370 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



pruned, and receive their winter dressing "before tlie sap begins to 

 move, and all risk avoided of their suffering from a loss of sap as soon 

 as they begin to grow, vphich is technically knovrn as " bleeding.'' 

 For example, where grapes are grown in a greenhouse, they can be 

 cut, and the greenhouse filled with plants, without any of the worry 

 incidental to keeping a crop of grapes in good condition in a house 

 filled with plants, requiring water at intervals. 



The Alicante, Lady Doivnes' Seedling, and other late keeping 

 grapes, should be grown more generally than is at present the case, 

 for they may be had in perfection from Christmas to the end of 

 March, when the choicer kinds of fruits are, it need hardly be said, 

 very rare and most expensive. As new vineries are now being 

 planted, a word by way of reminder will, perhaps, be useful. The 

 above-mentioned are the two best black varieties for late work, and 

 the best white sort is the Muscat of Alexandria, which requires more 

 heat and greater skill to bring to perfection than either of the others. 

 White Lady Downes is also said to be useful as a white grape for 

 hanging until after Christmas, but it is inferior to the black sorts, 

 which are, as a rule, the most generally appreciated. Unless the 

 Muscat can be grown, no white sorts should be planted for con- 

 sumption after the above-mentioned season. 



EOSE HEDGES IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE, ETC. 



[N our last excursion from Marseilles to Genoa, we were 

 greatly struck, as anyone seeing them for the first time 

 would be, with the magnificence of the roses all along 

 the Mediterranean shores. The rose hedges, and the 

 espalier roses especially, offer an indescribably gorgeous 

 sight. Under the genial influence of the warm sun of Provence, 

 from the Corniche to the extremity of the Riviera di Ponente — that 

 is, as far as the Gulf of Genoa — and protected to the north by the 

 mountains, which gradually slope down to the sea-coast, roses attain 

 the size of pseonies, and develop a depth and brilliancy of colour 

 and a richness of fragrance of unusual intensity. 



But this is in part due to another cause, or rather two other 

 causes, which lead to the same result, the main point being the 

 choice of suitable subjects for stocks to graft upon. 



These stocks are Rosa Banlcsics and Rosa indica major. 



The Banksian rose presents three varieties, namely. White 

 Banksian, producing a profusion of small white flowers, scarcely so 

 large as those of the double-flowered cherry, and'of a most delicious 

 fragrance.; Yelloio Banksian, with still larger clusters of small 

 nankeen-yellow scentless flowers ; Chinese thorny Banksian, flowers 

 less numerous and about three times as large as in the two pre- 

 ceding, and of the most grateful odour. These three forms attain 

 an unsurpassable vigour in this region. In two years one plant 

 will cover an immense wall, the gable of a house, or climb to the 

 top of a tall tree, from which its branches hang like flowery cascades, 

 embalming the air around with a rich perfume during tiie months 



