160 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, December 9, 1856. 
Street, Covent Garden, Robert Hogg, Esq., Vice-Pre¬ 
sident, in the chair. 
The following gentlemen were elected Members of the 
Society: — 
Rev. J. G. Milne, Chignal Rectory, Essex. 
John Harper, Esq., Isham, Wellingborough. 
The Society took into consideration the desirableness 
of offering premiums as an encouragement to the pro¬ 
duction of new and superior varieties of fruits, the 
Chairman giving it as his opinion that, considering the 
present state of the funds of the Society, the Meeting 
might with safety entertain the subject, and thereby 
promote the further usefulness of the Society in a way 
which has not hitherto been entertained. After duQ 
consideration of the subject it was unanimously agreed 
that, considering the number of new Grapes which are 
now before the public, and that there should be some 
opinion come to with regard to their relative merits, 
there should be three prizes given as follow :— 
1. A Prize of Two Guineas for the best Seedling 
Grape having a Muscat flavour. 
2 . A Prize of Two Guineas for the best Seedling 
Grape not having a Muscat flavour. 
3. A Prize of Two Guineas for any Grape not being 
a Seedling, but which is little known, and is not in 
general commerce. 
And no prize shall be awarded unless the object 
exhibited be considered worthy of general cultivation. 
Mr. Toyne, of Hounslow, exhibited specimens of a 
seedling Apple called “ Princess Royal.” It is a nice, 
handsome-looking Apple, of a Pearmain shape, and 
medium size. The skin is nicely streaked with crimson, 
and the flesh is tender, and of a good flavour; but as 
it exhibited no characteristics which were equal to 
many other varieties already in cultivation, the Meeting 
did not recommend it as a desideratum. 
Mr. Ingram, of the Royal Gardens, Frogmore, sent 
specimens of some new seedling Apples raised by him. 
They were exhibited under numbers, and not under 
names. No. 74 is a handsome little Apple, with a skin 
very much like the Golden Harvey. The flesh is 
firm and crisp, very juicy, and briskly acid, but defi¬ 
cient in sugar and aroma. It has a slight anise 
flavour, but very faint. It is an Apple that many 
would like, and it appears to be one which will keep 
till late in the season. The Meeting requested that 
specimens may be sent to the February Meeting, when 
the acidity may be more subdued. No. 87 is of very 
ordinary merit. No. 114 is tender-fleshed, and not 
sufficiently juicy, being rather mealy; but this, no 
doubt, arises from being kept beyond its season. It is 
very sweet, rather too much so, there being a deficiency 
of acid. No. 71 is a handsome-looking Apple of a fine 
yellow colour, but of inferior flavour. It was said to be 
“ a late Golden Pippin. Tree remarkably strong, and 
exceedingly prolific.” Mr. Ingram also sent specimens 
of Coxes Orange Pippin , a first-rate Apple. It is of the 
medium size, and of a handsome oblato-ovate shape. 
The skin is considerably covered with brownish-red, 
over which there are patches and tracings of good, hard, 
thick russet. Where shaded the colour is greenish- 
yellow, marked witli a few broken stripes of very pale 
crimson. The flesh is yellowish, remarkably tender and 
juicy, with a fine Ribston flavour. We have rarely mot 
with a finer Apple. Another Apple, called Small's Ad¬ 
mirable, was also exhibited from the same collection. 
It is large, and of ovate shape, tender-fleshed, and with 
a pleasant sub-acid flavour. This cannot fail to be a 
good culinary Apple. 
Two seedling Apples were exhibited by Mr. W. Barratt, 
of Wakefield, which had unfortunately been frozen, 
and, being packed in wheat chaff, the flavour of 
it was communicated to the fruit, both circumstances 
rendering them perfectly worthless. A collection of 
Apples which Mr. Barratt sent was also frozen, and 
worthless as regards flavour. 
Mr. Powell, of the Royal Gardens, Frogmore, sent 
specimens of Nelis d'Hiver and Bonne de Malines Pears, 
showing that the opinion expressed by the Horticultural 
Society’s Catalogue, that these two varieties are synony¬ 
mous, is incorrect. Specimens of the young wood and 
spurs were also exhibited, and there could not be the 
least doubt as to the distinctness of the two varieties. 
The fruit is somewhat similar to the eye ; but, while the 
Nelis d’Hiver which were shown were perfectly ripe, the 
Bonne de Malines were quite hard, and exhibited no 
appearance of ripening. Both varieties were grafted on 
the same tree, and grown against a wall, so that both 
were produced under the same circumstances. There 
can be no doubt at all that the two varieties exhibited 
are perfectly distinct, and the question just arises, If the 
Horticultural Society’s Catalogue be correct—and it 
generally is—what is the Bonne de Malines which Mr. 
Powell sent? This is a subject worth investigation, and 
no doubt Mr. Powell will afford the Society all the in¬ 
formation in his power to come to a correct decision on 
the matter. 
Excellent specimens of Blade Hamburgh Orapes were 
exhibited which had been ripened out of doors at Heath, 
near Wakefield, the residence of Mr. Reynolds. They 
were quite sweet and sugary; some of them had shri¬ 
velled, and begun to assume the appearance of raisins. 
The Meeting then adjourned till the first Thursday of 
February. 
EXOTIC NURSERY, KING’S ROAD, LONDON. 
( Continued, from page 127.) 
To the principal climbers in the entrance-lobby, with 
which I closed the first account of this Nursery, add, 
that Clematis Sieboldi is to be planted against the 
same pillar as the Blue Passion flower, as was done and 1 
answered so well on the conservatory wall at Shrub- : 
land Park. The two should always go together; and, 
when Solanum jasminoides is grown too much for the 
space allotted for it, or when neighbouring climbers fill 
their spaces, which the jasminoides will fill till they do, 
the Rliyncospermum jasminoides will take the place of 
the “ Tree Potato,” as requiring so much less room ; but, 
for cut and come again, We have no climber like this 
kind of Solanum. The following were the principal 
plants in this lobby, which is thirty-eight feet by 
eighteen feet:—A fine large match pair of Chamcerops 
humilis, the dwarfest of the Fan Palms, and the one of 
all the Palms which flourishes farthest north in the old 
world; four handsome vases with two match pairs of 
Dracama indivisa, or Charlwoodia indivisa, or, which is 
the true name, Cordyline indivisa, a native of New 
Zealand, and an excellent front-hall or lobby and 
terrace-garden plant. Another noble match in two 
standard Street Bays, as you may have seen at the 1 
Crystal Palace. These are above five feet in diameter, 
and three feet the other way, and with clean, clear stems 
about thirty inches high ; and there are many more pairs 
of the same stamp and kind out in the grounds in tubs. 
There seems to be a great demand for these as substitutes 
for out-door Orange-trees. They are imported from France 
by several of our first-rate nurserymen, along with stand¬ 
ard Laurestinus, Pomegranates, and Myrtles. The next j 
finest pair was of these very Laurestinus, the finest | 
