1371.] JOTTINGS ABOUT THE FKUIT SEASON OF 1871 . 251 
than the common one, and has leaves of many forms, the most common being the 
cordate, with coarse lobe-like teeth, and the tripartite. It clings most tenaciously 
to walls of any sort.* It is usually of a fine lively tint of green, and changes to 
scarlet in the autumn. The only objection to be brought against it is, that it is 
not evergreen ; but it is only a very short time without leaves, since it retains the 
foliage till near Christmas, and is on the move in spring as soon as most things. 
It is, moreover, a very fast grower, and is perfectly hardy. The plant will thrive 
in any ordinary soil, and is very reasonable in price ; a good plant may be 
purchased of any respectable nurseryman for 2s. 6d. 
Last year, at this time, I planted this creeper, then having only one shoot 
about a foot long, against a cement wall, on an eastern aspect. It took hold 
of the wall pretty well before Christmas. In the spring the old stem threw out 
a branch at almost every eye, and it now covers a space 7 ft. high and 4 ft. 
through. Its peculiar habit and shape, as well as the colour of its foliage, claim 
for it many admirers.— Thomas Kecobd, Hatfield House , Herts. 
JOTTINGS ABOUT THE FRUIT SEASON OF 1871. 
HE quality of English-grown Crapes has been worse this season than for 
many years past, in so far as the fruit sent into the market is concerned. 
Muscat grapes especially have been of poor quality generally, and scarce 
even as regards the supply of an out-of-town season. A smaller supply 
than usual of good fruit of any kind has, in fact, been offered from the ordinary 
home sources. 
The arrivals of early William Pears (Williams’ Bon Chretien), especially from 
“abroad,” have been, on the contrary, superabundant, and the fruit remarkably 
fine, even to the matter of flavour ; every street and alley in the great metropolis 
has been inundated with the side-pavement huxters, and the finest conceivable 
specimens found their way into the “ barrows,” proving, I have no doubt, a very 
great boon indeed to the poorest of the poor. This foreign supply has com¬ 
pletely revolutionized the “ Britisher’s ” early fruit prospects. But a very few 
years since, these fine Pears did not forestal our native-grown fruit, and so reduce 
the rich harvest reaped by the fruit-grower; whereas, now, by the time home¬ 
grown samples of Louise Bonne, Beurre d’Amanlis, and other early sorts are in, 
the foreign grower has pocketed the first harvest of proceeds. 
The foreign grapes, Lisbons or Portuguese, or whatever name for the nonce 
they bear, are but poor watery things, mere skin-and-juice, and of questionable 
good in a stomachic point of view. How insufficiently they testify to those who 
can afford but the 9d. per lb., what a real grape is ! Yet what an outlay is made 
for their tempting exterior, as compared to the unfrequency with which a fair 
remunerative price can be got for luscious-fleshed home-grown fruit. The 
* The mode of attachment is peculiar and very interesting. The little tendrils formed opposite the leaves 
produce about five or six short alternate ramifications, each terminated by a disk-like sucker, which clings 
so firmly to the wall that it can only be torn away by the use of considerable force.—Eo. 
