THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
119 
November 17. 
the Thames, with whole haslcetsful of putrid Mush¬ 
rooms ; hut there were some very fine, from the button 
up to the full-grown cap; English Truffles, fine, 2s. per 
lb.; very large Pomegranates, 4s. a dozen; fine-looking 
Quinces, 3d. a-piece; Spanish Water Melons, not half- 
ripe ; cut slices of ditto, at a penny per tasting. Many 
other things and ways that I would rather speak of, 
even as a foreigner, to the flower-girl than to our 
readers. Pears, Apples, Plums, home Grapes and 
Pines, in plenty, and tolerable, but nothing that way 
that could be compared with what the Society brought 
together in Regent Street. 
The finest fruit we had before the Society were two 
splendid Queen Pine-apples, from Mr. Blakler, gardener 
at Newton Park, near Bath, 5 lbs. each, and one of 
them 2 ozs. over; hut it was the symmetry and colour, 
with the small crowns, which told so well. There were 
other two Queens, about the same weight, shorter and 
thicker, with larger crowns, and rather too ripe for 
carriage, and an Enville Pine, sent, I should think, for 
curiosity; it had five crowns, and eight suckers round 
the bottom of the fruit. Nothing tells hero so well as 
Queens, Black Jamaicas, and smooth-leaved Cayennes, 
all the rest, Entitles, Providence, &c., are considered 
only as so-and-so. A fine dish of the most perfect 
berry and bloom of the true St. Peter s Grape were from 
Mr. Whiting, gardener at the Deepdene, who also sent 
three large bunches of the white Calabrian Raisin 
Grape—a very excellent late sort, which is not half so 
much known as it ought to be. Those who cannot yet 
manage to grow the Muscats, and yet want late white 
Grapes, should have this Calabrian Raisin, or the Tre- 
biana —a rounder and much larger berry, but both set 
as well as the Hambro'. I think Mr. Whiting took 
a prize for Coe’s Late Red Plums, against Her Majesty, 
but, with that exception, the Queen took off the rewards 
in all the hardy fruits. A large tray full of different 
kinds of Apples, from Her Majesty, were universally 
admired, and no one there had seen anything to come 
near to them this season. In reference to them, we 
were told, in the lecture, what is quite true, that the new 
kitchen-garden at Frogmore is the best in this country; 
that it is managed with great skill; and, indeed, that 
these very Apples were proof positive of what practical 
skill, with scientific knowledge, could effect in our 
climate, even in such a season as this; and that these 
beautiful Apples were gathered from semicircular wire 
trellises, or espaliers, which seems to prove this to be the 
best way of training our finest dessert fruits that do not 
require a wall. To all this might have been added a 
stimulus which hears favourably on all the royal 
gardens, and that is, that both the Queen and Prince 
Albert go into every hole and corner in these gardens, 
look at pots of cuttings, seedlings, and crosses, and all 
and every one of the hundreds of the little trifles on 
which a gardener’s success so much depends, with as 
much interest as any of her subjects; and you will 
always find, that where the master and the mistress 
take an interest in, and look much into, the garden, the 
gardener is sure to succeed, whether aided by science or 
no science. 
A Frenchman had above one hundred sorts of Pears 
at this meeting, and a great many Apples, which must 
have bothered the Society’s officers considerably, as they 
had to make out the different names under which many 
of these Pears and Apples are known in this country, 
before the meeting, so as to be able to say which was 
which to such Fellows as might wish to buy fruit-trees 
from the Frenchman. After all this trouble, I was 
pleased to hear they had given a good handsome prize 
to the foreigner, which his large collection, and the 
expence and trouble he had in getting them over, richly 
deserved; besides, it is always better to be on good 
terms with our next-door neighbours; and to do the 
French justice where justice is their due, is a better way 
than bullets and national defences of any sort. We 
were earnestly advised to give more extensive cultivation 
to the red Plum called Coe's late Red, with which Mr. 
Whiting beat the Queen’s gardeners. There was only 
one dish of the White Alpine Strawberry, although one 
of the “ special subjects ” for that day. There were 
two kinds of fine-looking Quinces from Mr. Yeitch, got 
from plants sent from Syria by the late Mr. Barker, 
but they could not tell if they were better, or very 
different, from our own Quinces. I saw some little 
Apple-trees, sent overby Mr. Barker, with Mr. Plogg the 
other day, which, they say, never become bigger than 
Geraniums; and they were in full fruit buds, and looked 
to me exactly like the old Oslin Pippin in habit. This 
Syrian, or Persian Apple, will grow as freely from 
cuttings as the Scotch variety. There were some fine 
Pears from the garden of the Society; and one enormous 
Savoy, the very biggest I ever saw or heard of. It 
would make “ sauce,” as they say in Suffolk, to a whole 
flitch of bacon; but, unfortunately, the Society still 
adheres to the old way of giving the French names, a 
yard long, to every blade and button which comes to 
them from France; but they might just as well ex¬ 
periment on growing French mustachios in their garden 
as think that these names are of any use or ornament 
to anybody here. There were three sticks of Celery, 
from the garden of the Society, just fit for table ; one 
was Cole's Superb Crystal, perhaps the best white Celery 
going; the other two were only one kind under two 
names, one called Sutton’s Superb Red; and here was a 
practical illustration of the nonsensical method pursued 
by this very Society with respect to French names; this 
very Celery, called Sutton's Superb Red, has been “ sent 
out” by the Society, for twenty years, if I recollect 
rightly, under this phrase, Celeri Gros Violet de Tours, 
but all the towers and castles in the world will not turn 
true Britons to this effeminate kind of naming things 
in their own dominions; and the consequence is, that 
what we get for nothing through the Society, we have 
to pay for through the nose to anybody who is bold 
enough to give a right or a wrong English name to the 
thing in question. I was told, in the room, by one of 
the best judges in England, that Cole’s Superb Red is 
just the same thing; but anybody’s “superb, is better 
than French names for common vegetables. Roses, 
Chrysanthemums, and Dutch Hyacinths, &c., are very 
different things ; when foreigners beat us, out and out, 
in raising new kinds of them, and a trade in them is 
established between the two nations, we are compelled 
to take to their names. In common vegetables it is 
very different; still, if Brussels Sprouts were to come to 
us now, for the first time, through the Horticultural 
Society, I wonder what a la in the world they would 
call it. 
Orohihs— The best Orchid in the room was from Mr. 
Maul, Nurseryman, Bristol, a beautiful plant of I anda 
ccerulea, with five spikes of open flowers, and two spikes 
with the flowers in bud, each spike holding from eight 
to thirteen flowers, and they were of a beautiful colour, 
unfortunately, this fine plant could not possibly get a 
prize; the Society, however, must not be blamed (oi 
that, for they have a law, which they constantly publish, 
setting forth that every plant must be in the room by a 
certain time, else it forfeits whatever is duo to it; and I 
can say, from my own knowledge, that if they were to 
give up this law in favour of their best customer, that is, 
in favour of her Majesty, they might just as well shut 
up shop, for plants would keep coming in till it was time 
to go to bed. Maxillaria picta was the next largest 
plant. It was from the Society’s garden; and also the 
old Achimenes coccinea, a yard through, and in full 
bloom; two kinds of white-flowering Heaths, scabriuscula, 
pyramidal growth, and small flowers, and another, which 
