CULTIVATION OF EXOTIC FRUITS. 47 



XII. — On the Cultivation of Exotic Fruits. By P. Wallace, 



Chiswick House. 



(Communicated December 4th, 1852.) 



When we consider the success which attended the covering in of 

 the large space of ground occupied by the Exhibition building of 

 1851, there can be little doubt that a new era has commenced in 

 the construction of large glass houses for horticultural purposes, 

 and that in future the erection of such buildings will become a 

 matter of no great difficulty — and, comparatively speaking, of 

 little expense. Such being the case I would therefore direct the 

 attention of gardeners and their employers to a more extensive 

 cultivation of exotic fruits. Although great advances have already 

 been made in this department of gardening, yet, looking at the 

 variety of exotic fruits that have come under my notice both at 

 home and abroad, I feel persuaded that their culture can be 

 carried much farther than it ever yet has been, and at the same 

 time be conducted at much less expense, adding to the dessert a 

 variety of handsome and delicious fruits, which are now only known 

 by reputation, or procured with difficulty from foreign countries. 



The fruits I would more especially treat of in this paper are 

 such as can be cultivated in a temperate house or conservatory. 

 A proper and good style of building might be that represented by 

 the flat ridge and furrow-roofed Lily-house at Chatsworth (the 

 house "that gave birth to the Crystal Palace") and a very similar 

 model Greenhouse, erected by Messrs. Hartley in the Society's 

 Garden at Chiswick. In extent it might be Irom a Crystal Palace 

 down to a nice snug conservatory, according to the desire and 

 wants of the establishment, bearing in mind that all the light and 

 air that can be obtained will be requisite for the production and 

 proper ripening of such fruits as the China, Lisbon, Maltese, and 

 Tangerine Oranges, Sweet Limes, and Lemons, theLoquat, Guavas, 

 the Longan,* the Alligator Pear, the Custard Apple, Pomegra- 

 nates, and many others of less importance, yet creating interest in 

 a collection of this kind. The different kinds of Granadillas might 

 be trained up the columns and supports of the building, provided 

 they did not interfere with the amount of light required or other- 

 wise incommode more valuable plants. 



I have seen all the above-named trees bearing and perfecting 

 their fruit in the temperate Island of St. Michael, whose only 

 advantage in point of climate over that of our own is its mild 

 winter. From this I conclude they might all be grown with the 



* The Longan has flowered in a house without artificial heat. 



