August 16, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
789 
bearing dark green foliage mottled with grey. The 
pods are somewhat inflated, glaucous, 4 ins. long, and 
contain from sight to ten seeds that are large and sweet. 
The variety bears heavily. A strong contrast to the 
above is furnished by The Daisy, a dwarf wrinkled 
Marrow, sent to Chiswick by Messrs. J. Carter & Co. 
The stems vary from 18 ins. to 24 ins. in height, and 
bear heavily. The pods are 3 ins. long, straight, broad, 
flattened, and glaucous green. Each contains eight or 
nine large sweet peas, so tightly packed in the pods 
that they compress one another. The foliage is dark 
green with grey veins. An Award of Merit was granted 
it by the Fruit and Vegetable Committee when they 
met at Chiswick on the 22nd of July. 
Motto is a tall variety, reaching a height of 6 ft., 
and has light green foliage splashed with grey blotches. 
The pods are 4 ins. long, straight, flat, and light 
glaucous green, but the tip is very imperfectly filled. 
Boston Hero is another very tall kind in seasons such 
as the present, reaching a height of 6 ft. or 8 ft. It is 
one of Messrs. G. Bunyard & Co’s, varieties, with pods 
varying from 3 ins. to 4J ins. long, curved, inflated at 
first but soon becoming filled, and dark glaucous green. 
Each contains from eight to nine large round and 
sweet peas, quite filling the pod. When mature they 
are white and wrinkled. As a variety it is very 
fruitful. The foliage is of a dark glaucous green. An 
Award of Merit was accorded it on the same occasion 
as that above mentioned. A like honour was awarded 
to Ambassador, one of Mr. Henry Eckford’s seedlings. 
It is a tall, green, wrinkled Marrow. 
-- 
THE LATE MR. WILDSMITH. 
[The following extract from a letter received from a 
much-esteemed correspondent in New South Wales, 
and who will be recognised by -his initials by many 
of our readers, will, we are sure, be read with 
interest for the sympathetic references it contains to 
the late gardener at Heckfield.—E d.] “It speaks well 
for the postal arrangements between the old country 
and the new, when I tell you that not one single copy 
of your interesting publication has failed to reach me. 
I would not be without my paper on any account, for 
it really seems the one link, professionally, which binds 
me to the old country. I do not always lay aside the 
paper with pleasure though—far from it. Take for 
instance your issue for February 8th, in which, directly 
I had cut the wrapper, I was confronted with the well- 
known—I might also say loved—features of poor 
Wildsmith, and read the sad account of his lamented 
death. Poor Wildsmith ! Indeed, by his decease 
England has lost a man which she could ill afford to 
part with. He was one of the brightest ornaments of 
our profession ; a gardener whose large heart was most 
thoroughly in his work ; a keen and pugnacious critic ; 
but withal a man who always fought so exceedingly 
fair that I do not believe he ever made an enemy. 
Taking him for all in all, I fancy it will be long, many 
long, years ere we see his like again. In the Gardeners' 
Chronicle years ago, in fact ere your own excellent 
publication saw the light, it was always my pleasure 
to look at once for any notes appearing above his well- 
known ‘ W. W.,’ because I felt certain that something 
would be found well worth the time spent in perusing 
the same. In fact ‘ W. W.’and ‘ J. S. Woolverstone ’ 
were my favourite authors at that time, and many 
grains of solid, useful, and most practical information 
had I, a young gardener, to thank those gentlemen for. 
It seems but yesterday, and yet one only remains. 
Well, you could have floored me with a straw, and it 
was some little time ere I shook off the effects of the 
sad information contained in that particular issue of 
The Gardening World. Bight glad I am that the 
gardeners of Britain have recognised his worth, by 
carrying out what I feel sure were his wishes, in placing 
an additional orphan, where that particular child will 
be at least above want for some years to come.”— 
J. U. II., Sydney, July 7th. 
-—-*»-- 
MARKET STRAWBERRIES. 
“ W.S.” having apparently the pick of the Strawberry 
basket, yet asks for more to grow for market purposes. 
In President, Sir J. Paxton and Napier is found the 
very cream of the fruit. These everybody who grows 
for market grows largely, and they seem to be the very 
best. There is some effort made now and then to force 
so-called new kinds into notice and sale, because some 
one having stock wants to sell; but reputations are not 
to be lightly risked, and if there were more regard for 
eputation, there would be less anxiety to press the 
attention of market growers to varieties which will not 
bear comparison with the sorts named above. 
“ W.S.” will, no doubt, find Noble earlier next year 
when his plants are better established, and because so 
large fruited, so well coloured and early, may make 
money from it for a week or so ; but it lacks flavour 
sadly, and can never be regarded as other than an early 
makeshift till better sorts turn in. Marguerite is a 
good and prolific kind, which does remarkably well in 
some soils. Still, it has not that general high reputa¬ 
tion which the others mentioned have. Waterloo, 
though late and very large fruited, has pleased a few 
only this year, its huge soft black fruit having literally 
rotted on the ground in the rain. 
“ W. S.” and all other seekers for good Strawberry 
novelties will do well to proceed carefully in making 
additions to their varieties. Try a score of plants of 
each, some half dozen of the best recommended varieties 
for a couple of years, and if found unsuitable discard 
them at once. Strawberries differ in character and 
quality, materially in some cases in different soils, and 
it is wise to try a few new or less known sorts from 
time to time, and thus satisfy natural curiosity as to 
relative merits.— Oscar. 
--«<-- 
THE SWAN RIVER DAISY. 
The popular name of this little Composite is more 
appropriate than the botanical one, Brachycome 
iberidifolia, for the leaves are far from being like an 
Iberis. They are pinnatisect with linear segments. 
The typical form of the plant has bright blue flower 
heads with a dark violet-blue disc. It was originally 
introduced from the Swan River, in 1843, and since 
then several colour varieties have originated in culti¬ 
vation. Several of them, including varieties with light 
and dark blue, rose and white-rayed varieties have been 
flowering in one of the houses of the Royal Horticultural 
Society at Chiswick for some time past. Last Tuesday 
a group of them was staged at the Drill Hall and a pretty 
effect they made. Seeds were sown in pots, and the 
seedlings brought on under glass. With kindly treat¬ 
ment they will last a long time yet in good condition. 
A display of the Swan River Daisy may be made in the 
open border by sowing seeds in a little heat early in 
spring, and planting them out when the weather 
becomes fine. A later display may be made by sowing 
in the open border in April, where the plants are in¬ 
tended to flower, and thinning out the seedlings to 
4 ins. or 6 ins. apart when they have developed a few 
rough leaves. 
-- 
THE POTATO DISEASE. 
I fear, with all due deference to M. Louis Morhardt, 
I must smile at the proposal he makes, that to check 
or prevent the Potato disease we should syringe our 
Potato breadths with a solution of sulphate of copper. 
If Potatos were grown as Tomatos are, in a very limited 
degree, and had no underground tubers or fruits, it 
might be possible to operate upon the plants bene¬ 
ficially with the solution. It is advised, however, to 
apply it in fine dry weather. If fine dry weather 
always prevailed in our summers, we should have no 
Potato disease ; but when, as this year, the breadths 
are subject to heavy downpours of rain, to talk of 
syringing the plants with solutions of sulphate of 
copper as being beneficial is absurd. 
It is the repeated flooding of the soil with rain which 
has caused disease so badly with us this year, and all 
the syringings of sulphate of copper in the world would 
not have checked the spread of the disease in such case. 
Fancy, setting men to work to syringe twenty acres of 
Potatos with the solution ! The cost of such labour 
alone would eat up all the profit possibly derivable in 
these days from even a sound crop of Potatos. Some¬ 
thing might be done by a kind of aerial Strawsoniser 
supported by a balloon, but a vehicle sent up and down 
the breadths would be productive of enormous mischief. 
Clearly it is useless to talk about the use of the solution 
with a syringe, especially that, if ever so carefully 
done, the very first shower of rain would wash away 
all the possible contingent effects of the solution, or, 
perhaps, who can tell, a burning hot day following 
upon the application of so dangerous a solution might 
produce scorching of the leafage, and thus the remedy 
prove worse than the disease. 
Suggestions which may have some possible reason 
when relating to plants in houses or in minute 
quantities are very manifestly valueless when applied 
to vast breadths. The proposal as to the application 
of the solution of copper sulphate is based upon the 
fiction that the Potato disease operates solely through 
and on the foliage. The present season affords plenty 
of evidence that it is rampant in the tubers in a sort 
of surreptitious way, without any apparent connection 
with the leafage. In some seasons the spot in the 
tubers is of an external kind. This season it seems to 
be found in its worst form right in the tuber, and just 
where the sap flows in from the plant to help form 
Potato flesh. The germs of the fuDgus appear to have 
passed, as it were, direct from the old tubers into the 
new ones, for there are no external evidences of spot. 
Syringings of copper sulphate would hardly have 
checked such an action. If Mr. Morhardt could advise 
with some assurance that soaking the seed tubers in a 
solution before planting would prove an efficacious 
remedy for the disease, I should then readily admit 
that he had made a reasonable proposition .—Alcdcandcr 
Dean. 
-->*<--— 
LETTUCES. 
I must confess, having had this season some experience 
in judging vegetables at horticultural shows, that I 
am frequently disappointed with the Lettuces, both 
Cabbage and Cos, staged for exhibition ; they are 
either too young and wanting in heart, or else they 
have a stale appearance, as if purchased from a coster¬ 
monger’s barrow, or at the greengrocer’s shop. 
And yet there is no lack of fine exhibition Lettuces, 
both Cos and Cabbage. When visiting Messrs. 
Sutton & Sons’ trial grounds at Reading a short time 
ago I was much interested in a collection of Lettuces, 
and I made notes of a few of them at the time which 
may perhaps interest your readers. 
White Cos Varieties. 
Of the White Cos Lettuce a very fine variety was seen 
in Sutton’s Mammoth White ; it was by far the largest 
in the trial, and therefore well deserves its name of 
Mammoth ; it is self folding, and produces a large and 
very solid heart. By it was their Superb White Cos, 
to all appearance a very fine selection from the Paris 
White Cos, but very early—earlier than the Mammoth— 
so if both be sown at the same time, a good succession 
is provided ; but both are very fine exhibition Cos 
Lettuces. But earlier still is Sutton’s White Heart, a 
very quick variety, similar, it is said, to a Cos Lettuce 
much employed for forciug for the Paris markets under 
bell-glasses. It is close and dwarf, and very valuable 
to gardeners who have to provide early saladings. 
A Lettuce is much grown in the market gardens 
around London, under the name of the Fulham White 
Cos ; it is of a rather darker green than the Paris 
White, and decidedly hardier. Of this type a very fine 
form was to be seen at Reading under the name of 
Sutton’s Winter White, a very fine Cos indeed, and to 
all appearance one that can be strongly recommended 
for autumn sowing, say in August. Improved Bath 
Cos, black seed, is also a very fine form of this favourite 
old type still largely grown by gardeners. 
Ivery’s Nonsuch Cos is a large and rather loose- 
growing, bright, shining, pale green variety, that 
attains to a large size, and is much liked in many parts 
of the country. I have seen it very fine at country 
exhibitions, but the type of the Paris White Cos is 
always preferred to it. 
Cabbage Varieties. 
We appear to have in cultivation a great many more 
Cabbage than Cos Lettuces, and yet the latter are the 
most popular. Cos Lettuces find their way into our 
markets in great quantities, but the Cabbage varieties 
not nearly so much. In private gardens the Cabbage 
varieties are being much more grown than formerly, 
and they appear to be greatly appreciated for saladings 
and other culinary purposes. It is somewhat remark¬ 
able that while the leaves of many of the Cabbage 
Lettuces are much tinted with dark brown, brownish 
red and other related tints, the Cos Lettuces are scarcely 
