342 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



ceases to grow ; this will not injure the blossom 

 buds provided the tree has been duly root pruned ; 

 in the winter cut the shoot back just beyond the 

 point at wiiich it was first nipped. Let the trees 

 be well mulched, and also well watered through 

 the spring, and the fruit will set well and grow 

 laro-e • towards autumn draw away the mulching 

 and' withhold water, and the fruit will ripen per- 

 fectly on the latest sorts and be good flavored, 

 and the buds will be plump and bold for the next 

 season. As soon as a tree has acquired the size 

 determined upon, if root pruning be properly per- 

 formed, it will require scarcely any leaf pruning, 

 or nipping, or winter pruning. 



In the early management of these trees, 1 pre- 

 fer constantly taking ofl' the leaves to shortening 

 the shoots ; I have this year brought a Crassane 

 Pear of 30 years' growth, and which never pro- 

 duced a tenth part of a crop, into the most prom- 

 ising state as respects blossom buds, merely by 

 leaving all the spring-produced fore-right shoots, 

 and taking all the leaves from them ; the leaves 

 on the spurs are unusually large, but not a single 

 summer shoot has been produced. I should also 

 state that this tree has been pruned in various 

 ways, sometimes by removing all the fore-right 

 .shoots, sometimes by leaving them all on, and at 

 other times by breaking them down and letting 

 them hana, and again by removing half and short- 

 ening the other half in July, and removing en- 

 tirely in winter; but in all these various modes, 

 summer shoots, so destructive to blossom-buds, 

 have been produced from the spurs, and leaf- 

 pruning has cured this apparently incurable evil. 

 Circumference of the Pears. 

 9 in. by 8 Jalvie 9 in. Iiy 8 



10 



Napoleon 

 De Cure 

 Passe Colmar 



Dora 7i 



" " Oris 7J 

 St. Germain 7 



Doyenne Giiubalt7j- 

 Easter Buerre 10 

 Colmar d'Arem- 



bers lOj 



Buerre d'Arem- 



berg, 8,V 



Gratioli of.terseyS 

 Louise Bonne of 



Jersey 9 



Buerre d'Amalis Oj 

 Buerre Capi.TU- 



mont 8^ 



Thonjpsou's 7i 



The Easter Beurre, is the only tree not planted 

 last autumn. Y. Gard. Chron. 



Hardiness of the Camellia. — Ls the Ca- 

 mellia a green-house plant? This is a question 

 which may very properly be asked, now that the 

 nature of plants is better understood than it was 

 twenty years ago. The majority of our readers 

 will of course answer the question in the affirma- 

 tive ; let us see whether the evidence justifies 

 their opinion. 



In many parts of England — near London, for 

 example — the Camellia lives out of doors without 

 protection through very severe winters, and re- 

 tains the most robust health. In the hard winter 

 of 1837-8, it bore without shelter a temperature 

 of 0° Fahr., or 32 degrees of frost; ami in seve- 

 ral places it passed through a cold of 6 degrees, 

 9 degrees, 12 degrees, 14 degrees Fahr., without 

 damage. In that winter, Camellias lived in the 



Horticultural Gardens in 4-inch brick pits eovered 

 with mats, through a cold of 4^ degrees below 

 zero; in other words, they sustained SGg of frost, 

 with only such a shelter as thin brick walls, a 

 glass sash, and a few mats could give them. 

 One of them was Camellia reticulata, which still 

 retains the place it occupied in 1837-8, and no 

 plant can possibly be in higher health, or flower 

 more gloriously. 



If we look at the climate in which the Camellia 

 grows wild, and becomes a large tree, we find 

 that it is placed by nature in the midst of rigo- 

 rous winters. Japan is its fatherland. In Japan, 

 Thunberg assures us that the cold is intense, 

 snow falling, water freezing, and the thermome- 

 ter dropping to many degrees below the freezing 

 point, even in the warmest provinces. {Sic 

 ttiam frigus hiemale, ad plures gradus infra 

 punctum congelationis , intensuni admodum est, 

 imprimis cum ventibus e borea et orienti venienti- 

 bus. Hieme et aqua congelatur in glacievi et nix 

 cadit, etiarn in regionibus meridional ibus.^ 



The Camellia bush is also cultivated all over 

 those parts of China which Europeans have visi- 

 ted. The climate of Shanghai, N. lat. 31 de- 

 grees 24 minutes, may be taken to represent that 

 of the south of Japan, rendered however a little 

 more rigorous by its continental position ; at that 

 place, we learn from Mr. Ball, that in the win- 

 ter of 1845-6, the Woosung river was sufficiently 

 frozen to aflbrd the English an opportunity of 

 indulging in the amusement of skating. It fur- 

 ther appears that '•' snow will occasionally lie on 

 the extensive alluvial plain of Shanghai for 10 

 days together, and more than a foot deep." It is 

 not an inference, then, but a fact, that " a re- 

 markable agreement exists between the tempera- 

 ture of Shanghai and the port of Nagasaki, in 

 Japan." We may take this to show the winter 

 climate of the birthj)lace of clie Camellia, and of 

 the adjoining countries; but the whole district in 

 China in which the shrub is cultivated for orna- 

 ment is far more rigorous than gardeners sup- 

 pose, who look upon China as a country much 

 more temperate than Great Britain, seeing that 

 rice is grown in the fields, and stove plants in 

 some sheltered valleys. Extracts from Mr. Ball's 

 valuable work * tell a very different tale. 



At Canton "it is not an exaggeration to say 

 that every year the rice fields in the neighbor- 

 hood are frozen for a few days, and that ice the 

 thickness of a crown piece, is occasionally seen 

 carried through the streets for sale. From the 

 middle of December to the end of March, Euro- 

 peans are clad in their winter garments, and 

 their houses are furnished with carpets, curtains, 

 and fires. Nor is the thermometer a correct in- 

 dex of the intensity of the cold, as regards our sensa- 

 tions, owing to the force and dryness of the wind." 



" In the green tea country, situated in the dis- 

 trict of Whey-chew-fu, N. L. 29 degrees 58 



* " An account of the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea 

 iu Cliina," 8 vo., Longman's, 



