December 21, 1895. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
261 
Mr. Lewis Castle and Mr. S. T. Wright, F.R.H.S., 
well merit close study from the variety of informa¬ 
tion which they afford, and the different selections 
of fruit which the essayists make For commercial 
purposes Mr. Wright places Ecklinville, Lane’s 
Prince Albert.Golden Spire.Worcester Pearmain, and 
Warner’s King Apples in this order of merit, the last 
being fifth on the list. Then follow ten varieties of 
about equal value. Mr. Castle gives seven dessert 
and thirteen culinary varieties in the order of 
ripening, and which have proved useful for market. 
-■*.- 
POTATOS. 
(i Continued from p. 242.) 
At this point the author of the paper showed his 
audience a portrait of Gerarde and then two photo¬ 
graphs of the Potato plant as they appear in his 
** Herbal.” He then gave Gerarde’s description of 
the Potato as follows :— 
" Virginian Potato hath many hollow flexible 
branches trailing upon the ground, three-square, un¬ 
even, knotted or kneed in sundry places at certaine 
distances, from the which knots cometh forth one 
great leafe made of divers leaves, some smaller and 
others greater, set together upon a fat middle rib by 
couples, of a swart greene colour tending to rednesse, 
the whole leafe resembling those of the Winter- 
Cresses, but much larger, in taste at the first like 
grasse, but afterwards sharp and nipping the longue, 
from the bosome of which leaves come forth long 
round slender foot-stalkes, whereon grow very faire 
and pleasant floures, made of one entire whole leafe, 
which is folded or plaited in such strange sort that it 
seemes to be a floure made of five sundry small leaves, 
which cannot easily be perceived except the same be 
pulled open. The whole floure is of a light purple 
colour striped downe the middle of every fold or 
welt with a light shew of yellownesse, as if purple and 
yellow were mixed together. In the middle of the 
floure thrusteth forth a thick flat pointall yellow as 
gold with a small sharp green pricke or point in the 
midst thereof. The fruit succeeds the floures, round 
as a ball, of the bignesse of a little bullesse or wilde 
plumme, green at the first and black when it is ripe, 
wherein is contained small white seed lesser than 
those of mustard; the root is thicke, fat and 
tuberous, not much differing either in shape, colour, 
or taste, from the common Potatoes [he is referring 
here to the sweet Potato, Convolvulus battatas, then 
known as the common Potato] saving that the roots 
hereof are not so great nor long, some of them are 
as round as a ball, some oval or egge fashion, some 
longer, and others shorter, the which knobby roots 
are fastened unto the stalks with an infinite number 
of threddy strings. 
“ It groweth naturally in America, where it was 
first discovered as reporteth Clusius, since which 
time I have received roots hereot from Virginia, 
otherwise called Norembega, which grow and prosper 
in my garden as in their owne native country.” 
" The leaves thrust forth of the ground in the 
beginning of May, the floures bud forth in August, 
the fruit is ripe in September. 
"The Indians call this plant pappas, meaning the 
roots, by which name also the common Potatoes 
[again referring to the Sweet Potato] are called in 
those Indian countries. Wee have its proper 
name mentioned in the title of this Chapter (i e. 
‘Potatoes of Virginia’). Because it hath not only the 
shape and proportion of Potatoes, but also thepleasant 
taste and vertues of the same, we may call it in 
English, Potatoes of America or Virginia. 
“ The temperature and vertues be referred to the 
common Potatoes [thesweet Potato], being likewise 
a food, as also a meat for pleasure, equall in gcod- 
nesse and wholesomnesse to the same, being either 
rosted in the embers, or boiled and eaten with oile, 
vinegar and pepper, or dressed some other way by 
the hand of a skilfull cooke. 
" Bauhine saith that he heard that the use of these 
roots was forbidden in Bourgondy (where they call 
them Indian Artichokes) for that they were pur- 
suaded the too frequent use of them caused the 
leprosie.” 
This picture suggests many thoughts and com¬ 
parisons. How little like the fine, handsome, and 
even tubers we see at this time for sale at all the 
greengrocers in London and elsewhere ! 
Then also the use of the Potato in Gerarde’s time 
by the wealthy few as a luxury of questionable value 
or utility, how different to the present enormous 
consumption in all civilized parts of the world ! 
HYBRID BEGONIAS. 
I quite anticipated my anonymous critic's cry out 
about his time, inclination, and all that sort of thing 
on p. 241, which is perfectly natural with such 
critics, under similar circumstances ; but in spite of 
his big brother, " J. S.,” it would be unfair to let 
him off so easy. No, " Mr. Lover of the Begonia,” 
you have anonymously done your level best to injure 
my humble reputation ; hence I must clear myself, 
and to do so it is unnecessary for me to touch at any 
length upon your carping sneers and insinuations 
concerning Begonia Woodmanii, or your reference 
to garden boys either (which reference, by the way, 
reminds me of the precocious youth who tried to 
teach his grandfather the way to suck eggs). The 
whole upshot of this discussion is, it seems, the date 
of publication of Lucombe Pince & Co.'s old cata¬ 
logue, duly produced by me, and that date is 1872. 
Fortunately I have unearthed the late Dr. Wood¬ 
man's private copy of that identical catalogue, signed 
and dated in his own handwriting, which I am open to 
show the editor or his representative any day at my 
office, and I presume you are all agreed as to the 
worthy doctor's integrity. 
The actual description of B. Woodmanii, as given 
in that catalogue, is as follows :—" A very beautiful 
variety, obtained by crossing B. Veitchii and B. 
Pearcei. It partakes of the character of both 
parents, having the beautiful foliage of B. Pearcei, 
with brilliant orange-scarlet flowers as large as those 
of B. Veitchii, but is of a more vigorous and robust 
habit than either, often growing from 18 in. to 2 ft. 
high, and forming one mass of bloom. 10s. 6d. each.” 
Now, B. Veitchii was described in 1867 by Dr. 
Hooker as having the habit of Saxifraga ciliata, 
with immense flowers of a vivid vermilion-cinnabar- 
red ; and in the Gardeners' Chronicle about that time 
the flowers of B. Veitchii are spoken of as being 2 in. 
to 2j in. in diameter. Thus my case is proved right 
up to the hilt, as demanded by my exacting and 
merciless critic. 
In conclusion, the best form of penance I can 
suggest for him is a double donation to the Dr. 
Woodman Memorial Fund—viz., 21s. against “ Lover 
of the Begonia,” and 21s against his proper name ; 
and please note that my committee have limited 
subscriptions to sums not exceeding one guinea.— 
IV. Napper (Hon Sec. Dr. Woodman Memorial Fund ) 
489, King's Road, Chelsea, Dec. 14 tli, 1895. 
-- 
PEOPLE I HAVE MET AT THE 
SHOWS. 
The Uninvited Critic. 
He is by no means so scarce an individual as might 
be supposed. At any show almost, at all events, at 
any meeting of any importance, one meets him, 
occasionally in one or more varieties—those 
individuals, who, by reason of membership or other¬ 
wise, are enabled to be present in the early morning 
of the opening days, and who make it a business to 
go from one exhibit to another in a self-imposed task 
of a sort of advance judgeship. Those are the 
gentlemen whose offices—albeit possibly well meant 
—might easily be dispensed with. 
It may be suggested that this advance criticism is 
in fulfilment of one of the many opportunities 
offered by the gathering together of a large number 
of specimens for comparison. It may further be 
urged that it is but an exercise of the rights and 
liberties of the subject for this gratuitous censorship 
by which verdicts of a kind long in advance of the 
judges' awards are frequently circulated. Or it may 
indeed be insisted that the exercise of such a practice 
affords pleasure and interest to the individual 
observer without doing any harm. But here the 
matter is open to grave exception. If one's opinions 
were kept to oneself it might be less likely to cause 
disappointment, and certainly less likely to raise 
false hopes of success. 
There are few competitors in the principal com¬ 
petitions up and down the country whose anxiety for 
success is not raised to the highest tension at 
actual time of staging. Rough estimates of com¬ 
parative worth may be made legitimately enough by 
individual exhibitors, but along comes the voluntary 
critic who frequently is ready enough to confirm an 
opinion of premier excellence, and it just as fre¬ 
quently follows that the judges’ award is the other 
way about. What follows ? Often a vast amount of 
dissatisfaction and lugubrious grumbling. But what 
can possibly happen otherwise than this. Is it to 
be supposed that a cursory inspection, which is 
bound to be more or less rambling in character, is 
likely to form the basis of accurate judgment ? 
With the staging frequently incomplete, it cannot be 
feasible to contrast the often hastily-formed con¬ 
clusions of the early morning critic with the 
opportunity that the appointed judges have later on 
to calmly deliberate on the points—bad as well as 
good. And thus it follows that the busy critic, with 
his criticism uninvited officially, creates unconsciously 
a thorny path of dissatisfaction and reproach as 
disagreeable to the judge as it is to the exhibitor. 
When the prophetic instinct of the early birds 
happens to be in accord with the actual verdict 
officially declared, then there is occasion for little or 
no adverse comment. But how often is this so? and 
how often is it that any keenly-contested competi¬ 
tion goes off without a good growl here and there 
from some of the placed and unplaced ones whose 
position does not accord with the ante-dated con- 
c’usions of the uninvited critic. 
Luckily, the official judges of to-day are imbued 
with a strong sense of the duty imposed upon them 
to please themselves first as being pre-eminently 
their province as adjudicators, but so long as the 
unofficial critics abound so long will there be a 
frequency in much-discussed awards, generated, as 
has been said, doubtless innocent of any detrimental 
intent, but which can only possibly result in one 
direction. 
-- 
READING AND DISTRICT GARDENERS’ 
MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIA¬ 
TION. 
The fortnightly meeting of the above Association was 
held in the club room at the British workman on Mon¬ 
day evening, the 2nd inst., Mr. Woolford presiding 
over the largest gathering of members present at any of 
the meetings this season. After the usual business had 
been disposed of, and a few introductory remarks from 
the chairman, Mr. E. J. Deal, head of Messrs. Sutton 
& Sons’ Seed Trial Department, gave a highly 
interesting lecture on “ The Garden Pea and its 
Varieties.” The lecture was made doubly inter¬ 
esting and instructive by the many excellent diagrams 
prepare I by Mr Deal setting forth the peculiarities 
and variations of the shape of pods of the various 
types of Peas. 
The lecturer in his opening remarks congratulated 
the society on including in its programme a paper on 
such a commonplace subject as “ The Garden Pea 
and its Varieties”; such subjects as "The latest 
find in Dendrobes ” ; " Researches in Chinese lore for 
the ancient history of the Primula ” ; or " The Flora 
of the Arctic Regions, ’ ’ he said charmed most societies, 
and resulted in the inclusion of topics relating to the 
matter of more genera! interest and importance. He 
took it that next to Potatcs, Peas were the leading 
vegetable of the present day, and the United Kingdom 
stands out pre-eminently as the Pea-raising, Pea¬ 
growing and Pea-eating country. Our neighbours 
across the Channel doubtless excel in the manner of 
serving their Peas when cooked, but they make little 
if any use of thelarge-seeded.fine flavoured kinds. Our 
American cousins—generally to the fore—are far 
behind in the matter of Peas. As to what Peas 
were like when introduced into this country it is 
most probable that there were siveral dissimilar 
types. Not until the reign of Henry VIII., in the 
early part of the 16th century, do we learn of their 
cultivation in the gardens of this country, although 
it is recorded that 250 years previous to this time, 
when the English forces were besieging a castle in 
Lothian, their supply of provisions was exhausted, 
and their only resource was in the Peas and Beans 
of the surrounding fields. There is no doubt that in 
the 17th century the common white and gray round 
Peas were cultivated in all directions, careful growers 
selecting and improving their stocks as opportunity 
offered. Not until the latter part of the 18th cen¬ 
tury, however, does it appear to have occurred to 
anyone that the Pea could be improved by cross¬ 
fertilisation. 
In the year 1787 it is said that Thomas Andrew 
Knight, the President of the Horticultural Society, 
operated upon the blossoms of a degenerate Pea with 
the pollen from a gray Pea, and he was so pleased 
with the results that a few years later he introduced 
to the public Knight’s Tall Green Marrow and 
Knight’s Dwarf Green Marrow. A trade catalogue 
published in the year 18x7 contains the names of 
