18 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ January, 
Tkue Briton (Hepvvortli).—One of the oldest varieties known. When ill-grown, a 
wretched thing, serrated and roflexed; but when well-grown, it is a very showy, strongly 
marked, and strikingly bold variety, forming a capital object for the back row of the home 
stage, and very often a good flower for the back tier of the stand. It is a good grower, has 
a fairly shaped petal, and the colours are well distributed. 
—E. S. Dodwell. 
NEPHROLEPIS DAVALLIOIDES FURCANS. 
'HE type of this fine new Fern is the extremely handsome Javanese 
species, Neiihrolepls davallioides^ now become familiar in cultivation. The 
charming and very distinct variety, of which the annexed woodcut (p. 19) 
is an illustration, was originally described by us in the Gardeners^ Chronicle 
for 1873 (p. 213), our knowledge of it having been derived from Messrs. Veitch and 
Sons, of Chelsea, to whom our thanks for the use of the figure are due. They 
state that the plant was received by them from Messrs. J. Baptist and Sons, of 
Sydney, N.S.W. ; that it was exhibited at the International Exhibition in Cologne 
in August, 1875 ; and that it received certificates from the Royal Horticultural 
Society in 1873, and the Royal Botanic Society in 1874. It is a noble fern, of 
robust growth, sending forth numerous arching fronds, from 3 ft. to 4 ft. long. 
From the normal form it differs obviously in the multifid furcation of the 
pinnae. In the sterile pinnae, which are few in number, at the base of the 
fronds, the furcation is rudimentary ; but the upper fertile pinnae are deeply 
parted, the furcation being twice, or even thrice, repeated in the extremities of 
the first divisions, the furcation thus becoming more complex towards the point 
of the frond ; the lobes are all more or less divaricate. 
It is a stove fern, of evergreen habit, and the multifid apices of its pinnae 
render it one of the most ornamental of the larger-growing sorts.—T. Moore. 
*.,V ■v^ - 
NOTES ON THE CULTURE OF VINES IN POTS. 
'^HEN it is intended to produce Grapes very early in the year, many 
persons prefer growing the Vines in pots; and when they are well 
managed, very good fruit can be obtained in April. Vines are so easily 
raised from eyes, and can be grown with so little trouble into fine fruit- 
ing-canes, the same season in which the eyes are planted, that any one having 
the convenience of a forcing-house can grow them. 
All free-fruiting varieties of vines are suitable for early forcing, but some 
varieties are much better adapted to this purpose than others. The best of all 
is Blade Ilamhiirg; it is a certain bearer, and produces fruit of large size and ex¬ 
cellent quality. I have tried nearly all the most ‘popular black sorts, to compare 
with it, but none of them are equal to it on all points. Snow’s Muscat Hamburg 
bears very freely, but I never found it set well on its own roots as a pot-vine, 
and as a consequence, the bunches were loose and the berries irregular in size. 
When Royal Ascot was sent out, it was thought to be well adapted for pot- 
