JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER .  3'.  3 
November  17,  1898. 
- - - - XI ’  ■ 
space  between  the  arches  some  other  little  figure,  with  broad  plates  of 
round  coloured  glass  for  the  sun  to  play  on.” 
It  may  not  have  escaped  the  reader’s  memory  that  for  some  time 
after  their  introduction  both  the  Larch  and  the  Laurel,  then  known  as 
the  Bay  Cherry,  were  still  protected  in  winter ;  Parkinson,  who  wrote 
of  gardening,  1629,  tells  us  so.  It  is  well  known  that  many  plants 
flourish  best  in  sea  air.  Among  these  is  the  Fuchsia,  which  seems  to 
be  a  favourite  with  Cornish  miners.  In  rambling  about  Cornwall  one 
frequently  sees  a  dismantled  cottage  in  whose  wild  disordered  garden 
the  Fuchsia  still  luxuriates.  It  overtops  sometimes  the  garden  wall 
and  creeps  along  into  the  neighbouring  hedgerows,  its  drooping  tassels 
of  scarlet  and  purple  waving  gently  in  every  breeze.  I  was  thinking, 
however,  of  ordinary  wayside  hedges.  It  is  only  in  parts  of  the  Sussex 
o  ast  that  one  meets  with  them,  but  from  Worthing  to  Arundel  the 
country,  a  few  miles  inland,  is  delightfully  wooded,  and  the  roads  have 
a  wide  margin  of  sward  with  bosky  thickets  of  Gorse,  Bramble,  and 
wild  Rose. 
The  hedgerow  is  one  of  the  common  things  about  which  some  people 
kn'iw  next  to  nothing.  Ido  not  assume  to  know  much,  but  “a  little 
knowledge  ”  of  this  kind  is  not  a  “  dangerous  thing,”  and  what  little 
comes  to  my  share  is  not  entirely  “  book  knowledge.”  Here,  then,  is 
a  rambling  hedge.  What  of  its  material  and  structure  ?  I  take  fifty 
paces  along  and  retrace  my  steps  to  look  at  it  more  closely.  More 
than  half  a  century  ago,  perhaps,  a  double  row  of  quick-growing 
White  Thorn  was  planted  here.  But  scarcely  a  tithe  of  these  remain. 
The  Hawthorn,  hardy  as  it  is,  must  perforce  succumb  in  the  struggle 
for  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  Thenine-tenths  of  theshrubsand  wildings 
that  usurp  the  hedge  were  planted  by  no  hand  of  man.  The  planters 
were  beast  and  bird,  wind  and  storm. 
Conspicuous  among  them  are  the  Dog  Rose  and  Bramble,  bird-sown 
both  of  them.  As  to  the  first,  the  fieldfare  or  the  missel  thrush  bit 
off  the  scarlet  rind  and  dispersed  the  seeds.  The  last  named,  unless 
picked  by  the  fingers  of  children,  ripened,  was  frostbitten,  and  fell. 
Birds  seem  to  set  little  store  by  Blackberries  and  haws,  probably 
the  latter  serve  as  food  for  mice.  It  is  the  rind  that  the  thrush 
tribe  prefer,  the  smaller  birds  eats  the  seeds  too.  I  found  a  linnet’s 
nest  by  a  busy  highway.  A  field  mouse  had  filled  it  with  Rose  heps 
— its  winter  store.  It  was  so  perhaps  that  those  Dog  Roses  came  on 
the  opposite  hedge. 
But  my  50  yards  of  hedge  contain  many  more  species.  Among 
them  is  the  beautiful  wild  Cherry — beautiful  always  from  thetimewhen 
its  silver  bells  provided  a  feast  for  the  bees  till  early  summer,  when 
its  luscious  fruit  was  so  tempting,  till  chill  October,  when  its  crimson 
leaves  were  brightest  of  all  on  the  woodlands.  There  are  two  plants 
of  the  Wayfaring  Tree,  its  cherry-coloured  cymes  of  berries  are 
already  conspicuous.  Perhaps,  however,  the  berries  of  the  native 
Euonymus  or  Spindle  Tree  are  most  beautiful  for  their  rosy  magenta 
colours.  Both  the  Brionys  are  here,  and  a  quantity  of  wild  Privet 
and  hedge  Laurel. 
Then  comes  a  Hazel  from  the  nut  that  the  nuthatch  failed  to  pierce, 
or  mayhap  it  was  dropped  from  the  silken  paws  of  a  squirrel.  There 
are  clusters  of  purple  or  blue-black  Elderberries,  too.  What  would 
the  birds  do  without  them,  this  thirsty  weather,  when  all  the  ponds 
are  dry  ?  Travellers’  Joy,  the  wild  Clematis,  of  course  is  here,  its 
feathery  awns  are  quite  a  feature  in  autumn  hedgerows;  wind- 
sown,  these.  The  Sloe  or  Blackthorn  is  a  hardy  native,  spiny  and 
aggressive.  In  a  few  years,  if  allowed ‘to  remain,  it  would  creep  on 
across  the  field  and,  with  the  help  of  other  wildings,  cover  it  with  an 
impenetrable  thicket. 
The  earliest  mention  of  hedges  seems  to  be  in  Domesday  Book 
(Middlesex,  p.  127);  but  doubtless  they  were  med  as  boundary  lines 
in  Anglo-Saxon  times.  The  material  probably  consisted  of  the  seed¬ 
lings  of  Blackthorn  and  Hawthorn,  Crab,  Hazel,  Dogwood,  and  Holly 
transplanted  from  the  woods.  The  earliest  printed  account  is  that  of 
Sir  John  Fortescue  before  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  Haw¬ 
thorn  hedges  existed  in  the  gardens  of  Windsor  Castle  in  Henry  V.’s 
lime,  but  they  were  not  generally  in  vogue  until  the  close  of  the  last 
century. — Herga. 
Potato  Up-to-Date.— Regarding  the  cropping  properties  of  this 
variety,  it  may  be  interesting  to  remark  that  a  tew  days  ago  I  had  the 
gratification  of  inspecting  a  crop  of  11  acres  belonging  to  Mr.  George 
Thorneycroft,  Ravenhurst  Farm,  Edgbaston,  Birmingham,  growing  in  a 
dark-coloured,  friable,  sandy,  loamy  soil,  with  the  addition  of  horse  and 
cow  manure,  Mr.  Thorneycroft  not  being  an  advocate  for  artificial  manures 
for  Potatoes.  I  happened  to  be  present  when  a  considerable  breadth  of 
the  crop  was  lying  in  the  field  ready  for  grading,  and  must  confess  that  I 
never  saw  such  a  splendid  array  of  Potatoes  before.  There  was  not  the 
slightest  trace  of  the  disease  in  the  crop,  and  the  tubers  were  “as clear 
as  bells,”  excepting  with  occasional  symptoms  of  “ru9t.”  Moreover,  they 
were  of  a  most  useful  size,  excepting  a  few  tubers  from  2  lbs.  to  lbs.  in 
weight.  They  cook  like  “balls  of  flour,”  but  require  care,  or  are  liable  to 
go  to  “  smash,”  as  a  cook  recently  remarked  to  me.  Mr.  Thorneycroft 
observed  that  he  grew  several  varieties  on  another  farm,  about  three 
mile9  distant,  devoted  to  Potatoes  alone,  and  that  he  found  Imperator  to  be 
■of  excellent  quality,  and  the  tubers  medium  in  size. — W.  G. 
APPLE  ALLINGTON  PIPPIN. 
Prominent  in  the  fine  collection  of  dessert  Apples  exhibited  at 
the  last  meeting  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  by  Messrs.  G. 
Bunyard  &  Co.,  was  an  attractive  pile  of  this  valuable  new  dessert 
Apple,  of  which  we  figure  a  typical  fruit.  Some  Apples  are  handsome 
to  look  at  but  indifferent  to  eat,  others  the  reverse.  Of  Allington 
Pippin  it  can  be  said  that  it  is  as  good  in  quality  as  it  is  pleasing  in 
appearance. 
Cox’s  Orange  Pippin,  all  points  considered,  has  long  been  without 
a  rival  among  dessert  Apples.  It  has  one  now  in  the  variety  under 
notice,  which  is  destined,  in  all  probability,  to  spread  far  and  wide.  It 
is  not  often  that  finer  fruits  of  Cox’s  Orange  Pippin  are  seen  in  com¬ 
petition  than  were  staged  at  the  recent  Colchester  Show.  We  have 
seen  none  finer,  except  the  marvels  of  culture  occasionally  exhibited  (as 
at  the  Crystal  Palace)  by  Mr.  T.  F.  Rivers;  yet  the  Colchester  Cox’s 
were  fairly  out-distanced  by  Mr.  Wallace’s  “  Allingtons,”  the  judges 
being  Air.  S.  T.  Wright,  the  Chiswick  Superintendent,  with  Mr.  G. 
Wytbes  of  Syon — experts,  it  will  be  conceded,  who  know  good  Apples 
when  they  see  them. 
Allington  Pippin  is  evidently  closely  related  to  Cox’s,  from  which 
it  no  doubt  emanated  ;  but  is  all  the  same  distinct,  both  in  colour, 
Fig.  64. — Apple  Arlington  Pippin. 
quality,  and  growth  of  tree.  The  fruit  of  the  new  comer  into 
commerce  has  a  paler  and  more  transparent  appearance;  is,  as  we 
have  seen  it,  generally  larger;  the  quality  similar,  but  not  the  same, 
for  while  the  Cox’s  flavour  is  unmistakeable,  it  is  somewhat  modified 
by  a  juicy  sprightliness  which  we  do  not  find  in  the  famous  old 
favourite,  and  we  strongly  suspect  that  much  better  champagne  could 
be  made  from  the  fruit  than  a  good  deal  which  is  manufactured  for 
the  market.  In  habit  of  growth  the  trees  of  Allington  Pippin  are 
sturdier  than  Cox’s,  with  somewhat  larger  leaves,  and  produce  blossom 
buds  with  equal  freedom  when  pruners  give  them  a  chance,  for  it  has 
to  be  said  there  are  not  a  few  men  with  knives  in  gardens  who  have 
yet  to  learn  how  to  use  them  profitably. 
A  tree  of  Allington  Pippin,  planted  at  Chiswick  early  last  year, 
bas  this  season  produced  two  dozen  good  fruits,  and  at  the  same  time 
made  satisfactory  growth.  There  was  clearly  not  much  the  matter 
with  the  pruning  in  that  case,  and  a  few  hundreds  of  such  trees  would 
soon  grow  into  money. 
The  fruit  figured  may  be  described  as  medium  sized,  nearly  3  inches 
wide  and  2£  high  ;  roundish,  even,  regular  and  smooth  in  outline  ; 
skin  clear  lemon  on  the  shaded  side,  but  flushed  with  red  on  the  sun 
side,  flaked  and  freckled  with  broken  bars  of  crimson;  eye  small  and 
generally  open,  with  long  pointed  flattened  segments,  set  in  a  shallow 
slightly  puckered  basin  ;  stalk  half  an  inch  long,  thin,  set  in  a  rather 
deep  cavity,  which  is  sometimes  lined  and  rayed  with  russet ;  stamens 
median  ;  tube  funnel  shaped  ;  cells  ovate,  abaxile,  slit  ;  flesh  greenish 
white,  lighter  than  Cox’s,  tender,  very  juicy,  crisp  yet  melting,  sweet, 
with  a  delicate  Cox’s  flavour,  and  a  lively  sub-acid  accompaniment, 
which  many  palates  approve. 
Mr.  Bunyard  has  never  introduced  a  more  promising  Apple  than 
this,  and  he  no  doubt  feels  fortunate  by  its  possession.  Allington 
Pippin,  we  suspect,  will  eventually  find  its  way  into  all  collections 
