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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE;  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER .  August  14,  1902. 
and  Pears  in  our  walled  garden  promise  excellently.  Out  in 
the  open  the  case  is  lamentably  different.  To  begin  with, 
the  modest,  but,  beyond  all  fruit  at  that  stage,  useful,  little 
green  Gooseberry.  Whereas  we  are  usually  almost  crowded 
out,  so  prolific  is  the  supply,  this  time  the  crop  is  a  very 
sparse  one.  The  Strawberry,  which  Dr.  Boteler  in  his  quaint 
language  shrewdly  pronounced  as  the  best  fruit  of  any,  has, 
on.  the  other  hand,  proved  eminently  satisfactory.  Fine  big 
berries,  owing  to  the  abundant  rains,  wyere  produced,  and 
ran  their  race  in  first  rate  fashion.  The  same  tale  tftrolrgh- 
out  the  genus,  whether  Royal  Sovereign,  Dr.  Hogg,  Veitch’s 
Perfection,  or  the  truly  superbly  flavoured  White  Pine-,  a 
Strawberry  deserving  to  be  much  better  knowjn  .and  more 
widely  grown  than  at  present  ;  at  any  rate,  in  private 
gardens,  making,  as  it  does,  so  elegant  a  dish  for  dessert 
when  contrasted  with  its  fellow  sister  the  red.  I  have  for 
some  years  pursued  a  rather  novel  course  as  to  the  arrange¬ 
ment  of  the  fruit  now  under  mention.  Along  my  entire 
borders,  whether  main  or  cross  paths,  there  are  to  be  found 
my  Strawberries.  It  has  the  preference  over  the  customary 
box  for  its  beauty  when  in  flower  in  the  spring,  and  its 
utility  and  the  extreme  facility  with  which  it  is  gathered 
in  its  later  stages. 
As  to  Raspberries,  whether  a  local  trait  or  not,  this  berry's 
condition  is  peculiar  this  year.  The  fruit  does  not  readily 
part  from  its  kernel ;  otherwise  the  crop,  but  for  a  super¬ 
abundance  of  the  bird  tribe  more  than  usually  in  evidence 
just  now,  might  be  pronounced  a  normal  one.  Alas!  too, 
my  modest  modicum  of  Cherries  have  all  been  a  prey  to  the 
devouring  little  bipeds,  this  impudent  crew  looking  upon  the 
luscious  product  as  their  natural  perquisite.  And  in  this 
connection  I  must  enlarge  my  doleful  note  to  record  the  dire 
havoc  these  intruders  committed  in  anticipation  so  long  ago 
as  last  autumn.  Just  before  the  winter  of  their  discontent 
set  in,  I  discovered  to  my  chagrin  all  the  plump  young  buds 
of  our  excellent  three-year-old  Currant  bushes— Red,  White, 
and  Champagne — had  been  entirely  stripped  from  the 
branches  and  shoots.  The  Black  Currant,  being  apparently 
too  harsh,  they  leave  religiously  alone  ;  neither  till  very  hard 
up  do  they  attack  these  when  in  fruit,  though  I  think  those 
incorrigible  offenders  the  blackbirds  have  a  go  at  them  for 
a  change  even  while  the  ruby  kind  is  still  on.  When  one 
comes  to  think  of  it,  the  summer  menu  of  the  birds  about  a 
choice  garden  is  a  pretty  fair  one,  and  I  suppose  there  are  a 
good  many  epicures  among  them  as  in  the  human  race. 
But  to  pass  on.  "The  promise  of  May”  as  regards 
Apples,  Pears,  and  Plums  was  bridal  and1  bountiful  in  the 
extreme.  Alike  in  garden  and  orchard,  the  place  was  a 
feathery  bower  of  bloom,  reminding  one  of  that  enchanting 
prospect  the  Ueno  Park  in  distant  merry  Tokio.  But  alas ! 
how  contrary  the  result  in  these  different  locale.  The  one 
was  taken  and  the  other  left !  In  plain  words,  except  where 
grown  against  the  wall  (and  I  certainly  have  no  fault  to  find 
with  my  splendid  show  of  Jargonelles)  the  Pear  has  almost 
entirely  failed,  the  accommodating  little  pyramids  being 
almost  fruitless,  while  the  Apple  is  but  one  degree  better. 
Against  this,  however,  in  the  latter  position,  viz.,  the 
orchard,  the  Apple  crop  has  set  and  matured  to  a  really  fine 
crop,  and  looks  at  the  present  juncture  remarkably  clean  and 
healthy,  a  grand  spread  indeed  being  borne  by  Early  Mar¬ 
garet,  Codlin,  Wyken  Pippin  (so  popular  in  this  part  of  the 
Midlands,  and  raised  originally  in,  and  called  after,  our 
adjoining  village),  Northern  Greening,  and  Royal  Russet, 
while  those  grand  fruits  Beauty  of  Kent  and  Warner’s  King 
are  no  whit  behind  in  size  and  quantity  ;  besides  which,  the 
Ribston,  Eve’s  Pippin,  Foster’s  Seedling,  Queen  Caroline, 
and  Shropshire  Wonder  all  should  weigh  in  a  good  many 
bushel  credit  to  the  tree.  The  only  kinds  not  doing  them¬ 
selves  full  justice,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  are  Winter 
Queening,  which  had,  however,  a  bumper  crop  last  year  ; 
Besspool,  and  Blenheim  Orange.  This  last,  however,  is  an 
old,  or,  rather,  young  offender.  To  be  more  explicit,  it  is 
taking  the  full  share  of  its  customary  slowness  in  coming  into 
proper  bearing,  for,  judging  by  its  age,  it  is  no  chicken,  full 
twelve  to  fifteen  summer  suns  and  winter  rains  having 
nourished  its  growths.  Talking  of  the  Apple,  w^hy,  I  wonder, 
did  the  ultra  inquisitive  lady  select  this  particular  kind  when 
she  asked  a  leading  divine  quite  au  scrieux  whether  the  Apple 
that  Eve  ate  was  a  Ribston  or  a  Blenheim  Orange  !  Alas ! 
that  the  good  old  Ribston  is  practically  a  thing  of  the  past. 
Taking  Plums  next,  exactly  the  same  remark  applies  as  to 
the  Pear.  Against  the  wall  they  are  excellent,  out  in  the 
open  practically  nil,  though  the  blossom  was  superb.  The 
prolonged  low  temperature  and  continuous  night  frosts,  I 
suppose,  plied  their  deadly  wqrk  all  too  surely, 
I  may  conclude  this  brief  epitome  wuth  a  word  on  the 
Walnut.  Such  a  crop  as  we  had  the  luck  to  harvest  in  Vannee 
passer  I  never  remember  before,  nor  even  dare  expect  to  see 
again.  Our  trees  are  remarkably  fine  spreading,  full-sized 
park  ones;  still  the  bushels  and  bushels  obtained  last  fall 
were  simply  amazing,  consequently  I  must  be  lenient  in 
criticising  their  offspring  this  year ;  and  it  is  no  surprise  to 
find  but  a  meagre  promise  of  the  nut  which  in  old-fashioned 
times  hoRnqbbed  so  well  on  the  mahogany  with  the  good  old 
crusted  part  of  the  delicious  fruity  flavour  we  so  seldom  taste 
nowadays.  Possessing  as  I  do  two  different  kinds,  the  huge 
double  borenut  and  the  common  normal  shaped  and  sized 
one,  the  trees  this  season  seem  to  have  accommodated  them¬ 
selves  pretty,  well  to  circumstances,  for  while  the  former, 
exhausted  by  their  excess  of  a  year  ago,  are  about  to  yield 
not  much  more  than  a  pittance,  the  latter  and  smaller  sort 
ha-s  risen  to  the  occasion  very  well,  and  again  bears  a  really 
capital  array.  My  little  nuttery,  moreover,  situate  in  an 
island  all  to  itself,  is,  perhaps  partly  owing  to  a  good  clearing 
out  given  it  at  winter  time,  well  in  evidence  with  something 
more  than  a  mere  sprinkling.— J.  A.  Carnegie-Cheales. 
- »♦#.* - 
The  Cheddar  Pink  at  Home. 
The  pretty  native  Dianthus  or  Cheddar  Pink,  the  Cliff 
Pink,  as  the  Cheddar  folks  term  it,  is  very  lovely  just  now,  on 
the  famous  cliff  from  which  it  takes  its  name,  and  a  ride  of 
about  twenty-five  miles  was  well  repaid  by  a  sight  of  it  in 
full  beauty  this  week.  There  is  little  fear  of  this  charming 
plant  becoming  extinct,  notwithstanding  the  hundreds  of 
plants  that  are  yearly  torn  up  by  trippers  from  Bristol,  and 
to  their  shame  be  it  said  by  the  natives  of  the  locality  them¬ 
selves,  for  though  all  within  reach,  or  nearly  all,  have  dis¬ 
appeared,  there  are  numbers  of  immense  masses  of  it, 
hundreds  of  feet  up  on  these  wonderful  cliffs,  quite  out  of 
everybody’s  reach.  Seeds  from  these,  of  course,  drop  and  are 
blown  to  lower  elevations,  and  there  are  always  a  few  flowers 
to  be  picked,  but  its  stronghold  higher  up  is  safe  enough,  and 
the  flower  hawkers  who  deplete  our  hedgerows  of  the 
beautiful  Ferns,  Primroses,  and  other  native  plants  are  too 
careful  of  their  skin  to  attempt  an  attack  on  them. 
To  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  it  the  Cheddar 
Pink  is  very  similar  in  habit  to  the  common  garden  Pink,  but 
smaller  ;  the  flowers  occur  usually  on  single  flowered  stems, 
are  about  l^in  across,  of  a  very  delicate  rosy  pink  in  colour, 
and  deliciously  fragrant.  Seeds  collected  in  late  summer 
and  sown  on  old  walls  or  rockeries  germinate  freely,  and 
form  very  beautiful  clumps  that  in  June  and  early  July  are 
covered  with  flowers.  This  is  a  far  more  satisfactory  way  of 
establishing  it  than  the  usual  method  of  tearing  up  the 
plants  when  in  flower,  carrying  them  about  in  the  heat,  and 
eventually  planting  them,  only  to  perish  miserably. 
Besides  the  Pink  there  are  many  other  beautiful  native 
plants  that  grow  very  freely  in  this  locality.  The  graceful 
Meadow  Rue  or  Thalictrum  is  very  freely  represented,  its 
Fern-like  foliage  and  tall  graceful  spikes  of  flowers  being 
very  charming.  Probably  its  inconspicuous  colouring  is  its 
salvation,  for  it  abounds  on  every  hand  quite  within  the  reach 
of  all.  Ferns  are  not  particularly  plentiful,  except  a  few 
common  sorts,  but  higher  up  the  gorge,  growing  in  the  cool 
soil  beneath  shoals  of  loose  stones,  is  a  quantity  of  the 
deciduous  Lady  Fern  in  variety.  Cetera ch  officinale,  and 
Asplenium  adiantum  nigrum,  and  the  Trichomanes  are  every¬ 
where,  while  growing  among  the  stones  is  a  bright  golden 
yellow  Poppy,  as  bright  as  the  golden  Eschscholtzia  and  as 
showy.  In  growth  it  is  very  similar  to  P.  Rhseas,  of  which  it 
is  probably  a  variety.  (Does  any  reader  know  of  a  golden 
yellow  form  growing  wild  ?)  I  could  not  get  seeds,  as  the 
earliest  flower  had  only  just  fallen,  and  most  of  them  were  in 
full  beauty,  but  I  hope  to  later  on.  The  Red  Valerian  was  in 
full  flower,  but  the  pretty  Harebells,  Toad  Flax,  and  others 
are  not  yet.  Great  masses  of  Sun  Rose  were  a  blaze  of 
yellow  in  various  places,  and  many  other  wild  flowers  of 
equal  beauty,  so  that  a  visit  to  this  neighbourhood,  leaving 
out  altogether  the  marvellous  stalactite  caves  for  which  it  is 
so  justly  famous,  is  full  of  interest  to  the  lover  of  our  native 
flora. — H.  R.  Richards. 
