Octoier 18,1890. THE GARDENING WORLD. 
107 
could be kept and numbered on a system similar to 
that adopted in the various herd books where choice 
live stock is registered ; but we then pointed out that 
a herd book was devised for a purpose quite distinct 
from those which it is proposed to secure by a system 
of plant registration. Individual animals are registered 
so that they may be identified, that their pedigree 
may be established, and that purity of blood may be 
maintained in a given breed or strain of live stock. 
In the case of plants, where the registration of one 
individual must stand for an entire class, and where 
the parentage is often unknown and always of secondary 
importance, it is difficult to see how such a list would 
prevent a duplication of names for the same plant or 
the selling of different plants under the same name. 
Mr. Bancroft’s scheme has been carefully elaborated 
since then, and a plan of registration has been adopted 
by the California State Horticultural Society. We 
have no space here to go into details of the plan, but 
as it was discussed it seemed to the nurserymen in 
their convention that it was too cumbersome to be 
practical and effective. 
There is, however, considerable protection already 
given to the originator of a new fruit in the copyright 
law. Mr. Hoyt, of Hew Canaan, Connecticut, stated 
that he had taken out such a right on his label of the 
Green Mountain Grape, and had been instructed by 
eminent legal authority that no man could use this 
title on a label to a Grape vine and sell it without his 
consent. It is true that if anyone should buy a plant 
of Mr. Hoyt, he could propagate it as largely as he 
chose for his own use, or could sell the Vines under 
another name, but there would be little temptation to 
a grower to sell a very valuable variety under a name 
which would conceal its identity. The name is the 
very thing the plant pirate wants most, and he 
often sells nothing else but the name of a good variety, 
attaching it to an entirely different plant from the one 
it really belongs to. This registered trade mark ha 
proved of value too in preventing the sale of spurious 
plants under the label so registered, so that copy¬ 
righting assists in preventing the sale by unauthorised 
persons both of genuine plants and their counterfeits. 
It is hard to see how much greater protection than 
this can be secured by a horticultural register. The 
plan of registering new plants has, however, many 
merits in other directions. It ivould be of interest to 
have an accurate description of any new plant filed in 
some public office, with its portrait and parentage so 
far as known. We should like to compare a plant and 
berry of Hovey’s Seedling Strawberry as grown to-day 
with a preserved specimen of the original plant and its 
berry, or accurate portraits and descriptions of them, 
to see if any variation from the type had taken place. 
In questions of identity the register might give some 
assistance, but the inherent difficulties of accurate 
varietal description would remain. An organised effort 
to secure registration would be of value, too, in enlisting 
the co-operation of all horticulturists to secure to 
originators their rights, for although no system yet 
devised can add much to the protection now given by 
the trade mark laws, this protection would be much 
more effective if it had an active and united public 
sentiment behind it. 
Of course this protection to the introducers of new 
plants would make such plants more expensive for a 
time, just as patented machinery and copyrighted 
literature is more expensive. But although this in¬ 
creased price might be considered a burden upon 
horticulture, the advantages gained would be positive 
and important. Chief among these would be the 
encouragement offered to careful experiments in 
hybridising. When growers can feel sure that they 
will reap some reward from discoveries in this field we 
may entertain a reasonable hope that the breeding of 
plants may be reduced to something like a system or a 
science.— American Garden and Forest. 
-- 
PEACH CULTURE. 
Though no standard work on Peach management has 
been written, corresponding to Barron or Thomson on 
the Vine, the culture of Peaches is nevertheless hardly 
of secondary importance to that of Grapes. Certainly 
there is little art in manipulating a Vine, as com¬ 
pared with the Peach, and while any novice can put his 
Vine rods into capital form, it is seldom now one 
meets with Peaches well trained or systematically 
pruned. Moreover, there is such a waste of labour on 
the trees (generally doing harm instead of good) that 
the expense of cultivating such a valuable fruit under 
glass would not pay for its labour in the market. 
We hold that with a minimum of labour Peach 
trees can be formed into elegant objects in gardens as 
easily as the unsightly abortions too often seen covering 
wall space or trellises, and certainly there has been no 
improvement in training or managing Peach trees 
generally during the last thirty years. Take for 
example the Peach trees at Wrotham Park, when 
under the supervision of Mr. Thomson. These were 
examples of the best training to be found, and the 
yearly production of first-rate fruit was astounding. 
It is not my intention to go into details of the manage¬ 
ment of these trees, but I feel sure if some one could 
prevail on the veteran Mr. Thomson to record his 
practice of Peach management, in like manner to that 
by which he became so favourably known as a standard 
authority on Vine culture, cultivators would thank 
him for rendering further service to practical horti¬ 
culture—a service not secondary to anything which 
that distinguished horticulturist has yet submitted for 
the perusal of the public. The kinds of Peaches so 
well grown at Wrotham Park are as popular now 
as then.— Stirling. 
-- 
Hardening Miscellany. 
--4-- 
Gladiolus, The Bride. 
The above name is that by which Gladiolus Colvillei 
albus is best known amongst market growers and 
others. As every one knows, it is an almost pure white 
form of S. Colvillei, which is itself a hybrid. The 
climate of Guernsey proves highly propitious to it, and 
it is accordingly grown in large quantities in the open 
ground for the sake of cut flowers for market. There 
are about 20,000 bulbs in a piece of ground at La Haye 
du Puits, for which an offer of £50 was refused, a fact 
which will give some idea of the value of the bulbs 
for cut flowers alone. The soil is light and sandy, but 
by good culture the stems attain a height of 3 ft., 
bearing a proportionate number of flowers. 
Michaelmas Daisies. 
Allow me to add a few charming varieties to the list 
given by your correspondent “C.,” on p. 85, in your 
issue of October 11th. Aster rubellus, clear red, fairly 
free; A. NovreAnglke rubra, magenta, very free and 
beautiful ; A. Robert Parker, purple, toning down to 
pale lilac, a grand mass of flowers. These are about 
5 ft. high, and bear flowers of good size, A. cassarabica, 
clear purple, large flower, strikingly beautiful, 2 ft. to 
3 ft. ; A. crenatus, line blue, very distinct, 1^ ft. to 
2 ft. The following bloom even more freely than the 
foregoing, but the flowers are smaller : A. multiflora, a 
mass of very small white flowers, 4 ft. ; A. linarifolius, 
good purple, 3 ft. ; A. formosus, rosy purple, 2 ft. to 3 
ft. ; A. hybridus nanus, pinkish lilac, ft. ; A. dis¬ 
color, white, shading off to lilac, 11- ft.— C. T. 
Iris unguicularis. 
This winter-flowering Iris is best known in gardens 
under the name of I. stylosa, and it will be difficult to 
induce gardeners to accept the older, but rather more 
cumbrous name. In Britain itself, in the neighbourhood 
of London for instance, the plant comes into bloom 
during January or February if the season happens to be 
a mild one, but in the more equable climate of Guernsey 
it commences to flower in autumn, as we noted it some 
days ago in Mr. W. Cruickshank’s nursery in the 
Rohais Road. Under such conditions a long succession 
of bloom will continue to be produced. The fragrance 
of the flowers renders them doubly acceptable during 
the dull season. 
A Large Heath. 
The tree Heath (Erica arborea) seems to be as much at 
home in Guernsey as it is in South Europe, for it both 
thrives and flowers splendidly in many parts of the 
island. The largest specimen we have seen is that 
belonging to Mr. W. Cruickshank, Rohais Nursery, 
Guernsey. It stands about 25 ft. high, and there is 
more than one stem measuring from 6 ins. to 9 ins. in 
diameter. The flowering season is from February to 
May, consequently we only saw the withered flowers of 
last season, and which are still produced in great 
abundance, notwithstanding the size and age of the 
tree. They are small, bell shaped and white, but 
exceedingly numerous, and their fragrance fills the air 
in the early spring months. It, of course, stands in 
the open ground, and requires no protec tion whatever 
The Assam Tea Plant. 
The Tea Plant is so nearly hardy in the neighbourhood 
of London that it may be grown against a south wall^ 
but although it may be kept alive there, it makes very 
little growth in the course of the season. There is a 
bush of the Assam variety in the Rohais Nursery, 
Guernsey, measuring 4 ft. or 5 ft. high, and about 10 ft. 
in diameter. It is grown in a place somewhat sheltered 
by overhanging trees, but is otherwise unprotected 
either by a wall or otherwise. 
Hymenanthera crassifolia. 
The habit of this shrub may be compared to some of 
the small-leaved Cotoneasters, such as C. mierophylla 
and C. congesta when grown as a shrub. The stems 
are much branched, with slender twiggy shoots, closely 
covered with leathery dark green leaves. Flowers 
are seldom produced in the neighbourhood of London, 
but even then the shrub is ornamental on account of its 
evergreen character. In the Caledonia Nursery of 
Messrs. Smith & Son, Guernsey, the shoots are now 
heavily laden with white berries, which would be very 
ornamental were they less hidden by the shoots. 
Desfontainea spinosa. 
In most parts of Britain, gardeners are satisfied if they 
can grow and flower this plant satisfactorily in a green¬ 
house or conservatory. It is a native of the Andes 
from Chili to New Grenada, and finds in the Channel 
Islands a more suitable home than in Britain proper. 
We noted it recently flowering beautifully with Messrs. 
Charles Smith & Son, Caledonia Nursery, Guernsey, 
in the open ground. The tubular flowers are crimson 
at the base, scarlet about the middle, and yellow at the 
top, and their great size, coupled with the Holly-like 
leaves of the shrub, render it a handsome subject for 
a garden where it can be grown without protection, a^ 
in the case here mentioned.— F. 
This beautiful Holly-like shrub has been quite a picture 
here for some time, trained on a wall with a southern 
aspect. It thrives most luxuriantly and flowers freely, 
its long tube-shaped flowets showing conspicuously 
among the dark green foliage.— James Brown, Ard- 
darroch, Loch Long. 
Escallonia macrantha. 
This is another shrub that is perfectly hardy here, and 
is now in full bloom. Three or four plants are variously 
placed, and one with a north-western aspect, open to 
Loch Long, is quite as vigorous and free flowering as 
any. Garrya elliptica, carrying myriads of its quaint- 
looking catkins, covers the whole of one southern gable, 
aud while not so showy as the two foregoing, well 
merits a place with them as autumn-flowering shrubs.— 
James Brown, Arddarroch, Loch Long. 
Cunila Mariana. 
This plant was originally introduced to this country in 
1759 from Maryland, in North America, and the 
generic name was taken from a town of that name, 
while the specific one relates to the country or district 
where it grows wild. It belongs to the Labiate family, 
and has small, opposite, deep green leaves, and lateral 
and terminal clusters of small lilac or pale purple 
flowers, produced in great profusion. The plant is very 
showy or pretty, and the wonder is that it should be so 
little known at the present day. Its nearest allies are 
Mint, Balm and Gipsywort, and like the latter river¬ 
side British weed, it has only two stamens. Outwardly 
it resembles a species of Origanum. Finely flowered 
plants were shown by Messrs. Pitcher & Manda, 
Hextable, Swanley, at the Drill Hall on Tuesday last, 
when an Award of Merit was granted it. 
Bouvardia Purity. 
The flowers of this variety are large, white, fragrant, 
and of great substance. 'With regard to size, they are 
intermediate between B. Humbolti, and B. jasminoides. 
The leaves resemble those of the former, and the habit 
of the plant is vigorous. A basket of plants of it was 
shown at the Drill Hall, Westminster, on Tuesday last 
by Mr. H. B. May, Dyson’s Lane Nurseries, Upper 
Edmonton, when an Award of Merit was granted it. 
0 
Cyperus sp. 
Plants were exhibited at the Drill Hall on Tuesday 
last, under the above name, by Mr. J. Robson, 
Altrincham, for which an Award of Merit was granted. 
The leaves were tufted, 2 ft. to 3 ft. long, gracefully 
arching, very narrow, channelled above, keeled beneath, 
and deep green. 
