140 
THE COTTAGE GAKDENER. 
November 25. 
tasfp lias tairly beset our provit'cials. At the last 
Liverpool exhibition, for instance, Miss Newton, the j 
wax-Hower lady, bad a case which would not have dis- | 
graced the counter of the first seed shops in Britain. This 
was mostly composed of ])ears and apples, and the 
merest novice would have traced the actual fruits by the 
lineaments therein portrayed. Incorrectness in colour¬ 
ing seems to be the only charge against these wax 
modellers; and, doubtless, it is a nice point to hit off 
the peculi.arities of our fruits in this respect; but such 
difficulties will vanish before that extra perseverance 
engendered by the increasing demands. 
Now, as it appears to us, there are at least two strong j 
reasons why nurserymen might be expected to adopt 
1 such a plan; first, its utility to their customers; and 
! secondly, for the information of their staff. As it is, 
but few of these persons can become familiar with the 
character of the majority of the fruits they sell; their 
young trees bear not whilst in their hands; in offering 
information, therefore, to ignorant purchasers, it is not I 
expected, under such circumstances, to be very complete. 
But in these days we do hold it essential that every 
tradesman should bo able correctly to describe the cha¬ 
racter of the wares he deals in. Advertisements are all 
very proper; catalogues very proper ; but none of these 
will produce that impression on the mind of the anxious 
purchaser that well-executed wax models woidd do. For 
instance, we will here give an extract (descriptive) from 
the fruit catalogue of one of our most respectable nur¬ 
seryman— 
“Grapes— St. Peter’>i; black; round; ripens late, &c. 
Pears — Beurre Base; large; good; melting, &c. 
Ai'pi.es — Kerry Pippin; small; first quality; table, 
&c.” 
Now, these taken at random, may servo to illustrate 
the matter; and we may ask how any novice could 
form a just idea of the true form, general character, and 
})eculiarly fine bloom of the West's St. Peter's Grape 
from so narrow a description'.’ Then the Beurre Bose, 
which carries such an extraordinary impress on the 
table when in full size, so peculiar in character; the 
description would apply equally to a Beurre IHel. And 
to finish: the Kerry Pippin Apple; to say nothing of 
the very superior flavour and peculiarly high-colouring 
of the flesh, almost an orange colour, no one could 
picture to himself the handsome appearance on the 
table of a dish of high-coloured Kerry’s in the middle 
of Sejitember. And now we will take it for granted 
that anything which will greatly serve and please cus¬ 
tomers it is the nurseryman’s interest to carry out. 
We remember, some years since, when the late Mr. 
Loudon—who was always aiming at luogress—used all 
the influence his pen could command in trying to im¬ 
prove the character of our nurseryman’s catalogues, 
which had previously been very dry affairs. This, 
1 although a somewhat up-hill work at first, at last pro¬ 
gressed almost beyond his expectations; and now we 
have them in the plant way of as higli a botanical cha¬ 
racter as could be desired; and, moreover, through a 
well-conceived grouping, most useful guides to the 
purchaser. 
Such trays, or cabinets, then, we do urge would pro¬ 
mote the culture of fruits, as well as a well-studied and 
correct nomenclature; and they would be a sort of 
guarantee that the tradesman was quite in earnest 
about his collection. They would also lead to increased 
inquiries on the part of the public; to an enlarged 
study of fruits, their characters, qualities, ibc.; their 
origin; and, lastly, habits of growth. The last is an 
important matter, as on a knowledge of such facts must, 
in a degree, all successful culture be based. To this 
j end we would beg to push the question a little farther, 
and to suggest that a leaf, a modelled blossom, and a 
I twig of the kind in question, should accompany every 
specimen. These, with a tabular card sheet, setting 
forth, in distinct columns, something like the following; 
Uses; qualities; when in tise and their keepiny ; hearing 
chi trader; eligihililics as to site, d-c.; peculiarities as to 
soil, or othervise; and, indeed, any other information 
likely to be needed on the spot. Now, this well carried 
out would, we feel assured, speedily raise the cliaracter 
of any fruit grown. The public would feel assured that 
the mere canying out the idea would necessarily impose 
so much real attention to fruits on the part of the 
vendor, as would of itself lead to that fulness of infor¬ 
mation re(]uisite to guide the public. 
it remains, whilst on this subject, to offer another 
suggestion, for which we have not the assurance to 
claim novelty, but we possess a desire to see it made an 
indispensable qualification of one who aims at being a 
2 mblic purveyor in the matter of I'ruits. It is this; that 
every grower jilant out a tree, under favourable circum¬ 
stances, of every kind he receives into his catalogue, in 
order to let it attain maturity, and fruit if it will; its 
products tending, of course, to establish or destroy the 
identity of the wax model. This is surely a wholesome 
practice, both as to the salesman and his customers ; in 
the former leading to careful selection and a facility of 
obtaining genuine grafts and buds—and in the latter, 
engendering that confidence whicli is the life and soul 
of all such transactions. 
Had we a nursery we should cause these specimen- 
fruits to accompany all the prineijial lines or prome¬ 
nades, and every one should have a descriptive label, 
bearing reference to the model in the seed-shop; as also 
to the tabular account. R. Errixgion. 
HARDY AND HALF-HARDY BULBS. 
On the first appearance of The Cottage Gardener, 
1 promised the Editor, in my haste, that if I could not 
serve him in any other way, I could “ do " the bulbs for 
him. Fiver since, 1 have found that tn-omises to Editors 
are like marriage vows—if you once break them, you 
will probably be out at elbows to the end of the chapter. 
As if to inove all this, I have now on the table seven 
folio pages full of the names of hardy and lialf-hardy 
bulbs, alphabetically arranged, with their natural orders 
indicated, all culled, industriously, from the pages of 
our useful Cottage Gardeners’ Dictionarv by a cor¬ 
respondent (S. S. S.); and I am to give, from the 
epitome condensed by my friend, IMr. F'ish, in the pages 
of the Dictionary aforesaid, an extended view of their 
propagation and cultivation, in conformity with my 
hasty promise. 
If 1 were to do this in a consecutive order, from week 
to week, and from Agaguinthus to Zepliy rant lies, I should 
be called to account; therefore I shall only give a 
chapter on them now and then, when nothing else is 
more pressing. 
To save repetitions, I shall observe at once, that the 
diflerent soils for hulhs ought to be well exposed for 
some time before using, so as that all vegetable remains 
in the compost may be quite decayed, and well incor- 
liorated with the mass by frequent turnings; that most 
bulbs are much inq^roved by beds far deeper than many 
good gardeners are aware of; that jilanting with a 
dibber is injurious to many delicate bulbs, unless good 
clean sand is used at the same time, and if it is, idanting 
with a dibber is the best jiraeticc. 'J’he reason of this 
is, that the aides of a bole made by a dibber will fall 
heavy on the bulb after the first frost or heavy rain, or, 
if they stand, will be a])t to hold water too long, or 
make more of it pass down over the bulb than would 
do so if all the soil over the bulb were free and 
loose. By making a comparatively large hole for the 
size of the bulb with a sharp-pointed stick, or dibber. 
