Novombcr 38, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



399 



stock is delicalfi. Against this we have the experience of Mr. 

 Scott, who states that with him this stock is perfectly healthy. 

 This is, no donbt, owing to his warm, fertile soil, and the soft 

 air of Somersetshire, which is very diiTcrent to the harsh, dry 

 air of Hertfordshire. 



There is a curious fact relative to this stock which belongs 

 to my second postnlate, but should be mentioned here. If a 

 healthy graft is placed on a French Paradise stock the first 

 year ofter being planted (stocks are for the most part grafted 

 the second year), it seems to give health and vigour to the 

 stock and to rescue it from canker. It is very carious to see 

 trees in pots on this stock after three or four years' growth ; 

 the graft swells over and forms a large circular protuberance, 

 as if impatient to escape from its thraldom ; and the roots of 

 the graft break out close under the swollen part ; so that if the 

 base of the graft were covered it would put forth roots, and, to 

 use Miller's words, " would be equal to no stock." It is ex- 

 ceedingly interesting to watch in the graft this apparent yearn- 

 ing for more food. Ajiple trees on the Pommier de Paradis 

 form the prettiest and most fruitful of all bush trees when cul- 

 tivated in pots. Seedling pigmy stocks have been raised here, 

 and I think also by Mr. Scott. These will probably prove 

 hardier than the French Paradise, and have the same dwarfing 

 tendency. 



The second kind of Paradise stock deserving of a few words 

 is the English Paradise stock — a very old variety, which some 

 thirty or forty years ago I used to receive from the Knap Hill 

 Nursery, where it was propa;;ated by layers. It was very distinct 

 in its habit, and had rather large roundish leaves and pale 

 bark. As far as I recollect, this was the only kind of Paradise 

 stock employed in those days, and then to a very limited 

 extent ; for one hundred Apple trees on Paradise stocks then 

 sold I should calculate that five thousand are now sent out by 

 nurserymen. There are some seedling stocks of this race — 

 two raised hero, and some by Mr. Scott. One, called here the 

 Broad-leaved Paradise, resembles the sort I shall next describe. 

 They all swell with the graft, and produce healthy, fruitful 

 garden trees. 



The third variety of the Paradise stock race is the Doucin. 

 This is probably of French or Dutch origin. There are several 

 varieties of it, some of them worthless from their liability to 

 canker. Those with small leaves like the Crab are to bo 

 avoided. The true sort has largo pointed leaves of a dark 

 green ; the bark on its young shoots is of a very dark brown 

 spotted with white ; its leaves are more pointed than those of 

 the Broad-leaved Paradise mentioned above, and not quite so 

 large ; it does not swell with the graft so well as the English 

 Paradise stocks, but it forms healthy and fruitful garden 

 trees. 



The next race of surface-rooting Apple stocks is the Burr 

 Knot, the old variety. Tlu- Burr Knot of most of our gardens 

 bears very fine fruit, and is a valuable kitchen Apple. Like 

 all of the Paradise race of stocks it roots from truncheons, or 

 stout two and three-year-old shoots, planted in the ground, 

 reminding one of the orchardists at Valparaiso and other parts 

 of Chili, who do not plant a tree but a branch, which takes 

 root, and at once forms a bearing tree. This brings to mind 

 the Burr Knot Apple at AVare Park, Herts, there called " Byde's 

 Walking-stick Apple," simply because an old magistrate who 

 lived there early in the present century, used to stick in a 

 branch of the Burr Knot wherever he thought an Apple tree 

 wanting. The trees are there still. 



A gentleman living near Narberth, South Wales, has a large 

 collection of Burr Apples. \\a recently gave a list in a con- 

 temporary of ten varieties. The fruit of some of the kinds 

 were sent to me. They were not of high quality, but some of 

 them were handsome and good. It is just possible that the 

 soil may have something to do in forming those burrs on the 

 stems of Apple trees, which are, or seem to be, bunches of 

 incipient roots. The English Codlin, formerly employed as a 

 dwarfing stock, and mentioned by Miller as being used for that 

 purpose, has burrs on its stem ; and stout shoots, planted rather 

 deeply, will root and make dwarf prolific trees. — T. R. 



\^Exiract from Miller's " Gardrner's Dictionarif." 7th edition.] 

 " The Paradise Apple hath, of late years, greatly obtained 

 for stocks to graft or bud upon, but these are not of long 

 duration ; nor will the trees grafted upon them ever grow to 

 any size, unless they are planted so low that the cyon may 

 strike root into the ground, when it will be equal to no stock, 

 for the graft will draw its nourishment from the ground, so 

 that it is only by way of curiosity or for very sm^ gardens 



that these stocks are proper, since there can never be expected 

 any considerable quantity of fruit from such trees. 



" These trees have been much more esteemed in France, 

 where they were frequently brought to the table in pots grow- 

 ing with their fruit upon them ; but this being only a curiosity 

 it never obtained much in England, so that the gardeners do 

 not propagate many of them here at present. K*-* ' 



" There is another Apple, which is called the Dutch Paradise 

 Apple, much cultivated in the nurseries for grafting Apples 

 upon, in order to have them dwarfs ; and these will not decay 

 or canker as the other, nor do they stint the grafts near so 

 much, so are generally preferred for planting espaliers or 

 dwarfs, being easily kept within the compass usually allotted 

 to these trees." 



PROPAGATING MRS. POLLOCK PELARGONIUM. 



LiKK Mr. Boyes, I have heard of many failures, and think 

 those who have succeeded should make their practice known. 

 I quite agree with Mr. Boyes that ray plan would not do if the 

 principal display were required in September and October. In 

 that case spring propagation must be adopted, but when I 

 speak of the chief beauty of the garden being over, I mean 

 when it has lost its first summer gloss, which with me is by the 

 first week in September, at which time the cuttings are taken, 

 and, I can assure Mr. Coupland, without the loss of either a 

 single cutting or old plant. 



With regard to keeping the old plants through the winter, 

 and not cutting them until the spring, I must say that I, and 

 many more, would find it rather a formidable affair to winter 

 a few hundreds of such plants as Mr. Boyes mentions as mea- 

 suring from 12 to 18 inches in diameter. It is all very well 

 for those who have plenty of spare houses to winter their 

 bedding plants in, to keep such plants, and to use them for 

 ornamental purposes ; but for the amateur, and the gardener 

 who has but few houses, I must maintain that my plan pos- 

 sesses some advantages, and in such cases something must be 

 sacrificed. 



Of course, after a sufficient stock is obtained, there would be 

 no occasion to cut up the old plants, as enough cuttings may 

 then be obtained in the usual way. It must be quite obvious 

 that the plan I advocate is more justly applicable to the in- 

 creasing of the stock in its earliest stag'"'. 



" J. A." quotes Mr. Shearer's practice. At page 381, No. 

 295, vol. xi., November 20th, l.HOfi, Mr. Shearer says, " I make 

 it a rule never to take off a cutting until another shoot has 

 shown itself on the same stem ; by doing so I obtain a strong 

 healthy cutting which makes a strong plant, while its removal 

 does not weaken the old plant so much as taking off the ends 

 of the shoots whenever these are long enough to make cuttings 

 in the spring." This, I think, is rather condemnatory of Mr. 

 Boyes's treatment. 



" .1. A." does not agree with me as to taking off the tops of 

 the autumn-struck plants. I can assure him that out of about 

 eighty or ninety plants so treated in the spring of this year, 

 only two plants failed in becoming fine " stocky " plants quite 

 equal, if not superior, to any spring-struck plants. I know it 

 would cause them to become unhealthy, and in many cases to 

 succumb, were it not for the styptic, which effectually prevents 

 all these bad effects. I would refer " .1. A." to an excellent 

 article by Mr. Wills on this subject in vol. x., page -132. — 

 Edward Luckhorst, Egerton House Gardens, Kent. 



INFLUENCE OF AN APPLE STOCK OVER THE 

 PE.VR GRAFTED UPON IT. 



IIavin-g seen in your .Tournal accounts of different sports in 

 fruits and flowers, I write to mention an occurrence that took 

 place here this summer. 



Growing on the south wall of my garden is a Pear tree, 

 called here the Duchesse d'Angoulcme ; but as the label has 

 been lost I cannot vouch for the correctness of the name. It 

 is a large handsome Pear, rather long, very rosy on the side 

 next the sun. and on the other side light green, turning to 

 yellow when fully ripe, and the skin smooth. 



About three summers ago my gardener grafted a scion of this 

 Pear on a Peach Apple, he having previously cut off the head 

 of the Apple. The scion took well, and this year bore nine 

 Pears quite dissimilar from the parent. The fruit was short 

 and round, of a deep msset colour, dark red on the side next 



