] 16 THE FLORIST. 



fruits and fruit culture had these properly directed inquiries been made 

 30 or 40 years ago, and the culture at Chiswick, as regards fruit trees, 

 been confined to exhibiting the different forms of training, and deter- 

 mining nomenclature. 



Besides the proposed experiments with vegetables, the Society might 

 very well undertake to prove the respective merits of Strawberries, 

 Raspberries, Gooseberries, and Currants, about which much confusion 

 exists. As these fruit quickly, their trial need not entail any great 

 expense. 



As the Society has plenty of spare ground, and want support and 

 co-operation, could it not also carry out a series of experiments on 

 the value of agricultural products — Cereals, Grasses, Legumes, and 

 Roots — for the information of the Agricultural Society ? If the Royal 

 Agricultural Society could be induced to favour a proposal of this kind, 

 and would assist in carrying it out, the experiments would confer 

 mutual benefit on both societies. 



CAMELLIAS. 



Will any of your correspondents be kind enough to say if any in the 

 following list of Camellias, which I grow, are not worth keeping, and at 

 the same time give the names of a few that are superior or equal to the 

 best of those named, at a moderate price. I have weeded my stock 

 pretty freely ; but as I live in the country, and have no opportunity of 

 seeing any but my own collection, I cannot tell how far mine are equal 

 to those in general cultivation. They are as follows : — 



Double White 



Candidissima 



Countess of Ellesmere 



Carswelliana 



Duchesse d'Orleans 



Drysdali 



Fordi 



Fimbriata alba 



Henri Favre 



Jubilee 



Imbricata 



Jenny Lind 



Landrethi 



Mathotiana 



Lady Hume's Blush 



La Reine 



Victoria 



One word of advice I would offer to amateurs, and that is, if they 

 get a good variety to propagate from it at once. It answers two pur- 

 poses; viz., extra stock, and you are almost sure to see the bloom of it 

 earlier ; for instance, I have had a plant of Drysdali for three years, 

 upon which I have never seen a bloom, and never shall. The first 

 year I inarched a plant from it, and the young one bloomed the 

 second year. The mother plant had five branches on it, which were 

 rather long. Sooner than head it down I inarched three of the 

 branches into three separate plants ; they all grew well, and produced 

 two or three buds apiece. The old plant, though it looked very healthy 

 and grew well, yet as soon as the inarched branches were separated 

 from it, it immediately withered, and on examination I found the stem 

 at the bottom dead. It had gained its support from the plants on 

 which the three branches were inarched ; consequently, if I had not 

 propagated from it, I should have lost all. For grafting or inarching, 



