Aagnst 5, 1869. ) 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



99 



other it is almost impossible, because the trees naturally grow too 

 luxuriantly. 



Excessive vigour may, however, be considerably repressed, and fruit- 

 fulness may be induced, by judicious summer pinching of the growing 

 shoots, and also to a great extent by root-pruning. The first summer 

 pinching is of paramount importance. It is most easily accomplished 

 oa the naturally fertile trees, yet it is most required on the most 

 luxuriant. By constant application a great deal may be accomplished. 

 It is an operation rendered absolutely necessary in aU formal styles of 

 training, and in the culture of miniature trees. The leaves of a plant 

 are almost its very life ; they are its breathing organs. Leaves 

 elaborate the sap which is drawn from the roots, and return it into the 

 stem to form woody fibre, so that the pinching or the taking away of 

 any portion of its leaves arrests the flow of sap in that direction, and 

 directs it towards the parts which are left. Thus, therefore, by stop- 

 ping the stronger-growing portions — those on the upper parts of the tree, 

 which are in advance of the lower or weaker portion — we equalise the 

 flow of the sap, and cause a uniform action throughont. This stopping 

 and checking of the shoot-growing propensities of the tree tends towards 

 the formation of fruit buda, excepting in some cases — namely, in very 

 rich soil, and where it is attempted to confine the energies of the tree 

 within too narrow a limit. Under such circnmstances the most incessant 

 application will fail to produce fertility, but will result in the continued 

 production of watery shoots, and a gradual weakening of the tree. In 

 anch cases root-pruning may in some instances be resorted to with 

 advantage. Root-pruning in miniature fruit-tree culture is almost 

 absolutely necessary to keep the trees within bounds in many soils. It 

 should, however, only be appealed to as a last resource, after all other 

 modes of checking vigour and inducing fertility have failed. Root- 

 prnning tends too much to weaken the whole system of the tree, to take 

 away the powers of the plant which are required for the support of what 

 fruit there may be produced. It is not exactly a weakening of the 

 entire system of the tree which is required, but a retention of all its 

 powers, and a direction of those forces towards the production of frnit 

 instead of that of shoots. 



In concluding these remarks, I would recommend those who may 

 be commencing fruit culture to take well into consideration the soil 

 and situation of the place, and then the object, whether for the produc- 

 tion of fruit simply, or for fruit combined with the formation of the 

 trees after some particular form. Whatever may be the object, the 

 condition of the soil should be considered, and the trees selected should 

 be worked on stocks whose requirements can be best supplied by that 

 Boil, and by the mode of pruning and general cultivation adopted. — 

 A. F. Babbon, Bo>/ol Horticultural Sockty, Chisicich, 



ON THE PROSPECTS OF HYBRIDISATION. 



The object of the following remarks is to show how large a field is 

 still open to culturists in the matter of cross-breeding. 



In order to see the extent and nature of this I will ask you to with- 

 draw your attention to a considerable degree from the mere in-and-in 

 breeding of a few favourite and already over-bred groups of garden 

 plants, and to tarn it to the higher object of originating new forms and 

 qualities, by working with hitherto neglected or unthought-of subjects. 

 Under this head I include : — 



Genera hitherto uuattempted. 



True species unused, or insufficiently worked out. 



Old garden plants, shrubs, or trees possessing high special qualities. 



Variegated plants of all kinds to be used as the sires or male plants. 

 _ Other descriptions might be catalogued, but the above list would 

 give us enough to do. I will not treat these cases separately, for they 

 are much bound up with one another, but will take them as they 

 happen to suit my present purpose, which is to say as much as I can 

 in the shortest space of time. 



Let ns begin with ordinary cultivated things— the old familiar forms 

 of the flower or kitchen garden, and note a few of our shortcomings. 

 Enter genus Rosa : — The Rose has been said to be coming rapidly to 

 a dead lock, so great has been its cultural improvement. But this 

 improvement has run somewhat in a rut, hundreds and thousands of 

 seedlings are raised annually, and yet we get little more than slightly 

 improved forma of a few favourite types. 



It is not my province here to point out the means of working to a 

 given standard of perfection ; this is the task of the skilled and prac- 

 tised craftsman whom we call the florist. The hybridist is the explorer 

 and pioneer, after him comes the selective improver. I will not taunt 

 my florist friends by saying. You have not yet produced a blue Rose ; 

 but let me just observe that the greater part of your show Roses have 

 no scent, and many of them neither scent nor constitution. Your 

 yellow Noisettes wo'n't open ; and of the perpetual, or Provence classes, 

 yon have no scented yellow Rose at all. Neither have you a white 

 one fragrant and ever-blooming. Sweet odour, that complemeutarj- 

 quality which, with other matchless attributes, makes the Rose of 

 romance the real Rose of the poet and the lover, is absent. The scent of 

 the Rose called Mademoiselle Bonnaire would never recall a memory. 

 Again, you have no crimson Tea-scented Rose ; you have no really 

 good rampant or climbing perpetual Rose at all. Fellenberg and Eclair 

 de Jupiter are far from perfection. Where is the very possible per 

 petnal Pompone ? With July we bid a long adieu, alas !to Rose de 

 Means. Can these deficiencies be supplied ? I think they can. 



yiiat let us lay the foundation for a white, by crossing together the 



white China and the white Unique Provence ; also the whitest Tea, 

 say Niphetos, with the same, and the old white Moss. For a blush- 

 coloured race, take the fragrant old Maiden's Blush and Celeste, and 

 cross with the pink-tinted Teas. For size and doubleness of flower, 

 with fragrance, take Souvenir de la Malmaison and Comtesae Lacepede, 

 and cross with White Provence and Moss with Maiden's Blush, even 

 with the Common Moss and Cabbage Rose. 



The production of a yellow will be more of a task. As seed-bearinc; 

 parents let us take the old yellow China ; it is still to be had, though 

 very scarce ; the yellowest Teas with the white China and old Sweet 

 Double White. Cross these with the Austrian and Persian Briars. 

 Also cross together the yellow Teas and China with the palest and 

 clearest -coloured Provence kinds. 



The Teas should be fruited in pots under glass. This will bring 

 them into flower at the same time with the Austrian Briar. Moreover, 

 they set their fruit freely when grown in this manner. For a high- 

 coloured Tea Rose, the old crimson China Sempertlorens would impart 

 a large share of its colour to any of the true Teas, and the cross might 

 be taken both ways. 



It will probably take some generations to produce a good rich- 

 coloured climber Fellenberg. Gloire de Rosomene and crimson China 

 might be crossed together. Ruga, which seeds freely, might prodnce 

 seedlings of higher colour and frequent-flowering habit by a cross with 

 these last-named kinds, and for an experiment their pollen might bo 

 used to fertilise Coupe d'Hebe and Fulgens. The sluggishly- opening 

 Tea Noisettes might be crossed with the old semi-double yellow China 

 to produce an intermediate effect. I may here suggest that the noble 

 old Noisette Grandiflora should make a tine seed-bearing parent when 

 crossed with handsome vigorous Roses of almost any class, but espe- 

 cially the Provence breed. 



Again, to originate new and hardy races there is sufficient evidence 

 to prove the enormous advance frequently made by a first cross from a 

 wild or natural species %vith the pollen of a cultivated one. I need 

 only point here to Ruga and Maria Leonida, raised from two wild 

 single species, by the pollen of the double Tea Roses ; and the pollen 

 of this exquisitely fragrant plant should be tried upon every natural 

 species that can be procured. 



I fear I have dwelt too long upon the Rose, but it was tempting— 

 the Rose always is tempting. Moreover, it was a good subject for an 

 endeavour to shadow forth my meaning to-day. 



And now we will take a turn in the orchard. A few good Apples 

 and Pears have been raised by definite and well-considered crosses, but 

 many yet remain to be devised and carried out. One of the first, 

 things that will occur to ns, when once out of the old rut, is that we 

 have scarcely any good summer Apples and Pears ; none of any size, 

 and none possessing the peculiar and higher qualities of the autumnal 

 and winter kinds. Who has ever raised a seed of Citron des Carmes, 

 or reared a brood of young Jargonelles, ennobled by the blood of Marie 

 Louise, or other early autumn Pear ? Who has ever collected, selected, 

 and united in wedlock the pleasant but very improvable summer 

 Apples ? I think no one, as yet, not even the great Sultan of Saw- 

 bridgeworth. Is there any reason why the great size and hardy vigour 

 of the Catillac and other culinary Pears should not be imparted to or 

 shared by those sorts whose melting flesh and rich flavour fit them for 

 the dessert table '} Mr. Rivers has worked nobly at the stone fruits, 

 and especially as regards the Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot groups ; 

 but there is yet a most interesting and important line of work left 

 open to the horticnlturist — viz., the breeding expressly for hardiness. 

 Hardy Peaches and Apricots are known to exist. Let these be searched 

 for, collected, and bred from ; let them be sown, reared, and, if pos- 

 sible, fruited away from the sheltering wall. The long frosts of winter, 

 and capricious climatic vicissitudes of spring, will of themselves form. 

 an effectual selective process. In aU crossing experiments, hardiness 

 should be kept prominently in view — hardiness of constitution gene- 

 rally, and hardiness to bear low temperature. It is common enough 

 to hear it said, " Such a fruit is the king of its race, but it is so tender, 

 or, it may be, such a bad bearer." 



Should such things be when the cross-breeder has actually the 

 power in his hands to combine given qualities and to impart deficient 

 ones? Much attention has been given of late to the Plum, and we 

 possess many fine sorts ; but there still remains many a curious and 

 haply profitable combination to be tried. The pretty and cnrioua 

 Cherry Plum has not yet been used as a parent. The hardy and pro- 

 lific Damson would certainly prodnce valuable orchard sorts, if crossed 

 with the Green Gage, Golden Drop, and other kinds possessing high 

 quality and marked character. The common Bullace is a less pro - 

 mising subject, but it is in itself quaint and pretty as a dessert fruit, 

 and might repay the trouble of crossing with the Golden Drop. Even 

 the poor despised Sloe would furnish an importantly instructive ex- 

 periment in showing to what an extent the austerity of its wild pro- 

 duce would be modified by the influence of a rich and saccharine 

 garden Plum. 



I do not think much deliberate crossing has been done with the 

 Cherries. A few subjects of well-defined races might be crossed to- 

 gether. The Morello produced sterile seedlings when experimented 

 upon by Thomas Andrew Knight, yet I cannot help thinking that 

 further trials might meet with success, or at any rate verify a resnlt- 

 I need hardly say that to a really scientific mind the verification of an 

 experiment, or the setting at rest of an old doubt, is a gratification of 

 the highest order. 



