56 THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. [MARCH, 



pot, in full bearing condition. It is about seven years old, and produces fruit most 

 abundantly every season, which ripen beautifully. I have gathered as many as 

 five or six dozen figs during the course of the season from plants but very little 

 larger than this ; and one plant, of about the same size, in ripening off its second 

 crop, continued in bearing for over six weeks, during which long period scarcely 

 a day passed without one or more ripe figs being gathered from it. This 

 variety is of a stiff, stubby habit, rarely growing more than two or three inches 

 in a season, so that it requires but little pruning or pinching, though it is neces- 

 sary at times to thin the fruits, which come in clusters. Others, such as 

 Angelique, which is of a robust growth, require much pruning and pinching ; 

 while others, again, Lee's Perpetual, or Brown Turkey, being of medium vigour, 

 do not need so much pinching as the stronger-growing varieties. In all cases, 

 however, when the plants are in good health, considerable attention will be 

 required to keep the growing shoots pinched back, since they push up fast ; some 

 time might be profitably spent every day in this manner. It is easy and pleasant 

 work, and, unlike pruning, a mistake in regard to it can scarcely be committed. 

 Chiswick. A. F, Baebon. 



FAST LIFE AMONG THE EOSES. 



ECENTLY I proposed the following queiy, when writing on new Eoses : — 



" Do many kinds, really vigorous when beginning life anew from the 



j^Sf seed, fail and sink under the fast life which, if there is anything in 



cT them, they are often compelled to lead ?" 



Many letters have reached me on this subject, and assuming that the writers 



are readers of the Floeist, I cannot do better than answer them through its 



pages. One correspondent, writing anonymously (I wish people would not write 



anonymously), facetiously asks if I mean to assert that there are fast individuals 



of the genus Rosa as well as of the genus Homo ; for if so, he would wish to have 



them pointed out, that he may set his mark on them, and have them excluded 



from the precincts of his domain. Very good ! Another asks whether, as a 



practical horticulturist, I can possibly believe in " that absurd theory " the 



wearing-out of Eoses. There are other questions of a more serious, modest, and 



practical bearing which I need not quote, but I will endeavour to answer all by 



an amplification of the original sentence. 



First, let me say I had no intention of using the word " fast " in its slang 

 signification, but literally as " swift, moving rapidly, quick in motion " (Walker). 

 I have heard it said of a certain London firm that it kills or incapacitates a new 

 partner by overwork every three years. A clever man and a willing worker is 

 admitted, and finds such scope that he is almost always overtaxed. Now, it is 

 much the same with new Eoses. So soon as a new Eose is seen and known to be 

 good, it is by some subjected to all sorts of stimulants, — as excessive heat, mois- 

 ture, manure, &c, — to get the greatest possible quantity of cuttings, grafts, and 



