3G1 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Septehbeb 11, 1860. 
the ground that I did when I wrote in defence of the esculent in 
these pages years ago—about the same time a great authority was 
writing disparagingly about it in another journal. I have an 
excellent crop. They are under my eye for three weeks or so 
before storing. I still continue to work for them on the trench 
system, which I sent to The Cottage Gakdenee, in April, 1858; 
and the benefit we continue to derive from the plan constitutes a 
very good medal for me, albeit not so conspicuously honourable 
as if I had won it in the trenches before Sebastopol. The sorts I 
grow are— Mitchell's Marly Albion Kidney, and the Shutford 
Seedling (round), early, the latter lasting till Christmas ; the 
Fortyfold (round), Haigh's Kidney, and Cobblers' Lapstone 
Kidney —second earlies, and consecutive for the table till Potatoes 
come again. 
Peas .—I have had, and continue to have, a good produce. 
Broad Beans and Early Turnips I discard in deference to the 
Potato, as the garden is circumscribed. All the Cabbage worts 
are grown as auxiliaries ; and now that the Potatoes are off the 
ground the trenches are conspicuous for Walcheren, Sprouting 
Cape, and Knight's Protecting Broccoli, Savoys, Brussels Sprouts, 
and Kales. 
The Versailles Cabbage Lettuce, sent out in the seed-packet of 
the Horticultural Society two years ago, 1 have very fine. It is 
one of the very best summer Lettuces grown. It seeded with me 
last year. This year it does not offer to do so, but remains fit for 
use an immense time. 
In short, what with semi-long Carrots, Beet, Celery, Dtvarf 
Kidney Beans, Transplanted Turnips, and things coming on 
from the formula of autumn sowings, our gai-den is, and has been, 
this windy, stormy, cloudy, rainy season, as productive as I ever 
remember it; and we are thankful to the Great Giver for all 
these good things.— Upwards and Onwards. 
(To be continued .) 
FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES of GREAT BRITAIN. 
(Continued from page 330.) 
No. XXIX. —Beueee Giffaed Pear. 
This new summer pear is one which is as yet very little known. 
It is of comparatively recent introduction, but the great merits 
it possesses as an early fruit are such as cannot fail to recommend 
it for general cultivation. 
The fruit has a strong odour when ripe, below medium size, 
pyriform or turbinate, and even and handsome in its outline. 
Skin smooth and shining; on the shaded side it is of a greenish- 
yellow colour, strewed with minute dots, and becomes of a clear 
citron yellow when ripe. On the side next the sun it is entirely 
covered with a blush of bright red, and thickly dotted with bright 
crimson dots like the Forelle; and about the stalk is a thin 
coating of pale brown russet. 
Eye prominent and wide open, inserted without depression, and 
with no distinct segments. 
Stalk short, obliquely inserted on the end of the fruit. 
Flesh yellowish-white, crisp, very juicy, sweet, and of excellent 
flavour. 
It is usually ripe in the middle of August; but this season it 
did not ripen till the beginning of September.—H. 
DEATH OF MR. ROBERT ERRINGTON. 
By the death of Mr. Errington our pages are deprived of one 
of their oldest and most valued contributors, and a large circle of 
friends and relatives have to mourn the loss of one marked by 
more excellencies and fewer failings than characterise most men. 
In our 398th number will be found his portrait and autobiography, 
and we shall, therefore, merely repeat here that he was born in 
the November of 1799 at Putney. His first engagement as head- 
gardener was with Joshua Alcock, Esq., of Roehampton, then 
with Lord Gifford, and finally with Sir Philip Egerton, Bart., at 
Oulton Park. Here Mr. Errington died, on the 27th of August* 
thus closing an honourable service of nearly thirty-three years 
duration. “ I had,” wrote Mr. Errington, “the honour of serving, 
when I first came to Oulton, the father of the present baronet, 
and I have had the gratification of rearing, by God’s blessing, 
eleven children,—three of them young men who have been under 
a course of training as gardeners in some of the best situations 
for that purpose in the country. I trust they will justify my 
hopes concerning them.” In those hopes we join sincerely, and 
well-pleased shall we be to hear that they are endowed with the 
same sound knowledge and skill in gardening, the same literary 
powers, and the same honourable and religious principles as 
characterised their father. 
TROPiEOLUM STAMFORDIANUM. 
Although we were the first to announce to the public the 
advent of this addition to the best of the new bedding plants, we 
happen not to have seen a whole bed of it ourselves yet. And 
we have been concerned, after passing a high opinion of it, to 
have seen a bad report of it by a contemporary a few weeks since. 
It was said in that report that Tropceolum Stamfordianum, in a 
celebrated London nursery, was found to be so much inferior to 
elegans, that, &c., &c. But knowing from experience that 
travellers are not alone subject to tricks, we suspected that some 
rival had been hoaxing our amiable friend and co-reproductionist; 
and so it has turned out to be in the instance of this beautiful 
plant. We have had several communications on the subject from 
friends and from strangers, and we have selected the following as 
the best surety for the public to trust to. Our authority says :— 
“Our mutual friend, Mr. Thomson, from Dalkeith Gardens, 
called here last week. And with reference to your lion-bed, he 
told me that Stamfordianum was the best bedder he had seen on 
his tour ; that it was superior to elegans at his own fireside at 
Dalkeith, the same at Archerfield in East Lothian—one of the 
best bedding places thereabouts ; that at Shrubland Park it was 
the best of all the bedding plants there ; and that at Wrotham 
Park, near London, it occupied the same scale as at Shrubland.” 
And we are very glad to hear it, and equally so to learn that Mr. 
Thomson is up to the mark himself.—D. Beaton. 
COMMON FLOWERS. 
“ Flowers are the bright remembrancers of youth.” 
My mind often reverts to the scenes and pleasures of bygone 
times—to the happy hours I spent in a garden of flowers. Even 
now-a-days the sight of an old favourite flower will create a thrill 
of pleasure which is always refreshing. 
One of the favourites of my childhood is the Everlasting Pea 
(Lathyrus latifolius), a plant which still grows about our cottage 
homes, and is there to be seen in the greatest perfection. There 
is one in my garden which is a great favourite. Sometimes I 
can count upwards of two hundred flowers on it, and from the 
first opening of a flower till the frost cuts it down there is a 
constant succession of bloom ; but this season is an exception 
the cold and wet have put a stop to the flowering, but if we 
have fine weather I hope to see it again in full flower. It is well 
named “ everlasting,” for I know a plant in a cottage garden which 
has been handed down from father to son as a kind of heirloom 
for upwards of a century ; and many a time has a son on leaving 
the parental roof tried to take a plant with him, but hitherto all 
