
that those who used to do it will cheerfully submit to the rules, and I 
hope that others may be deterred from following their example ; and so 
far from fearing that the rule wiT occasion any interruption of that 
peace and goodwill which has marked our exhibitions, I believe that it 
will tend to the more honest and truthful exhibition of the Eose.—• 
D., Deal. _ 
I ALSO was unfortunately unable to attend the annual meeting of the 
National Eose Society, probably from the same reason as Mr. Pember¬ 
ton ; so I have delayed a week, hoping that someone who was present 
would answer his letter. 
I am quite of his opinion that dressing is often beneficial and 
desirable, and sometimes necessary ; everything seems to turn on the 
words of the new rule, “ so as to alter their character.” As to Souvenir 
de la Malmaison, I never to the best of my recollection saw, or expected 
to see, this Eose in Mr. Pemberton’s magnificent stands ; nor do I think, 
if he does show it, that it will make any odds how he treats it. Beauty of 
Waltham I can never get of the Marie Baumann shape at all, and it would 
take a very clever artist to make my specimens look anything like it; 
but Mr. Pemberton’s rrand culture does bring it more of this form, and 
I believe this fact is duly acknowledged and recognised. Madame 
Willermoz is, to my mind, the Eose to take as an example when speak¬ 
ing of dressing ; for, if the strong temptation to turn down the outer 
petals is yielded to, there is no doubt that the natural character of the 
Eose is altered, though I cannot help confessing that to my eyes it is 
altered for the better. 
Mr. Pemberton asks on what evidence are we to decide that such an 
alleged alteration of character is the result of dressing; but surely he 
knows as well, or better, than anyone. Even if no creases are visible in 
the petals, drawing the bloom lightly through the hand from beneath 
will cause the turned down petals to spring back to their former places. 
Eule IX has always seemed to me undesirable ; but it is not new, 
was not (I think) altered at the last meeting, has never to my knowledge 
been made use of, and will, 1 hope, remain a dead letter. 
I would like to add a note as to Eosa laxa. I should by no means 
find it an advantage, as the introducer seems to think, to have stocks 
which do not grow in September. I do a great deal of budding in that 
month, and a considerable and most useful amount of rebudding takes 
place at that time of stocks whose first buds have failed.—W. E. 
Eaillem. 
CLIVIAS. 
A FULL historical and descriptive article on the Olivias was published 
in this Journal, page 290, April 11th, 1889, in the course of which 
reference was made to a group in Messrs. Laing& Sons’ Nursery, Forest 
