THE GARDENING WORLD 
January 21, 1893. 
FLORICULTURE. 
Hybrid Violas. 
I am quite satisfied with Mr. McLeod's answer as to 
what constitutes a hybrid, but I do not think he has 
shown us wherein Violetta has any special claim to 
that distinction. Had he (as the Editor remarks) 
told us the pollen parent of Violetta, we might have 
formed our own conclusions. This I have no doubt 
he will now do, for in a previous letter from him we 
are led to believe that Violetta is a hybrid in the 
fullest sense of the term, and it was with great 
difficulty (owing to the hybridity of the parent) that 
a cross was effected between the varieties from 
which Violetta w T as raised. This has made me a 
little curious to know the parentage of that lovely 
variety. I have always understood our present race 
of Violas to be the result of crosses with different 
native species or sub-species, and consequently 
hybrids in the same sense as Violetta. It is with no 
difficulty these crosses are effected, and the progeny 
are all fertile, or in other words seed bearers. It is 
true there are some instances of shy seeders, such as 
Ardwell Gem, Duchess of Fife, etc., yet even these 
under favourable circumstances often produce some 
fine seed. If Violetta differs in any way from these 
it will be interesting to know — wherein and 
whereby—and I hope Mr. McLeod will kindly 
furnish this information.— Viola. 
-- 
DRESSING CARNATIONS. 
Florists may rest assured that when I wrote my 
paper for our mutual improvement association I had 
not the faintest idea of setting any of them by the 
ears. It is, however, a little gratification to know 
that I have trodden on the toes of some of them. 
Evidently their position needs some support, some 
explanation, or Mr. Rowan would not take up the 
cudgels in their defence. Apparently they are fully 
aware that this dressing of flowers for the exhibition 
stand does not commend itself to everyone. Other¬ 
wise why do its supporters so jealousy guard it 
whenever the practice is condemned or attacked ? 
Why ? because they know that, so to speak, they 
have caught the eye of the judge, and those who are 
willing and able to dress have thus a great advantage 
over those who do not resort to such unnatural aids 
to perfection ; not simply because their flowers are 
enhanced in beauty by dressing, but that the 
fashion has "caught on,” and hence in the opinion 
of the bulk must be correct. I am proud to be able 
to differ on this point. 
Evidently man in all his dealings has been too 
prone to lay down the straight line as his sure and 
only guide to the perfect and the beautiful, and 
amongst no class of men has this been more 
noticeable than amongst florists and gardeners, and in 
the dressing of the Carnation we have strong evidence 
of this. Nature has so placed the petals as to give 
them a naturally artistic appearance, beauty in its 
highest degree of merit; but this is not good enough. 
To be perfect we must have symmetry, even outlines, 
every petal in apple pie order, every beauty spot 
displayed. Do I not admire it, you ask ? Yes, most 
certainly, but in the same way as I do the art and 
ingenuity of those street sellers of Turnips and other 
roots cut into the form and beauty of Roses, 
Camellias, etc. Art is here displayed in all its 
beauty ;and cunning, but the soft outlines and 
texture of Nature are wanting. 
In my opinion any one who is not capable of 
seeing the same merit, that is, of high cultivation 
and perfection as a flower of its class, equally as 
well in an undressed as in a dressed flower, is not 
worthy of being termed a florist- and certainly is not 
qualified to act as a judge. 
Mr. Rowan was scarcely justified in unearthing 
the poor "spud” to prove the art of dressing so 
necessary. Many gardeners I am persuaded would 
be only too delighted had Nature thought fit to 
supply these very necessary articles of food already 
Deeled and dressed, for like the Carnation are they 
not often spoilt in the operation ? and naturally the 
cook—who is a constant terror to all gardeners— 
falls back upon the grower to screen herself from 
blame. It has also struck me that the maiden he 
speaks of as one who would have been a beauty only 
for her face and figure, might have been disfigured in 
the dressing, and even then I doubt if some swain 
was not found who could see beauty where others 
failed to trace it. I fail to see what advantage 
dressing of the flower can have on the health and 
improvement of any class of plant. If this operation 
were performed while the flower was still attached 
to the plant, I should, for one, be quite willing to 
give it the benefit of the doubt; but seeing that all 
these questionable practises take place after contact 
with the plant has been entirely destroyed, what 
benefit to the plant or its offspring can accrue ? 
Our great acquisitions in the floral world have been 
obtained, and must still be obtained, by other 
methods, methods which, if my philosophy be not 
astray, are more adapted to the ways of Nature and 
more fitted to give genial and profitable work for 
both hands and brain of the true florist.— W.MacKay, 
Exeter. 
-**►- 
THE WEATHER OF 1892. 
The following metereological summary of the year 
1892 may be of interest to your numerous readers, 
showing as it does the ungenial nature of the season. 
Mean. Prevalent Days Sun 
Months 
Max. 
Min. 
Rain 
Winds Appeared 
January .. 
40° . 
• 30 ° ■ 
. 8 02 . 
. N. & E. . 
. 10 
February.. 
46°. 
• 37 ° • 
• 377 • 
. N. & S. . 
. 20 
March 
48°. 
. 32 0 . 
. 2 69 . 
. E. & W. . 
• 2 3 
April 
55 ° • 
• 39 ° • 
• 2 35 . 
. W. & N. . 
• 3 ° 
May 
57 ° • 
. 41° . 
. 4-01 . 
. S. & W. . 
• 2 3 
June 
64° . 
. 46^ . 
• 4 ' 5 2 • 
. w. 
. 26 
July 
65 ° • 
• 49 ° • 
• 3' 2 4 • 
. N. & W. . 
. 20 
August 
66° . 
• 5 i° • 
. 617 . 
. S. & W. . 
• W 
September 
57 ° • 
. 46° . 
,I 2 'o 6 . 
. W. & N. . 
. 21 
October .. 
5 i Q • 
. 40° . 
. 6-86 . 
. E. & W.. 
. 19 
November 
40° . 
• 39 ° - 
• 5’85 • 
,. S. & E. . 
• 14 
December 
53 ° ■ 
• 34 ° • 
. 6-84 . 
.. N. & S. . 
. 18 
Totals 
.66-38 . 
.24I 
Maximum readings 75 0 , on 23rd and 29th July. 
Minimum do 21 0 on 19th Feb. and 20° on 26th 
December. 
It will be observed that the rainfall is excessive, 
even for the West of Scotland. 
The sun appeared 241 days out of the 365, but we 
had very few whole days of bright sunshine out of 
that number. The winds had often a hold of the 
cold north and east, during what should have been 
our most genial and growing months of the year. 
The thermometer readings speak for themselves. 
March and April were the two driest months of the 
year, but the winds were cold. September had the 
heaviest rainfall, which was most excessive, this at a 
time when we expected nice mellow ripening autumn 
weather. The latter month proved most disastrous 
to cereal crops in the north ; the. Corn in many 
places being quite spoiled. Altogether the season 
was a bad one —William Minty , The Gardens, Raasay, 
Stromt Ferry. 
--t—- 
FRUIT NOTES. 
Apple Bess Pool. 
Various opinions seem to be entertained about 
this Apple by growers in different localities. The 
latter may really be the true solution of the question, 
as we know that many fruits will only thrive satis¬ 
factorily in certain localities. Many cultivators also 
find that the tree must attain some size and age be¬ 
fore it will fruit satisfactorily. The blossoms are 
late in expanding in spring, and thereby often escape 
frost, when earlier flowering varieties are liable to 
be injured. The fruits are of good size and gene¬ 
rally handsomely coloured, the shaded side being 
yellow, but all the rest of a bright red, more or less 
striped. The flesh is white or stained with red 
under the skin, and is tender and highly flavoured, 
making it suitable either for culinary or dessert pur¬ 
poses. At Gunnersbury House, Acton, it fruits well, 
but behaves in a manner different from all the other 
varieties cultivated there. The skin of a large per¬ 
centage of the fruits cracks and splits for a consider¬ 
able depth into the flesh, the exposed surface of the 
latter becoming of a dirty pale brown, differing in 
that respect from many healthy and clear-skinned 
varieties which split more or less when getting out 
of season at this time of the year. This peculiarity 
may be due to the nature of the soil in which it is 
grown, or merely an accidental ailment of the trees 
themselves. 
Pear Beurre Rance. 
There are few varieties of Pears to grace the fruit 
room when this comes into use, and still fewer when 
it ceases to be of use, even amongst those which are 
only fit for stewing purposes. For instance Bellis- 
sime d’Hiver generally gives out in April, while 
Beurre Rance may be kept till the following month. 
The fruit is pear-shaped, green, marked with russetty 
spots, and not particularly showy any more than 
other late keeping sorts, but the quality is excellent, 
the flesh being white, melting, juicy, and rich in 
flavour. Well-ripened fruits of medium size are 
more highly flavoured from standard trees than 
larger fruits that have been grown upon a wall, 
-- 
A NEW MUSHROOM. 
Mr. F'alconer writing in Gardening, the new 
American amateur gardeners' paper which he so 
ably edits, records some observations on a new 
edible Mushroom which he discovered was being 
extensively cultivated, and with much profit to him¬ 
self, by a New York suburban gardener. Says Mr. 
Falconer:—“For a good many years we have been 
alive to the fact that the common Mushroom 
(Agaricus campestris) is not the only species worth 
growing. We were not therefore very much sur¬ 
prised when, last summer, our attention was called 
to the fact that Mr. F. Boulon, a suburban gardener, 
was supplying the New York market with fresh 
Mushrooms every day, and getting big prices for 
them. Years of experience in growing Mushrooms 
have taught us that no matter how well we may 
succeed with them in the cooler months of the year, 
during the hot summer months they are a failure, 
not so much that we cannot grow them then, as 
because of their certainty to become infested with 
maggots and thus rendered worthless. 
"So having an idea of our own, and with our 
mind intent and eyes open, we called on friend 
Boulon. Yes, the reports were true enough. Mush¬ 
rooms were here, there and everywhere, indoors and 
outdoors ; and new greenhouses were being built to 
grow the Mushrooms in in winter, and workmen 
were making up a lot of fresh beds when we were 
there. 
“ The Mushrooms were in bearing between rows 
of Asparagus plants in the open garden ; a string of 
hotbeds among the nursery trees was full of them ; 
they were running along the pathways and under 
the benches in the smaller greenhouses, and in a 
larger greenhouse, that had been built for a cool 
grapery and filled inside with Violets in frames in 
winter was a contiuous Mushroom bed from wall to 
wall. The spawn had originally been planted in the 
Violet beds, but the mycelium had escaped out into 
the pathways and especially alongside of the walls, 
and individuals and clumps were bobbing up every¬ 
where. In fact, as compared with the Mushrooms, 
the Grapes of summer, the Violets of winter, or 
Tomatos of spring were but a secondary crop. 
" They were not the common Mushroom (Agaricus 
campestris) at all; they were big, course, odd-look¬ 
ing things, but their faces seemed to be familar. 
Questioning Mr. B. he told us that the Mushroom 
was quite distinct from the common one—different 
altogether, and obtained by him by some particular 
secret manipulation. But there is nothing in that. 
He began its cultivation in the fall of '91, and con¬ 
tinued it all through ’92. He found that it loves 
heat, and grows better in summer ^than in winter, 
and it thrives as well, if not better, in full light than 
in shade, and not only are these new Mushrooms 
larger and heavier than those of the old sort, but 
they are produced in far greater abundance. Through¬ 
out the whole summer he had a monopoly of the 
fresh Mushroom business in the New York market. 
He had a contract with Delmonico for 18 pounds a 
day at 90 cents a pound, and he disposed of the rest 
to one commission agent in the market for 80 cents 
a pound the whole season through, and never was 
able to supply the demand.” 
As to the identity of the new Mushroom Mr. 
Falconer writes :—" In a leaf mould pile, three or 
four years old, and rotted to earthy fineness, and 
partly under the slight shade of some near-by trees, 
we came accidentally, last fall, on a lot of fine large 
Mushrooms. But they were quite distinct from our 
cultivated Mushroom, as well as from the horse 
Mushroom, both of which we occasionally find grow¬ 
ing wild hereabout. On examining the ground -we 
found the decayed remains of many old Mushrooms, 
and here and there for two or three rods about, were 
clumps of Mushrooms and individuals up and coming 
up. While the greater bulk of them was growing in 
the leaf mould a good many were coming up out of 
the ground along the hedge of the heap. Turning up 
some of the leaf mould here and there we found it to 
be one solid mass of mycelium. We used the Mush- 
