294 



JO0BNAL OP HOKTICDLTUBE AND COTTAGE OABDENER. 



( Htrch 18, UBB. 



sort, but of the same relative viRonr as the Doucin of the 

 French coltivators : consequently I have tried to make them 

 bear one name, and have called this stock the English Para- 

 dise or Doucin, hoping that we should settle down to two 

 names, both distinctive — %iz., the French Paradise (Pommicr 

 do Paradi?), of but little value here, and the English Paradise, 

 comprehending all the vigorous-growing varieties of tlio Doucin. 

 There are in France probably eight or ten sorts of dwarfing 

 Apple stocks called Doneins, some of them with small leaves 

 and a dwarf habit, approaching in character to the French 

 Paradise, but hardier — one of these may be the " Pomme 

 Paradis " of Mr. Scott — others more or less vigorous. As far 

 as I have experienced, almost every department in France has its 

 Doucio stock. The best of them is that sort which approaches 

 nearest to our English Paradise stock. Our climate requires a 

 vigorous, hardy, surface-rooting stock — surface-rooting is the 

 alpha and omega of fruit-tree culture in England. 



The slowness with which a thorough knowledge of fruit-tree 

 cnltnre is acquired can be known only to those who have 

 passed their lives in carrying it out. The knowledge of fruit- 

 tree stocks, so slightly appreciated in England, is a life study. 

 The changes brought on by grafting, the stocks to be employed, 

 the experiments in grafting that may be tried, and which as 

 described in your columns amuse me by the zest with which 

 they are told — Pears on Thorns, and j'igs on Thistles — the 

 Apple on the Pear, and the Pear on the Apple. By the way, 

 an American friend told me the other day that the finest Pears 

 he ever saw were from grafts on an Apple tree. The tree, as 

 usual, did not live many years. 



To return to Apple stocks. One feels half vexed that the 

 name " Paradise " has been applied to them ; it is so absurd, 

 bat, like other ancient things, it cannot now be changed. 

 The Pommier de Paradis is evidently from the east, is identical 

 with the Dwarf Apple of Armenia, and may there, by some 

 eastern tradition, have been pointed out as the Paradise Apple, 

 and thus have travelled to the west with its imposing name, 

 tt must, however, be acknowledged that the fruit of the Apple 

 tree bearing this name would scarce tempt a very hungry boy 

 living in Clare Market. 



Among these surface-rooting Apple stocks the Burr Knot 

 has a high character. Its habit is stout, healthy, and robust, 

 30 that when grafted it gives to the giaft a healthy prolific 

 character. It may be propagated from cuttings made of shoots 

 two years old, but it is slow in rooting. The English Codlin 

 will also strike from cuttings and become a surface-rooting 

 stock, but it does not form a healthy tree. 



The great desideratum in garden Apple-tree culture is to 

 employ a robust-growing but snrface-rooting stock. The Eng- 

 lish Paradise and some of the robust-growing kinds of Doucin 

 are of this nature ; but the nearest approach to the Burr Knot, 

 and consequently to perfection, is No. 1, a stock raised here 

 from seed forty years since, it is presumed from the Nonesuch 

 Apple, as its shoots are full of spurs and knots like that sort ; 

 yet, mnch like the Burr Knot, it makes stout shoots as thick 

 as one's finger in one season, is most robust in its habit, and 

 yet roots very freely at the surface, and by doing so promotes 

 ■a most healthy vigour in the graft. Of this very remarkable 

 stock, which French pomologists are in raptures with, it is 

 intended to propagate here 100,000 a-year, and its name is the 

 Nonesuch Paradise. 



No. 2, another seedling raised at the same time, has the 

 .same tendency to make roots at the surface, is almost equally 

 vigorous, but is quite distinct. Its shoots are smooth and dark in 

 colour, like some of the best varieties of Doucin ; but its leaves 

 arc broader, and it is more vigorous than any kind of Doucin. 

 This will be distinguished by the name of Hivers's Paradise. 



No. 3 is another seedling Paradise stock, raised in the same 

 year as those above described. This is a hardy healthy-grow- 

 ing stock, more humble in its growth than the French Para- 

 dise, and calculated to make trees of very diminutive growth. 



No. 4, also a seedling raised at the same time, is the most 

 dwarf of all fruit stocks, and is a perfect miniature Apple tree, 

 forming itself into a bush only a few inches in height. As 

 compared to the French Paradise it is as an ant to a bluebottle 

 fly. It is, of course, only a curiosity. I have mentioned it 

 merely to show the illimitable variations of trees when domes- 

 ticated — i. e., nnder ciJtivation for a long series of years ; and 

 it reminds me of the curious Pear which I am employing as 

 a dwarfing stock — the Nain Vert, which when grafted on a 

 vigorous stock never makes an annual growth of more than 

 2 inches. 

 The history of my seedling Paradise stocks illustrates what 



I have advanced as to the length of time required to obtain a 

 thorough knowledge of fruit-tree culture. Twenty years ago 

 the Englisb Paradise was well known, but it was rarely planted 

 and but little understood. It is forty years since I raised my 

 seedlings. I kept them because I was interested by their 

 tendency to root at the surface of the soil. It is only within 

 the last twenty years that I have been impressed with the 

 value of Nos. 1 and 2, the impression slowly but steadily in- 

 creasing, receiving an occasional fillip from clever French cul- 

 tivators, till, at the present time, I believe they will supersede 

 all other Apple stocks for garden trees, giving a healthy, robast, 

 yet prolific character to the varieties grafted on them. 



Miller seems to have been well acquainted with the French 

 Paradise (Pommier do Paradis) ; and I commend the follow- 

 ing extract from his folio dictionary, 1759, to the notice of Mr. 

 Scott, whom I have not the pleasure of knowing — it may make 

 him a wiser man. " The Paradise Apple hath of late years 

 greatly obtained for stocks to graft or bud upon ; but these are 

 of not long duration, nor will the trees grafted upon them ever 

 grow to any size, unless they are planted so low as that the 

 Cyon may strike root into the Groimd, when it will be equal to 

 no Stock,' for the graft will draw its Nourishment from the 

 Ground, so that it is only by ^Yay of Curiosity [I quote capitals 

 as printed], or for very small Gardens that these Stocks aro 

 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 the Pots growing 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." 



Miller alludes to our English Paradise as follows: — " There 

 is another Apple, which is called the Dutch Paradise, much 

 cultivated in the Nurseries for grafting Apples upon in order 

 to make them Dwarfs, and these will not decay or canker as 

 the other, nor do they stint the Grafts half so much ; so are 

 generally preferred for planting Espaliers or Dwarfs, being 

 easily kept within the Compass usually alloted to these Trees." 



I hope I have in this rather lengthy article thrown some 

 light on Apple stocks. There is almost as much to be said on 

 Quince stocks, of which there are several varieties, some of 

 them very unfavourable to the Pear graft, and making the trees 

 short-lived. It must be thirty years since I received from 

 M. Leroy, of the " Grand Jardin," Angers, one plant each of 

 all the sorts of Quinces he possessed. In the course of a 

 few years I discovered that the Angers Quince, " Cognassier 

 d'Angers," was the most easy to propagate and the most 

 favourable to the growth of the Pear. I made this known in 

 that part of France, and it soon became the most popular of 

 all. It deserves to be so. There are still too many other 

 kinds of Quince employed in France and Belgium for stocks, 

 some of which are most unfavourable to the growth of the 

 Pear graft. 



In conclusion, I must recommend your numerous readers, 

 when they plant Apples on the Paradise stock, to avoid the 

 French Paradise, which, as Mr. Pearson justly says, will not 

 do well in our eUmate ; and this seems to have been well 

 known upwards of a century ago, thanks to our good old friend 

 Miller. Those who assert that I he French Paradise — the 

 Pommier de Paradis, or " Pomme Paradis " of Mr. Scott — 

 has done and does well in Scotland and other places with cool 

 moist climates, have not planted the true sort, and probably 

 do not know if. — Thos. Kiveks. 



Allow me to say a few words with regard to Pears grafted 

 on the Quince. In 18.58 or 1859, I forget which, I had three 

 small Pear trees, grafted on the Quince, planted deep enough 

 to cover the graft. This was not done for any particular pur- 

 pose, but more by accident than anything else. Last year, 

 when leaving my old place, on taking them np I found one 

 had rooted strongly above the graft, both the others sUghtly. 

 I have also seen Pears root in this way several times, and I 

 am surprised that Mr. Scott should think it necessary to use 

 such very strong language in denying what many gardeners 

 must know to be true. As to the Paradise stock, it Ui.iy be as 

 hardy as Mr. Scott says, on this point I say nothing ; but I 

 know from experience that the trees are easily injured by frost 

 here, and very liable to be attacked by insects (aphis) in sum- 

 mer. Out of ten trees, five were killed by frost, and two by 



• I need scarcely to point out how this illostrates all that I have 8»id 

 about Pear trees rooting from the gmft. 



