98 THE FLORIST. 



Orb of Day (Hovey), deep scarlet, dwarf erect habit, good truss 



President (Edmonds), deep plum purple, ver^f dwarf habit 



Purple King (Reeves), dwarf erect liabit, deep purple 



Rouge et Noir (Edmonds), dark crimson, large white centre 



Rougieri (Chauviere), deep scarlet, with large dark centre, very large 



truss 

 White Perfection, white 

 William Barnes (Chauviere), crimson, with large dark centre 



OUR CLIMATE, AND OUR PROSPECTS OF FRUIT FOR 

 THE PRESENT YEAR, 



WITH HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS ON THE VARIOUS MODES OF ARTIFICIAL 



PROTECTION. 



For several years past we have not had so fair a promise for a pro- 

 ductive fruit season as we seem to have at the present moment. All 

 the preparatory favourable conditions for ensuring this desideratum have 

 in the past autumn been realised. Instead of those murky skies and 

 pluvious clouds which so often characterise our English seasons, we 

 have had many months of more than usual dryness, and these were 

 crowned by the Italian skies and unclouded sun which it was our rare 

 fortune to enjoy in September and October last. From these influences 

 short jointed and well ripened wood abounds on our fruit trees, and 

 there is no lack of frutiferous growths, instead of the strong watery 

 shoots with which our trees are crowded in less favourable years. The 

 past old-fashioned winter, too, has enhanced the cheering prospect of a 

 crop, — its uniformly low temperature and the small amount of solar 

 influence has kept precocious excitement in check, and the scales of the 

 buds yet clasp securely in their folds the embryo organisms on whose 

 safe development depends the golden and luscious stores of the coming 

 autumn. But with aU these fair prospects, are our crops safe ? Past 

 experience dearly bought answers, No ; and we naturally seek for 

 expedients which may enable us to husband our present resources. 

 Let our inquiry, then, be this : — by what means can we best retard 

 the progress of the abundant blossom with which our fruit trees in the 

 open air are this spring covered ? I shall not enter upon the vexed 

 question of glass walls, which are without the pale of this inquiry, but 

 confine myself strictly- to my subject. 



Mr. Errington, one of our best gardeners and most sensible and 

 orthodox writers, has, I think, the merit of first insisting on the advantages 

 of retarding the progress of the blossoms in early spring, and I fully 

 acquiesce in this opinion. How often do we see and hear of fruit crops 

 being good in a more northern locality, while those of the midland and 

 southern counties are destroyed, simply by their precocity. They 

 flower early, and are subjected to the nipping influences of our late 

 spring frosts. Natural causes have this year done a great deal for us in 

 the way of retardation, but I think we ought not any the more to relax 

 our exertions : let us aid Nature, and not do violence to her laws ; let us 

 screen our walls from the hot suns which induce a treacherous precocity, 



