THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— August 26, 1856. 381 
Currant-like fruited Capsicum, which uearly ohoked 
me from merely tasting it incautiously. One of the 
earliest “ contributors,” a nobleman’s gardener, asked 
me, at the time, if there was any possibility of getting 
at the seeds of this fiery Capsicum, as it would be 
so valuable in families for making Chili vinegar, and 
for mixing in India pickles, and for making one’s own 
Cayenne pepper. I took the hint, sowed all my seeds 
of it, and now I have three plants well established in 
sixty-pots for every one who helped me, but they will 
not fruit this seasou ; and as they may require a warmer 
place than the greenhouse in winter, all the contributors 
may not be ablo to keep it for another year; therefore, 
if such of them as can do so will let me know from 
which of tho London nurseries they get parcels down 
this autumn, I could send a pot for each of them to 
such nurseries, which would be the cheapest way to 
receive it, or I can send it direct if they wish it. I do 
not know that it would suit nurserymen to have a pot 
for trial; but I am going to Clapton this week, and will 
take a pot for Mr. Low, and Mr. Jackson here will have 
a pot of it; all the rest of them must let me know if 
they wish for the breed. I do not mean to pay off the 
nurserymen who helped me so handsomely in this “ hot- 
haste ” sort of way; something better for them may fall 
in my way before long. If not, they must take the will 
for the deed. 
Ono more saying, and we shall take the long vacation. 
The Experimental is not my property, neither have I 
got a lease of it; I may be turned out of it by one 
stroke of the pen, or by a stroke of bad policy. A man 
who has been so long in service as I have been ought 
to know, by this time, that it is bad policy to have 
“followers” wherever one has a footing; therefore, 
lest I should lose a very good thing by it, I have 
resolved to have no “followers” into tho Experimental; 
but I reserve a certain privilege in favour of the con¬ 
tributors, any of whom may ask for information about 
it at any time, although they cannot see it; and contri¬ 
butions will be received from them in future, and from 
them only, without some kind of charge, which will go 
to pay tho piper and the Experimental-list for the time 
being ; that is to say, if any one wishes his best seedling 
to be proved in the Experimental, or his or her name to 
appear in the “ Chronicles of the Experimental Garden ” 
as a patron of our art, a moderate fee will be charged, 
to be paid in advance. Whenever I shall give notice, 
in future, of the want of some plants or seeds for this 
garden, such notice must be understood to reach the 
contributors of 1856 only, with the above “ limitation.” 
I liavo many things to say anent the contributions in 
hand, that must stand on till the frost and snow come; 
but I may remark, that too much stress is laid on 
“ seedlings ” all over the three kingdoms. A man raises 
a good seedling from seeds saved in his own garden, 
and forthwith he names it; a new name is in the 
market, the “seedling” sells well, but the buyers, to 
their mortification, find out, but too soon, that the 
very same kind was in their own gardens for the last 
ten years. A round of bad names gives rise to worse 
feelings, till they reach the ears of the “ first person 
singular,” who declares, upon his honour, that the plant 
was his own raised “seedling;” and so it was, sure 
enough, but he ought to have first acquainted himself if 
such another seedling was already on tho turf. I know 
from forty to fifty kinds of Geraniums, for instance, 
which will produce seventy-five per cent, of seedlings as 
true to kind as any wild species, any one of which might 
lead an honest man into a hornet’s nest. If I had my 
own way, I would scratch the words species, variety, 
and seedling, out of all books on the flower-garden, and 
hand them over to the florist. Nature has no such 
distinctions at all; every seedling in naturo is a kind of 
plant; every variety in naturo is a kind of plant also; 
and every artificial or natural species, so called, is no 
more than a kind of plant. Confusion is caused by 
giving the samo name to two kinds, as Defiance and 
Scarlet Defiance Geranium, two as distinct as Baron 
Hugel and Compaction. The two are scarlet, and who 
knows which is “Scarlet Defiance?” Defiance lias the 
largest flower of all tho breed; Scarlet Defiance, which 
is no more scarlet than the other, is a small flower, with 
a florist’s shape. Globes, again, are in great coni’usion— 
Olobe Compaction, New Qlobe, and Globe Superb. New 
Compactum and Compaction superb, all for two kinds. 
New Globe is not much; Compactum Superb is a fine 
thing, and these are tho true names. 
The richest individual flower I have is a kind called 
Ethel, or Miss Ethel, cast from Shrubland Park, but I 
do not expect it to bed on our soil, being too slow of 
growth. Col. Leveson is the best pink, or rosy-pink, 
after Lady Middleton, Trentham Bose, and before Le 
Titian, Trentham Rose being Lady Middleton with a 
dwarfer habit. Trentham Rose, 1855, is of the same 
close habit, with more red in the flower—two excellent 
kinds for such heavy or wet soil and climate as those of 
Trentham; and Trentham Scarlet, 1856, is the best 
bright scarlet flower 1 ever set my eye on, with exactly 
the samo dwarf habit as the Trentham Rose, and ail 
from my own model-habited kind, named after Lady 
Middleton, reduced in strength to suit Trentham Gardens. 
This is the kind of practical knowledge we stand so 
much in need of at the present day—“Tell me your soil, 
subsoil, elevation, climate, and county, and your taste in 
colour, and I shall produce you a kind of Geranium to 
suit.” That is exactly what Mr. Fleming has been 
aiming at since we put up our horses together ten or a 
dozen years back. Tho old man is Beaton, certainly, 
but he is not beaten yet; his strength “ is coming,” like 
the good times, or like tho bad times for many, when I 
shall drive all the present Geraniums out of all the 
gardens in Europe at least. 
There is a capital style of scarlet bedder at Althorp, 
the Northampton seat of the Earl Spencer. Mr. Fish 
spoke of a bed of it; ho saw them two years since, and 
I am indebted to Mr. Judd for a bed of it. Our soil 
suits it to a nicety. 
The best judge cannot say from one or two plants 
on a border which are the very best bedders ; but from 
one plant, which is in a direct line from my office 
window, I would say that the Richmond Gem would 
make tho very best bedder of all the coral-stalked kinds, 
not forgetting General Pelissier himself, by tho same 
fortunate grower, Mr. Kinghorn. 
By-the-by, can any one tell me if Harkaway was by or 
from one of the early coral-stalked kinds ? Lucidum to 
wit, which I have not 6een since 1810. It was then 
in wooden rustic work, in the garden of the Rev. Mr. 
Williams, of Hendon Rectory, near Edgware, and Mr. 
Lawrence was the gardener. If either of them see this, 
I would knock out a bur in the garden gate, and take 
Lucidum in without a premium, knowing the Rev. 
gentleman would like to oblige me, although I once put 
him to the expense of some thousands, competing about 
a certain tribe of curious plants. If that, or the liko 
of it, was not tho beginning of Harkaway, I am out in 
my stud book, and should like to be “ taken in ” by 
some ono who knows how. 
Bishopstow Scarlet is a good kind, but is in sad 
confusion. I have four kinds under that name, all 
from good reliable sources, and if I am right as to the 
kind, the mother has no pollen, and bears a celebrated 
foreign name. By this the perspn who raised Bishop¬ 
stow Scarlet will know if I have his seedling true, and 
a line to that effect would enable mo to give it a fair 
character. 
Glowworm, Highland Chieftain (not chief, which is 
nonsense, there being no such “chief” on earth), In 
