238 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



merit of fruit culture. It may, however, be worth considering if there 

 is no intermediate course for amateur cultivators (perhaps for market 

 growers also) between the extreme risk of open quarters on the one 

 hand, and the extreme expense of fourteen feet walls and Paxtonian 

 houses on the other. There is the geound yineey for instance, which 

 is doing wonders for grapes ; why should it not do something also for 

 peaches ? Mr. "Wells has improved this useful apparatus by hooking 

 the lights together by means of hinges, so that a complete vinery may 

 be folded up and carried under the arm like a portfolio ; the weight 

 being so trifling that a lady can carry one with ease. "When placed on 

 the ground it forms a miniature span-roofed house, a few loose bricks 

 and slates are all the furniture needed besides the glass frame, and it 

 is capable of producing as good grapes as can be grown with the most 

 expensive appliances of houses, boilers, furnaces, and the rest of the 

 details of elaborate^'grape culture.* "Wherever Black Hamburg grape 

 will ripen perfectly, peaches and nectarines will do the same. Those 

 who have neither walls nor houses therefore, and who' yet wish forborne 

 grown supplies of these delicious and everywhere valued fruits, and who 

 are afraid to put their trust in bushes, may very safely speculate in 

 these simple but efficient structures, the objects of which are to 

 protect the vines or trees from frost, and economize for their use the 

 whole of the sun-heat the ground is capable of absorbing. Of course 

 a single rod and cordon treatment would be the course to pursue with 

 peaches and nectarines in these structures ; they are only about twenty 

 inches wide, but they can be extended to any length that may be desirable. 

 It may not be unseasonable to remark also that the ordinary kinds 

 of small fruits grown in English gardens are very inferior to kinds that 

 are equally prolific. How seldom do we meet with gooseberries and 

 currants and raspberries worth eating at the dessert. To be sure they 

 are placed on the table, but usually to be despised and removed. With 

 strawberries the case is different, good kinds are generally appreciated 

 and generally grown. "Why should it not be the same with the other 

 fruits of this minor class ? A huge coarse, red-faced gooseberry, called 

 " Crown Bob," has reigned almost supreme in private gardens during 

 many generations past, and it is about the worst variety known in this 

 country except to fill a basket and command a market sale. We shall 

 hope during the next few months to place in the hands of our readers 

 some useful information on the several subjects we have touched upon 

 here ; perhaps we have said enough for the present to indicate that 

 there is some room for reform in the English system of fruit growing. 



S.H. 



EEBNS AND EEEN CASES. 



{Continued from page 143.) 



Peek cases are constructions intended for the growth of ferns, and 

 there is perhaps not a fern case in existence thoroughly well adapted 



* Inquirers may address to Mr. Godward, FJorist, High Street, Southend, Essex, 

 where "Wells's Vineries may be seen. 



