April 27, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
549 
profit is a different thing. Here knowledge is wanted. 
The possession of it, rightly applied, will be attended 
with success ; the absence of it with failure. It is the 
height of folly to suppose that this, any more than any 
other business or profession, can be made profitable 
without preliminary instruction and training .—From a 
paper by Mr. Willia.m Paul, read before the Society of 
Arts. 
-->K—- 
tomatos and potatos in 
OLDEN TIMES. 
When we speak of large or small quantities it is 
necessary to make a comparison in order to be intelli¬ 
gible. Joseph Sabine, speaking of the Tomato or Love 
Apple in 1819, says, “The great use which has been 
made of the Tomato of late years for culinary purposes, 
has occasioned it not only to be regularly grown in 
private gardens, but has also rendered it an object of 
cultivation for the market of the metropolis.” He 
might have used somewhat similar language at the 
present day, notwithstanding the enormous quantities 
that are now annually grown for the London markets 
alone. 
In 1583 it was cultivated on the Continent, and eaten 
dressed with pepper, salt and oil, and sometimes in 
sauces by the Italians and Spaniards. Gerard, speaking 
in 1597, and Parkinson, in 
1656, say that in England 
the Tomato was kept solely 
for ornament and curiosity ; 
but in Sabine’s time it was 
eaten when fresh in various 
ways in soups and sauces, 
and its juice preserved in the 
manner of ketchup for use 
in winter. The fruit was 
described as imparting an 
agreeable acid flavour to the 
ingredients in which it was 
mixed ; but, as in the case 
of the Potato, there w 7 ere 
prejudiced people who looked 
upon Tomatos with a con¬ 
siderable amount of sus¬ 
picion, because they thought 
them unwholesome on ac- 
countof “their great moisture 
and coolness, and that the 
nourishment they afford 
must be bad.” 
Phillip Miller, of the 
Chelsea Botanic Garden in 
1752, described what he con¬ 
sidered to be even distinct 
species of Tomatos, but a 
perusal of his descriptions 
shows that some of them 
were not Tomatos at all, or 
very doubtfully so, while 
the seventh kind was the 
common Potato, as then cul¬ 
tivated. One of the species 
was the Cherry Tomato, of 
which there was a red and 
a yellow variety even in those days, and both of them 
were cultivated for medicinal purposes. His second 
species he described as “ Lycopersicon caule herbaceo, 
hirsutissimo, foliis pinnatis, ineisis, frueto compresso 
sulcato.” In the last three words—meaning with a 
compressed furrowed lip—we may recognise the Large 
Red Tomato as grown at the present day, or that from 
which the latter is directly descended. 
Some idea of the quantity of Tomatos grown around 
London about 1818 may be gleaned from an account 
given by Mr. John Wilmot, a market-gardener at 
Isleworth. In that year he grew about 600 plants, 
yielding 100 half sieves of fruit, or in the aggregate 
about 8,000 lbs. He was in his day one of the largest 
growers. Tomatos were then mostly grown out of 
doors, and that year being particularly fine the supply 
exceeded the demand so that the London markets 
became glutted. The same grower calculated that on 
an average each plant produced 20 lbs. of fruit, while 
some produced 40 lbs., and many individual fruits 
weighed 12 ozs. His method was to plant seedlings 
which had been raised under glass at the foot of banks 
generally utilised for growing Lettuces and Endive. 
This he did about the beginning of May, and as the 
plants grew they were pegged down on the sloping 
banks of soil. 
Miller considered that the Potato should be included 
in the genus Lycopersicon, because its fruit was divided 
into several distinct cells, although he says that 
Linnaeus transferred it to Solanura, under which it had 
originally been classed. Speaking about 1752 he said 
that the plant had been much propagated in England 
within the previous thirty years, but although it had 
been introduced a hundred years previous to that, it 
made but slow progress owing to the prejudice that 
existed against it. He continued, “These roots being 
despised by the rich, and deemed only proper food for 
the meaner sort of persons ; however, they are now 
esteemed by most people, and the quantity of them 
which are cultivated near London, 1 believe, exceeds 
that of any other part of Europe.” Propagation was 
always effected by “roots,” because seeds rarely ripened 
in England. He knew only two varieties, viz., a 
white and red, having correspondingly coloured flowers. 
— F. 
-->5C<-- 
JACK-IN-THE-GREEN PRIM¬ 
ROSES. 
It is certain that some of the curious Primroses with an 
enlarged and leafy calyx, have been in existence for 
over three centuries, as they are mentioned by D. 
Rembert Dodoens, in his Hcrball, which was published 
in 1578. Since then, however, many forms or slight 
variations on the original have been obtained by seed 
Jack-in-the-Green Primroses. 
raising ; and both Primroses and Polyanthuses are 
subject to similar and peculiar developments of the 
calyx, which may be coloured like the corolla, as in the 
Ilose-in-hose forms, or large and leafy as we see in that 
named Jack-in-the-Green. All the five segments of the 
calyx form a background, in the middle of which the 
corolla is seated. A fine group of this kind was ex¬ 
hibited by Mr. R. Dean, of Ealing, at the Drill Hall, 
Westminster, on the occasion of the last meeting of the 
Royal Horticultural Society. For decorative purposes 
they cannot be compared to his hardy Primroses and 
Polyanthus with normal flowers ; but a considerable 
amount of interest will always attach to these singular 
forms, which in the opinion of the botanist would be 
considered as reversions. The upper and central figure 
of our illustration represents Jack-in-the-Green. The 
other flowers show a number of other variations akin to 
the latter, but less important. Pantaloons are a 
development on the Cowslip or Garden Polyanthus, 
where the leaves at the top of the common stalk are 
greatly enlarged, while the calyx segments of the 
individual flowers are also en’arged and leafy. 
Planting Out. —All must be hurry and bustle in the 
indoor department to get the necessary quantities of 
cuttings rooted and ready for planting out ; but 
there are many things which might be conveniently 
planted out now 7 , and the planting of such things as 
Gladioli, Pinks, Carnations, and Picotees must not 
longer be delayed. 
DOMESTICATED PLANTS 
GROWN FOR ORNAMENT. 
When flowers are cultivated purely for amusement 
and decorative purposes, we probably reach the highest 
phase of horticulture as a development or accompaniment 
of civilisation. Probably this has always been the 
case with highly civilised nations. Single species of 
plants, when grown for a great number of generations, 
have given rise to a marvellous number of variations, 
to which there seems practically no limit. This is 
well exemplified in the Auricula, Chrysanthemum, 
Antirrhinum, Carnation, Tulip, Hyacinth, Dahlia, 
Camellia, Cyclamen, and others, which are all 
descendants from a single species, or mostly so. 
Reversion is endless, and is the expression of the 
excessive intermingling of the blood, so to speak, of 
different varieties by cross-breeding in those plants 
that have originally varied spontaneously under the 
influence of cultivation. The flakes, flames, feathers, 
stripes, mottlings, and so forth, met with in most of 
the above-mentioned plants may be described as the 
colours of various parents gone mad in the progeny. 
Carnations, Picotees and Antirrhinums are good illus¬ 
trations of this. Exhibitors have gained prizes for 
different varieties of Antirrhinums where (to my 
knowledge) different forms have been obtained from 
the same plant. Pure 
self flowers are frequent 
on many of these plants 
usually or normally bear¬ 
ing striped or variegated 
flowers. 
The vast number of Chry¬ 
santhemums now in this 
country have been obtained 
by cross-breeding and selec¬ 
tion, and coloured varieties 
by sporting. Those in ex¬ 
istence now have almost 
supplanted those in culti¬ 
vation fifty or sixty years 
ago, as a reference to names 
indicates. As an instance 
of the tendency to sport, 
the past exhibitions amply 
demonstrate. Princess of 
Teck is a white variety, 
suffused with pink, and has 
sported into Hero of Stoke 
Newington (rosy pink), Mrs. 
Norman Davis (yellow), 
Robert Gibson and Lady 
Dorothy (shades of buff- 
yellow), and Lord Eversley 
(pure white). Mrs. W. 
Shipman, fawn colour, was 
a sport from Lady Hardinge, 
silvery rose, and last summer 
reverted to Lady Hardinge, 
or something almost iden¬ 
tical, in several collections. 
Madame C. Audiguier fre¬ 
quently sports into several 
forms, even on the same 
plant. The double Chinese Primulas, as grown 
by Messrs. Sutton & Sons and Messrs. H. Cannell 
& Sons, are of different races or pedigrees. Those 
of the first-mentioned firm are loosely double or 
semi-double, and have all been derived evidently from 
cross-breeding and selection, whereby the tendency to 
double was infused into single varieties of different 
colours. Thus Reading Blue has leaves of the ordinary 
form, while Fern-leaved Reading Blue has the colour 
of the first with Fern foliage. In like manner there 
are plain-leaved and a Fern-leaved double blue varieties. 
The supernumerary segments appear to be outgrowths 
from the stamens, as the upper and most highly- 
coloured surface is reversed. The Messrs. Cannell’s 
strain of doubles is different, and where fullest, not 
only the stamens, but sometimes the carpels are 
affected, even if they do not become petaloid. 
Double Stocks are not perpetuated from doubles, but 
from those that exhibit a tendency to become so. 
When fully double the sexual organs are entirely 
destroyed. A remarkably similar case occurred recently 
in the case of Rhododendron balsamfeflorum carneum, 
a flesh-coloured hybrid fading to yellow, with flowers 
as double as a Gardenia or Tuberose. The pollen 
parent exhibited a slight tendency to become double by 
developing one or two slightly petaloid stamens low 
down in the tube of the flower. R. Primrose, a soft 
yellow-flowered hybrid, was the result of crossing 
Maiden’s Blush with R. Tyermanni, a small red-flowered 
species ; but in the following cases the prepotency of 
the male parents in all cases determined the colour of 
the flowers of the progeny.— F. 
