March 16, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
449 
Gardening Engagements.—Mr. Snow, gardener to 
the late John Bruce, Esq., South Park, Wadhurst, 
Sussex, as gardener to— Murietta, Esq., Wadhurst 
Park. Mr. Nisbet, for twenty-eight years gardener at 
Aswarby Park, Sleaford, as gardener to the Duke of 
Westminster, Cliveden, Bucks, in succession to Mr. 
Ellam. 
The Grape Hyacinth in the Greenhouse.—The 
old-fashioned Muscari botryoides is well known in 
many gardens, where it becomes almost a weed, owing 
to the freedom with which it produces seeds, which 
germinate readily and come up all over the garden, even 
in the box edgings. It also proves very suitable for pot 
culture, and when urged gently onwards comes in very 
handy at this season of the year for greenhouse decora¬ 
tion. By assorting the bulbs and using the best, they 
flower very equally and finely, the blue spikes imparting 
a cheerful contrast to the other occupants of the house. 
Mr. Charles Frazer, horticultural builder, Palace 
Plain, Norwich, died on the 28th ult. The business is 
being carried on by his executors. 
Gardeners’ Orphan Fund.—On the evening of the 
8th inst., an influential meeting of the market growers 
was held at the Hummums Hotel, Covent Garden, to 
consider the question of holding another Floral Fete in 
the Wholesale Flower Market, during the ensuing 
season, in aid of this Fund. Mr. George Deal, 
chairman of the Executive Committee, presided, and 
having briefly stated the objects of the meeting, Mr. 
Messer moved the following resolution :—“That this 
meeting, consisting mainly of stand-holders in the 
Wholesale Flower Market, Covent Garden, cordially 
endorses the proposal to hold a second Floral Fete in 
aid of the Gardeners’ Orphan Fund, and having heard 
with pleasure that His Grace the Duke of Bedford has 
kindly granted the free use of the market for this 
purpose, hereby pledges itself to render the best 
assistance in its power to successfully carry out the 
same, and to co-operate in general with the Executive 
Committee of the Fund.” The resolution was seconded 
by Mr. Hawkins, Twickenham, and carried unani¬ 
mously. In order to carry the above resolution into 
effect, Mr. Asbee moved, Mr. Stroud seconded, and it 
was also unanimously resolved that ten gentlemen be 
appointed as a committee to represent the stand- 
holders, for the purpose of co-operating with the 
officials of the Fund. A show of hands having been 
taken, the following gentlemen were declared duly 
elected as members of the committee Messrs. Messer, 
Lewington, Hawkins, H. B. May, E. Rochford, T. A. 
Dickson, G. May, Baker, Cataneo, and Poulton. The 
sense of the meeting was taken as to the most 
convenient day for holding the fete, and the general 
opinion appeared to be in favour of Wednesday, the 
8th of May. 
Cordyline indivisa.—The commonest form of this 
plant in gardens, and apparently the hardiest one, 
has green leaves that are far less ornamental than the 
true C. indivisa, the leaves of which are lance-shaped, 
glaucous on both sides, but especially beneath, with 
all the principal veins of an orange-red, giving the 
whole leaf a beautifully striped appearance. It is a 
native of New Zealand, and requires to be kept in a cool 
temperature and not over-watered. 
The Late Rev. W. A. Leighton.—The Reverend 
William Allport Leighton, whose recent death at 
the ripe old age of eighty-three years we briefly 
announced in our last, was born at Shrewsbury iu 
1805, and when quite young was enthusiastically 
devoted to antiquarian pursuits. Whilst at Mr. Case’s 
school his friend and schoolfellow, Charles Darwin, 
i instilled into his mind the germ of botanical research, 
which was fostered by an ardent love of flowers, and 
greatly developed during his residence at Cambridge by 
his friend, the Rev. J. T. Henslow, Regius Professor of 
Botany in that University. Mr. Leighton published 
in 1836 A Guide Through Shrewsbury, which ran 
through four editions, and is now out of print and very 
scarce. He also contributed numerous archeological 
papers to the Gentleman’s Magazine and other anti, 
quarian periodicals, besides many botanical articles in 
magazines of natural history and Transactions of learned 
societies. His Angiocarpous Lichens elucidated by their 
Sporidi was published by the Ray Society in 1851, his 
Flora of Shropshire in 1841, and his Lichen Flora of 
Great Britain, Ireland, and the Channel Islands in 1872. 
He collected duriug many years a very valuable 
herbarium, which he afterwards presented to the Kew 
Herbarium. He was the first secretary of the Shrop¬ 
shire and North Wales Natural History and Anti¬ 
quarian Society, which he was instrumental in establish¬ 
ing in 1835, and continued to take much interest in it 
till it became amalgamated with the Shropshire Archaj- 
ological Society, the Transactions of which he edited 
for several years. He was a Fellow of the Liniuean 
Society of London, Fellow of the Botanical Society of 
Edinburgh, Honorary Member of the Cryptogamic 
Society of Scotland, Honorary Corresponding Member 
of the Natural History Society of Cherbourg, &c., &c. 
-- 
CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 
Golden Beverley and its Storts. 
I have read the remarks of your correspondents “ P.” 
and “Observer,” upon the bronze sport H. Shoesmith, 
and as I happened to be one of the first to obtain 
Mr. Bunn after it was distributed I venture to 
encroach upon your valuable space with a few lines for 
the purpose of correcting “ Observer’s” remarks. The 
variety named Mr. Bunn is a sport from Golden 
Beverley, obtained about 1877-8. It originated with 
Mr. Bunn, who was connected with the Lambeth 
Amateur Chrysanthemum Society, and who left 
England for America, but who before going gave this 
sport to Mr. Wm. Halstead, a member of the same 
society, and out of compliment to his old friend 
Mr. Halstead named the sport Mr. Bunn, and dis¬ 
tributed it amongst his friends. Since then, Mr. 
Halstead has migrated to the great city of New York, 
and it was the fact of receiving an interesting letter 
from him this morning, full of Chrysanthemum news, 
that led me to send you this note. 
In 1885 Mr. Harry Ellis, also a member of the 
Lambeth Amateur Chrysanthemum Society, discovered 
that one of his plants of Golden Beverley had thrown 
bronze flowers. He grew twenty plants the following 
year, and eighteen of them retained the bronze colour, 
the remaining two reverting to Golden Beverley. Mr. 
Ellis placed the sport in the hands of Messrs. Davis & 
Jones, who named it H. Shoesmith. 
As far back as November, 1886, in the Gar¬ 
deners’ Magazine, mention was made of this bronze 
sport, which had been obtained from the same parent 
plant as Mr. Bunn. “ Observer ” states : “ H. 
Shoesmith, I understand, originated as a sport from 
Mr. Bunn, and certainly it was last season awarded a 
First Class Certificate by the Floral Committee of the 
N. C. S. as Bronze Mr. Bunn.” This is incorrect, for 
I have a distinct recollection of seeing at the Aquarium, 
on the 21st November, 1888, two plants of this sport, 
which were presented to the Floral Committee of the 
N. C. S. for their award. Each plant had upon it 
three blooms, and stood about 5 ft. high, growing in 
24-sized pots. One plant had a label upon it, bearing 
the inscription H. Shoesmith, so that under these 
circumstances it was impossible for the plants to have 
been certificated as Bronze Mr. Bunn, although the 
committee may have been informed, like many other 
people, that it is a sport from Mr. Bunn, and not from 
Golden Beverley, as is actually the case.— Fair Play. 
-- 
POTATO, EARLY PURITAN. 
Of the many bewildering varieties of new Potatos that 
are every year introduced to notice and distributed for 
cultivation, and which have claimed for them, by the 
raiser or introducer, all the good qualities it is possible 
for a Potato to possess, it is gratifying to find one 
variety of recent introduction, at least, that justifies 
much that was said in its favour, and upholds its 
certificate of character as possessing sterling qualities. 
A Potato like the variety under notice, which proves to 
be more than fairly good in most points in districts far 
apart and on various soils, in a season, too, like that of 
1888—which was, perhaps, the worst Potato season 
experienced for many years—may be said to possess 
really sterling qualities. 
Like most of the American kinds when first intro¬ 
duced, Early Puritan is a prodigious cropper ; but is 
unlike most of the other varieties from that country, in 
that we shall not have to grow it three or four years 
before it parts with its waxy nature and becomes fit for 
table, as it is almost equal in cooking qualities to our 
best established table kinds to begin with. Perhaps 
the worst soil on which to grow Potatos in wet and 
cold seasons, is a strong loam with a subsoil of cold 
clay of several feet in depth. Of such is the character 
of the soil we have to contend with, and in wet seasons 
our crops of Potatos suffer more or less accordingly, but 
I never remember them to have been so bad as last 
season. The Potato blight was very rife in some of the 
varieties which we grew, and the quality of what were 
not diseased has been execrable. 
Out of twelve varieties grown, the one that stood the 
weather the best, and came out almost scatheless from 
the disease, was the new variety in question, and in 
cooking quality it is the best I have seen and tasted 
this season. Unfortunately, we had only a small 
supply of it, it being the first season of growing it, and 
on trial. From 7 lbs. of seed tubers, cut into as many 
sets as possible, we lifted 288 lbs. of fine shapely 
tubers, and most of them of cookable size and excellent 
quality. Out of the lot were found only seven diseased 
tubers, while in a breadth of Beauty of Hebron, grow¬ 
ing by the side of them, there was fully one-half of the 
crop diseased. 
The very small percentage of diseased tubers of 
Puritan would indicate that it has disease-resisting 
powers of great extent, which should recommend it to 
growers generally. Still, I do not believe that any 
Potato can withstand the blighting effects of the 
disease for any length of time, and Early Puritan may, 
after a few years’ trial of it, fall an easy prey to the 
scourge as all other reputed disease-resisting kinds have 
done. Notwithstanding, I believe it to be a very good 
Potato, and those who have not tried it I feel sure 
would not be disappointed by giving it a trial this 
coming season. In growth, colour, and shape of haulm, 
also in form and size of tubers, Early Puritan is almost 
the counterpart of Beauty of Hebron ; the colour of its 
tubers, however, are white, and might not inaptly be 
called White Beauty of Hebron. It is also slightly 
earlier than that variety, which is a further advantage 
in its favour. 
It proves to be an excellent keeper. I had some 
taken out of the store to-day, and cooked for dinner. 
The tubers were very sound and firm, and after being 
cooked and nicely dried, they were veritable balls of 
flour. On account of the snowy whiteness of its tubers, 
Early Puritan will, no doubt, in time replace Beauty of 
Hebron, the tubers of which are more or less every wet 
season tinged through with a pink colour, rendering 
them unpresentable for table.— J. Kipling, Knebworth. 
-*>3=<-- 
The rose Garden. 
TEA ROSES ON THEIR OWN ROOTS.-IV. 
Planting Out Under Glass. 
When it is intended to devote a house entirely to the 
cultivation of the Rose, whatever its aspect may be, the 
remarks in my last on ventilation as applied to mildew 
should be considered. The ventilators require to be so 
placed that the direct force of any current of cold air 
should not strike upon the young and tender growth, 
but should be so arranged that the air can be warmed 
by passing first over the pipes, and permeating the 
whole house gradually before going out at the top. 
One of the greatest evils that can possibly happen to 
any house, whether Rose or any other kind, is to allow 
the house to get hot with both sun and fire heat, and 
then open the ventilators wide all at once. It is much 
better to put a little on early in the morning, or as 
soon as the weather will permit, and allow the heat to 
rise gradually, with a niche of air on, than adopt the 
plan of suddenly opening out the whole at one time. 
In a house devoted to Roses they generally thrive 
better by themselves than they do when mixed with 
other plants ; and in planting out, some idea should 
be in view before commencing, or the house may 
soon become a wilderness of brash and bramble. In 
preparing borders they should be well drained, mixing 
well with the soil rough rubble, such as generally 
comes from old buildings ; this keeps the borders open, 
allowing the roots to run freely, and admits of good 
soakings of water being given without making the soil 
pasty. 
Plants intended for the roof should be but few, and 
those a choice selection. These may be planted at 
intervals, and will in time cover the whole roof if 
allowed to do so. In the meantime other bush kinds 
may be planted in the borders between the climbers, or 
some may be grown in pots, according to the idea of 
the cultivator. 
The system of planting out is a good one when the 
plants cannot have that attention, &c., that plants in 
pots require, because a few hours occasionally spent in 
soaking the borders and in regulating shoots, is all 
they need, except the usual routine of syringing, 
ventilation, &c. It is good in other respects, as it will 
yield by far the greatest number of flowers, especially 
from the climbers on the roof; but the flowers, as a 
rule, are all in at once, or, to speak plainly, the main 
crop of flowers may all be cleared away in a few weeks, 
leaving not much but occasional flowers to follow all 
