434 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
Jlay  25,  1899, 
them  all — a  flower  withperianth  of  purest  white,  and  trumpet  primrose 
somefl^hat  like  that  of  Grand  is  in  form,  a  bloom  to  haunt  the  memory  when 
first  seen.  Apricot,  more  curious  than  beautiful  ;  Golden  Nugget,  well 
named  ;  Lady  Helen  Vincent,  a  perfect  harmony  in  colour,  and  of  grand 
form  ;  Lord  Aberdeen,  a  strikingly  commanding  bloom,  with  rich  golden 
trumpet;  Mrs.  Morland  Crosfield,  perhaps  the  finest  of  all.  the  perianth 
of  pure  white,  the  trumpet  pure  yellow,  largo  and  bold  ;  Victoria,  for¬ 
tunately  of  reasonable  price,  with  erect  carriage  that  well  displays  her 
exquisite  properties  of  broad,  creamy  perianth  and  large  golden  trumpet ; 
Primrose  Dame,  a  beautifnl  self-coloured  bloom,  also  attainable  to  ordi¬ 
nary  means,  swell  the  grand  group.  Shakespere,  as  he  well  merits, 
towers  high  in  this  goodly  company,  and,  next  to  Corrie  Plemp  and  Mrs. 
Crosfield,  most  charmed  his  three  interviewers.  To  bring  up  the  rear,  but 
foremost,  in  size  at  least,  comes  Weardale  Perfection,  of  which  (it  may 
seem  an  instance  of  the  proverbial  sour  Grapes)  the  remark  may  be  made 
that  the  flower  is  immense  and  the  price  forbiddingly  high. 
matter  of  a  little  manurial  help  where  they  give  promise  of  being  neavily 
laden.  In  Gooseberries  and  Currants,  a  little  rapidly  working  artificial, 
say  5  to  7  cwt.  of  fish  guano — care  being  taken  to  buy'  that  of  a  good 
analysis — per  acre,  is  a  wonderful  help  in  five  or  six  weeks’  time.  With 
Apples  and  Plums  a  dressing  of  well-decayed  farmyard  manu  e  on  the 
surface  is  about  the  best  way  of  assisting  them  through  a  heavy  yield. 
The  most  advanced  growers  invariably  assist  their  fruit  trees  through  a 
crop  in  some  such  way. 
A  very  few  green  Gooseberries  were  to  be  seen  on  Saturday.  They 
sold  extremely  well,  but  they  were  dearer  at  Whitsuntide  this  year  than 
they  have  been  for  ten  or  fifteen  seasons.  Some  wore  sold  at  a  fabulous 
price. — Expert,  in  “South-Eastern  Gazette.” 
ROBERT  FORTUNE,  PLANT  COLLECTOR. 
In  grass  were  noted  Emperor,  Horsefieldi,  SirWatkin  (and  breaks  of 
all  three,  in  the  garden,  of  some  40  yards  long  by  at  least  2  broad), 
Johnstoni  Queen  of  Spain,  and  moschatus  of  Haworth,  the  last  in  smaller 
numbers.  Mr.  Cowan  also  showed  his  visitors  a  bloom  of  Johnstoni  Mrs. 
George  Cannell  with  elegantly  reflexed  trumpet,  a  variety  not  often  met 
with.  The  foregoing  are  a  few  selections  from  the  “  Daffs  ”  at  Valley  field. 
And  now  one  w’onders  that,  from  such  a  collection,  while  he  comes 
away  satisfied  that  he  could  see  nothing  more  or  have  been  more  highly 
gratified  elsewhere,  there  remains  the  sense  of  completeness  rather  than 
of  vast  extent.  Perhaps  that  is  owing  to  the  compact  system  of  planting  at 
Valleyfield,  the  whole  stock  being  lifted  annually',  and,  w  hile  there  is  not 
the  very  slightest  appearance  of  crowding,  the  plants  are  close  and  the 
ground  fully  occupied. 
After  hours  of  pure  enjoyment  among  the  Daffs,  and  a  call  a  mile  or 
two  off  in  pursuit  of  Auriculas,  three  gratified,  if  somewhat  exhausted 
men,  parted  in  Auld  Reekie,  full  of  the  delights  of  their  visit,  with  a 
sense  of  deep  obligation  to  Mr.  Cowan  for  his  genial  reception  of  the 
wanderers,  and  the  kind  attention  of  Mr.  Shillington,  his  gardener.  A 
missed  train  connection  entailed  on  the  writer  an  additional  six  miles’ 
walk  to  reach  home,  but  in  the  gathering  gloom  of  night  bright  reflections 
on  and  from  Valleyfield  seemed  to  brighten  and  shorten  the  way _ 
A  Northerx  Amateur. 
KENTISH  FRUIT  PROSPECTS. 
^  After  a  fortnight’s  splendid  weather  from  a  fruit  grower’s  point  of 
view,  much  of  the  backwardness,  so  apparent  three  weeks  ago,  may  be 
considered  a  thing  of  the  past.  All  kinds  of  fruit  have  made  grand  pro- 
gress,  and  if  we  can  only  get  through  the  next  few  days  without  frost  a 
full  fruit  crop  is  practically  a  certainty.  Raspberries  and  Strawberries  are 
perhaps  the  slowest  to  respond  to  the  genial  climatic  conditions  ;  they 
have  not  been  looking  well  all  the  late  winter  or  early  spring,  and  many 
pieces  now  are  looking  slack  and  unhealthy.  Wireworm  is  unusually' 
prevalent  this  season,  and  they  are  responsible  for  much  of  the  damage  to 
otrawberries.  Rape  cake  applied  as  a  manure,  say  twice  from  Christmas 
to  April,  is  about  as  good  a  preventive  for  wireworm  as  any.  An  extra 
coat  of  manure  of  any  kind  is  good  practice  under  these  conditions.  It 
helps  the  plant  to  grow  away  from  its  enemies. 
Raspberries  are  sufifering  from  the  after  effects  of  one  or  two  extremely 
dry  summers,  and  also  from  attacks  of  the  weevil  peculiar  to  them. 
Itmse  weevils  can  only  be  destroyed  with  one  wash — viz,,  Paris  green — 
and  the  application  is  rendered  very  diflScult  from  the  fact  that  unless  the 
wash  IS  made  of  sufficient  strength  to  almost  do  harm  to  the  foliage  the 
insects  cannot  be  killed.  If  the  acreage  to  bo  sprayed  is  not  too  large  a 
good  plan  is  to  start  washing  at,  say,  four  to  five  o’clock  in  the  afternoon, 
keeping  on  as  long  as  one  can  see.  In  this  way  the  risk  of  burning  the 
foliage  is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  as  it  is  the  eflEect  of  the  sun  immediately 
after  the  wash  is  put  on  that  causes  the  mischief.  The  Raspberry  weevil 
IS  very  hard  to  thoroughly  get  rid  of.  A  great  many  fields  have  been 
condemned  almost  solely  from  this  cause  ;  but  if  the  arsenical  washes  are 
used  as  strong  as  possible,  and  often  enough,  they  are  to  be  cured. 
Raspberries  are  very  gross  feeders,  and  it  is  always  well  to  increase  the 
quantities  of  manure  applied  when  anything  goes  wrong. 
Now  is  the  time  growers  should  watch  their  Damson  and  Plum  trees 
or  aphis.  The  same  things  will  come  on  Black  Currants  too,  and,  unless 
they  are  caught  in  the  first  stages,  the  washings  to  get  rid  of  them  have 
o  be  on  a  much  larger  scale.  Damsons  are  painfully  subject  to  these 
lif'*  ui  has  a  good  stock,  looking  as  if  the  fruit  will  hang 
♦u  °°  means  lost  money  to  wash  them,  waiting  till 
the  showery  days  are  over,  during  the  next  week  or  so,  whether  they 
apparently  wanted  it  or  not.  ^ 
influence  of  the  beautiful  weather.  Apples,  Cob  Nuts,  and 
e  fruits  that  generally  suflFer  from  the  winter  moth  caterpillar,  are 
coming  along  at  such  a  rate  that  the  caterpillars  do  not  seem  to  be  any 
them.  Should  the  warm  weather  con!inue,  no  more  spraying 
will  be  necessary  ;  but  directly  the  wind  goes  east— for,  say,  a  week  at  a 
often  goes  there  for  longer  than  that  in  May — another  washing 
Mill  be  certain  to  do  good,  if  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary.  Cultivation 
IS  in  a  very  forward  state.  The  occasional  showers  have  made  land  work 
easily,  and  yet  there  has  been  sufficient  dry  weather  to  kill  weeds. 
As  rernarked  above,  prospects  for  a  good  crop  of  fruit  are  encouraging, 
and  1  would  urge  growers  to  remember  their  trees  and  bushes  in  the 
{Concluded  from  page  412.) 
In  1848  Fortune  was  off  again  to  China  in  the  employ  of  the  East 
India  Company,  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  the  Tea  plant  into 
India,  which  he  so  successfully  did,  as  related  in  our  “  Port  of  London  ” 
papers.  It  was  on  this  journey,  described  in  his  “Tea  Districts  of 
China  and  India,”  that  he  discovered  and  sent  home  that  beautiful 
tree,  the  Weeping  Cypress  (Cupressus  funebris),  which  he  found 
growing  in  grounds  of  a  country  inn  at  Shang-i-yuen.  In  an  old 
garden  at  Tung-che  he  found  the  charming  Berberis  japonica. 
Having  taken  a  survey  of  the  place,”  he  says,  “we  were  making  our 
way  out  when  an  extraordinary  plant,  growing  in  a  secluded  part  of 
the  garden,  met  my  eye.  When  I  got  near  it  I  found  that  it  was  a  very 
fine  evergreen  Berberis,  belonging  to  the  section  of  Mahonias,  and 
having,  of  course,  pinnated  leaves.  Each  leaflet  was  as  large  as  the  leaf 
of  an  English  Holly,  spiny,  and  of  a  dark  shining  green  colour.  The 
shrub  was  about  8  feet  high,  much  branched,  and  far  surpassed  in  beauty 
all  the  other  known  species  of  Mahonia,  It  had  but  one  fault,  and  that 
was  that  it  was  too  large  to  ^move  and  bring  away.  I  secured  a  leaf, 
however,  and  marked  the  spot  where  it  grew,  in  order  to  secure  some 
cuttings  of  it  on  my  return  from  the  interior.” 
In  the  Bohea  ranges  “a  fine  species  of  Abelia  was  met  with  on  the 
Fukien  side  of  the  mountains,  which  will  probably  be  a  favourite  in 
English  gardens.  Its  flowers  are  as  large  as  those  of  the  Weigela 
rosea,  of  a  blueish  tii  ge,  and  bloom  in  great  profusion  for  a  long  time. 
When  I  first  saw  the  plant  I  took  it  to  be  the  Abelia  chit.ensis  of 
Brown,  but  I  observe  that  Dr.  Bindley,  to  w’hom  the  plant  was  sent 
for  examination,  calls  it  A.  uniflora.  It  is  a  curious  circumstance  that 
Dr.  Abel,  after  whom  the  genus  was  named,  discovered  his  plant  on 
the  same  mountains,  about  a  hundred  miles  to  the  north-west  of  the 
spot  where  the  Abelia  uniflora  was  found.  He  was  then  on  his  way 
with  the  embassy  from  Pekin  to  Canten.” 
In  a  garden  at  Shanghai  he  had  another  find,  which  at  first  he 
mistook  for  a  Holly.  This  was  Skimmia  Fortune!,  producing  a 
IMofusion  of  whitish  flowers,  deliciously  scented,  and  afterwards 
becom'ng  covered  with  bunches  of  red  berries  like  our  common  Holly. 
“  Its  glossy  evergreen  leaves  and  neat  habit  add  greatly  to  its  beauty, 
and  will  make  it  a  general  favourite  when  it  becomes  better  knov/n  ” 
— which  is  exactly  what  happened,  for  it  is  one  of  the  best  town 
evergreens  we  have  in  our  gardens.  In  another  garden  to  the  east 
of  Shanghai  he  lighted  upon  the  yellow  Camellia  anemonaeflora. 
In  1852  he  was  deputed  a  second  time  by  the  East  India  Company 
for  the  purpose  of  adding  to  the  collections  already  formed,  and 
particularly  of  procuring  some  first-rate  black  Tea  makers  for  the 
experimental  Tea  farms  in  India.  It  was  during  his  residence  in 
China  on  this  occasion  that  he  discovered  that  handsome  Conifer 
Pseudolarix  Ksempferi,  called  by  the  Chinese  the  Golden  Larch, 
probably  from  the  rich  yellow  appearance  which  the  ripened  leaves 
and  cones  assume  in  the  autumn.  Another  discovery  wprth  noting 
was  Farfugium  grande,  the  beautiful  herbaceous  plant  with  varie¬ 
gated  leaves,  which  he  came  across  at  Ningpo,  as  related  in  his 
“  Residence  Among  the  Chinese.” 
But  perhaps  his  most  gratifying  journey  was  to  Japan  in  1860, 
which  yielded  new  plants  literally  by  the  dozen.  The  glorious 
Thujopsis  dolabrata,  the  male  Aucuba  japonica,  the  umbrella-like 
Sciadopitys  verticillata,  that  handsome  evergreen  Osmanthus  aqui- 
folius,  the  queen  of  Primroses  Primula  japonica,  the  fine  Oak  Qucrcus 
sinensis,  and  above  all  the  lovely  Lilium  auratum,  gathered  as  it 
grew  wild  on  the  hillside,  were  among  the  many  garden  favourites 
discovered  aud  sent  home  during  this  eventful  expedition.  Had 
this  been  Fortune’s  only  journey,  it  would  have  been  enough  to 
immortalise  him.  In  the  course  of  it  he  took  another  trip  to 
Shanghai.  “  The  steamship  ‘  England,’  ”  he  remarks  in  his  “  Tedo 
and  Peking,”  “  being  about  to  return  to  Shanghai,  I  availed  myself  of 
the  opportunity  to  go  over  to  that  port  with  my  collections,  in  order 
to  ship  them  for  England,  there  being  as  yet  no  means  of  sending 
them  direct  from  Japan.  Mr.  Veitch  had  also  put  his  plants  cn 
board  the  same  vessel,  so  that  the  whole  of  the  poop  was  lined  with 
glass  cases  crammed  full  of  the  natural  productions  of  Japan.  Never 
