1880. ] 
THE HOLLYHOCK.—THE ARAMON GRAPE. 
61 
stripe down tlio centre and a broad border of 
orange on each side of it, so tliat the flower- 
liead, in which the orange-colour predomi¬ 
nates, is distinctly and evenly striped with 
yellow throughout. The result is one of the 
most beautiful garden flowers that can be 
imagined, and which, being a free-growing 
hardy annual, may be regarded as one of the 
group of everybody’s flowers. 
How far the variety has become one of fixed 
character, we know not. It was exhibited at 
South Kensington last summer both by Messrs. 
Ilaage and Schmidt and Mr. E. Dean ; but 
owing probably to some doubt upon this point, 
it was not certificated. It is being generally 
offered for sale this season, and those who are 
fond of flowers of this class would do well to 
give it a trial, and to select the most perfect 
flowers only to bear the seeds to be sown 
another season. In this way, doubtless, like 
most other similar sports, it may at length be¬ 
come fixed in character, if the work of elimi¬ 
nation has not already been carried sufficiently 
far. The plant is known in the seed shops 
as the Calendula officinalis var. Meteor , which, 
horticulturally translated, means the Meteor 
Pot Marigold.—T. Moore. 
THE HOLLYHOCK. 
IEEE is just now a marked scarcity 
of plants of good Hollyhocks. The 
disease did its part for several years to 
woefully thin their ranks ; while the two past 
seasons have been most unfavourable to the 
production of seed. It is not too much to 
state that very little indeed, if any, seed of 
good Hollyhocks was saved in this country in 
the summer and autumn of 1879. 
I paid a visit to that home of the Holly¬ 
hock, Mr. William Chafer’s Nursery, at Saffron 
Walden, about the end of last summer, and 
found that he was fortunate enough to have 
saved a fair quantity of seed in 1877, which 
had given him a large batch of seedling plants, 
very many of them true to the sort from which 
seed was obtained, with large flowers as full 
and as richly coloured as the parents. In 
addition, there were a large number of un¬ 
bloomed seedlings, also from seed of the finest 
varieties; and these Mr. Chafer sells at a 
moderate figure. I know by experience that 
many of them produce flowers of a highly 
satisfactory character. 
Anyone desirous of cultivating the Holly¬ 
hock, and at the same time in want of plants 
to grow, could not do better than obtain some 
of these seedling plants from Mr. Chafer 
in order to start well in their cultural career. 
The plants are of a good stock, they are free from 
any taint of the dread disease, and being seed¬ 
lings, they are free from any suspicion of in¬ 
herent weakness brought on through the strain 
induced by propagation from eyes or cuttings, 
and would, in fact, possess a vigorous constitu¬ 
tion. The good flowers could be marked and 
propagated in the usual way ; the indifferent 
ones rejected. Further, some seed could, no 
doubt, be had from the finest varieties, and it 
might fall to the lot of the cultivator to raise 
some valuable and acceptable novelty. 
March and April are the months in which to 
plant out Hollyhocks. They thrive best in 
good old garden soil, well trenched to the depth 
of two feet, with plenty of well-rotted manure 
worked deeply into it. The soil should be trodden 
firmly about the plants, but, so soon as a good 
free growth commences, should be kept stirred 
on the surface, and well mulched Avith manure 
when hot weather sets in. If manure has to 
be dispensed with, some guano-water, ad¬ 
ministered twice a week, will be found of great 
advantage ; but in pouring it on the soil, it 
should not touch the stems of the plants. 
Stakes about five feet in height are requisite ; 
these should be put to the plants before they 
get too high, the latter well secured to them, 
and then they will grow upright, and display 
their flowers to the best advantage.—E. Dean, 
Ealing , IF. 
THE ARAMON GRAPE. 
HAVE fruited the Aramon for four suc- 
[ti cessive years, and have formed but a low 
estimate of its merits ; indeed, I consider 
it a very inferior variety. From what I had 
read about this grape, I Avas induced, when 
planting tAVO vineries, a feAV years since, to plant 
a vine of this sort; and I found, when the vines 
fruited, that one that had been sent to me 
for General della Marmora proved to be Ara¬ 
mon, so that I had two of them ; and as they 
were of an inferior sort, the circumstance Avas 
annoying, particularly as the one I had for 
General della Marmora was in an early house. 
