58 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Arm 24, 1800. 
santly flavoured, separating from the stone. Shoots 
smooth. 
A dessert plum of second-rate quality, llipe in the 
beginning and middle of September. 
Yellow Imperatrice ( Altesse Blanche; Monsieur a 
Fruits Jaune). —Fruit large, roundish-oval, marked with 
a suture, which is deep at the apex and becomes shallow 
towards the stalk. Skin deep golden yellow, with a few j 
streaks of red about the stalk, which is half an inch long. 
Flesh yellow, juicy and melting, sugary and richly 
flavoured, and adhering to the stone. Shoots smooth. 
An excellent dessert plum. Ripe in the middle of 
August. 
Yellow Magnum Bonum. See White Magnum Bonum. 
Yellow Perdrigon. See Drop d' Or. 
Zwetsche. See Quetsrhe. 
LISTS OF SELECT PLUMS, 
Arranged in their order of ripening. 
I. FOR 
July Green Gage 
Peach 
De Montfort 
Denniston’s Superb 
Perdrigon Violet HAtif 
Green Gage 
Hulings’ Superb 
Purple Gage 
Transparent Gage 
DESSERT. 
Abricotee de Braunau 
Jefferson 
Kirke’s 
Topaz 
Coe’s Golden Drop 
Reine Claude de Bavay 
Cooper’s Large 
Late Orleans 
Coe’s Late Red 
Early Prolific 
Early Orleans 
Gisborne’s 
Goliath 
Prince of Wales 
IT. FOR COOKING. 
Victoria 
Diamond 
Autumn Compete 
Belle de Septembre 
III. FOR 
Green Gage 
White Magnum Bonum 
Diamond 
Washington 
PRESERVING. 
Winesour 
Damson 
Autumn Compote 
IV. FOR WALLS. 
July Green Gage Italian Quetsche 
De Montfort Coe’s Golden Drop 
Green Gage Blue Imperatrice 
Purple Gage Ickworth Imperatrice 
V. FOR ORCHARDS AND MARKETING. 
Early Prolific Victoria 
Early Orleans Pond’s Seedling 
Gisborne’s Damson 
Orleans Coe’s Late Red 
Prince of Wales 
(To he continued.) 
A REMARKABLE IVY TREE. 
The fantastic forms which this creeper is wont to assume 
when it covers some gnarled old pollard, or takes possession of 
the trunk and limbs of some dead old tree, cannot but have 
attracted the attention of every one conversant with rural scenery. 
But there are also times when it assumes a symmetrical as well as 
a grotesque shape j and when it docs so, no artistical or even 
mechanical skill can find room for improvement. An object of 
that kind formed an important ornament to the grounds here, 
until it was destroyed by the high winds of 25th February 
ast. It consisted of a perfect cone sixty feet high; the bottom 
diameter about eighteen feet, and the top ending in a point; the 
sides being as nearly in straight lines as the most fastidious 
mechanist could wish for; and the whole a dense mass of the 
deepest green, excepting at the season when the berries showed 
more prominent. It is needless to say that this fine object was 
not formed by its own unassisted powers to assume the shape it 
then was, for it had a Larch Fir tree of considerable dimensions 
for its foundation. This tree the Ivy by its rude embraces killed 
about fifteen years ago, the sijid tree having beep in a death 
struggle for some years before, the Ivy eventually strangling it. 
All its branches had fallen off long ago, except two or three at 
the very top, which no one seemed willing to venture to remove ; 
and strange to say, that, although they were at their bases sur¬ 
rounded by Ivy, the latter did not seem the least disposed to 
twist round them—in fact, for many years the yearly growth of 
this Ivy was not more than a few inches over the whole of its 
numerous rounded tufts or spurs. These rounded tufts gave 
the cone the appearance of being moulded into a number of 
heads when viewed against the horizon; but these heads, being 
so regularly placed, rather added to than detracted from the 
uniformity of the object. In the distance it looked somewhat 
like an immense Cypress cut into shape, it being more truly 
tapering than even the Spruce or Silver Fir becomes, and more 
dense than the best specimens of Cri/ptomeria Japonica, which is 
the only Conifer to equal it for a graceful tapering form : but, like 
every other fine object, it had an end. The noble Larch tree, 
killed, as I say, fifteen years ago, began to decay; and its load, in¬ 
creasing every year, whilst its power of supporting became lessened, 
the culminating point was reached, the support snapped in sunder 
with the high wind, and the mass fell to the ground to the regret 
of every one who had seen it; and even in its prostrate condition 
it was beautiful. The Larch tree where it broke in two was 
seventeen inches in diameter, and about eight feet from the 
ground. 
It is somewhat singular that about nine years ago we lost a 
similar tree in exactly the same manner. Unfortunately, we 
have no others coming on that will equal the one we have lost 
for perhaps twenty years ; but two fine trees are struggling with 
the Ivy that surround* them, the latter showing unequivocal 
signs of mastery, the other less and less energy each returning 
spring. The situation is one evidently well suited to the Ivy, 
though at the same time favourable to the Pinus tribe as well; 
but we are obliged to remove the Ivy from such trees as it is 
advisable to encourage, otherwise Ash, Oak, Elm, and other trees 
would have to succumb to this universal favourite.—J. Robson. 
FLOWER SHOWS AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 
The schedule of prizes and the rules for the next May exhi¬ 
bition have been sent to us. In these rules a new principle is 
introduced for flower shows for the first time in England, by 
which any individual, whether a nurseryman, an amateur, or a 
gentleman’s gardener, may compete for all the prizes in any one 
class of plants, or for all the plants, at a whole exhibition, for 
which prizes are offered. The amount of prizes at the May show 
will be £531 7s. 6d., and the judges have the power to increase 
them in certain cases. • 
The next step has been to sap the new principle at the spring, 
and make it inoperative. Ambition is not allowed to buy a 
collection of plants, or four collections of each class of plants, the 
day before the show, and take the prizes for them on the morrow'. 
Therefore a nurseryman may step in and take all the prizes—say 
in Orchids, or Azaleas, or Heaths, or in the collections of stove 
and greenhouse plants, according to his stock in trade; while 
superior single collections in various hands are thus virtually 
excluded from competition, and from the eye of the public. 
This, seems to us altogether against the spirit in which the im¬ 
provement of gardening was conceived by means of competition ; 
as it may happen that a private gardener may dread the powers 
of a nurseryman for competing against him for a second or third 
prize with a superior small collection of plants, and thus the 
public lose the benefits resulting from competition. But there is 
a principle on which ambition might monopolise all the prizes at 
a show, and still bring forward before the public all the results of 
keen competition. 
It is argued thus :—Ambition goes farther than money with 
some men, and money is all in all to others. Give both classes 
an opportunity of gratifying their taste at these shows, and the 
public are sure of seeing the best efforts of gardening before them. 
Let ambition buy up the plants of ten exhibitors the day before 
the show, and take the prizes for them on the morrow. The 
value of the prizes enhanced the value of the plants, and the ten 
men have had their reward with less risk to themselves. The 
prizes are, therefore, as much at the roots of the improvements in 
growing plants as if they were awarded to ten exhibitors instead 
of to one. But the results of competition cannot be obtained if 
you tie the hands of ambition by requiring it to have the plants 
in its qwq keeping for the last two months. Therefore there are 
