April 3, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



2.55 



those suitable for Email gardens, it may, perhaps, save some 

 trouble if I say that I consider the best Verbenas, taking in all 

 their points, to be Admiral Mitford. Lord Clifden, Snowflake, 

 Warrior, Kuby King, Beauty, Faust, Lord Raglan, Nemesis, 

 L'Avenir de BaUent, Mrs. Elphinstone, Grande Duehesse, Fan- 

 tastic, Admiral Dundas, Geant des BataiUes, Merry Maid, Lilac 

 King, and Purple Queen. — D., Deal. 



p.S. — On referring to Henderson's list I find that in it are 

 retained about 80 varieties, and in Turner's about 100. 



VINE CULTIVATION. 

 Can Mr. Thomson or any other Vine cultivator give his ex- 

 perience in the following mode of cultivation? — Instead of 

 planting the Vines at 4 feet apart, plant them at 2 feet, and 

 fruit every alternate Vine once in tv?o years. What would be 

 the effect 'in quality and quantity, the plants being under glass 

 and each having the same advantages ? The finest crop of 

 Grapes I ever had was by inducing the root-fibres to come to 

 the surface by top-dressing with well-rotted dung and leaf 

 mould. I have seen very fine crops of Grapes grown by digging 

 a trench inside the house and filling it with fresh leaves every 

 year. This continued feeding seemed to answer remarkably 

 well, and it was very instructive to watch the roots passing 

 into every part of the leaf mould, which became rapidly ex- 

 hausted. — CoNST-iNi Reader. 



TRANSPLANTING LARGE TREES. 



The following mode of transplanting trees of large size has 

 proved very successful here for some years past. The trees are 

 never lifted, so that the ball of earth is seldom broken. No 

 rollers or wheels are required. Mr. W. Thomas, the landscape 

 gardener, was the first person who introduced the plan here. 

 The apparatus, consisting of a stout plate of iron, say 5 feet 

 by 4, with an iron ring near each corner, is all that is necassary. 

 It can be made by any blacksmith at a cost of about £1. This 

 iron plate is introduced under the ball of the tree, which is 

 kept in position by being tied to each of the rings. Two horses 

 are now attached to two of th- rings, when the tree can be 

 taken away to any distance. When it has arrived at the re- 

 quired spot it is untied, and the iron plate is withdrawn. 



A large number of trees have been moved here this year in 

 the above manner without a ball having been broken. I am 

 acquainted with the various modes of transplanting, and never 

 found any method so simple or efficient as this. — Constant 

 Readep- 



APPLE SCIONS ON THE POMMIER DE 

 PAR.VDIS STOCK. 



To show you that I know as much about the Pommier in 

 question as any of your correspondents that have as yet written 

 upon it, let me say that whilst on a botanical tour in the south 

 of Russia I crossed from the Sea of Azof to Astrachan, and 

 along the shores of the Caspian, over the Caucasus to Teflis, 

 thence to Mingrelia and Batoum in the north of Armenia. I 

 had, therefore, an opportunity of seeing our little friend in all 

 his pride of place in those mighty mountains that stretch from 

 the Black to the Caspian Seas and divide Astrachan from 

 Georgia, Armenia, i-c, and whose summits may be said to be 

 capped with eternal snow. There, amidst some of the most 

 sublime sceneiy in the world, our petit Pommier, or, what I 

 know for it, the Pyrus malus prsecox, revels and luxuriates, 

 forming jungles of considerable extent, and throwing up its in- 

 numerable progeny in thousands around it. It is found at 

 great elevations, reaching almost to the snow line ; however, 

 at these altitudes it is a " wee thing ; " lower down the moun- 

 tains, where the Walnut, Chestnut, and Vine grow to mam- 

 moth proportions, it attains considerable dimensions. 



Tour friend of Sawbridgeworth says that " The Pommier de 

 Paradis should be grown in dry light soils." He may have got 

 this out of his quarto edition of MiUer, but I do not think it 

 bespeaks much knowledge of the plant under consideration. 

 My experience of it is just the contrarj-. The tree in its wild 

 habitats luxuriates iu dark, deep, rich, boggy soils, where its 

 roots are always in contact with moisture, and iu summer es- 

 pecially so, from the melting of the snow above continually run- 

 ning down the moimtains, and watering aU the vegetation below 

 copiously. I think those who attempt to grow it in " dry warm 



soils " will be like the two friends who klDed it by the thou- 

 sand. They may roast the little Pommier, but they will find 

 it difficult to freeze it to death. I have seen it in too many 

 frozen localities to allow me to think that ; iu fact, were I to 

 trace its geographical distribution from Persia to Astrachan, 

 and from thence northward, I think it would be found a fellow 

 denizen with the Siberian Crab itself. This I know, that both 

 the Pyrus astrachanica and P. pra?cox are hardy at Warsaw 

 and Moscow, and the two are found inhabiting the same 

 localities as far south as Persia. 



As to Mr. Eivers's supposition that this and the Dwarf Apple 

 of Armenia are the same, I cannot say whether it is correct or 

 not, as I have not seen the article in the '■ Horticultural Trans- 

 actions," but I may say that the Pyrus communis and malus 

 have each of them other representatives in these regions, such 

 as the Pyrus communis flore pleno, &c. 



Now, to return to the observations of your correspondents 

 about this tree, I may say that no one has killed it but Messrs. 

 Rivers and Pearson, whose importations and kiUing, to my 

 mind, are wonderfully alike in time, place, and quantity. Mr. 

 Rivers's having such and such a stock has very little to do with 

 establishing or proving the hardiness or tenderness of the tree 

 in question. I have also my Nos. 1, 2, &c., of surface-rooting 

 Crabs, but I have not taken forty years to bring them into 

 action. I send you some of them that you may judge of their 

 rooting propensities. No. 1, I call Geant des Batailles. I 

 think you will allow that it is a good specimen of a surface- 

 rooter. No. 2 is also very good, and No. 3, Nain enfant, as 

 dwarf as you could wish to see. I do not find that the surface- 

 rooting stocks possess any of the dwarfing nature of om- Pom- 

 mier ; they are each good in their several spheres, the one to 

 grow large trees upon, the other to grow little trees for little 

 gardens, or where several sorts are required in a small space. 



Your correspondent Mr. Robsou, I think, mistakes the pur- 

 pose for which Paradise stocks are advocated. He says a less 

 quantity is produced by trees on this stock than by the same 

 number of trees on a free-growing stock. This is, I think, ad- 

 mitted by all parties. What we claim for the Paradise is its 

 dwarfing nature and early-bearing character, making it a use- 

 ful stock for such as have small gardens yet require to have a 

 diversity of fruit. We all know that a tree spreading over 

 20 or 30 square yards will, possibly, yield more Apples than the 

 twenty or thirty trees on Paradise stocks which wUl stand on 

 the same space of ground. In the one case you have one sort 

 of Apple to repletion, in the other twenty sorts in moderate 

 abundance. This is all we advocate, and do not deny the con- 

 trary proposition ; yet to all who want to have large Apples 

 quickly in bearing, we say. Use the Paradise stock. I had a tree 

 here iii 1865 that weighed, with roots and branches, half a 

 pound, and this little tree, 18 inches high and no thicker than 

 a little lady's little finger, bore three fruit, one weighing 

 1.5 ozs., the other two just over 1 lb. Here was an instance of 

 a tree producing four times its own weight of fruit, and the 

 more I see of the true Pommier de Paradis stock the more I 

 am convinced that it is the stock to graft large Apples upon. 

 SaiaU-growing Apples are generally produced upon small-grow- 

 ing trees, and, therefore, are less needed upon the Paradise 

 stock. 



May I ask what Dr. Hogg means, in his "British Pomology," 

 by recommending certain sorts to be worked on the Paradise 

 stock ? Is it a fact that he had any other stock iu his mind's 

 eye at the time than the said Pommier? If so, I would urge 

 ail writers on pomology, when speaking of stocks, to give 

 right names to things. Why give the name of Paradise to the 

 Doucin, or the Dutch creeper, or to any other surface-rooting 

 stock ? The Pommier de Paradis seems to have had the 

 priority, and why deprive it of it ? 



I have now tosay that what are called Doucin and English 

 Paradise stocks are nothing more than some surface-rooting 

 Crabs, chosen for their free-rooting propensities by somebody, 

 just as Mr. Rivers and myself have chosen our No. I's, and 

 which we both mean to make so much of. Some years ago 

 I bought five hundred Doucin stocks from Mr. Rivers, and 

 five hundred from a Woking house. I planted them as fol- 

 lows :— Mr. Rivers's first, and the Woking ones second, with 

 three thousand Crabs following ; now I declare and affirm that 

 I never could tell the difierence between the trees grafted on 

 auv of the three lots ; they all grew alike strong, aud threw 

 up" stems G feet high the first year after grafting. So much for 

 the dwarfing character of the said Doucin sent by Mr. Rivers, 

 which, I must say, was quite true to name and description, 

 aud the right sort, as far as I am a judge. The Woking stocks 



