Jutaary 23i IMS. ] 



JOORNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



67 



Boaroely affected, the damafre boinR, as I )iavo stated, chiefly 

 lower down ; but I have no donbt the partial injury to the top 

 ohecked the energies of the plant, and the summer growth was 

 therefore less than usnal. 



In comparing the hardiness of this plant with that of others, 

 it ia diflicult to arrive at anything approaching a definite con- 

 clusion. A Piuus insignis between 50 and (10 feet high and 

 nearly -tO feet in diameter was scarcely in the least injured, 

 although only Do yards or so from it ; while another specimen 

 of the same species, about 40 feet high, and almost touching 

 the Cnpressus, was nearly killed, every leaf exhibiting that 

 reddy brown colour so common last May, but it promises in a 

 year or two to recover. Some other specimens of 30 feet in 

 height or less were but slightly affected, and several smaller 

 plants of C. maciocarpa in another place did not appear to 

 have suffered at all. A plant of Cupressus Uhdeana, about 

 15 feet high, situated near the tall Cupressus, was completely 

 killed, being almost the only specimen of any considerable 

 size with which this was the case. Thuja Lobbii, 25 feet high, 

 was not in the least injured ; and Thujopsis borealis, 14 feet 

 high, was almost improved by the cold. 



1 think " A Somersetshirk Parson," or any one whose .soil 

 is of a very stiff clayey nature, might plant Taxodium semper- 

 virens, which I have growing freely by the side of a piece of 

 ornamental water in soil as stiff as can well be imagined, and 

 it did not suffer more than a larger specimen growing near the 

 Cnpressus macrocarpa, in a moderately dry stony soil. I am, 

 therefore, inclined to think, that it Taxodium sempcrvirens 

 be not actually benefited by moisture, it will endure it. The 

 effects, however, of the frost of January, 181)7, appear in many 

 instances so different in different cases, that we ought not to 

 arrive at conclusions too hastily. Only a short distance from 

 here, on a gentleman's lawn which is accompanied with apiece 

 of ornamental water and a waterfall, a fine healthy Araucaria 

 growing within 10 feet of the water's edge, and the turf at its 

 collar absolutely lower than the water level, passed through the 

 winter without injury, while Taxodium serapervirens and Gryp- 

 tomeria japonica only a short way from it, but boih higher in 

 the ground and farther from the edge of the water, were much 

 injured. The Araucaria was growing close to the waterfall, and 

 if any water did escape through the cemented embankment, it 

 would quickly bo drained into the stream below. The tree 

 looked remarkably well, although near it an Evergreen Oak, 

 thirty or more years old, was all but killed. The effects of the 

 frost of January, 1SG7, were so capricious that it would almost 

 appear as if some cold wave had settled irregularly on certain 

 places, altitude not being always the law regulating the degree 

 of cold. 



I should be glad to hear favourable accounts of the hardiness 

 of Cnpressus macrocarpa, which I would place in a list of the 

 best twenty Conifers known, and before last year I would even 

 have included it in a smaller list. The past twelvemonth, 

 however, has proved that in addition to its liability to be blown 

 down by high winds, its hardiness in questionable. This is 

 nnfortun&te, as few plants of any kind present such a dense 

 lively green ; and in point of symmetry, quickness of growth, 

 and other features, it seems indispensable where speedy effect 

 is required. The fact of the tree having attained the height 

 which it has done here, coupled with that of its not having 

 been in th€ least injured by the winter of 1860-61, will, I hope, 

 ■with the corroboration of other parties, weigh sufficiently in its 

 favour to cause its being retained in the list of ornamental 

 trees saitable for all places in the south of England, and for 

 all but the most exposed situations in the north of England 

 and in Scotland. The eccentricities, if I may call them so, of 

 last winter's frosts may not be repeated for many years, and 

 those places that were then so severely affected may escape next 

 time. For my own part I fear danger to this plant more from 

 vrind than cold ; and I iraagine the misfortune Mr. Kent 

 Teeords has had many parallels, for, in a sailor's phrase, a 

 plant carrying so much sail is in constant danger of being laid 

 on its side. A careful bracing at the bottom at planting time 

 is the only means of preventing such accidents, and even that 

 •does not always succeed. — S. Eodson, 



lay low what a few months before had added much beauty to 

 the place. The situation is high, and the soil of a light peftty 

 texture. 



A neighbour had eighteen fine plants varying from 12 t* 

 20 feet high. We had tlie misfortune to lose seventeen ; but 

 the eighteenth, being in a warm situation, escaped. 



One of our plants was within 10 yards of a line plant of 

 Araucaria imbricata, which withstood the frost, and is now 

 doing well. 



I think I have said enough to show that C. macrocarpa is not 

 hardy enough to stand such winters as that of 1x07 in all situ- 

 ations. — E. CniiTY, Oallands Park, Walton-un-TlMiiics. 



THE .JOSEPHINE DE MALINES PEAR. 



TnEKE is a peculiarity in the tree of this charming and ex- 

 cellent Pear which cannot be too widely known — viz., its perfect 

 and enduring health when grafted on the Whitethorn (Cra- 

 taegus oxyacaiitha) ; so that any one possessing a good White- 

 thorn hedge may grow abundance of this valuable late Pear 

 by selecting some clean stems and grafting them, so that the 

 heads of the trees are clear of the hedge. 



A tree now growing in a hedge on a hill of gravel close to the 

 town of Hertford is now some fifteen or more years old, and it 

 seldom fails to give some pecks of fine clean fruit, equal and 

 sometimes superior to those from trees on Pear or Quinae 

 stocks. My attention was very recently drawn to some trees of 

 this kind grafted on the Whitethorn, and growing in a stiff 

 clay. To my surprise, I found the junction of the graft with 

 the stock scarcely to be distinguished, so perfect is the union. 

 The trees are remarkably clean and healthy, and bear very fine 

 fruit. Unlike some kinds of Pears when grafted on this stock, 

 the cores of my Whitethorn Josephines are not hard, neither 

 is their flesh gritty, but nearly always perfectly melting, and 

 of a rich perfumed flavour. I have had thirty years' experience 

 of this most distinct variety, and no winter Pear has varied go 

 little in its character, and no late Pear in my opinion more 

 deserves extensive culture. Every farmer with a healthy 

 " quick hedge," as a Whitethorn is called in Essex, should 

 train up some stems and graft them with Josephines, and every 

 industrious cottager should do the same. I fear it will not 

 ripen well north of the Trent, but there are large districts in 

 the warmer parts of England where it may be made a valuable 

 product. 



The only kind of Pear that succeeds well on the Whitethorn 

 for a long term of years is the Passe Colmar, of which I know 

 a tree some twenty- five years old ; but this sort does not as a 

 rule ripen well, although it bears abundantly. Josephine de 

 Malines is of the same race. Last season (ISiiG), my fruit of 

 this sort were in perfection all through March and April, 1867. 

 This season they ripened towards the end of December. Such 

 is the subtle inlluence of climate on the ripening of fruit, abo«t 

 which we as yet know so little. — T. E. 



I HAVE read with interest the articles on the hardiness of 

 ■Cnpressus macrocarpa, but my experi-enee tells a different tale. 



We had here four fine specimens varying from 18 to 24 feet 

 high, and frcm 12 to 15 feet in diameter, which were entirely 

 killed by last winter's frost. Not a green branch was left to 

 tell us of the beauty thait had perished, or to give the faintest 

 hope of recovery ; and tbs axe and saw had to be employed to 



GLASS VERSUS BRICK WALLS. 



A FEW weeks since Mr. Eobson, in his article on garden 

 walls, stated that 1000 square feet of wall would produce more 

 fruit — say Peaches, than 1000 square feet under glass. 



This assertion induced me to look into the question. On 

 referring to Thompson's " Gardener's Assistant," I observe 

 that he states twenty dozen of fruit from a wall Peach tree of 

 a mature age are as many as a tree ought to ripen, although 

 that number is often exceeded by injudicious cultivation to the 

 great injury of the tree. We thus have a basis as to the pro- 

 duce of a wall tree, say seven years old, and in full bearing. 

 A wall 10 feet high and 100 feet in length (1000 square feet), 

 will give training space for five Peach trees, which will in the 

 course of seven or eight years cover the face of the wall ; and 

 they will, or ought, in good seasons to give a hundred dozMl 

 of fruit. 



We must now look at the 1000 square feet covered with 

 glass. This space will give abundance of room for sixty fine 

 Peach trees in 15-inch pots ; at the age of seven or eight years 

 these trees will each produce five dozen of fruit, giving an 

 .aggregate of three hundred dozen. On a wall protection from 

 spring frosts would be required, and pruning and naiUng in 

 winter and summer. Against this work must be placed the 

 watering and care required by the trees under glass. A 14-inch 

 wall 10 feet high and 100 feet in length, would cost some £30 



