214 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ September, 
GAKDEN GOSSIP. 
Gardeners^ Chronicle has recently published its usual annual report on 
the Fruit Crops of the British Islands^ from which it appears that a more 
f disastrous season for fruit crops has rarely been experienced. Apricots 
and Plums are almost universally below average. Cherries have been 
more abundant in the south, but elsewhere have been a relative failure. Peaches and 
Nectarines are a fair average crop in the southern half of the kingdom, but thin in Scotland, 
Wales, and Ireland. Ajyples are almost universally below the average, the reports from 
Ireland being somewhat more favourable. Pears are generally below average. Small fi’uit, 
such as Currants and Rasptherries, have given a good general average, but Gooseberries are 
in most cases thin. Straiuheiries have been abundant and of fine quality on heavy land, but 
on light soils small in size, and of short duration. Nuts of all kinds are below the average, 
owing to the drought. Fruit trees in general bore an abundance of blossom, and there was 
in most places a good set, but the long-continued easterly winds and tardy spring retarded 
growth, and caused most of the blossoms to fall off. Those fruits which withstood these un¬ 
favourable conditions have suffered from ^the summary drought, so that fruit will generally 
be small in size. Neither soil, latitude, nor elevation, have this year materially counter¬ 
acted the general bad result of the inclement spring. Early Potatos have generally yielded 
a good crop, but the tubers are small in size; later varieties look well, but want rain. There 
have as yet been few indications of disease, but should the drought continue, super-tuberation, 
or a growth of new tubers at the expense of those of the present season’s growth, may be 
looked for. 
- ®HE northern suburbs of London were visited, on the evening of July 
23, with a most disastrous Hailstorm^ which has done a great amount of damage 
to garden produce, greenhouses, and other glass structures. A movement has 
subsequently been set on foot to raise a fund for the relief of the chief sufferers, to be called 
the Hailstorm Relief Fund for Nurserymen and Florists ; and a committee has been formed, 
with Mr. John Fraser, chairman, Mr. Hibberd, treasurer, and Mr. R. Dean, Ealing, W., 
secretary, to raise and administer the fund. The loss from damaged glass alone, it is com¬ 
puted, will take from £3,000 to £4,000 to make good, and many small growers are in dis¬ 
tressed circumstances, owing to the loss of their plants as well as their glass. 
- ^^HE programme for the International Horticidtural Exhibition at 
Amsterdam^ 1877, comprises 662 classes, including competitions for new plants ; 
stove, greenhouse, and hardy plants in various sections; plants arranged according 
to families, genera, and native countries respectively; and fruit-trees and bulbous plants. 
Prizes are offered for flower-beds, drawing-room and table ornaments. Collections of preserved 
fruits and seeds, horticultural apparatus and appliances, instruments for education in horti¬ 
cultural science and physiology, and a great variety of miscellaneous matters, are mentioned 
in the programme, copies of which may be had in English on application, post paid, to M. H. 
Groenewegen, 5 Oetewalerweg, Amsterdam. 
—^— ®HE Fruit Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society, at a meeting 
held at Chiswick on the 11th ult., awarded the following First-class Certificates 
to Vegetables for trials grown in the Gardens :—The Queen Onion; Trebons 
Onion; Schoolmaster Potato, from Mr. C. Turner, a smooth, medium-sized, pebble-shaped 
tuber, with a very rough skin, and fine cooking qualities; Rachel Kidney Bean, from Messrs. 
Nutting and Co., a dwarf, early, and good spotted variety; Haricot Nain Blanc Quarantain, 
from Messrs. Vilmorin and Co., a kidney bean in the style of White Canterbury; and 
Minier'^s First Early Kidney Bean, from Messrs. Minier, Nash, and Co., a variety which 
resembles the Mexican salmon-coloured variety. 
- ^HE Victoria Dwarf French Bean is a fine robust-growing kind, of 
free branching habit, and one of the very best sorts for a main crop. It is, oT 
has been, known in the trade as Polley’s Prolific. The Victoria Dwarf, owing to 
its robust branching habit, is one of the most continuous of podders, and only needs frequent 
gathering to keep it in full beaiing. The ripe seed is 6f a long narrow form, dull white, with 
