August 15, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
795 
As regards stocks for Apples it appears that young 
trees on the Paradise, produce fine fruit suitable 
for exhibition, but for profit the crab is the stock 
mostly employed. Regarding the Quince for pears 
the most interesting instance that has come under 
my notice near Cheadle is a Jargonelle. It is a bush 
tree about 6 ft. high and about 5 ft. through. I have 
seen it two seasons, and each time it was carrying a 
nice crop of fine fruit, and I am told it is doing the 
same again this year. The Quince stock has quite 
altered the growth from the usual straggling habit 
of the Jargonelle to hang quite stubby. The soil is a 
heavy loam. I think the Paradise and Quince 
stocks, however, are better adapted to the stiff soils 
of some of the southern counties than they are to the 
ordinary run of places in this part. As to the 
varieties of Pears, a few years since I purchased 
some with a good recommendation, but after proving 
them, the greater part were a disappointment, as 
dessert fruit, having a coarse and gritty flavour, 
though they were good looking. I think this feature 
in fruit culture wants thoroughly looking up. 
Concerning Gooseberries, it may be said that past 
records prove Lancashire to have been long famed 
for this fruit. In 1819, 136 Gooseberry shows were 
held in the neighbourhood of Manchester, and 
prizes were awarded, ranging from 10s. to £10, and 
we may well wonder now whether we are advancing 
in Gooseberry cultivation. The possibilities as 
regards increased production in Lancashire alone are 
enormous, but if put to the test it would soon mean 
over-production, which would result in a loss to the 
growers. Presiding over a horticultural meeting in 
London lately, Mr. George Bunyard is reported to 
have mentioned a Kentish grower who realised /120 
an acre for his Gooseberries. Kent and the South 
will always produce earlier fruit than we can, but for 
crop I have not seen any in the South so good or the 
bushes so healthy as in this part; and, if the large 
Gooseberries exhibited at our shows are a fair cri¬ 
terion of what the district can do, Lancashire can 
hold its own fairly well for Gooseberries, If 
Gooseberries are grown for weight of crop they 
must be pruned differently to those for exhibition. I 
just thin out the branches and cross shoots, leaving 
a good portion of young wood, with very good results. 
Near towns the sparrow is a great enemy to the 
Gooseberry, picking out all the buds in the spring. 
If there was to be such a thing as a county 
experimental garden for growing fruits, I do not 
think we should profit so much as regards the Straw¬ 
berry, because this varies considerably in fruitfulness 
on different soils. I have found after trying a good 
few kinds that President is about the best for a 
private supply, being of good size, flavour, and a 
heavy cropper. We tried Sir Joseph Paxton which 
is so largely grown in Kent, but it grew all to foliage. 
We tried also Marguerite which I used to see do so 
grandly on the stiff soil in Bedfordshire, but it grew 
all to foliage also. Fresh plantations of Strawberries 
if made early, and the plants carefully selected with 
good crowns, a good crop may be obtained the 
succeeding year. Two years ago we made a planta¬ 
tion in this way and it quite repaid the extra attention. 
Some old Mushroom bed manure was worked in with 
the soil about the roots. In autumn each plant had 
attained strength equal to those prepared for fruiting 
in pots, which generally have so much attention 
where grown. 
Regarding Grapes the subject has been so much 
discussed in the Gardening Press in recent years 
that very little that is new can be advanced on the 
subject. However, to obtain good Grapes, consider¬ 
able care and attention is required. This year with 
me the Black Hamburgh has not coloured its fruit 
so well as usual. I hardly know how to account for 
this, excepting it is that the roots being outside they 
may have been slightly injured by the long and severe 
winter, though the late season may account for some 
of it. Usually I have no difficulty in obtaining some 
good Grapes, and the main points observed, with the 
other attention, are careful thinning of the berries, 
and not cropping too heavy. Often a fine bunch of 
Grapes is spoiled by unskillful thinning. On old 
Vines especially they should be thinned at different 
times, at first cutting out all the small berries only, 
and repeating this till the bunches are well-formed 
with berries that will develop fully all over them. 
In Peach culture it has long been considered an 
uncertain matter outside, except in the more favour¬ 
able parts of England, but to hayg one house that 
ran be heated as desired, devoted [p Its culture, apd 
a well-selected assortment of kinds, early, midseason, 
and late, a very useful structure it may prove. The 
season for fruit in this way could be prolonged, say 
for two months, and too many fruit would not be 
ripe at once. Without any forcing such varieties as 
the Waterloo will be ripe in July. This may be 
succeeded early in August by Early York, afterwards 
by Noblesse, Bellegarde, Barrington, and others. It 
does not require extensive house space for Peaches 
and Nectarines to remain fruitful. For over a dozen 
years an Early York bush has never failed to pro¬ 
duce a fair crop, and this year it has a fine crop just 
ready of about a score of fruit. The most important 
matter in Peach culture is to obtain a good set, and 
this seems to be best attained by keeping a pretty 
steady temperature of about 458 when they are in 
bloom, with liberal watering at the roots.— 
R. Mackellar, Abney Hall, Cheadle. 
CYCLAMEN CULTURE 
FOR MARKET. 
Foremost amongst the growers of these popular 
winter flowers for the London market is Mr. W. 
Warren, of Isleworth. His houses are low braced 
spans, about 20 ft. long by 16 ft. wide, and just now 
all are full of strong plants in fine leaf, and filling 
admirably the 48-size pots in which they are growing. 
These may be counted by thousands for they fill 
other houses and frames also, and the majority will 
be in good bloom by November. Mr. Warren sows 
seed early, indeed, nearly in the middle of June. 
In one house there were 100 flat pans full of seedlings, 
all just ready to prick off singly into small pots, 
each pan being anticipated to produce a dozen 
plants. That will give in round figures 10,000 plants, 
but, as the smallest are rejected, that number is 
reduced materially. Still, that some 8,000 of Cycla¬ 
men alone should be produced for the London market 
in one place shows what enormous quantities of these 
admirable winter flowers are grown and sold. 
We never see Cyclamen in private gardens in the 
same fine form they are found in these market 
establishments. Few plants need more attention or 
require more skill in the cultivation, hence the range 
of really skilled growers is a limited one. Then the 
Cyclamen does badly when grown in conjunction 
with other plants. A market grower devotes his 
houses to them alone, for, amongst other failings, 
the plants catch fly quickly, and if not sharply 
looked after soon become infested with aphis. 
Recently Mr. Warren has found a small moth 
depositing eggs on the plants, which produce 
small maggotts that prey on the undersides of the 
leaves and eventually, if not found in time, eat holes 
quite through the leaves. These pests had to be 
combatted by hand-picking, and were soon subdued. 
Very fine now are Cyclamen strains, and no market 
grower cares to have a poor one. Out of so many 
plants raised every year it is not at all difficult to 
find some advance, and that is carefully secured.— D. 
CULLODEN. 
The name of Culloden will carry most readers of 
history back to the famous battlefield where the last 
hopes of the royal race of Stuarts were finally 
extinguished, this being the last battle fought on 
British soil. Culloden is the family seat of Duncan 
Forbes, Esq., and is situated some four miles from 
Inverness, in close proximity to the battlefield, on 
the southern side of the Moray Firth. 
While passing through the gardens and grounds 
recently, I was very much struck with the enormous 
size attained by some of the common Hollies. One 
grand specimen towered away 50 ft. high, was 24 ft. 
through, and completely furnished from top to bottom 
and without a defect. Cupressus Lawsoniana also 
finds a happy home here, likewise Retinosporas, 
Cryptomeria, and many of the choice decidious 
shrubs. 
Mr. Forbes takes a great delight in all kinds of 
gardening ; and of late has been turning his attention 
to Orchid growing. It is needless to say that under 
his keen observation everything is doing remarkably 
well. At the time of my visit there was a nice display 
of Odontoglossums, Dendrobes, Cypripediums, and 
Cattleyas in bloom ; all of which were in excellent 
health, and thoroughly clean, creditable alike to 
employer and employed, — J , McNgb- 
CdLinings front flic ITodtt 
of Cuicurc. 
A Determined Weed. —The foreign weeds which 
make a footing in this country come, as a rule, from 
cold or temperate countries ; but Galinsoga parvi- 
flora is a native of tropical South America, and was 
introduced to this country in 1796, but for what 
purpose is not quite apparent. Its congener, G. 
trilobata, was introduced from Peru a year later, 
and was grown as a hardy annual in this country 
for some time but is now probably lost to cultivation. 
It was figured in the Botanical Magazine in 1875, and 
had rather large heads, with broad orange rays. 
G. parviflora, on the other hand, has small deep 
yellow heads, and is practically a wretched weed 
which had better been left in its native wilds. It 
might possibly have originally escaped from Kew 
Gardens, but it has now made itself at home in the 
gardens, fields, and waste ground in the parishes of 
Kew, Richmond, and Mortlake. In the market 
gardens of the latter parish it is as weedy a plant as 
the common Groundsel, if not worse, and where not 
closely looked after and hoed down or pulled up it 
chokes down other subjects and soon runs to seed, 
filling the ground with the latter for years after. 
The leaves of the plant are ovate, and when not in 
bloom the seedlings bear a close resemblance to an 
Ageratum. Being a foreigner, it is probably allowed 
to grow in the cottage and villa gardens till it 
flowers, thus showing its true nature.— J. F. 
Proliferous Potato. —The other day a gardener 
handed me a specimen of a Potato plant which 
showed proliferation to a remarkable extent. It had 
been grown in a garden, and the stems, which were 
of considerable length, had been laid upon the 
ground. The branches arising from the axils of the 
leaves, from the base to a considerable part along 
the stems, had became thick and tuberous, resem¬ 
bling Potatos. Those that had become partly 
buried in the soil were practically Potatos more or 
less in the normal form and colour, but possessed 
of leafy buds at the eyes. Higher up the stem and 
where fully exposed they were quite green, with a 
leaf below each eye, as on a true stem or branch, 
thus showing the true nature of a Potato. A leafy 
bud occupied the eyes in the axils of the primary 
leaves. Sometimes these buds had grown out into 
a short branch again thickened and tuberous 
forming a small Potato, just as those developed 
underground often become branched. Occasionally 
a number of these tubers would be developed at 
different heights along a branch, resembling a plant 
in fruit. Some branches were thickened at the 
base, then constricted, and finally tuberous again. 
On some of the tubers ridges ran down their sides 
like the angles from the base of the leaves on the 
normal stem.— J. F. 
Sycamore and Sycamine —These two words 
we derive from two Greek words Sutton, a Fig, and 
moron, a Mulberry. The name was applied by the 
ancient Greeks to the Ficus Sycomorus, the Egyptian 
Fig-tree or Mulberry-fig. The modern Greeks call 
it sykamenea ; and it is probable that their ancestors 
derived it from the Hebrew sink min, which might 
have been borrowed from the Egyptians by the 
Hebrews as the latter imported and planted the tree 
largely in Palestine. Our word Sycamine is, no doubt, 
derived from the Greek form of the word. On the 
other hand, Sycamore could have been derived from 
the Latin Sycarnorus and that from the Greek, 
sykomoros, which in its turn would come from the 
Hebrew shikmot, possibly in its turn borrowed from 
Egypt. Now the Ficus Sykomorus is a Fig, bearing 
fruits which are eaten by the Arabs at the present 
day ; and it is compared to the Mulberry (Morus 
nigra) simply from the shape and general appearance 
of its leaves. The Bramble has fruit somewhat 
resembling that of the Mulberry, hence confusion 
arose by the indiscriminate application of the name 
mora, sometimes meaning Mulberries and sometimes 
Blackberries. Another element of confusion was 
introduced when we applied the name Sycamore to 
Acer Pseudo-Plafanus, which is neither a Fig nor a 
Mulberry, and has not much resemblance to either, 
unless we consider that the leaves may be compared 
to those of Morus alba, xyhich are Jobed in a slightly 
similar fashion, 
