156 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
November 6, 1897, 
By 1842 Paris White and Green were announced, 
and the various selections of this type are amongst 
the best Cos Lettuces at the present time. More 
recently a very large kind of great excellence, named 
by my house Mammoth Cos, has appeared, and is 
very popular. White Heart, intermediate in colour 
between Paris White and Green, deserves a place as a 
popular introduction of recent years. With regard 
to Cabbage Lettuce, the number of varieties now 
available is extraordinary. All the Year Round was 
amongst the first improvements, and so good is it 
that it has been honoured with several distinctive 
names. Wheeler’s Tom Thumb, Veitch’s Perfect 
Gem, Standwell Green, and others are excellent 
kinds largely in use, while more recently Commodore 
Nutt, Favourite, and Daniel's Continuity are 
improved types of great merit, the two latter stand¬ 
ing longer than other sorts without running to seed. 
Recently my house has introduced the Inter¬ 
mediate—a variety resulting from a cross between 
the Cabbage and Cos Lettuce, which is highly prized 
by many. 
The Melon 
Has advanced during the past sixty years by leaps 
and bounds. Every year witnesses the advent of 
new varieties, and the Fruit Committee of the R.H S. 
can testify to the constant succession of aspirants 
for honours. 
In 1837 gardeners depended upon the Cantaloup, 
Scarlet Fleshed, Green Fleshed, Lord Sondes, and 
Queen Annes Pocket. In 1842 Windsor Prize 
Green and one or two scarlet-fleshed kinds were dis¬ 
tributed. Ten years later Beechwood, Bromham 
Hall, Victory of Bath, and other standard varieties 
were grown, followed at short intervals by Scarlet 
Gem, Blenheim Orange, Hybrid Cashmere, Imperial 
Green, and Hero of Lockinge, the latter still retain¬ 
ing the first place as the best Melon for frames. So 
easy is the culture that it has acquired the reputation 
of being essentially the amateur’s Melon. 
In connection with improvements in Melons much 
good work has been done by Mr. Owen Thomas, of 
the Royal Gardens; Mr. Wythes, of Syon House ; 
and Mr. Chas. Ross, besides many others. In 1894 
we bad the pleasure of introducing a handsome 
white-fleshed variety raised by Mr. Thomas named 
Royal Favourite, and other noteworthy Melons have 
also emanated from the Frogmore Gardens. 
Onions 
were represented sixty years ago by Blood Red, 
Deptford, Silver-skinned Globe, James Keeping, 
Lisbon, White and Brown Spanish, Portugal, and 
some of the Tripoli varieties. While most of the 
types have undergone more or less improvement, 
special attention has been given to the Spanish class. 
The Reading was a valuable selection, and it was 
followed by Improved Banbury, named after a town 
which has long been popular for its Onions. The 
late Mr. Deverill of that place introduced many fine 
types, such as Rousham Park, The Wroxton, Anglo- 
Spanish, and others. Banbury Cross, a compara¬ 
tively recent introduction of fine quality, also hailed 
from the same town. 
The justly celebrated Ailsa Craig (with Cranston's 
Excelsior, a very similar Onion) has caused quite a 
revolution in this vegetable. One celebrated grower 
last season exhibited twelve specimens weighing no 
less than 37jlbs.,an enormous weight for this country, 
which would have startled the growers of the olden 
days who had to be content with small specimens 
weighing only a few ounces each. 
Until quite recently it had not been possible to 
obtain seed of the fine Spanish Onions of the grocers' 
shops, and although specimens grown in this country 
are not often so large as imported bulbs, some very 
fine Onions can be grown by sowing the seed in heat 
in January and transplanting in April. 
The Parsnip 
Has certainly been much improved since the Guern¬ 
sey and Hollow Crown were the only available sorts, 
although no very great increase in the number of 
varieties can be reported. 
As late as 1852 the only one quoted in a leading 
seed list was Hollow Crown. The Student, obtained 
by the late Professor Buckman, by continual selection 
from the wild Parsnip, and distributed by my House 
first in i860, is still regarded as a popular variety ; 
and has been singularly successful at Shows. Quality 
in a Parsnip is almost entirely a matter of selection 
and in that way the fine types now in cultivation have 
been obtained. Carter’s Maltese marked a distinct 
advance and is still widely grown. Quite recently 
at the Reading Show, where the general opinion was 
that so extensive and fine a collection of vegetables 
was never before staged in competition, some of the 
collecti ms contained remarkable specimens of a new 
variety called Tender and True. This is certainly 
distinct from other kinds, and possesses quality 
which has not hitherto been reached in this vege¬ 
table. 
Spinach. 
No great advance was made in this vegetable until 
a few years ago when the Victoria and other similar 
strains were introduced. It is true that many 
varieties bearing Continental names have been grown, 
some standing rather longer than others before run¬ 
ning to seed, but the difference was only slight. 
With the advent of the Victoria, however, the dura¬ 
tion of the crop was greatly prolonged, and still 
more recently this variety has been surpassed, and 
we now have both in the round and prickiy seeded 
sections, strains cf Spinach which remain good 
weeks after others have gone to seed. 
Time will not permit of my referring to Parsley, 
Rhubarb, Vegetable Marrow, and some other vege¬ 
tables, and I must pass on to 
The Tomato 
which has increased in popularity to a greater extent 
and more rapidly than any other vegetable referred 
to in this paper. 
A proof that it was not much cultivated in the 
early years of Her Majesty’s reign is shown by the 
fact that in a wholesale list published in 1852 the 
only Tomato mentioned is the common Red. It is 
within the last quarter of a century that such an enor¬ 
mous impetus has been given to the growth of Tomatos 
in consequence of the more cultivated taste of the 
masses of the people, and it is now found in almost 
every garden from the cottager’s upwards. The 
Queen’s gardener, Mr. Thomas, has identified him¬ 
self with its improvement, and Frogmore Prolific is 
one of the best sorts grown at the present day. 
The introduction of the Perfection type was the 
prelude to that of many others, and now the number 
is legion. New selections are plentiful enough as 
our own trials of over 200 lots this year go to show. 
The question which is the best Tomato admits of a 
multiplicity of varying answers. 
To mention in detail anything like the whole of 
the varieties which deserve notice would take up too 
much time, but for the earliest out-door use 
Conqueror, Earliest of All and Early Ruby are popu¬ 
lar kinds. Fine shapely fruits and plenty of them 
are produced by Ifield Gem, Eclipse, Best of All, 
Duke of York and Ham Green Favourite, and in 
yellow varieties Golden Nugget as a small fruited 
kind, and Golden Queen may be relied on to ripen 
early and produce good crops. 
Strange developments, in which the fruit partakes 
of the character of the Peach, are observed in certain 
kinds, and the crossing of the Peach Tomato with 
Perfection has resulted in some charming types, 
amongst the best of which is one introduced by my 
House last year under the name of Peachblow. 
Certainly no gardener in 1837 ever creamt of the 
fruits now commonly grown. 
With white, yellow, pink, ruby, and scarlet kinds, 
not to metjtion the varying sizes and shapes, there is 
a wide choice for the most fastidious, both as regards 
external appearance and flavour. 
Garden Turnip. 
A brief reference must be made to the garden 
Turnip. In the early days as many yellow as white 
varieties were offered, although the demand for the 
former has certainly not increased in proportion to 
the white fleshed kinds. 
Amongst the many improvements may be noticed 
Veitch's Red Globe, Snowball, Dobbie’s Model, and 
Golden Ball, while the Red and White Milans are 
varieties which arrive at maturity quicker than any 
other Turnip. These should not be confused with 
their prototypes the Red and White Strapleaved 
which have almost had their day. 
Several important sorts have been imported from 
the Continent in addition to the Milans, but much 
selection and improvement has been necessary to 
make them worthy of a place in English gardens. 
Potatos. 
It will obviously be impossible for me, at the close of 
this lengthy paper, to attempt to describe at all 
adequately the improvements effected in the Potato 
during Her Majesty’s Reign, and as I have already 
in my paper on " Potatos ” published in Vol. XIX. 
No. 3 of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural 
Society dealt somewhat fully with this subject, I 
must content myself now with the fewest possible 
remarks. As long ago as 1836 Messrs. Peter Lawson 
& Sons published a descriptive list of 146 varieties, 
and amongst some forty-five of the principal of these 
I only find one which is still cultivated, viz , the 
Early Ashleaf. There are, besides these, some 
familiar names such as Early Shaw and Dons, but 
the remainder must have passed out of cultivation at 
least twenty-five years ago. 
In 1852 the old Walnut-leaf Kidney, Early Oxford, 
Fortyfold, and York Regent, were grown—all sorts 
of real merit in their day—but now seldom met with. 
That excellent Potato Paterson’s Victoria was widely 
cultivated up till 1880, but it would be difficult now 
to find an acre of this variety true to name. The 
fact that almost all these have disappeared from 
sight does not of itself necessarily prove that they 
were worthless or even inferior to others grown at 
the present time—for it is generally admitted that 
the majority of Potatos will not maintain their full 
vigour of growth and constitution beyond a certain 
time, the limit varying with each sort. This is not 
to be wondered at when we remember that each 
year’s growth is but the prolongation of the life of 
the plant which apparently had completed its work 
when the haulm died the preceding autumn. 
At the same time I have no doubt whatever that 
even if we could reproduce such favourite varieties 
as the Regent, Paterson’s Victoria, etc., in all their 
former excellence, and plant them by the side of the 
best Potatos of to-day we should find very great pro¬ 
gress had been made, not merely in productiveness 
and power of withstanding disease, but also in 
flavour—a point in which the older sorts are often 
supposed to have excelled. Besides this we have in 
Ringleader, Ai., Early Puritan, etc., first-early sorts 
which are ready for use long before the so-called 
early Potatos of twenty-five years ago, and also 
several second-earlies such as Beauty of Hebron, 
Supreme, and Windsor Castle, which certainly were 
not equalled by any of the older varieties in their 
own section. Whether these will still retain their 
good qualities unimpaired twenty-five or fifty years 
hence no one can say, though in all probability, as 
they themselves are instances of the survival of the 
fittest, in so far that they were chosen from thousands 
of less promising seedlings—several of them will 
doubtless greatly exceed the limit of age reached by 
older sorts. 
In the late and maincrop section nothing has yet 
approached the Magnum Bonum in popularity, and 
it is certainly at least as good now as when introduced 
by my house twenty-one years ago. There are many 
other very similar varieties, but on the closest 
scrutiny I have failed to detect any point in which 
they differ from the Magnum Bonum, and I have 
generally found when any difference has been 
suggested that the sorts in question were not grown 
alongside under the same conditions, or else that the 
seed had been obtained from different sources, a 
change of seed often producing a marked contrast in 
two rows of the same variety. 
I must not leave the subject of Potatos without 
mentioning such names as the late James Paterson, 
Mr. Robert Fenn, the late James Clark, and Mr, 
Archibald Findlay, all of whom have devoted many 
years, if not a lifetime, to the improvement of the 
noble tuber—and to whom the whole Horticultural 
fraternity and the community at large are so greatly 
indebted. 
We have now passed in review all the leading 
kinds of vegetables, and I think, imperfect as ,thi^ 
paper has been, we must all feel that the progress in 
vegetable cultivation during Her Majesty’s reign 
has been little less than marvellous. 
What the progress in the next fifty or sixty years 
may be no one can foretell; but on behalf of the 
seed trade I can only express the hope that it may be 
accompanied by a corresponding decline in the 
demand for older and inferior sorts, for the labour 
and anxiety of keeping the rapidly increasing number 
of varieties true to name is such as none but those 
acquainted with the details of seed growing can for a 
moment conceive .—A rthur W. Sutton. 
-- 
Large Marrows.—Mr. Ferris, Broadway, Maiket 
Levington, Wilts., reports two largeVegetableMarrows 
in his garden, weighing 7olbs. and 50 lbs. respec¬ 
tively on one plant. This plant has borne a number 
of medium-sized fruits as well as the two monsters 
referred to, so it has not been idle. 
