May 25, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
611 
merely proves the same thing. P. v. latifolia is a 
variety with violet flowers and a powdered throat, and 
may not the raising of a powdered Auricula from 
p nivalis be correlated with this fact ? The P. nivalis 
of the botanists is quite a different thing, and coming 
from the Caucasus, is not a European plant at all.— 
J. F. 
-~>:r<>- 
FRUIT CULTURE AT SYON 
HOUSE. 
Fruit culture, both under glass and in the open air, is 
a matter of great importance at Syon House, Brentford, 
one of the seats of the Duke of Northumberland. 
Generally speaking, crops grown under glass are more 
certain than those at the mercy of our proverbially 
fickle climate ; but cultivators within range of the 
London fogs and smoke have difficulties to contend 
with, concerning which those living in the provinces 
know little or nothing. The greatest difficulty is 
caused by the deficiency of light in winter, augmented 
by the prevalence of fog and the impurities it contains. 
The gardens are surrounded on one side by buildings, 
while on the other side is the River Thames, from 
which aud from the marshy level ground a constant 
moisture arises. Besides fruits of various kinds, vege¬ 
tables are also forced in winter, and very successfully 
by Mr. Geo. Wythes, under whose able superintendence 
everything is conducted. 
Fruits under Glass. 
Several houses are devoted to the culture of Vines, and 
as the family resides here, or within easy distance 
during the spring and early summer months, it follows 
that forcing must be commenced early in order to get 
the Grapes ready during the time they are most 
required. The earliest vinery was closed prior to 
forcing the Vines about the first week in November, 
and the whole of the fruit has already been matured 
and cut in this house. Black Hamburg is the variety 
used both in the first and the second house. About 
half of the fruit is ready for cutting in the latter. The 
earliest Vines are grown on specially for the purpose, 
and in one house may be seen the eyes that have made 
a certain amount of growth ; a second size may be seen 
in large pots in another house ; and a third set are 
planted out in the bed of a house that will be closed for 
forcing in November. At present the Vines are being 
grown on strongly, but are not allowed to bear fruit. 
One house is occupied with young Muscat Vines, 
which are making remarkably vigorous growth. The 
lower part of the rods is already bearing some fine 
bunches of fruit. Next to this is a house of Black 
Hamburgh Vines bearing a good and evenly dis¬ 
tributed lot of bunches. Last year the crop was heavier, 
although the Vines had just been lifted and replanted. 
The two latest houses were not in bloom when we saw 
them, but promised well. The rods are large and old, 
and were losing in vigour when Mr. Wythes lifted 
and replanted them in fresh soil ; the old border was 
taken out to a depth of ft. or thereabout, and refilled 
with entirely fresh material. 
The first crop of Figs has been nearly all gathered, 
while the second one is heavy with the fruits already of 
some size. Two kinds only are grown—namely, the 
Brown Turkey and the White Ischia. The fruit of 
the first is of large size and pyriform, but although a 
favourite sort with many growers, is not so sweet and 
sugary as the smaller-fruited White Ischia. A large 
tree of it supplies a great quantity of fruit, which is 
held in high estimation by Her Grace the Duchess of 
N orthumberland. 
Peaches, both old and young, are carrying heavy 
crops under glass. In one house was a number of fine 
young trees, worked close to the ground, while their 
own stems are taken up to form the trunk. Trees so 
budded do not so readily become impaired in vigour, 
nor die off like those worked higher up. What are 
termed riders, having long stems, are planted to occupy 
the upper part of the trellis until the dwarf-trained ones 
have grown. 
Of Strawberries some 4,000 are potted up for forcing 
during the winter and spring months. A large quantity 
is still in full bearing, including the leading kinds. 
Vicomtesse Herieart de Thury is a favourite, but 
Auguste Nicaise is highly recommended by some, and 
here promises to be serviceable. It is a good-sized 
fruit of cockscomb or triangular shape, highly coloured, 
and the foliage is of a rich dark green even in autumn 
and winter compared with that of other kinds. 
Hardy Fruits. 
It is yet too early to speak with certainty concerning 
the Apple crop, but this much may be said, that 
standard and bush-grown trees were heavily clad with 
blossom. An interesting experiment is being made 
with about fifty or sixty varieties of Apple. They are 
being grown on the horizontal cordon system with a 
single stem. The trees are planted 6 ft. apart, bent 
down, and taken along a stout wire. They are all 
taken in an easterly direction, and the intention is to 
graft the top of one on to the basal portion of the next. 
A fair crop of Pears seems to have set on the wall trees. 
Plums as standards have also set a good crop. 
The Cherry is a favourite fruit at Syon House, and 
large numbers of trees are grown on walls, chiefly 
facing the north and east. Most of those on north 
aspect walls are Morellos. The trees were masses of 
bloom, and the Cherries are now seen to have set 
splendidly. Apricots on a west-aspect wall have set a 
good crop of fruit. With Peaches it seems to have 
fared differently, for although the trees were simply a 
mass of bloom, the fruits now visibly swelling form 
anything but a satisfactory crop—at least, compared 
with what one would have expected from the show of 
bloom. A fair crop may, however, be secured if those 
fruits now discernible pass the stoning period without 
dropping. There is plenty of bloom on the Straw¬ 
berries, and if there be a moderate amount of rain after 
the fruits begin to swell, a good return may be expected. 
-*>3K-- 
THE BARBERRY OR BERBERRY. 
The most common of the Berbenies is Berberis vul¬ 
garis, which is found in our woods and hedgerows, the 
grateful acid of whose fruit has refreshed many a 
palate. The name Berberry appears to mean simply 
the fruit of the Berberis, but it bears another common 
title, that of Pipperidge or Piprage, meaning thereby 
red pip, a name descriptive of the colour and character 
of its small fruit, which seems to be rather a pip than 
a berry. Mr. Leo. Grinden states that the common 
Berberry counts with the Currant, the Gooseberry and 
the Raspberry, completing with these in its produce the 
quartette of what gardeners call “bush fruits.” But 
its fruit has but little value ; it merely serves as an 
elegant addition to the list of fruits, and can easily be 
dispensed with, for when absent it is not missed. “ As 
usually seen, though not so tall when wild, it is a 
bushy shrub 3 ft. to 6 ft. in height, with abundance of 
slender pale brown twigs that nearly conceal the 
principal stem. Every part is studded with very 
sharp prickles, from the axils of which rise the obovate 
and serrated leaves, some of them singly, others in 
clusters. In May come the flowers, individually not 
larger than peas, but disposed in pretty racemes that 
hang from the arching twigs like jets of gold. The 
odour of these is powerful, and to many persons un¬ 
pleasant. In due time they are followed by long 
pendulous strings of scarlet berries shaped like grains 
of rice, but thrice as large, rounded at the extremities, 
slightly curved, and intensely but agreeably acid.” 
Such is a popular description of the Berberry. 
It is not a plant altogether indigenous to this 
country. It is from Asia that the name seems to have 
been originally received. In the wild state it occurs in 
thickets and open woods, ranging over the greater 
portion of Europe and temperate Asia, and is found 
among the Himalayas. Mr. Grindon and other writers 
point out some of the curious botanical particulars that 
pertain to the Berberry. The growth while young is 
rapid ; after the lapse of a few years there comes a 
sudden pause. Shoots and suckers from the base of the 
plant still make their appearance, but no particular 
increase takes place in the general dimensions of the 
plant, and in this condition it remains indefinitely— 
when undisturbed, it is thought, for a possible two or 
three centuries. Dr. Hogg points out that a singular 
circumstance is observable in the stamens of the Ber¬ 
berries, and particularly that of the common kind. 
They are all bent back to each petal, the concave tips 
of which shelter the anthers. No agitation whatever 
of the branch will have any effect upon them, but if the 
inside of the filaments be merely touched with a small 
piece of stick, a pin, or a needle, they instantly spring 
from the petals, and shake the pollen against the 
stigma. After irritation, the stamens will return to 
their original place, and on being touched again, will 
contract with the same facility as at first. This is a 
remarkable provision of nature. The anthers, bent 
back and sheltered from rain in the concavity of 
the petals, would probably never reach the stigma and 
thereby propagate the species were it not for this 
wonderful irritability. There they remain until some 
insect coming to extract honey from the base of the 
flower thrusts itself between the filaments, and almost 
unavoidably touches them in their most irritable part. 
The anthers rise and distribute the pollen on the stigma, 
and thus impregnation of the ovary is accomplished. 
Another curious fact about the plant is that it 
formerly grew wild in great quantity in the hedgerows 
of England, but has been universally banished, from a 
general belief that its presence proved injurious to the 
growth of Wheat, from its power of communicating 
blight to it, and rendering the ears abortive. This 
supposed influence was believed to extend to a distance 
of 300 or 400 yards across a field, causing that part of 
the crop to be blighted and barren. It would appear 
that many experiments have been made by men of high 
scientific reputation to ascertain the truth of this 
rumour ; by some it has been confirmed, and by others 
as distinctly denied, and the general belief now is, that 
it was entirely a popular delusion. The fact is, the 
Berberry and the Wheat are each subject to the attacks 
of a minute parasitic fungus, somewhat similar in 
appearance but quite distinct, the Berberry being 
attacked by its parasitic fungus, and the Wheat exhi¬ 
biting that which is peculiar to it. In ignorance of 
the perfect distinctness of the two blights, the coin¬ 
cidence was laid hold of and attributed to the dispersion 
of the Berberry fungus upon the Wheat plants. The 
popular delusion, therefore, that the Berberry com¬ 
municates blight to grain crops is now regarded by 
authorities as entirely without foundation. — R. D. 
-- 
FORCING ASPARAGUS. 
The system adopted at Syon House, Brentford, for the 
forcing of Asparagus in large quantities is an old one, 
but which might with great propriety be adopted in all 
private establishments where a large amount of this 
useful and esculent vegetable is required. The plan is 
to plant the Asparagus roots in long beds about 4 ft. 
wide. Between these, trenches about 3 ft. in width 
and several feet in depth are taken out, and then filled 
with fermenting farm-yard manure. 
For the sake of economy a considerable number of 
these beds are formed alongside of one another, and the 
trenches filled with manure. A portion of them are 
protected with moveable wooden shutters, and if need 
be, with some dry litter, to preserve the crowns and 
economise the heat. Another portion of the beds is 
left exposed, so that some of them may be said to be 
hard forced, while others are only gently so. Those 
beds protected with shutters commence to furnish 
usable heads in February, and soon after this large 
quantities may be cut till those beds without shutters 
come into bearing. This they do a month earlier than 
those without manure in the trenches. The beds have 
all been entirely uncovered for some time, and still 
furnish heads if required. The same beds are not 
forced two years in succession. The earliest supply is 
obtained by forcing a few roots under glass. 
- — - 
|f0TES FROM f|c0TLAND. 
The Weather and the Crops. —In reviewing 
the weather of the present year in the west of Scotland 
we have to hark back to 1884, in order to note a 
similarly mild period to that which we have just 
passed through ; indeed, if we except the first week of 
March, which is, strictly speaking, a spring month, 
the past winter was a very mild one. During the first 
week of March the outside thermometer registered a 
range of from 5° to 16° of frost, the latter reading being 
noted on the 3rd. Although the season up to the end 
of April was remarkable for almost continual absence 
of sunshine, vegetables at that date were at least a 
fortnight in advance as compared with the same period 
last year. An old adage has it that “a warm May 
and a dropping June puts the farmers’ pipes in tune” ; 
but it is to be regretted that in the first half of the 
month the higher temperature was accompanied with 
so much moisture, which otherwise would have been 
more conducive to free healthy growth. 
Reports are heard of much young Corn being destroyed 
by worms, while in gardens snails are unusually 
numerous and active. I am unable to speak of fruit 
prospects from a wide area, but so far as my knowledge 
goes small fruits promise an abundant crop. Cherries 
are exceptionally good on spur-pruned trees ; Plums 
and Pears irregular ; Apples on orchard wall and other 
trees good. Vegetables : A sowing of Carters’ First 
Crop Peas usually made in November for a chance crop 
stood the winter well, the customary coating of red 
lead on the seed having been objected to by mice, and 
with the exception of one row on which snails had 
commenced operations this sowing presents an uni¬ 
formity of growth equal to spring-sown crops. They 
are now (May 18th) almost in full bloom, and promise 
a very early gathering. Ellam’s Early is still well 
ahead of all other Cabbages for spring cutting, and we 
have grown it for several seasons beside other sorts 
which were said to equal it. This season we began 
cutting heads on April 13 th, or fully a fortnight sooner 
than last year. The percentage of “bolters” is but 
nominal. — Western. 
