264 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 2G, 1858. 
growth. In the first place you insure a plant, you hare no 
misses, no blind eyes, but up they come regular and equal, 
like a well-disciplined regiment of soldiers, every one in its 
place. They will be ready for “getting up” full a month 
before others set in the ordinary way ; and, when the annual 
complaint arises that the disease has again appeared, you will 
have taken up your crop in a good state of preservation. 
We prefer getting them before they have attained a state of 
maturity, rather than run the risk of obtaining greater weight 
by allowing them to remain longer in the ground to ripen. 
The tubers will not be quite so large, but they will be sound ; 
and, if the cultivator were to calculate the almost endless 
expense of turning over his store and picking out the diseased 
ones, he would find himself a considerable gainer in securing a 
crop of sound middle-sized Potatoes. 
Last year, both Red Ryes and Flukes were taken up before 
they were ripe : the skins were abrazed; and when brought 
home from the field they presented a ragged and bruised ap¬ 
pearance, anything but sightly : but, in the course of a month 
or so, this unsightliness disappeared, the tubers recovered, and 
became quite mature; when eaten they proved excellent. 
Many who saw them at first exclaimed that they were spoilt. 
“What a pity it was, &c.; they would be good neither for 
j eating nor for seed.” But these very Potatoes kept sound 
| and good, not one went bad, and the last w'ere eaten after 
I Easter. 
Doubtless there exists a great obstacle to the large cul¬ 
tivator in the way of “ sprouting.” How can he sprout seed 
for thirty or forty acres ? We must confess that there is a 
difficulty; yet, with a little contrivance, by making use of the 
cattle-sheds and outbuildings, which we may suppose such an 
occupier to possess, he might sprout sufficient for several acres; j 
and when he found the advantage of so doing, he might add 
to his contrivances. 
But there are hundreds of small cultivators who would have 
no difficulty at all in the matter. Let the man who now grows 
his half-acre for his own family consumption—and how many 
such there are!—try the sprouting system, and we are per¬ 
suaded that the saving of food would be something enormous. 
It may be considered audacious to say so; but we cannot but 
look upon the Potato disease as one of the strongest incentives 
to greater industry and energy on the part of the cultivator ; 
and should the end of the affliction amount to almost a com¬ 
pulsion to obtain two crops a-year instead of one, we shall 
have no cause of complaint, but feel thankful to Him who can 
mercifully bring good out of evil.— Moreconibe , 1857. 
AMYTUDALUS PERSICA: Double Crimson Peach, from China. 
Received from Mr. Fortune, as a 
<c Peach, flowers double red.” 
This is a semi-double variety of the 
Peach, with dark crimson flowers, and quite 
hardy. It is a very fine and handsome 
plant. 
This plant has presented the peculiarity 
of producing very generally more than 
one fruit to each flower, as in the annexed 
cut, where, out of three flowers, one has two 
young Peaches, and another three. In the 
case of the double fruit, each half remained 
separate; in the other, two had grown 
together: and if they had ripened, a double¬ 
headed cluster would have been produced. 
Similar cases have been seen; but it is a 
novelty to have a plant in which there is a 
natural predisposition to produce anoma¬ 
lous appearances of such a kind.—( Horti¬ 
cultural Society's Journal .) 
V. 
\ m 
HISTORY" OF FUCHSIA 
RICCARTONII—HYACINTHS. 
I have much pleasure in replying to 
Mr. Beaton’s communication (page 223), 
even before the daft days are over (nae 
doot Mr. B. speaks feelingly on the subject), 
which are reckoned to terminate somewhere 
about old Hansel-Monday; but such merry¬ 
makings are easier got over now-a-days than 
at the period when Mr. B. was a resident of 
Modem Athens, thanks to education for this 
improvement; and the greater facilities which 
are offered to the inhabitants for instruction, 
combined with amusement at such times, 
have also tended to ameliorate the condition 
of the people, in this respect, more than the stringency of the 
law has ever effected, or is ever likely to do. 
Riccarton is about five miles and a half due west of Edin- ! 
burgh. Two railways, two tumpike-roads, and one canal, 
pass through the estate, all, more or less, direct from Edin¬ 
burgh to Glasgow. It is certain that no gardener named 
Watson has lived here for the last fourscore years at least. 
Mr. John Cunningham was gardener for sixty years, but only 
nominally so; for sixteen or eighteen years of the latter part 
of this time the garden was under the superintendence of 
Mr. John Young, now gardener at Archerfield and Dirleton, 
East Lothian. It is to the latter-named gentleman that the 
Amygdalus Pcrsica. 
honour of raising the Fuchsia Riccartonii belongs; the history 
of which is soon told. Mr. Young received the seeds from 
Mr. Brakenbridge, then gardener to Dr. Neile, Cannon Mills 
Cottage, Edinburgh, who, about that time, left for an appoint¬ 
ment abroad. Its parentage is not known. 
Now, about the Hyacinth affair. I can-only say that I 
have officiated as one of the Judges at all (but one) of the 
principal Hyacinth Shows in Edinburgh for the last ten or 
twelve years, and I never saw an improper use made of moss in 
dressing their forced Hyacinths for competition : but it is quite 
true that they dress the surface of the pots with moss ; and, 
as might be expected, some of the stands are more tastefully 
