280 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



must flower better in the autumn, ami ripen better 

 lor next year; and so tlioy will. But we have not 

 done with them yet ; look now from above down 

 amons the branches, and if you cannot see the 

 earth below, right through the bush, the branches 

 are too thick, and you must thin them ; and here 

 a little knowledge of the sort of rose would be 

 necessary to guide one. Tiiere are some of these 

 autumn roses so strong — such as Madame Laffay 

 and Mrs. Elliot — that if you were to cut out the 

 smallest of their shoots, at this final stroke the 

 very strong ones might not blossom ; therefore, 

 two or three of the very strongest shoots of such 

 must be cut out, and the rest will blossom all the 

 better; whereas the more dwarf varieties require 

 the weaker taken oflT, and the strongest left to 

 bloom. Cottase Gardener. 



Tea Culture in France. — French tea. How 

 well that phrase sounds ! Shall we not believe 

 that France may go hand in hand in the produc- 

 tion of this beverage, so dear and indispensable to 

 the English? At least, if we may believe M. 

 Lecoq, one of our cultivators, this will certainly 

 come to pass; and that it has not already done so, 

 is only our own fault. To establish his opinion, 

 he has exhibited, at the last horticultural exhibi- 

 tion, two kinds of tea of his own growth and pre- 

 paration ; one of which he calls Souchong, and the 

 other Gunpowder Green Tea. M. Lecoq, who 

 has devoted himself to the acclimation of the tea 

 plant, which he is determined to bestow upon 

 France bon gre vial gre, is confident that he is 

 able to imitate all the qualities of the Chinese tea, 

 and that the teas sent out from his establishment 

 shall maintain their place by the side of those im- 

 ported from the Celestial Empire. Nou/- le ver- 

 rons bien. This worthy manufacturer intends to 

 carry specimens of his teas to the great industrial 

 exhibition next year in London. There they will, 

 doubtless, demand a trial ol them; and our neigh- 

 bors are such good connoisseurs, that we are wiU 

 ling to submit our judgment to theirs. Whatever 

 may be their decision, we cannot withhold the 

 highest praises from the persevering experimenter; 

 the only one, perhaps, -who has seriously entered 

 into the view — for some years entertained by the 

 government — of introducing into France the cul- 

 ture of the tea plant, and the art of preparing its 

 leaves for market. Revue Horticole. 



The Apple of the Dead Sea. — The following 

 is an extract from Curzon. He made a somewhat 

 singular discovery when travelling among the 

 mountains to the east of the Dead Sea, where the 

 ruins of Ammon, Jerash, and Adjeloun well repay 

 the labor and fatigue encountered in visiting 

 them: '•' It was a remarkably hot and sultry day; 

 we were scrambling up the mountam, through a 

 thick jungle of bushes and low trees, which rises 

 above the east shore of the Dead Sea, when I saw 

 before me a fine plura tree, loaded with fresh- 



blooming plums. I cried to my fellow-traveller, 

 ' Now, then, who will arrive lirst at the plura 

 tree?' and as he caught a glimjise of so refresh- 

 ing an object, we both pressed our horses into a 

 gallop to see who would get the first plum from 

 the branches. We both arrived at the same mo- 

 ment, and each snatching at a fine ripe plum, put 

 it at once into our mouths, when, on biting it, in- 

 stead of the cool delicious juicy fruit which we 

 expected, our mouths were filled with a dry bitter 

 dust, and we sat under the tree upon our horses 

 sputtering and hemming, and doing all we could 

 to be relieved of the nauseous taste of this strange 

 fruit. We then perceived, and to my great de- 

 light, that we had discovered the famous Apple 

 of the Dead Sea, the existence of which has been 

 doubted and convassed since the days of Strabo 

 and Pliny, who first described it. Many travel- 

 lers have given descriptions of other vegetable 

 productions, which have some analogy to the one 

 described by Pliny; but up to this time no one had 

 met with the thing itself, either upon the spot 

 mentioned by the ancient authors or elsewhere. I 

 brought several of them to England; they are a 

 kind of nutgall. I found others afterwards on the 

 plains of Troy ; but there can be no doubt what- 

 ever that this is the Apple of Sodom, to which 

 Strabo and Pliny referred." Surely if the travel- 

 ler, who found what he considers to be the " Ap- 

 ple of Sodom," had been a botanist, he would have 

 been able to have told us more about the fruit than 

 that it was a kind of nutgall. Has it been ascer- 

 tained what plant it is that bears such apples? 

 Gardeners' Chronicle. 



The Gooseberry. — It being the period for 

 planting this very useful fruit, which is, indeed, 

 a favorite with everybody, and, what is more, 

 equally within the reach of the peer and the pea- 

 sant, we will offer a few remarks, first premising 

 that our main purpose will not be to discuss the 

 merits of what are termed " show gooseberries," 

 but to point to some of the best kinds for culti- 

 vating in the amateur or cottager's garden. Of 

 course, flavor is the great consideration with re- 

 gard to dessert kinds; without this being first 

 rate, it is sheer nonsense to cultivate them; as 

 high flavored kinds are to be had amongst all the 

 colours, and of both early and late sorts. Fine- 

 ness of skin is, moreover, a recommendation ; and 

 for this reason most of the huge kinds emanating 

 from the Lancashire growers are rejected by all 

 good gardeners, so many of them proving exceed- 

 ingly coarse, albeit many possess very good fla- 

 vor. They are. however, very liable to burst in 

 rainy seasons, and being mostly middle season 

 berries, the birds are apt to make sad havoc 

 amongst them. 



Next to flaA'or we must consider how to pro- 

 vide distinct colours — a few of each class; for it 

 is scarcely necessary to add that those who like 

 to enjoy a daily dessert, will naturally like a 



