1873.] THE SCABCITT OF SUPEEIOE WALL FRUIT ITS PEOBABLE CAUSES. 231 



inch, broad, and large flat expanded flowers, the sepals of which are oblong apicu- 

 late, the petals spathulate-oblong, white, with a purple blotch at the base, and 

 the lip broad, wedge-shaped, emarginate, marked with yellow near the disk. — 

 3Ir. W. Bull: E.H.S., Sept. 17. 



Phyllanthus nivosus [f.c.c.]. — A variegated-leaved Euphorbaceous stove 

 plant of considerable beauty, from the South-Sea Islands. The leaves are cor- 

 date oblong, blunt, bright green, more or less variegated with pure white, and 

 sometimes becoming nearly or quite all white, in which state it is very effective for 

 contrast. The women of Tanna use it for head-dresses. — 3Ir. W. JJidl: Ji.II.S., 

 Sept. 17. 



THE SCARCITY OF SUPEEIOR WALL FRUIT— ITS 

 PROBABLE CAUSES. 



E all know the pithy, rather than polite, proverb about the fate of a dog 

 with a bad name. It seems to me we treat our springs very much in 

 the same way. Whatever fails, it is the spring frosts, or failing these, 

 electricity, the latter being the more useful scapegoat of the two. I was 

 forcibly reminded of this the other day. A gentleman asked me why the centre 

 of his apricot tree, the only portion that had any fruit upon it, suddenly died ? 

 I answered " I could not tell ; these sudden deaths seemed constitutional 

 to apricots, &c." Another gentleman declared it was electricity, and my 

 queiist accepted that explanation at once, and the two gave themselves airs, as 

 if in commiseration of my ignorance, and looked as much as to say, " Very strange 

 that we should know more than he ; " and they strutted away, crowing and 

 chattering about the electrical fluid and its currents like full-fledged philosophers. 

 It is very much the same about our springs. Not but what they are bad enough, 

 and every year almost they seem getting worse. The frost comes later and hits 

 harder, and works perhaps more mischief. But the latter is the question in dispute. 

 What and how much of the mischief is wrought by the spring frosts, and what pro- 

 portion, if any, of it happens anterior to them ? Take the blossom buds of this 

 year, for instance. Many of them were most imperfect ; they lacked substance, 

 strength, colour, and some even had parts wanting. How could these manifest 

 signs of debility or sheer deficiencies originate in the frosts of the spring ? It 

 seems quite unreasonable to suppose that they could, and I am able to present 

 absolute facts to prove that they did not. 



I have seen several glass walls that were enclosed during the last winter, and 

 these are almost as bare of fruit as the uncovered walls beside them. These 

 facts are quite incompatible with the theory that all the mischief was caused by 

 the spring frosts. The glass could have baulked that, but it was powerless to 

 mend weak or inlperfectly formod blossoms. Again, these imperfections were 

 confined to fruit on the open walls. I have heard little or nothing of Peach, 

 Nectarine, or Apricot failures on old-established glass walls, or in peach-houses, un- 

 less where the bullfinches, unusually plentiful this year, cleared off the buds. From 

 all which I gather that the wet autumn of last year has as much or more to do 



