December 9, 1905. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
935 
able still, wo wore gravely assured this 
l’otato contained more sugar than Beetroot, 
and yielded excellent alcohol. This enumera¬ 
tion did not exhaust its many virtues. 
Farmers and gardeners in the neighbourhood 
of Bordeaux were, we were told, “looking 
eagerly forward to a new era in Potato cul¬ 
ture.” 
Are these and other extraordinary Potatos 
about which we have heard quite recently 
snares and delusions like the coreless Apple, 
or were the glowing descriptions of them sup¬ 
plied to the Press to be traced to the 
exuberant imagination of a liard-up but re¬ 
sourceful journalist? 
-♦- 
Letters to THE Editor. 
Choisya ternata. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
A plant of the above species, which is six 
years old and flowers beautifully, grows outside 
in the gardens of Granton House, Granton, 
near Edinburgh. J. L>. 
Potato Duchess of Cornwall. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir, —-On perusing the “ G. W.” this week, 
I find mention made of “ Duchess of Corn¬ 
wall ” Potato in two places, and its origin 
attributed to two different persons. On page 
919 it is illustrated and described as being 
raised by the late William Kerr, but on 
page 923 its origin is attributed to a Mr. 
J. F. Williamson, an Irish Potato specialist. 
Now, what are we to infer: (1) That there are 
two distinct varieties, bearing the same name, 
or (2) that there is a doubt as to who raised 
either or both varieties ? I hope this will be 
satisfactorily explained, so that the public 
who are interested in Potatos may know 
Which is the real or best “ Duchess of Corn¬ 
wall.” Failing this explanation, we shall 
have the old “ White Elephant ” controversy 
repeated, and which is still a matter of debate 
among many growers. Though the real White 
Elephant (Daniel’s) was sent out some twenty- 
four years since, I can well recall the dis¬ 
putes or arguments which were caused by 
Messrs. Carter sending out a Potato bearing 
the same name a year or two later. Daniel's 
White Elephant has a pink and white skin, 
very similar to Pink Beauty of Hebron, but 
the tubers are longer ; its quality as an eating 
Potato is still unsurpassed. Why it is not 
more extensively grown I cannot compre¬ 
hend ; it has the special merit of cropping 
really well on poor ground. The White 
Elephant of Carter and Co. was almost a round, 
wliit e-skinned Potato, and had, I believe, a 
rather brief existence. Daniel’s White 
Elephant was so named on account of its ex¬ 
ceptional merit and rarity, not on account of 
its skin colour, as that would have been a 
misnomer. One Perplexed. 
[There is no doubt whatever about the 
raiser of Potato Duchess of Cornwall, as stated 
on page 919. It was raised by the late 
William Kerr, of Dumfries. On page 923 it 
is said that the “ Potato was discovered by 
Mr. J. F. Williamson,” which would imply 
that it was already in existence, or it could 
not have been discovered. Wluit he really 
did was to discover its excellence, both in the 
matter of cropping and usefulness for table. 
It succeeds remarkably well in Ireland, and 
Mr. Williamson was one of the first to bring 
these facts to the notice of the public. Its 
merits were overlooked in the early stages of 
its history, and Mr. Williamson and a grower 
of Spalding, so to speak, discovered them.— 
Ed.] 
OCCASIONAL 
-a- I NTERVI EWS. -sa- 
Mr. A. E. CRESSWELL. 
Secretary of the Forest Gate and Stratford Amateur Chrysanthemum Society. 
Poverty, hideous and demoralising, darkly 
broods over West Ham, an extensive, densely- 
peopled county borough on the borders of that 
still mightier aggregation of people called 
London, and of which it may well be ac¬ 
counted an integrant part. Here want, 
gaunt and forbidding, has entered the homes 
of thousands. The wail of the children for 
bread and the prayer of the men for work have 
risen day after day' from this dreadful town of 
submerged humanity. In the wealthiest city 
that history knows these despairing cries are 
as anathema. That such things should be is 
an ugly' commentary on our vaunted civilisa¬ 
tion. Here exaggeration finds no scope, and 
the journalist who comes hither in search of 
horrors and tragedies may have a surfeit. 
That in the midst of this distraught popu¬ 
unacquainted with these parts. Yet in reality 
the outlying districts of the borough make 
pleasant and even beautiful residential 
quarters. There are attractive-looking villas 
and many good houses, well-ordered gardens, 
wide tree-bordered roads, and admirably- 
maintained recreation grounds and parks. 
The local Council have done much for the big 
district in their charge, and here the visitor 
will find the very exceptional provision of two 
town halls ; two of the best free libraries in 
or out of London are owned by West Ham, 
and there are tramways, the electric light, 
splendid baths, hospitals, asylums, a techni¬ 
cal institute, artisans’ dwellings, sewage 
works, and all the evidences of the progressive 
enterprising municipality. For a manufac¬ 
turing district this, one of the Registrar- 
lation there should have been quite recently 
held a large and beautiful show of Chrysan¬ 
themums may at first mention seem strangely 
anomalous. But, then, of course, the starv¬ 
ing ones, the miserable army of the unem¬ 
ployed, form a comparatively small propor¬ 
tion of the three hundred odd thousand in¬ 
habitants of this district. Here, in certain 
well-defined quarters, want is accentuated, and 
the. number of its victims is sufficiently 
appalling, but there is wealth even in M est 
Ham, and a large population of compara¬ 
tively well-to-do people make this their place 
of residence. In consequence of recent events 
and the outpourings of the newspapers, 
l’overty Town and West Ham have become 
nearly synonymous terms to those presumably 
General’s Great Towns, is icmarka’o'y 
healthy. It is not the fault of the Corpora¬ 
tion that West Ham has received so dispro¬ 
portionate a share of the overflow population 
of the poorer classes from the great con¬ 
tiguous city, and they are to be credited w’th 
having done the utmost- to devise means for 
alleviating the terrible state of existing misery 
which has earned for West Ham such unplea¬ 
sant notoriety. 
The Mayor of West Ham. Alderman Botli- 
well, is a gentleman who has done much for 
the borough, and is ever ready to open his 
purse and spend his time in the furtherance 
of a good cause. He it was who presided at 
the opening function of the Forest Gate and 
Stratford Amateur Chrysanthemum Society’s 
