6 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Afeil 5, 1859. 
FRUITS and FRUIT TREES of GREAT BRITAIN. 
{Continuedfrom, Vol. XZ7, page 380.) 
No. XVII.— Triumph of Jodoigne Peab. 
This is a handsome and very excellent pear; but it varies very 
much in quality. On cold soils, I have invariably found it coarse- 
fleshed ana Astringent; but in cases where the fruit has been pro¬ 
duced in a warm soil, well fed, and with just sufficient moisture, 
it lias proved buttery, melting and delicious. 
Fruit inodorous ; large, varying from three inches and a quarter 
to four inches and a half long, and from two inches and three 
quarters to three inches and a quarter wide; pyriform, rounded 
at the head, and tapering to the stalk in a depressed curve, where 
it forms a stump end. 
Skin smooth, lemon-yellow, covered with small russety dots 
and several patches of pale brown russet. Sometimes mottled 
with green patches. 
Fye open, with incurved awl-shaped segments, which are of a 
brown colour, and placed in a slight depression. 
Stalk an inch to an inch and a quarter long, set on the end of 
the fruit without depression, and frequently with some fleshy 
wrinkles at its base. 
Flesh yellowish white, tender, buttery, and melting. Juice 
pretty abundant, with a sugary, piquant, and perfumed flavour. 
A dessert pear of the first quality ; ripe at the end of Novem¬ 
ber, and continues in use during December. 
This forms a middle-sized tree, of a spreading and an awkward 
habit when grafted on the pear stock ; but when worked on the 
quince, it is kept in better bounds, and is much more manageable. 
It was raised by M. Simon Bouvier, who sowed the seeds in 1830. 
The tree fruited in 1843; in which year, M. Bouvier, in con¬ 
sequence of ill-health, resigned his office as burgomaster of 
Jodoigne, to which he had been unanimously elected; and, as a 
compliment to his fellow-townsmen, he named this Pear Triomphe 
de Jodoigne. —H. 
EPIMEDIUM PINNATUM, OR COLCHICUM. 
You will find an account of Fpimedium colchicum in the 
“Annals of Horticulture,” 1850, page 377, under the title of 
Fp. pinnatum.* It is known by both names—at least, I can see 
no distinction. It is beautiful when well grown ; but I have my 
doubts about it as a spring bedding plant. In the first place, it 
must have peat soil. Secondly, it throws up its flowers in advance 
of the leaves; and frost injures them, as it does the flowers of 
early Rhododendrons when unprotected. Thirdly, the old leaves 
remain on the plants, as in the Hepaticas; and, as they protect 
the young leaves, I do not like to cut them off, as you recommend 
for the Hepaticas. The full-grown young leaves are lovely, and 
strong plants will rise eighteen inches or two feet. I recommend 
August for transplanting. 
Narcissus dubius is a beautiful pot plant, being dwarf, but too 
early for out-door work. I do not know where it can be had 
true, except at Bass and Brown’s, Sudbury. Some catalogues 
advertise it as synonymous with N.papyraceus, but it is not. 
I have sent to Messrs. E. G. Henderson a very pretty hybrid 
Fianthus, between I), fulgens and the common Pink, about 
which you may hear something.—A. R. 
DOUBLE POLYANTHUSES AND DOUBLE 
PRIMROSES. 
Mb. Beaton and your correspondent “ Mtosotis ” 
have drawn attention to a class of flowers which, from 
early association, and being the harbingers of coming 
sunshine with its accompanying renewed vegetable life, 
possess many charms for the florist and lover of simple 
beauty. There are several Double Primroses; and I 
have seen three varieties of Double Polyanthuses, besides 
seven or eight different semi-double ones. Many years 
ago, I endeavoured to breed Double Polyanthuses from 
seed, but only half-accomplished the object by raising 
semi-double ones : and not only for the reason that we 
know it has been done, but from my own endeavours, I 
am confident that a few years of properly-applied know¬ 
ledge, attention, and fitting means, would produce a race 
of beautiful Double Polyanthuses. I warmly entertain an 
opinion, that the standard of perfection of the Polyanthus, 
as a florists’ flower, should be double, with perfectly 
smooth-edged petals, whether these are regularly “edged,” 
as now in the florist class, or not, and with the flowers 
round; when they would be little inferior to our best 
Ranunculuses; except, perhaps, the difficulty of over¬ 
coming the irregularity of the centre petals might prevent 
its full conformability. 
In Germany, seed-growing and thus doubling flowers 
have been greatly effected by rich culture in pots, and se¬ 
lection of plants with indications of a predisposition to 
produce excess of petals around the corolla, but particularly when 
the stamens are converted into petals. From my own experience, 
I have learnt that a bed, made up on the north side of a three-feet 
high new Quickset hedge, which was not too dense, or tall, to pre¬ 
vent both air and light to permeate, yet, at the same time, afforded 
shade from the parching sun, produced most flowers from seedlings 
(which had been raised in light, rich earth, in pans, and then 
pricked out), partly semi-double, and which, when removed to 
poorer soil, lost this disposition of their stamens to become petals. 
I would, therefore, recommend such a border made of stiffish 
loam, with plenty of old Melon or hotbed manuro dug into it; 
although this class of plants will, with duo shade and moisture, 
not only flower best, but these flowers will, under such circum¬ 
stances, be much larger than if exposed to too much sun and the 
wind. Were I to make a renewed attempt, I would have every 
plant in a pot, so that it might be completely under control; and 
when the seed was perfecting, it might, if needs be,—as, for instance, 
if the weather should prove wet and cloudy, so as to unduly pro¬ 
mote the growth of leaves,—be removed to a drier and more sunny 
situation. 
• Also in “ Botanical Magazine,” t. 4456. 
