294 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Jan. 10th, 1385. 
SELECT VEGETABLES. 
(Continued frornp. 276.) 
Broccoli and Cauliflower. 
We group these together, there being no practical 
distinction between Broccoli on the one hand and 
Cauliflower on the other. Both grow in the same 
manner, and the same part of each is used as a vege¬ 
table. The only distinction that has ever been 
assumed to exist is in the longer season of growth 
required by the Broccoli to that of Cauliflower. The 
latter are also more tender, but all this only constitutes 
mere variety of one and the same thing. To wit, 
what is termed Walcheren Broccoli by one, is the 
Walcheren Cauliflower of another—which is right or 
which is wrong ? Again, on the point of tenderness 
—Yeitch’s Autumn Giant Cauliflower seems much 
more-robust, and more of a Broccoli type than Snow’s 
Winter White Broccoli. Be that as it may, we make 
the following selection as sufficient to maintain a 
continuous supply, if sown at the proper seasons and 
under proper cultivation:— 
Cauliflower. 
1. Early Erfurt. 
2. Early London. 
3. Walcheren. 
4. Veitch’s Autumn Giant. 
Broccoli. 
5. Snow’s Winter White. 
6. Knight’s Protecting White. 
7. Leamington W t hite. 
8. Cattell’s Eclipse. 
9. Ledsham’s late White. 
10. Purple-sprouting. 
Most of these may be obtained under various other 
names and titles. No. 1 is by far the earliest, and 
should be sown now to come in for early summer use. 
This plant is dwarf-growing and requires but little 
room, but produces large heads, of fine quality. The 
Snowball, Veitch’s Earliest, Sutton’s First Crop, 
Carter’s Defiance Early, are some of the synonyms. 
Some of the extra early selections of the Erfurt 
Cauliflower are remarkably high priced. We once had 
the temerity to order 1 oz., for which something like 
£4 was charged. No. 2 is a good useful variety for 
general use, succeeding No. 1. No. 3 Broccoli or Cauli¬ 
flower, whichever it may be, is the best variety for 
early autumn use and for a general crop. It may be 
had under a great variety of names. No. 4 is com¬ 
paratively new to cultivation in this country, although 
long known in Italy as the Giant Naples. It is 
without doubt one of the best and most valuable of all 
for late autumn supply. The plant is of a large and 
strong growth, producing large heads of the finest 
quality. It should be sown in March. No. 5 is very 
valuable for furnishing a supply in midwinter. It is 
somewhat tender and it is also rather difficult to 
procure a true stock of seed. No. 6 is for early 
spring use. Many varieties of a similar character 
may be obtained. No. 7 produces fine large heads in 
spring. No. 8 is of similar character but later. No. 9 
is the latest variety and keeps fine close white heads 
late into summer. No. 10, Purple-sprouting, is of 
quite a distinct character, one of the most useful and 
decidedly the hardiest and best flavoured Broccoli 
grown. It comes into use in early winter and 
continues in use until late in spring. It should be 
grown everywhere and by everybody. 
Brussels Sprouts. 
1. Dwarf Imported. 
2. Aigburth or Dalkeith. 
One variety of Brussels Sprouts is all that it is 
necessary to grow, the differences existing between them 
being simply that of selection. Until a few years ago 
it was believed that Brussels Sprout seed could not be 
saved in this country, but required to be imported. 
That, however, has now been proved to be a fallacy. 
Cabbages. 
1. Early E taupe s. 
2. Early York. 
3. Nonp ariel or its varieties. 
4. Fulham or Battersea. 
5. St. John’s Day Dw.arf Drumhead. 
6. Winningstadt. 
7. Bosette Colewoet. 
8. Early Red Erfurt. 
Of these No. 1 is the earliest variety grown. It 
produces small heads, and should be sown in autumn 
for early spring use. No. 2 is an old sort and one of 
the best where a true stock is obtained. It requires 
sowing in spring for summer and autumn use. No. 3 
is excellent for a general crop. Many fine selections 
of this exist, such as Ellam’s Dwarf, Carter’s Heart- 
well, &c., either of which will answer. No. 4 is the 
great London market Cabbage, of which many scores 
of selections under various names exist. No. 5 is one 
of the finest varieties for amateurs to cultivate. The 
plant is very dwarf, the heads large, extremely tender 
like a lettuce, and of fine quality. It should be sown 
in spring for autumn supply. No. 6 is a very distinct 
variety, which grows in shape like a sugar-loaf and 
makes extremely hard solid heads. It is very useful 
in dry seasons, which it seems capable of standing 
better than other varieties. No. 7, the Bosette Cole- 
wort, is an extremely useful Cabbage to cultivate, 
but somehow its merits seem little known in private 
gardens. It should be sown in May, and if planted 
out 12 ins. apart will produce small heads for use 
during the winter season. No. 8 is a small-headed 
early variety of red or pickling Cabbage, which may be 
sown in spring for use in autumn.— B. 
THE KNUTSFORD NURSERIES. 
The large tracts of land which Messrs. W. G. 
Caldwell & Sons hold at Knutsford, Cheshire, have 
been handed down from sire to son through several 
generations. Additions have as well been continually 
made, and even very recently a branch establishment 
has been opened in the more immediate neighbour¬ 
hood of Manchester, for at Fog Lane, Withington, a 
plot of land has been secured and some glass houses 
put up. Here planters can inspect specimens of 
trees, shrubs, and plants, which in quantity can 
easily be supplied from the eighty acres of nursery- 
ground in the splendid soil and climate of Cheshire. 
A reputation and business standing of over a 
century is surely a recommendation, but this of 
itself is not enough. The condition of the stock at 
the present time is the matter that most interests 
purchasers, and that settled satisfactorily, there then 
can be no fear and but little risk in taking over 
large quantities. Noted as these nurseries are for 
shrubs, conifers, and trees of all sorts, it is satis¬ 
factory to find that progress is the order of the day 
in every department, and that every class of these 
useful and ornamental adjuncts to the woods, gardens, 
and jileasure-ground is being increased at a surprising 
rate. 
To give numbers would be extremely difficult. 
Special mention, however, should be made of the 
immense quantities of small ornamental and varie¬ 
gated shrubs and conifers that are grown for planting 
in beds and borders. When the bedding plants are 
all taken away, what can be nicer than to fill the 
beds with these little shrubs; then from October till 
April and May, in some cases seven months, the beds 
may be as interesting, if not quite as glaring as they 
are during the few months of summer. 
Of such things as Cupressus Lawsoniana and its 
variety erecta viridis lutea, Retinospora plumosa 
aurea, R. pisifera aurea, Thujopsis borealis and dolo- 
brata, green and golden Yews, neat and compact 
green and golden and silver Hollies, the small growing 
Thujas, &c., the stock is very large and clean, ranging 
from plants 4 ins. and 5 ins. high to others from 2 ft. 
to 3 ft. On one quarter we counted just 5,000 com¬ 
pact plants of Retinospora plumosa aurea of a bright 
golden colour. The stock of specimen Hollies, coni¬ 
fers and plants of an ornamental character is very 
large, fine well-grown specimens being apparent 
everywhere. Deciduous trees are also grown in large 
quantities, Limes, Purple Beeches and other trees 
meeting with a ready sale. Large quantities of all 
kinds of trees, shrubs and conifers are either grafted, 
struck from cuttings, or raised from seeds every year, 
to replenish the quantities continually disposed of. 
Plerbaceous plants here are a great feature and 
meet with a good sale. The glass erections are nume¬ 
rous. One house specially devoted in summer to 
pot vines is just now filled with such things as 
Camellias, Azaleas, Pelargoniums, &c., for cut flowers. 
The pot vines this season are stout and well-ripened, 
the stock comprising many sorts, the larger quanti¬ 
ties, however, are divided amongst six sorts, of which 
Black Hamburgh, Alicante, Lady Downe’s, Muscats 
and Foster’s Seedling are the most in request. The 
other houses contain a good collection of the usual 
class of stuff, among them being a large stock of 
small, well-grown Crotons and Drac&nas, as well as 
ferns in quantity. A few Orchids are grown and 
some good spikes of Calanthe Veitchii were brightening 
up one of the stoves. It is, however, outside that 
the chief interest lays,—in the thousands upon thou¬ 
sands of young shrubs, fruit-trees, &e., which need 
constant attention in the matter of transplanting, &c., 
and which under the favourable conditions of soil and 
climate which obtain here, all look clean and healthy. 
— W. Swan, Fallowfield. 
“THE LOST DAHLIA.”* 
The autumn before last [1835] , that is to say, 
above a year ago, the boast and glory of my little 
garden was a Dahlia called the Phcebus. How it 
came there nobody very distinctly knew, nor where 
it came from, nor how we came by it, nor how it 
came by its own most appropriate name. Neither 
the'lad who tends our flowers, nor my father, the 
person chiefly concerned in procuring them, nor I 
myself, who more even than my father or John take 
delight and pride in their beauty, could recollect 
who gave us this most splendid plant, or who first 
instructed us as to the style and title by which it 
was known. Certes never was blossom fitlier named. 
Regular as the sun’s face in an almanack, it had a 
tint of golden scarlet, of ruddy yellow, which realized 
Shakespeare’s gorgeous expression of “ flame- 
coloured.” The sky at sunset sometimes put on 
such a hue, or a fire at Christmas when it bums 
red as well as bright. The blossom was dazzling to 
look upon. It seemed as if there were a light in the 
leaves, like that coloured lamp of a flower, the 
Oriental Poppy. Phcebus was not too glorious a 
name for that Dahlia. The Golden-haired Apollo 
might be proud of such an emblem. It was worthy 
of the god of day; a very Phoenix of floral beauty. 
Every Dahlia-fancier who came into our garden, or 
who had had an opportunity of seeing a bloom else¬ 
where (and, sooth to say, we were rather ostentatious 
in our display; John put it into stands, and jars, 
and baskets, and dishes ; Ben stuck it into Dash’s 
collar, his own button-hole, and Pear’s bridle; my 
father presented it to such lady visitors as he 
delighted to honour; and I, who have the habit of 
dangling a flower, generally a sweet one, caught 
myself more than once rejecting the spice Clove and 
the starry Jessamine, the blossomed Myrtle and the 
Tuberose, my old fragrant favourites, for this scent¬ 
less but triumphant beauty); everybody who beheld 
the Phoebus begged for a plant or a cutting; and we, 
generous in our ostentation, willi n g to redeem the 
vice by the virtue, promised as many plants and 
cuttings as we could reasonably imagine the root 
might be" made to produce—perhaps rather more; 
and half the Dahlia-growers round rejoiced over the 
glories of the gorgeous flower, and speculated, as the 
wont is now, upon seedling after seedling to the 
twentieth generation. 
Alas for the vanity of human expectations I 
February came, the twenty-second of February, the 
very St. Valentine of Dahlias, when the roots which 
have been buried in the ground during the winter are 
disinterred, and placed in a hotbed to put forth then- 
first shoots previous to the grand operations of potting 
and dividing them. Of course the first object of 
search in the choicest corner of the nicely labelled 
hoard was the Phcebus; but no Phoebus was forth¬ 
coming ; root and label had vanished bodily 1 There 
was to be sure, a Dahlia without a label, which we 
would gladly have transformed into the missing 
treasure ; but as we speedily discovered a label with¬ 
out a Dahlia, it was but too obvious that they belonged 
to each other. Until last year we might have had plenty 
of the consolation which results from such divorces of 
the name from the thing; for our labels, sometimes 
written upon parchment, sometimes upon leather, 
sometimes upon wood, as each material happened 
to be recommended by gardening authorities, and 
fastened on with pack-thread, or whip-cord, or silk 
* This delightful story, by Miss Mitford, which 
originally appeared in Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal , 
January 7th, 1837, has lately been reprinted in The 
Reading Observer, from whose columns we take the 
extract here given. 
