October  19,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
331 
EUCHARIS  AT  HOOTON  GRANGE. 
I  am  sending  with  a  few  cultural  notes  a  photograph  which 
represents  twelve  plants  grown  in  10  and  11-inch  pots,  and  each 
plant  measures  from  2  to  3  feet  through;  some  of  the  plants  had 
thrown  up  a  number  of  spikes  previous  to  the  photograph  being 
taken.  The  number  of  flower  spikes  shown  is  120,  or  about  300 
fully  developed  blooms.  The  great  majority  of  these  blooms  were 
produced  from  five  plants,  several  of  which  produced  over  twenty 
spikes  each;  but  from  all  the  pots  we  have  had  more  or  less  blooms 
than  were  present  when  the  plants  were  photographed. 
I  have  grown  specimens  from  a  few  small  plants  procured  some 
sixteen  or  seventeen  years  ago,  and  I  have  never  bjen  troubled  with 
the  mite.  The  luxuriant  leaves  and  free- flowering  habit  of  the 
plants  have  been  very  much  prized  and  admired  by  my  employer, 
W.  H.  Jones,  Esq.,  as  well  as  by  gardening  friends  for  many  years. 
The  number  of  plants  is  limited  to  twelve,  for  the  simple  resson  that 
-space  will  not  allow  us  to 
grow  more.  The  oldest  of 
the  plants  represented  were 
last  potted  six  years  ago  in 
11-inch  pots,  and  about  ten 
or  twelve  bulbs  were  placed 
in  a  pot.  They  flowered  last 
November,  and  produced  at 
one  time  sixty  odd  bloom 
spikes,  and  previous  to  that, 
in  September  of  the  same 
year,  fifty  spikes;  so  it  will 
be  seen  that  this  year’s  crop 
of  blooms  is  no  great  excep¬ 
tion. 
A  very  simple  method  of 
culture  is  adopted.  The  soil 
used  is  composed  of  three 
parts  good  fibrous  loam,  one 
part  of  peat,  a  spriukling  of 
bonemeal,  a  similar  quantity 
of  sharp  sand,  and  a  7-inch 
potful  of  charcoal,  broken  up 
about  the  size  of  Filberts,  to 
every  bushel  of  soil.  The  best 
bulbs  are  selected,  and  they 
are  potted  carefully,  but  I  do 
not  wash  the  roots  as  some 
correspondents  recommend. 
After  potting  they  are  placed 
in  a  temperature  of  (35°  at 
night,  with  a  rise  in  the  day¬ 
time  of  10°  without  sun  heat, 
admitting  a  little  top  venti¬ 
lation  at  80°,  wilh  abundance 
of  atmospheric  moisture, 
syringing  two  or  ;  hree  times 
a  day.  The  pots  are  placed 
on  an  open  cast-iron  grating 
stage  over  the  hot-water  pipes, 
and  are  never  plunged.  As 
the  plants  develop  in  growth, 
and  the  pots  are  becoming 
filled  with  roots,  they  are 
given  weak  liquid  manure  and  soot  water,  twice  on  alternate 
weeks. 
On  the  slightest  indications  of  the  dreaded  mite  I  give  the  plants 
three  or  four  waterings  with  a  nitrate  of  soda  solution,  say  a 
teaspoonful  to  2  gallons  of  water;  this,  I  consider,  acts  as  an  insecti¬ 
cide,  as  well  as  an  invigorator  to  the  plant. 
Assuming  that  we  have  now  good  plants,  with  well-developed 
foliage,  but  which  have  not  flowered  since  being  repotted,  I  bring 
about  a  check  by  watering  them  less  frequently,  but  never  allowing 
them  to  flag  through  want  of  water,  and  at  the  same  time  lowering  the 
temperature,  say  5°  at  night,  with  less  atmospheric  moisture.  After 
submitting  them  to  this  treatment  for  three  or  four  weeks,  replace 
them  in  strong  heat  and  moisture,  and  with  a  watering  or  two  of 
nitrate  of  soda  the  results  will  be  such  as  will  satisfy  everyone. 
My  mode  of  culture  may  be  summarised  as  follows  :  Shake  out  the 
old  plants  and  repot  whilst  they  are  in  good  health,  and  do  not  wait 
until  they  are  half  eaten  away  with  the  mite  ;  this  is  best  done,  I 
consider,  immediately  after  they  have  ceased  flowering.  Pot  in  the 
compost  suggested,  water  carefully  until  well  established,  use  the 
syringe  frequently,  keep  the  foliage  clean,  and  grow  over  hot- water 
•pipes  on  an  open  stage  if  possible.  Give  liquid  manure  two  or  three 
times  a  week,  let  the  plants  have  a  genial  temperature  of  65°  at  night, 
with  a  rise  of  10°  or  15°  by  day,  and  the  most  important  of  all  is  that 
they  have  a  thick  shading  of  canvas  rollel  down  over  them  on  the 
appearance  of  the  least  sumhine. 
If  any  readers  require  further  particulars  of  my  method  of  culture, 
I  shall  be  pleased  to  answer  them  through  the  Journal  of  Horticulture. 
— Edwin  Broadey,  The  Gardens,  Hooton  Grange,  Chester. 
[The  photograph  sent  by  our  correspondei  t  was  taken  by  Miss 
M.  F.  Jones,  and  we  reproduce  it  as  illustrative  of  the  results  tint  may 
be  attained  to  by  adopting  the  system  of  culture  so  clearly  described 
by  Mr.  Broadey.] 
APPLE  CHARLESTOWN  PIPPIN. 
The  above  name  1  variety  of  Apple  is  evidently  a  local  one.  My 
grounds  for  saying  this  is  that  I  find  no  mention  of  it  in  Dr.  Hogg’s 
“  Fruit  Manual,’'  which  is  well  known  as  the  best  authority  on  Appfes 
and  other  fruits  in  our  language.  Until  I  came  to  this  part  of 
Yorkshire  I  do  rot  remember 
hearing  the  name.  Not  know¬ 
ing  any  Apple  quite  similar 
to  if,  I  am  sending  you  a  few 
fruits.  Perhaps  with  your 
more  extended  knowledge 
you  may  prove  to  us  it  is 
synonymous  with  some  other 
variety.  I  can  only  find  it 
catalogued  by  one  nurseryman 
in  the  N<  rih. 
Charlestown  Pippin  is  a 
good  eating  Apple  for  this 
season  of  the  year.  It  has 
another  name  amongst  the 
working  men,  small  farmers, 
and  native  schoolboys — viz., 
T’Helmender.  After  some 
amount  of  inquiry  I  have 
ascertained  how  it  got  this 
name.  Helm  is  an  ancient 
name  for  barn  in  Yorkshire, 
seidom  or  ever  now  used 
though.  A  large  tree  of  the 
Apple  in  question  grew  at 
the  end  of  a  helm  or  barn, 
hence  when  asked  the  name 
of  such  good  eating  Apples, 
recipients  were  told,  it  was, 
in  Yorkshire  parlance,  T’Hel¬ 
mender — i.e.,  grew  at  the  end. 
of  the  barn. 
The  fruits  sent  are  from  a 
tree  certainly  not  less  than 
fiity  years  old.  The  tree  is 
not  a  strong  grower  as  com¬ 
pared  with  other  varieties  of 
Apple  trees  in  the  same 
orchaid.  It  is  a  free  bearing 
kind,  and  does  well  either  as 
a  standard,  bush,  or  espalier. 
Of  course  under  the  two  latter 
forms,  and  with  good  culture, 
the  fruits  would  be  finer  iu 
size  than  those  I  am  sending.  Your  opinion  will,  I  happen  to  know, 
be  valued  by  other  readers  of  our  Journal  in  Yorkshire  as  well  as 
myself. — PI.  J.  C.,  Grimston,  Tadcaster. 
If  I  remember  rightly,  T’Helmender  Apple  was  a  somewhat 
popular  variety  about  Tadcaster,  especially  on  the  warp  at  Kirby 
Wharfe  forty-eight  years  ago,  and  regarded  as  a  form  of  King  of  the 
Pippins,  due  to  variation  and  improvement  through  soil  influences, 
though  some  regarded  it  as  a  seedling  or  “  pippm,”  raised  from  a  pip 
planted  and  cherished  at  the  end  of  a  helm.  A  helm  (Saxon 
helma )  was  the  name  given  to  any  rough  building  made  of  posts  set 
in  the  ground,  the  back  and  ends  formed  of  brushavood  fagots,  and  a 
roof  of  the  same  and  thatched,  open  at  the  front,  and  used  as  a  cart 
shed,  for  farming  implements  or  farm  produce.  The  term  helm  at 
Stillingfleet — my  native  place,  and  about  eight  miles  from  Tadcaster 
— was  never  given  to  a  barn,  but  a  rough  structure  of  the  nature 
indicated  for  sheltering  cattle,  and  that  is  what  the  term  “helma” 
means.  T’Helmender  Apple  was  not  grown  in  the  orchard  or 
garden  at  Nun  Appleton  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  Wharfe, 
where  King  of  jhe  Pippins  throve  well  as  espalier  trees  on  stiffish 
loam  over  clay,  oa  the  border  of  the  warp  land  Termed  “  ings.” 
Neither  do  I  bring  to  mind  T’Helmender  Apple  being  in  repute  at 
Appleton  Roebuck,  where  there  was  an  orchard  to  almost  every  house 
Fig.  65. -Eucharis  grandiflora  (amazonica)  at  Hooton  Grange. 
