40 
THE GAKDENING WORLD 
September 20, 1890. 
tfLOfUcJlJXWS^. 
-—- 
New Dahlias. 
Maud. —The flower heads of this single variety are of 
good average size ; the florets are white with crimson- 
red margins, and on the whole handsome and attractive. 
Harry Freeman. —This variety belongs to the Cactus 
or decorative class, and has large, pure white flower 
heads. The florets are rather closely arranged and 
bluntly pointed. Delicata. —The flower heads of 
this variety are small, but consist of long-pointed 
florets of a delicate and soft rose-pink with a yellow 
base, and are therefore somewhat out of the general 
run. Robert Maher. —Like the last this also belongs 
to the Cactus class ; but the flower heads in this case 
are of large size, clear yellow, with long and broad, 
slightly twisted florets. Nellie. —The heads of this 
Pompon are of medium or small size and bright yellow, 
with crimson tips to the florets in the early stages, but 
as they become fully expanded they fade to a clear 
yellow. Crimson Beauty. —This Pompon was de¬ 
scribed on p. 25. All the six varieties were shown by 
Mr. T. S. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, at the first 
Chrysanthemum show of the season, held by the 
National Chrysanthemum Society on the 10th and 
11th inst., when a First Class Certificate was awarded 
to each. 
Pride of Swanley. —The blooms of this variety 
are large for the Cactus type, and beautifully suffused 
with rose on the upper half of the florets, while the 
lower half is white. The florets themselves are nearly 
flat, and shortly pointed. Maid of Kent and 
Cannell’s Favourite were both described on p. 25. 
All three were shown by Messrs. H. Cannell & Sons, 
Swanley, Kent, at the same time and place as the above, 
and received First Class Certificates. 
Mrs. Stanley. —The flowers of this Cactus variety 
are small, and in this respect comparable to those of 
Delicata, above mentioned. They are, however, of a 
carmine-rose shaded with lilac in the centre. The 
florets are slightly concave and pointed. Daisy. —The 
heads of this Pompon are small, compact, and bright, 
yellow, fading almost to a clear soft yellow. Both 
were shown by Mr. J. T. West, Cornwalls, Brentwood 
and were awarded First Class Certificates. 
Catherine Proctor. —In this we have a small 
bright crimson Cactus variety, with long-pointed 
floret®, ultimately nearly flat. The young and partly 
open florets are, however, closely folded. Mrs. G. Hum¬ 
phries. —The heads of this variety are large, as exhi¬ 
bition kinds are reckoned, and lilac-pink, with a 
lighter centre. It is something in the way of Mrs. 
Gladstone, but several shades darker. Both were 
shown by Mr. George Humphries, Kington Langley, 
Chippenham, and received First Class Certificates. 
Othello. —The heads of this Pompon variety are 
small, neat, very compact and deep crimson. Midget. 
—As the name would imply, this may be reckoned a 
midget even amongst Pompon Dahlias ; and it seems 
the smaller they are the more pretty they become. 
The heads are very neat, and of a carmine-rose colour. 
Lorina.— 1 This exhibition sort was described on p. 25 . 
All three were exhibited by Mr. C. Turner, Slough, 
and were awarded First Class Certificates. 
Black Prince. —For description of this Cactus 
variety see p. 25. A First Class Certificate was awarded 
it when shown by Mr. Henry Glasscock, Rye Street, 
Bishop’s Storford. Pike re. —In this we have another 
Pompon of small dimensions and pretty. The flower 
heads are orange-scarlet, fading considerably when they 
show a certain amount of yellow. It was shown by 
Messrs. Keynes, Williams & Co., Salisbury, who re¬ 
ceived a First Class Certificate for it. 
-- 
BRITISH-GROWN TEA. 
The quantity of tea entered for home consumption 
in 1864 was 88,599,235 pounds, of which only 
2,800,000 pounds were cultivated in India, the 
rest coming from China. In 1879 China supplied us 
with 126,340,000 pounds, and India -34,092,000 pounds 
ot tea. Since then a much larger quantity has been 
grown in India, and since the coffee disease made such 
ravages in Ceylon, tea plantations have been largely 
extended in place of coffee, so that we now receive a 
large amount of our importations from that country. 
Last year the total entered for home comsumption was 
185,628,491 pounds, of which 96,028,491 pounds were 
grown in India, 28,500,000 pounds in Ceylon, and the 
lest in China. 
RUNNER BEANS. 
Whilst there can be no doubt whatever but that the 
giant Runner known as the Czar is a genuine product 
of cross-fertilisation, it seems very certain that the 
bulk of the novelties in cultivation are the product of 
careful selection. It is now known that the scarlet and 
white-flowered Painted Lady will produce scarlets, and 
that these again will produce white-flowered and seeded 
forms ; and these again will sport back to scarlet and 
even to black-seeded varieties. But out of selection 
has come something more useful than mere sports : we 
have evolved quality, productiveness, and longer beans. 
Perhaps of all the modem selections none are better 
than Ne Plus Ultra, the pods of which are long, straight, 
narrow, deep green in colour, and perfect in outline. 
It seems very doubtful if a variety can be raised, or 
rather selected, which will excel Ne Plus Ultra. We 
saw the other day in Mr. Bunyard’s Nursery, at Maid¬ 
stone, a very superior variety, which runs Ne Plus Ultra 
very close in merit, if it be not pretty much the same 
thing. It, however, originated many years ago in Kent, 
and the raiser kept it long to himself, until, believing 
death was near, he sent for Mr. Bunyard, who purchased 
the entire stock, and is now developing it. The var¬ 
iety is known as Hill’s Prize. Market growers do not 
care much for long-podded samples, but generally we 
believe that these improved forms are most acceptable 
with consumers. Too often our shop Beans are short, 
hard, and devoid of flavour. They are gathered hastily 
and with little discrimination, so that the really 
young succulent Bean is too much mixed with those 
which are too old. Those who can grow their own 
Beans—and all should who have gardens —only know 
the sweetness and tenderness found in fresh gathered 
samples. The more runners are produced the better. 
-- 
EFFECTS OF ROOT-PRUNING. 
Having recently dilated on this subject respecting 
Peach and Nectarine trees, it may seem superfluous to 
revert to the same ; but on gathering Apples a few 
days ago from trees that formerly were not worth the 
ground they occupied, it fired me with an impulse to 
record a few facts regarding them. These trees were at 
one time miserable specimens from a pomological point 
of view ; indeed, the majority of them were more dead 
than alive, and those shoots that were alive and bore 
fruit were of a quality—wood and fruit combined—that 
was reproachful on practical grounds. On observing 
the state of the trees my first resolve was root-pruning, 
and having so decided, it was performed on what 
might have been called radical principles, side roots as 
well as top roots being cut hard back, in many cases 
the saw being the principal factor used. Operating in 
this fashion all round, and being careful that all roots 
cut away were removed, care was taken to lay all roots 
that had been preserved, in proper position in a whole¬ 
some taking mixture, composed of good, sound, friable 
loam, charcoal, and mortar rubbish. The finer particles 
were'placed next to the roots as they lay in position, 
and especial care was taken that all the soil was duly 
distributed and well packed. This done, each tree was 
secured against oscillation, and at once mulched to 
keep all the soil equable and prevent evaporation. 
This was done early in September, and on examining 
the roots of several of the trees early in November it 
was quite apparent they were all right. Pruning time 
arriving, I determined on taking equally radical mea¬ 
sures with the branches as had been adopted with the 
roots, and to that end I sawed and cut off with the 
knife all badly cankered limbs, branches and points, 
scraping clean all others where affected, cutting into 
the fresh bark and dressing the wounds with clay, such 
as is frequently used for grafting. The latter had the 
effect of encouraging the bark to spread over the wound, 
and now in many cases the scars are scarcely observable, 
while, as a matter of course, others did not prove so 
satisfactory, and still have a tendency to canker, 
despite repeated efforts to remove it. In the majority 
of them, however, a perfect cure has been effected, and, 
strange to say, the variety Lord Suffield is the only 
one that has actually refused to respond to the treat¬ 
ment. AH others—even the miffy Ribston Pippin— 
have made rapid progress to a more satisfactory, clean, 
healthy, bearing state, and one Ribston (standard) in 
particular is one of the best trees we have, bearing with 
the freedom of Ecklinville Seedling, and now clothed 
with a crop so heavy that it might any day receive a 
misnomer, and frequently does so. In fact, on showing 
it ts a pomologist of no mean repute recently, he said 
he never in all his life saw such a crop of Ribstons, 
'and added that it was questionable whether there 
existed in Scotland such 'a healthy, fruitful standard 
as this particular variety. In enumerating varieties 
which had well cropped with us, I inadvertently 
omitted, in recent notes, this rich and most desirable 
one. 
Our plants of Lord Suffield are all on the Paradise 
3tock, and perhaps I may suggest the possibility of 
this soft-wooded variety succeeding better on the Crab, 
in cold, wet localities. This suggestion affects the 
nurseryman more than the gardener, and while aware 
these are to be got on the Crab, I think it worthy of 
note that this, one of the choicest of our culinary 
Apples, should be recommended on the latter stock in 
the case mentioned. 
Pears formerly carrying heavy crops of wood and 
light crops of fruit have also been subjected to severe 
root-pruning—some of them every alternate year—with 
the result that matters are reversed. Plums and 
Cherries receive attention in this way, in fact, the 
former bears any amount of it, and it is possible to 
find very large trees with very limited balls indeed, but 
of course fibre en masse. Cherries, although they bear 
cutting fairly well, are impatient of such radical root- 
pruning as Plums evidently feel at home with. 
An old custom used to obtain in the root-pruning 
of all stone fruits, of operating in hard frosty 
weather, pouriDg quantities of water over the roots, and 
allowing them to remain bare over-night, thus causing 
a check, which though apparently useless, and fraught 
with danger, was quite successful. It may seem too 
radical a method for this enlightened age, and certainly 
not a desirable one, seeing that all can be so success¬ 
fully accomplished with little or no attendant risk. 
The great fault in the over-luxuriant growth on stone 
fruit trees, as a rule, is too loose soil, and perhaps 
too rich and deep borders, especially where cropping 
with vegetables is practised, as usually is the case in 
the kitchen garden. Plums have a tendency to ramble, 
and, indeed, will do so when any rich substance is 
within reach; but this may to a great extent be 
prevented with soil hard beaten and top-dressed with 
good feeding material. The soil for Plum trees cannot 
well be packed too hard ; in short, this is one of the 
most essential points, grown in whatever form or 
aspect they may be. Apricots bear root-pruning fairly 
well too, although not quite like Plums, and the 
other matters in detail respecting Plums are applicable 
to these fruits. 
The operation of root-pruning need not necessarily be 
confined to the autumn months, but may with propriety 
be performed even at midsummer, although autumn is 
the most natural and generally come-at-able season for 
such operations; but given fruitless trees, either 
through canker or grossness, no one need hesitate to 
operate at midsummer ; in truth it frequently means 
all the difference between success and failure the 
following season in the presence of a crop where 
hitherto there had been none. In a former appoint¬ 
ment of mine, a Plum wall, where the trees had been 
planted about five years, and had never borne a single 
fruit, was the source of justifiable comment by my then 
new employer. Good trees, plenty of wood, and 
numerous water shoots were the characteristics of 
those woeful Plums. With a spirit brimful of good¬ 
nature and liberality, my employer allowed me two 
years to put them in fruiting condition. Happily 
those two years were unnecessary, as with a radical 
root-pruning in July, those trees bore crops the 
following year that surprised all who saw them. 
This is only by way of illustration, and doubtless 
many eminent gardeners could supply ample infor¬ 
mation of similar cases of success. It is unnecessary, 
unsatisfactory, and no less unpractical to lop off 
branch after branch, and spur after spur, in the vain 
hope of rendering any tree fruitful while the roots are 
unsatisfactorily situated to that end. Better by far 
go to the very root of the evil, tracing it from there 
to the branches—yes, from the base to the summit of 
the tree.— J. Proctor , Glcnfinart. 
--» >X< —- 
THE HARDY WHITE PASSION 
FLOWER. 
Generally speaking, the Rev. H. N. Ellacombe is precise 
and correct in his notices on gardening matters ; but I 
can say for certain that neither his father nor any other 
man ever found a pure white hardy Passion Flower in 
1865 or at any other time. Such a rara avis down to 
this date exists only in the imagination of enthusiasts. 
Still, I believe the finder of a pure white, hardy Passion 
Flower, when it does turn up, could easily make at 
least £1,000 over it. 
Few men know the parks and gardens of the west of 
