November 2, 1895. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
137 
order of Wm. Colchester. Instead of the goods 
coming addressed Pickford and Co., the goods 
came the day before the ship started addressed to a 
number of people living and around Torquay, and 
without the name of Pickford and Co.—Mr. Alex. 
Campbell, wharf manager at the Free Trade 
Wharf, London, said he had acted for the Little 
Western Steamship Company eleven years. In the 
case in question the addresses on the packages did 
not agree with the transfer note.—The checker at 
the wharf (Easling) said his duty was to see that con¬ 
signments agreed with the transfer orders. There 
was nothing on the addresses about " Pickford and 
Co." There was nothing on the addresses on the 
packages to show that they came from Mr. Colches¬ 
ter.—His Honour said he considered the refusal to 
take the goods captious and unreasonable, and the 
judgment on the counter claim would be for 2s., 
with costs. Mr. Wm. Colchester therefore gains 
his point in substance and in fact. 
A Giant Sunflower. —Our readers may be inter¬ 
ested to learn that a Sunflower of the following 
dimensions has been grown during the past summer 
at Rosehill, Cheadle, the residence of Mr. J. R. B, 
Masefield .—Diameter across seeds, 16 in.; diameter 
to outside of petals, 22 in.; circumference of the 
disc, 4 ft. 3 in. ; circumference of stem (2 ft. from 
ground), 8 in.; longest leaf, 1 ft. 7J in. ; breath of 
leaf, 1 ft. 8 in. 
--4-- 
AN AWARD OF MERIT. 
Our secretarial readers will be glad to join in the 
general congratulations to Sergt.-major E. Walker, 
who, last week, received the appointment of Band 
Master to the Honorable Artillery Company, London. 
Mr. Walker, who for many years has been connected 
with the Royal Artillery (Woolwich) Band has won 
golden opinions everywhere and those societies for 
which he has been dispersed music in the past will, 
we are sure, be fully ready to welcome him in the 
new sphere in which he is about to labour. Apart 
from his great musical abilities, Band Master 
Walker has that general presence and aptitude 
which renders the intercourse between the band and 
its audience a sympathetic one, and on more than 
one occasion we have heard the band under his 
direction cheered to the echo by grateful listeners. 
Mr. Walker’s many engagements amongst horti¬ 
cultural societies in the provinces fully entitles him 
to a place in our portrait gallery and we are this 
week enabled to reproduce his photograph. 
-» 1 - 
HELIANTHUS TUBEROSUS IN BLOOM. 
The Jerusalem Artichoke, like all the other members 
of the genus Helianthus, has this year been going in 
for abnormal flowers. We have heard much of late 
—especially through the columns of The Gardening 
World —of big Sunflowers, more particularly H. 
annuus. The species under consideration, however, 
is not growD, as all the gardening world knows, for 
the sake of its flowers, but for those curious potato¬ 
like tubers, which are in request by some people for 
their peculiar Artichoke flavour. But the Jerusalem 
Artichoke is not an Artichoke at all, nor is it in any 
way connected with Jerusalem, the terms being 
merely a corruption of the Italian Girasole A yticocco. 
Apart from its name, however, it seems to have 
been producing this year quite a floral display, which 
is no doubt due to the tropical character of the past 
season. I have, of course, often seen small or 
aborted flowers, but I do not remember to have seen 
them in such fine condition as Mr. Bridges exhibited 
them on the 22nd ult., on the occasion of a meeting 
of the Ealing Gardeners’ Society. The flowers were 
of a good clear yellow, of a true Sunflower type, and 
two or three measured over two inches in diameter. 
They were grown in the grounds of Carville Hall, 
Brentford, and I think the circumstance is worth 
recording. If any of your readers have observed 
results of a similar character, I doubt not they would 
be interesting to others besides C. B. G., Acton, IV. 
[The above was written before Mr. Stogden’s note 
on the same subject appeared on p. 120.—Ed.] 
-- » —■■■ — 
MESSRS. JOHN PEED & SONS. 
October is always more or less a month of fruit 
picking, of fruit eating, and fruit gossiping ; and, 
indeed, this is not very difficult to understand. 
Hardy fruit crops, so long as the never-too-much 
anathematised spring frosts are in fashion, must 
always have attached to them a certain amount of 
precariousness and uncertainty. To use the words 
that fell from the lips of one of old—" Paul may 
plant and Apollos may water," but as long as the 
clerk of the weather refuses to be propitiated we 
may well cry cui bono. Can anything be more har¬ 
rowing to the feelings, or more aggravating to the 
temper of the cultivator, who, encouraged to hope 
by the array of well-formed buds in autumn, the 
clean and well-ripened wood, and the absence of 
canker, and cheered by the brilliant display of 
blossoms in the spring, finds one morning the ther¬ 
mometer indicating some ten degrees of frost, and 
his spirits down at zero. Alas! in such cases it is 
good-bye to the chances of well-filled store rooms in 
autumn. This year, however, the committee at the 
weather office must have been having their proverbial 
debate, for no severe frosts came, and we are now 
able to congratulate ourselves and each other on a 
good fruit year. 
None of our readers will deny the fact that a peep 
at a well-filled store room, with its rows and rows of 
shelves, carrying their burdens of rich, luscious 
fruit is suggestive, and, indeed, we may say that to 
children and persons with good teeth it is temptingly 
so, of good things in store, but to a visitor who is 
somewhat of a pomologist it tells more, for it speaks 
of the cultural skill, care, and perseverence that 
must necessarily have been exercised before such a 
display can be forthcoming. 
We recently had the pleasure of a look round 
such a store room at the Streatham Nurseries of 
Messrs. John Peed & Sons. In area these nurseries 
comprise some eleven acres, fully half of which are 
devoted to the culture of all kinds of fruit trees, the 
remainder being occupied by forest trees of various 
kinds—Dahlias and Roses. Within the space 
allotted to the fruit trees some most useful and 
valuable material is on view, for Mr. John Peed, the 
head of the firm, is a practical fruit grower, and 
takes a pardonable pride in being able to turn out 
trees, which, to quote his own words, *' one need not 
be ashamed to sell to customers." This is the right 
kind of spirit in which to do business, there is not the 
slightest doubt, for without it we may look in vain for 
that feeling of trust and reliance which should be 
placed by clients in the special firm that they elect 
to do business with, if that firm is to prosper. As 
Mr. Peed, to use his own language, “ has had his 
hand upon the spade," and is, as a natural result, 
well aware of the difficulties the gardener has to 
contend with in the providing of good, well-flavoured 
fruit for his employer’s table, he has, for some time 
past, devoted a great deal of his time to a series of 
fruit trials, varieties that fall short in excellence of 
flavour being discarded in favour of others that are 
superior in this respect. Even a tyro knows to what 
Brobdingnaggian dimensions our lists of Apples and 
Pears attain, and yet how many, or to be more ex¬ 
plicit, how few of them possess a really good 
flavour. True, some have a wonderfully nice appear¬ 
ance, and others may make specially symmetrical 
and ornamental trees, but the chief end and aim of 
a fruit tree is not to be ornamental merely, it must 
be useful as well, or its mission is unfulfilled, and to 
be really useful the flavour of its fruit must be above 
reproach. Messrs. Peed & Sons have recognised 
this, and are striving their utmost to weed out in¬ 
inferior varieties from their catalogue. 
As the middle of October had been reached before 
we visited Streatham, the whole of the fruit was to 
be found on the shelves and tables of the store room, 
and a splendid display it made in very sooth. 
Apples have been a very heavy crop this year, as in 
most parts of the country, and some really splendid 
fruit has been gathered. Amongst other well-known 
varieties we noted fine dishes of Lane’s Prince 
Albert, Alexander, Stirling Castle, Peasgood’s Non¬ 
such, Mere de Menage, Yellow Ingestre, Cellini 
Pippin, Belle de Pontoise, New Hawthornden, and 
Kentish Fillbasket, the last-named being in Mr. 
Peed’s estimation exactly identical with the sup¬ 
posed distinct sorts, Kentish Flower and Beauty of 
Kent; but whether this be correct or no it is a right 
good Apple. Pears, too, have borne remarkably 
well, although owing to the intense heat of the latter 
part of September they have gone off with remark¬ 
able celerity. We were informed that the three 
varieties of which the best samples have been 
obtained are Pitmaston Duchess, Margaret Marillac, 
and Souvenir du Congres, some standard trees of 
Band Master Walker. 
