FOREIGN NOTICES. 



189 



steepest part of the bank, climbing roses ( Ayshires 

 and Sempervirens) are planted, and left to ramble 

 as tliev please. Although past their best, these 

 were all in flower, and the effect they produced 

 (looking at them from the road) was really admi- 

 rable. On the side of a walk, leading from the 

 house into the nursery, we remarked a row of 

 standard climbing roses, consisting of Myrianthes, 

 Princess Marie, crimson Boursault (a magnificent 

 tree, with a stem 9 inches in girth.) Bennet's 

 Seedling, Sec. No form in which the rose could 

 be trained could have a better effect than these 

 weeping rose trees, which are never touched with 

 the knife. Immediately behind Mr. River's house 

 were numbers of pans full of seedling conifers. 

 Mr. F. raises all his seedling conifers in the open 

 air; they never at any time receive artificial heat. 

 They are sown in pans in loam, a piece of per- 

 forated tile is placed over them till they begin to 

 come up ; it is then removed, and nothing more 

 than common routine treatment is given them. 

 Near these were two houses full of young vines, 

 and at the end of one of the houses here we no- 

 ticed a nice stock of young plants of the Stanwick 

 Nectarine, which has been committed to the care 

 of Mr. Rivers to propagate. They were worked 

 on peach stocks, and are thriving well. Mr. R. is 

 of opinion that the peach will prove a valuable 

 slock for both peaches and nectarines for pot cul- 

 ture, as plants can be fruited on it in a very small 

 state. We saw peaches in 4-inch pots quite 

 healthy, and Mr. R. thinks they might be fruited 

 well in 8-inch pots. Of roses in pots, there were 

 many thousands ; quantities of them were plunged 

 in saw-dust on the surface of beds in an exp)sed 

 situation. All were in capital health. In a num- 

 ber of brick beds here, 4 feet wide, we noticed a 

 select collection of junipers, among which were J. 

 excelsa, J. oblonga pendula, alpina, squamata, 

 and others ; and by the side of them were apples 

 in 6-inch pots, on the true French Paradise stock 

 (Pomme de Paradis,) which Mr. Rivers thinks is 

 the same as the dwarf apple of Armenia. It is 

 very dwarf, and rather tender. 



Passing one of Mr. Ker's trellises, figured at p. 

 827, 1848, on which peaches, cherries, plums, and 

 pears were growing well, we arrived at a planta- 

 tion of different kinds of gooseberries, intermixed 

 with which were filberts and nuts, having straight 

 clean stems 4 feet high. Managed in this way 

 they fruit well, look ornamental, and produce no 

 suckers. In order to give young peaches a better 

 climate than they would otherwise have in the 

 open ground, Mr. Rivers has had a number of 

 dwarf walls put up. about 3 feet high and 4 feet 

 apart, on which the trees are trained, and he 

 finds the plan an excellent one. These dwarf 

 walls or palings consist of the staves of tallow 

 casks, bought of the Russian tallow merchants in 

 London, nailed to upright stakes driven into the 

 ground ; they are black in colour, having been 

 painted over with gas-tar and lime. The same 

 contrivance on long stakes has been applied to the 



training of " rider" peach trees. Some of the 

 young peach trees here were stated to have been 

 covered with curled leaves in spring, but they 

 have been perfectly cured by cutting down the 

 shoots; the trees have made new ones, which will 

 ripen well and are perfectly free from curl or 

 speck of any kind. The same kinds of boards as 

 are used for the peach trees laid against a steep 

 bank, formed a suitable place for training pear 

 trees on, which are kept in a small state by being 

 on quince stocks, and by root pruning. In front 

 of these was a plantation of Mr. Rivers's large 

 fruited monthly raspberry, both in flower and 

 fruit. It produces the latter from lateral shoots, 

 which it puts forth from every joint ; and in this 

 respect, as well as in the size and flavor of the 

 berry, it differs from the old variety known as the 

 double bearing raspberry. This nursery being 

 loam on sand is quite a vine soil, and Mr. Rivers 

 is trying some important experiments with vines 

 in the open air, on banks covered with flints, and 

 on pillars, on which the vine has a very orna- 

 mental appearance, even independent of fruit : 

 but Mr. Rivers believes that it will ripen fruit 

 managed in this way, and to that end plants have 

 been procured from the very northernmost parts 

 of the vine countries for these pillars. Amongst 

 them Picpoule Noir, Moustardie, Raisin de Valen- 

 tia, and numerous others, were in bloom, and 

 promised to bear well. Mr. Rivers is a strong 

 advocate for the growing of pears in a pyramidal 

 form, and on quince stocks. He has them planted 

 all over his nursery in rows running from north- 

 east to south-west. The rows are 24 feet apart, 

 and the trees stand 5 feet apart in the row. By 

 this arrangement an open border, unincumbered 

 by overhanging boughs, is left between the prin- 

 cipal rows. Many of the trees were five years 

 old and 8 feet high, well furnished with branches 

 from the base, and bearing fruit. They are all 

 shortened-in twice a year, viz., June and August. 

 In order to obtain dwarf plum trees, Mr. Rivers 

 is trying some experiments with the plum on the 

 sloe, which is likely to prove a valuable stock for 

 it ; and with a view to get dwarf cherry trees, he 

 employs Cerasus Mahaleb, or " Perfumed Cherry," 

 as a stock. His object, is to have fruiting trees of 

 all sizes and of all sorts, in order that the pur- 

 chaser may be enabled to buy a tree just in what- 

 ever state he chooses. He has cherries a foot 

 high that have borne nearly a quart of fruit, and 

 plums in fruit not more than 18 inches high. Mr. 

 R. is striving to obtain an improved race of hardy 

 late pears, and in order to prove the seedlings 

 quickly he plants them in rows with a quince 

 stock between each plant ; the top of the seedling 

 is taKen off and grafted on the stock, and in 

 this way much time is saved in this important 

 operation. Belore leaving the fruit trees, of 

 which Mr. R. has an enormous collection, and 

 he has a quarter lor specimen trees of all the 

 sorts cultivated, we should mention that he has 

 found salt applied at the rate of a quarter of a 



