174 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. [ Adqust, 



inferior in flavour, but being more hardy in every way, is still a very desirable 

 kind for cold localities. 



Apricot culture has ever been with us a teazing process, since we are never 

 able to secure a crop, unless during exceptional seasons, — not from the want of 

 flowers, but owing to the exposure to high wind and dashing rain from the Bristol 

 Channel, which destroys the blossoms. To correct this all but periodical nuisance, 

 we had a glass coping put up, 22 in. wide, and drooping at a slight angle, the 

 rain being carried away by a metallic gutter. This proved quite useless ; and 

 last winter we covered 100 ft. of wall with a glass case, which has every 

 appearance of answering the purpose fully. 



I have long observed that in calcareous districts, Apricot trees growing against 

 farm-houses and labourers' cottages were in perfect health, bearing annually full 

 crops of fruit, though the ground was as hard as a turnpike road. Taking a 

 lesson from this fact, I have introduced into our borders a large quantity of lime 

 soil and lias brash, allowing the whole mass to remain undisturbed. I feel 

 satisfied that all drupaceous fruit trees require calcareous feeding to assist the 

 formation of the stone, as well as to strengthen the vascular bundles that unite 

 the fruit to the tree. The absence of this material may be one of the principal 

 causes why Peaches, Plums, and Cherries occasionally shed their fruit during what 

 is called the " stoning period." Objections may be urged against this fact, but 

 still they range among the very few exceptions. — Alexander Cramb, Tortworth. 



HAEDY HEATHS. 



JN going over Milburn Down, in Devonshire, when, as the Scottish songs 

 have it, the " heather was blooming," my little girl, who had all her life 

 lived in gardens, asked me, Avith that arch simplicity which characterises 

 the infant mind, " Whose garden is this ? " And well she might put the 

 question, for there was considerable variety of colour, and several square miles 

 of plants densely crowded together, and in full bloom ; and the beaten path over 

 a peat moor is such an improvement over any other pathway known, that I 

 wonder luxury has not laid peat pathways in pleasure-grounds for aristocratic 

 feet. This was indeed a garden, and one which had never been touched by man 

 for a hundred years or more, since we could see the circular trenches of the 

 warrior grown over with Callima, and more than one species of Erica ; while 

 besides the Heather-bell there were plants belonging to allied genera of the same 

 family, the yellow blossom of the Petty Whin aiding the rosy hues of the 

 heather, by its violent contrast of deep yellow and deep green. 



Now if any gardener hard pressed for bedding plants for autumn could have 

 got this Milburn furniture moved into the garden, it would have done him good 

 service. Some may perhaps jeer at this idea, as if the plants in question were 

 untameable, and say, " Shall the rhinoceros be willing to serve thee ?" or " Will 

 he break the clods after thee ? " (Job xxxix. 9.) Now this is just what I wanted 

 to come at, for I once found myself sadly short of flowering shrubs or plants to 



