October 6, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
87 
Still I shall endeavour next year to Champion England's 
cause in Anticipation of attaining a Prodigy which will 
give Satisfaction all round, and Bliss’s Everbearing in 
Abundance. You may think I am green, and getting 
away from my subject. That may be, but I am full 
of Marrowfat, if furrowed with wrinkles ; and I am a 
real Yorkshire Gem —aye, and a Yorshire Hero too. 
The British Queen, Prince and Princess of Wales, 
Dukes and Duchesses, Premiers, Presidents, Chancellors, 
and even John Bull render me homage, and pronounce 
me Magnificent. Yes, I am the Earliest of All and the 
Best of All; I am Sangster’s Mo. 1, and am often called 
the American Wonder. Whether I am in front of 
Blue Prussians with their glistening Scimitars, or a 
Cooks Favourite in Paradise Marrow Square, I am 
declared to be a Pioneer and a Marvel. I reign 
Supreme and in Triumph, for have I not been a Prize- 
taker in a contest with Gladiators ? Multum in Parvo 
is my motto, and I am the Alpha and Omega of Per¬ 
fection, while from Day’s Early Sunrise until the sun 
goes down I am the public’s Little Gem, the Stratagems 
of Daniel O'Rourke, Blue Peter, Tom Thumb, and the 
Bishop s Dwarf notwithstanding. William I. was the 
Ringleader, tut turning on the Electric Light with 
Lightning rapidity, and making use of the Telegraph 
and Telephone, J am yet master of the situation—the 
First and Best. 
-- 
NOTES ON VEGETABLES. 
Y hat a grand autumn we are having for the winter 
vegetables ! From present appearances there will be 
no lack of green stuff during the coming winter, unless 
we suffer from severe frost. Should the fine dry weather 
continue, however, it will do a vast deal of good in 
hardening the stems of all the Brassicas, and so enable 
them the better to stand up against frost. All green 
crops are growing rapidly in this neighbourhood, thanks 
to the more genial warmth. What a contrast there is 
between the present and last season, when everything 
was dried up, so that when the rain did come all things 
were so hard and dry that they never started into 
growth again. We had several plots of Cauliflowers 
planted at the end of May, which never headed-in 
properly for the want of moisture, and watering was 
quite out of the question, on our hot and dry soil. 
This season the conditions are quite reversed, and 
we have been cutting good heads for the last fortnight 
from plants put out at the end of June. The lesson we 
learn from this is, that if one wants good, tender, and 
quickly-grown Cauliflowers, one must do the land 
well—dig deeply or trench, put in plenty of manure, and 
keep the soil moist. 
As an illustration of the rapid growth made this 
season, I may say that in February, on a south border, 
we sowed some American Wonder Peas, and when these 
were all gathered at the end of June, we put out a crop 
of five or six different kinds of Cabbages, without 
preparing the ground other than clearing it of weeds. 
They were all small-growing sorts, planted 12 ins. 
apart each way, and to-day, September 25th, we have 
cleared off more than half the border and sent the 
heads to market. Several of the kinds under notice 
are good ones, but Sutton s All Heart deserves to be 
mentioned as specially good. A selection of my own, 
Little Gem is a good early kind too, and very quick 
growing, but hardly large enough for market work. 
When the ground is quite cleared we shall put out 
some strong Endive plants for winter use. 
The Early Purple Munich Turnip is a very quick¬ 
growing variety, and sown on the first Saturday in 
August the plants were fit to draw for use at the end 
of September. Beauty of Hebron Potatos were dug up 
in the morning and the Turnips sown in the afternoon. 
Late Vegetable Marrows are a poor crop, the cold 
weather rendering them unfruitful. Potatos about here 
are not satisfactory this season as regards flavour, and 
many are badly diseased. I have not tasted a really 
good tuber yet this season. This I attribute to their 
haulm having been cut off so early by the disease. 
Abundance is our best as yet, and some of the newer 
kinds we have been trying are quite worthless. 
Brussels Sprouts are very promising where they were 
planted early ; and Scarlet Runners have grown to a 
great height, and in many places are still abundant, 
but terribly low in value. Two shillings per bushel is 
a good return to the grower this season, but in a town 
near here they have been offered as low as Is. 6 d. One 
man after paying for gathering and carriage had 7s 6d 
returned to him for 30 bushels. This is a dreadful 
price when rent, labour, and taxes, &c., have to be 
considered. Again what a difference there was in the 
value of early Potatos. A tenant on this estate last 
year sent Beauty of Hebrons to market, and had £8 
per ton returned to him ; this year the same firm offered 
him £3 10s. It has been difficult to dispose of 
Lettuces at any . price. A too abundant supply is 
clearly not a gain to everybody.— Con. 
-- 
COOMBE WARREN. 
The residence of B. W. Currie, Esq., Coombe Warren, 
Kingston-on-Thames, is beautifully situated among 
trees on the sloping side of a hill, with an old 
plantation or wood of low Oak trees behind. The wet 
summer has been beneficial rather than otherwise to 
everything out of doors, owing to the thin or poor 
nature of the soil, which, like Richmond Park and 
Wimbledon Common, consists of “plateau or hill 
gravel ’ of doubtful age. Whenever ornamental trees 
have to be planted the original soil has to be dug out 
and replaced with something more substantial, a fact 
which indicates the difficulties with which Mr. J. 
Dowsett, the gardener, has to contend in the cultivation 
of plants generally in the open ground. Part of the 
pleasure ground was laid out in an old gravel-pit, 
where the gravel had been dug out to the depth of 7 ft. 
to 8 ft. or more, leaving the old trees standing on little 
knolls, and in many cases having their roots partly 
exposed. Ho attempt has been made to level the 
ground after having a good surface for grass, and it 
is, of course, very pleasingly and sharply undulated. 
A small square piece of ground on a terrace enclosed 
by a low wall is devoted to carpet bedding, and 
although the Alternantheras had not acquired their 
customary brilliancy as in ordinary seasons, yet they, 
as well as Mesembryanthemum cordifolium variegatum, 
Herniaria glabra, and other carpet-bedding plants had 
made satisfactory growth, and were very neatly kept. 
On two sides of this the walls were higher than the rest, 
and were covered with Pelargoniums, trained on trellis- 
work, and intermixed with the variegated Abutilon 
Thompsoni, the yellow-leaved Fuchsia Meteor, and the 
variegated Duke of Edinburgh Pelargonium, forming a 
pleasing contrast to bare walls. 
Close by this and in front of the mansion a novel 
and striking effect is produced on the lawn by the use 
of Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums and Heliotropes planted 
out in little beds, and trained over wire trellis-work to 
the height of 8 ft. 6 ins. The whole is conical in 
shape, and at a little distance they appear like huge 
bushes flowering freely. There was no evidence of 
wirework, except on close inspection. The Heliotropes 
are propagated by cuttings in August, and are potted 
on and encouraged to grow so as to be of large size late 
in spring, when they are planted out and trained in 
the above fashion. Fine-foliaged plants, such as 
Eurya latifolia (9 ft. high), Euonymus japonicus 
latifolius albus, and E. j. 1. aureus (each 11 ft. 6 ins. 
high), as well as Elseagnus pungens variegata (11 ft. 
high), are grown in large tubs, and pruned into nar¬ 
rowly pyramidal form. They associate well with the 
trained Heliotropes and Pelargoniums on the lawn, 
while they constitute a feature not often met with in 
modern gardening. There are also standards or 
globular-headed specimens of Oranges, Lauras nobilis, 
and Viburnum Tinus in large tubs. The variegated 
specimens previously mentioned are, however, the 
finest, and seldom seen of such handsome proportions. 
Here also may be mentioned eight large specimens of 
Hydrangea hortensis, with about 100 trusses of bloom 
on each, grown in tubs and arranged in a semi-circle 
round a low spreading tree. They were about 6 ft. in 
diameter, and exhibited various shades of pink, changing 
in some cases to a fine blue. 
In another part of the pleasure grounds is a large 
bed of Hollies, which when originally planted contained 
800 plants. It is circular in contour, and trimmed into 
flatly conical outline ; the outer band consists of the 
common green Holly, then comes a band of Golden 
Queen, followed by one of Silver Queen, and that again 
by the Golden Milkmaid, while the tallest plants in 
the centre consist of Silver Queen. Hear this bed, and 
under the shade of old trees planted long before the 
garden was made, is a summer-house of octagonal 
shape, with numerous hand-painted figures representing 
Japanese scenery, including pictures of spring, summer, 
autumn, and winter scenes. A round-bay house of an 
ornamental character has recently been built as a 
terminating point to the kitchen garden-wall, and 
overlooks part of the pleasure grounds, which may be 
seen from the large windows. On the wall are figures 
of statues and other objects done in some white 
material on a groundwork of red cement. 
What is known as the inner garden was formerly 
used as a kitchen garden ; but considerable expense 
has been incurred in converting it into a flower garden, 
surrounded by an iron fence covered with Raspberries, 
and Vines on the pillars. The only semblance to a 
kitchen garden lies in the fact that the brick walls are 
covered with fruit trees, chiefly Peaches and Plums, 
including Pond’s Seedling, Jefferson, Denyer’s Victoria' 
and Frogmore Orleans, all bearing fairly good crops.' 
The walk between the fence and the brick wall is 
paved, as well as those running through the garden. 
The latter are very neatly panelled with different- 
coloured pebbles and tiles. Some oblong beds, 45 ft. 
by 10 ft. wide, planted with Coleus Verschaffelti, 
Iresines, bicolor Pelargoniums, and edged with Santolina 
Chamse-eyparissus and blue Lobelias, must task Mr. 
Dowsett pretty severely to find space for the material 
in winter. Along the sides of the walks are many 
specimens of Fuchsias, trained in pyramidal and 
umbrella fashion. There are also Myrtles, Oranges, 
Agapanthus umbellatus, with its white and double 
varieties, and Eulalia japonica variegata in flower. 
Abutting on this is a semicircular piece of ground, 
planted with Rhododendrons on the circumference of 
the curve, while the wall on the flat side is covered 
with various Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, Ampelopsis 
Veitchii, &c., with buttresses here and there of 
Heliotrope trained on trellis-work. Adjoining this is 
a finely-constructed and well-finished Orangery, with 
beautiful carvings internally. 
Besides the houses built for the reception of the 
various subjects grown in tubs, as mentioned above, 
there are others for growing Melons, Tomatos, Camellias, 
Tuberoses, Eucharis, Roses, Fuchsias, Celosias, Herium 
Oleander (of which there are some very large speci- 
.mens), and other subjects. Amongst climbers, 
Allamanda Schottii (Hendersoni) covered the roof of a 
house, and was flowering splendidly, while Lapageria 
rosea and L. r. alba adorned the roof of another. 
-- 
Motes on Eruits. 
The Wilson June.. Blackberry. 
A short time ago when calling upon Mr. Turton, at 
Maiden Erleigh, near Reading, I was much impressed 
with his plants and crop of this Blackberry. Mr. 
Turton had it planted in a partially shaded place, and 
trained to a wire trellis, 7 ft. high. The plants had 
grown a long w r ay above that, and were covered with 
large fruits of a deep rich colour. If this sort does 
elsewhere as at Maiden Erleigh, I predict a useful 
future for it among those who have a taste for this 
fruit, as it will materially help in supplying the kitchen 
when Apples and other fruits are scarce. Has any 
reader tried the Wilson Junr. on light sandy soil ? If 
so, they would render me a good service by stating with 
what results.— Con. 
-- 
FILMY FERNS. 
There seems to be a widespread notion that filmy 
Ferns require stove heat to grow them to perfection, 
and this idea continues to be upheld in some books. 
The greater number of them are found in tropical or 
sub-tropical countries it is true, but the heat is alwavs 
tempered by a considerable amount of moisture, both 
at the root and in the atmosphere. The collection at 
Kew was at one time grown almost exclusively in the 
tropical Fern-house, where a certain amount of success 
was scored , but since the removal of the greater 
number of them to the cool Fernery, where special 
cases were prepared for them, a marked improvement 
was made by nearly every species tried under that 
treatment. When the collection of the late Cooper 
Foster was added to that of Kew last spring special 
cases of large size had to be made for their reception in 
the cool house. Literally, a house within a house w T as 
built for them, seeing that the whole width of the 
central staging forms the base of the structure. Some 
are grown on pieces of tree Fern stem, while others are 
grown on sandstones, forming a kind of ridge or rockery 
along the centre of the case. Most of these Ferns have 
become thoroughly established, and now form fine 
pieces in varying shades of green, according to the 
species. 
Hymenophyllum. 
Hearly the whole of the so-called filmy Ferns are in¬ 
cluded in the genera Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes. 
Some Todeas are, of course, grown along the centre of 
the case. Two beautifully light green, free-growing 
species are Hymenophyllum caudieulatum and H.. 
