December 9, 1899. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
229 
Of Plum, Peach and Cherry most nurserymen 
recommend trees one year old, for planting. 
Weather in London.—Last Thursday, November 
30th, was frightfully thick, black and foggy. The 
weather since then has been alternately mild, dry or 
drizzly. 
Wealthy Apple: Death of its Raiser.—Peter M. 
Gideon, says American Gardening, probably best 
known as the raiser of Wealthy Apple, died a month 
ago (October 27th) at Excelsior, Minn., in the 79th 
year of bis age. He was married in 1849 to a Miss 
Wealthy Hal), and it was her Christian name which 
he selected in naming the fruit. Mr. Gideon was the 
first superintendent of the State Experimental Station 
or Fruit Farm in Champaign County. In the year 
1820, he removed to Clinton, Illinois, 21 years later, 
and again in 1850 to Excelsior, Minn. In 1851 he 
commenced his experiments with fruits, and when 
the State Experimental Farm originated in 1878 he 
was appointed to its charge. American orchardists 
have the matter under consideration for the erecting 
of a memorial to the raiser of Wealth* Apple. 
Death of Mr. W. M. Welsh —It is with deep regret 
that we have to record the death of Mr. W. M 
Welsh, senior partner of the firm of Messrs. Dicksons 
& Co., seedsmen, 1, Waterloo Place, Edinburgh. 
The illness, which has terminated fatally, has been 
severe, and long drawn out. The deceased was 6r 
years of age, and was born at Ericstaue, near 
Moffat, Dnmfrieshire. His is one of the old 
border families. Educated at Moffat Academy, he 
began business in Carlisle, and subsequently entered 
the employment of Mr. John Shaw, landscape 
gardener, Manchester. He joined the firm of 
Dicksons & Co., in 1862, and gained a reputation as 
an authority on all branches of natural science con¬ 
nected with the seed and kindred trades, especially 
with regard to fruit cultivation. He was a member 
of the Royal Scottish Arhoricultural Society, had 
been its treasurer and member of council; was a 
member and Councillor of the Royal Caledonian 
Horticultural Society ; a President and Councillor 
of the Scottish Hoiticultural Association; a life- 
member of the Highland and Agricultural Society ; 
and a director of the Scottish Trade Protection 
Society. He took a leading p3rt in local affairs, 
being Chairman of the Liberton Liberal-Unionist 
Association, a member of the Parish Council and 
School Board ; and a representative of the Parish 
Council to the County Council. The deceased, who 
was a widower, leaves a grown-up family. His 
presence will be greatly missed. 
A Celebrated Vine —A correspondent, Mr. John 
Peebles, sends us a cutting from the People's Journal, 
in which a writer gives an account of his visit to the 
Kmnell Gardens, which extend from the back of the 
old Kinnell Castle down to the brink of the high 
banks of the river Dochart, at Killin. Here is the 
celebrated Kinnell Vine, the largest, not only in the 
United Kingdom, but in Europe, and about double 
the size of the famous Vine at Hampton Court, 
which for long was reckoned the largest in Britain. 
The Kinnell Vine was planted in 1768, but is now 
show.ng signs of decay. In 1882 it carried 1,250 
bunches of grapes ; but of late years the berries and 
bunches have been smaller, while some of the rods 
are decaying. Another Vine, planted in 1832, 
covered 240 superficial square yards in 1869. The 
vinery has been greatly enlarged since then and now 
measures 171 ft. in length. The upright front of the 
vinery is 6J ft. high, and the roof i8£ ft. to the top, 
so that the whole has an area of 171 ft. by 25 ft., or 
4,275 sq. ft. of glass. The whole of the glass is 
covered by the Vine. The upright stem is 6J ft. 
before it branches. The trunk has a girth of 28 in. 
at one foot from the ground ; and 2t in. below the 
two main divisions, the latter being each about 13 in. 
in girth. The Vine produced 1,179 bunches in 1869 ; 
last year 3,233; and this year 3,511 bunches. This 
famous Vine, situated about the centre of the Gram¬ 
pian mountain ranges,would thus be the largest and 
most productive in Europe. Its existence was very 
little known till quite recently. Few of the inhabi¬ 
tants of Killin and the district had ever seen it. The 
writer of the note visited Killin in 1869, and went to 
see the Kinnell Vine, when the gardener favoured him 
with the size of the vinery and the spread of the Vine 
in August of that year. 
Edinburgh Chrysanthemum Show.—At the monthly 
meeting of the Scottish Horticultural Association, 
held on the 5th inst., a statement of income and ex¬ 
penditure of the recent Chrysanthemum show was 
submitted, which showed that though not quite so 
successful financially as the exhibitions of recent years 
there was a balance on the right side, and the sum of 
fifty guineas was unanimously voted to the Lord 
Provost of Edinburgh’s War Relief Fund. This is 
highly gratifying, and the Scottish association de¬ 
serves great praise for their broad-minded liberality. 
Sums of five guineas each were also voted to the 
Royal Gardeners’ Orphan Fund and Gardeners’ 
Royal Benevolent Institution. The ordinary busi¬ 
ness of the meeting included a paper on “ The Parks 
of London,” by Mr. Beech, The Grarge, Bishop 
Stortford. Several interesting exhibits were on the 
table, including a handsome basket of Roses cut from 
the open from the gardens of Mr. M. Todd, showing 
the great mildness of the season. The varieties 
were chiefly Caroline Testout and General Jacque¬ 
minot. A resolution of regret at the death of Mr. 
W. M. Welsh, who had been a president of the 
association, and had taken gre at interest in its affairs, 
was unanimously adopted. 
I he Horticultural College, Swaniey.—We are in¬ 
formed that the lecture cn the “ History of Gard¬ 
ens,” given by Mr. A. F. Sieveking at the London 
Institution lately, wilt be repeated at Swaniey 
Horticultural College, on Wednesday, December 
13th, at 4.J5 p.m. The lecture will be illustrated by 
slides. Tea will be given at 3.30, and the Principal, 
who will occupy the chair, has arranged for cheap 
return tickets between Swaniey and Victoria 
(London) stations. The work of the College is pro¬ 
gressing remarkably weil, eighty-two ^students being 
there, and the two boarding boutes which were 
opened in the summer have already proved in¬ 
sufficient to accommodate the applicants. In addition 
to the four County Councils already offering scholar¬ 
ships for Swanleyites (free training, board and 
lodging for two years), Staffordshire has just made 
a like offer, so that now there are five scholarships. 
The competitions or exhibitions in which the 
college has entered, and been successful during the 
year, are : for fruit at the Temple Show, where a 
Baoksian Medal was gained ; while during Novem¬ 
ber a silver cup, and two first and three second 
prizes were won at Bromley for Cnrysantkemums. 
At Woolwich, three first and four second prizes 
were awarded for Japanese and incurved blooms 
from the Swaniey Horticultural College. 
--- 
CINERARIAS AND CALCEOLARIAS. 
I class the two together, as the same treatment will 
do for both. Young plants of the former, occupying 
3 in. or 5-in. pots, should at once be moved into 6-in. 
and 7 iD. pots, using loam, leaf-soil, a bushel finely 
sifted to every two barrows of the former with half 
a bushel of well decayed manure, running the same 
through a Jr-in. sieve, adding enough coarse river or 
silver sand to keep the whole porous, and, if at hand, 
an 8-tn. potful of soot. Well mix all together and 
pot firmly, taking care that the foliage does not get 
crippled or broken about as the work proceeds. 
After potting, the plants should be placed in quite a 
cold house, though frost must not be allowed to 
touch them. They must not be too far from the 
glass nor too crowded or else weak plants will be the 
order. In whatever position they are placed the 
plants should be turned round once a week, giving 
them abundance of air but avoiding cold draughts 
On bright mornings, if the plants should appear to 
bave no moisture on the foliage, a very light dewing 
overhead with a syringe would be very beneficial ; 
but, as a rule, at this time of the year, they keep 
moist enough when no fire-heat has to be turned on. 
The earliest batch will be showing their flower 
heads, so should be helped with some kind of stimu¬ 
lant twice a week. In Devon and Cornwall these 
plants can generally be kept growing in cold pits and 
frames up tj very near Christmas, but wherever 
they are stood a watch must be kept that greenfly 
does not make any headway. Fumigating as soon 
as perceived is the best and surest remedy. Slugs 
and caterpillars, too, are passionately fond of them 
and play havoc in a very short time. At night is a 
good time to search for both these enemies. We are 
growing 100 of Sutton’s variety of Cineraria stellata 
this year, recommended by the raisers as good for 
cut flowers. If so, they will prove very useful, for 
usually Cinerarias, when cut, are useless, so soon 
drooping their heads. If specimen plants are re¬ 
quired some neat stakes should be used, keeping the 
centre fairly open; and if the plants are stood on 
wooden staging water should be poured among the 
pots daily, as they enjoy a cool, moist bottom. 
Calceolarias, in most instances, are still in pits and 
frames; ours are in 3-in. and 4-in. pots at present 
(the third week in November), but the majority will 
soon be fit for transferring into 5J in. and 6J-in. pots, 
using the same kind of compost advocated for Cine, 
rarias, repotting into 7-in. and 8-in. pots as soon as 
the former are full of rcots, but not allowing them to 
become, what we gardeners call, pot-bound first, as 
this gives them a check from which they never satis¬ 
factorily recover. We keep the plants in unheated 
pits plunged in ashes, unless hard frost compel us to 
house them. Then they are put on shelves in a late 
vinery, and care taken that they at no period of their 
existence suffer for want of water or the attack of fly, 
two things the would-be successful grower must 
adhere to. On the other hand, very few plants so 
quickly resent being kept sodden as do those these 
notes concern. Weak manure water may be given 
weekly when the plants get established in the pots 
in which they are to flower. Like the Cinerarias 
they are of little service as cut flowers; but to the 
writer's idea no class of soft-wooded plants makes 
such a grand display of floral wealth from early 
February up to early in June as do Cinerarias and 
Calceolarias. How your readers, who visited the 
Temple show of this year, must heve envied the 
well grown plants of the latter of such diverse 
colours and size of flowers, combined with the dwarf 
and vigorous habit, of those that Messrs. Sutton & 
Sons exhibited on that occasion. They certainly 
were the finest batch (and this not a small one) I 
ever gazed on ; and I found myself near that corner 
more than once admiring this good culture. 
Both Cinerarias and Calceolarias are readily 
raised from seeed. I generally sow the first packet 
of Cineraria about April 20th, and another six wetks 
later, these two batches giving us flowering plants 
from February to May. Any good varieties can be 
increased by offsets or suckers if the old plants are 
cut down within 6 in. of the pot ; in fact, this is the 
way some of the double varieties are kep f . 
Mrs. Thomas Lloyd is one of the best-named 
varieties, a most pleasing blue and a strong grower. 
Doubles in variety are now raised from seed, but to 
my mind they are not nearly so pretty as the singles. 
Calceolarias, too, are raised annually from seed, as a 
rule, though these can be treated similarly to Cine¬ 
rarias. Seedlings, in both instances, grow away the 
soonest and make the fiuest plants. We generally 
sow the Calceolaria about July roth, and rely upon 
one sowing only. I ought to add that both require 
shade from the bright sun from early March to quite 
the end of September. For Cinerarias the grower 
must be guided as to the time for putting on and 
taking off the shading according to position,— 
Grower. 
——* 5 ^*—- 
PINKHILL NURSERY, MURRAYFIELD. 
A little beyond the municipal boundary of Edin¬ 
burgh, on the great western road to Gla'gow, is the 
old established business of Messrs. R. B. Laird & 
Sons, Ltd., Pinkhill Nursery, Murrayfield, Midloth¬ 
ian. One blustering day in September last found us 
inspecting the houses and grounds on the hillside 
overlooking the fertile expanse drained by the Water 
of Leith. 
The ranges of glass on the lower side of the road 
above-mentioned are relatively new. Some cool 
conservatories and greenhouses are on a level with 
the road, and in one of these we noted,as we hurriedly 
passed through, some healthy bushes of Bambusa 
Ecklonis variegata, Otaheite Oranges in fruit, and 
the showy Begonia President Carnot, in bloom. 
Clerodendrons and Allamandas draped the roof. 
The next division contained a fine batch cf 
Araucaria excelsa, and tall Camellias, amongst 
which Lilium specLsura, L. s. Melpomene, and L. s. 
album were all flowering in grand form Other-con¬ 
servatory stuff was plentiful. One division was chiefly 
filled with Indian Azaleas, in neatly trained, pyra¬ 
midal specimens, for which the firm has long been 
noted. A collection of Fuchsias is also grown. A 
fourth division was similarly gay with single and 
double zonal Pelargoniums, Statice profusa, the 
broad leaved S. Holfordi, Hydrangea paniculata 
