446 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Norombar 19, 1874. 



" dexterous twist," we think the corolla might be more safely 

 removed by the agency of a pair of sharp and pointed sciasors. 

 —Eds.] 



UNHEALTHY PEACH TEEES. 

 Ik Mr. Lnckbnrst's article on Nectarines (see page 395) he 

 mentions triple bnds. Am I to understand that triple buds 

 are the only ones that produce fruit next season ? If such is 

 the case I shall certainly have but a poor crop. If it is so, am 

 I to prune all the shoots away that have no triple buds ? I 

 notice on my Peaches a good many little short stubby spurs 

 about an inch long thickly studded with buds ; are these 

 likely to produce fruit ? My Peach trees this spring have been 

 terribly infested with a small shining black insect like a fly or 

 very small beetle no larger than green fly, and they have 

 appeared more or less all through the summer. They com- 

 pletely cover the ends of the young shoots. Can you tell me 

 what they are, and advise a remedy '.' I intended to have the 

 waU well dressed with hot limewash, wash the trees with soap 

 and water, dress them as usual, remove 3 or 4 inches of the 

 top soil, and give a dressing of some sheej) dung, covering 

 with some fresli loam. — Inquibeb. 



[In doing work and telling how it is done, one strives to 

 exemplify as high a standard of excellence as one can. It was 

 for this reason that so much stress was put upon the merits 

 of triple buds, because an abundance of such buds shows that 

 the trees are in precisely the best possible condition of health 

 and fruitfnlness, and that in their culture the happy medium 

 has been attained between a gross crude growth, or sterility, on 

 the one hand, and a weakly diseased condition with under- 

 sized poor-flavoured fruit on the other. The statement of 

 " Inquirer " shows plainly that his trees are in a very sickly 

 condition. Instead of feeling anxious about obtaining fruit 

 next season, his chief concern should be first of all to get the 

 trees into a robust and healthy state, and depend upon it fruit 

 plentiful and excellent will follow. It may, however, be a 

 matter of considerable importance to " Inquirer," that his 

 trees should produce some fruit next season, and he may cer- 

 tainly obtain some from the spurs that are " thickly studded 

 with buds," and also from the single flower-buds which fre- 

 quently abound upon the slender growth of such weakly trees, 

 but none of the fruit will do him credit. 



Bold and decisive measures should be adopted in the treat- 

 ment of such trees. Let the roots and the soil in which they 

 are growing be thoroughly examined, and if either prove 

 faulty lift the trees. Mark a square space feet by 6, taking 

 out the soil 2 feet 6 inches deep, replace it with a 6-inch layer 

 of stones or other hard rough material, and '2 feet of sweet 

 rich loam; failing which only discard any of the subsoil of a 

 crude sour nature, and enrich the soU with a liberal dressing 

 of some gritty material, such as road scrapings, some broken 

 charcoal, old well-rotted manure, and a little lime, mixing all 

 together thoroughly. Then cut off any diseased or broken roots, 

 and replant. If the situation is low or damp it will be neces- 

 sary to connect the stations with the garden drains. If, how- 

 ever, in the first instance the roots appear to be healthy, and 

 the drainage all right, the trees need not be lifted, nothing 

 more being required than top-dressing with fresh loam and 

 sheep dung, which should be mixed together and not applied 

 in separate layers. All the very weak shoots should be pruned 

 away and the leading growth shortened ; then by applying 

 water abundantly both to foliage and roots in the ensuing 

 season, a better state of things may be confidently expected. 



The insect with which the trees have been infested was 

 most probably Aphis Persicae, and the proposed curative will, 

 doubtless, answer very well. Due caution should be exercised 

 in dressing the branches to prevent any buds being damaged 

 or broken off. Once get the trees into a vigorous healthy con- 

 dition and this pest will not prove so troublesome, weakly 

 trees being much more subject to its ravages than those that 

 are sturdy and robust. — Edward Luckhubst.] 



Death of Mrs. Hooker. — It is with great regret that we 

 announce the death of Mrs. Hooker, of Kew, which happened 

 on Friday last, the 13th inst., in the forty-ninth year of her 

 age. Mrs. Hooker was a daughter of the late Professor Hens- 

 low, of Cambridge ; and inheriting the tastes and genius of her 

 father, was a fitting qualification for her to become the wife of 

 the distinguished President of the Eoyal Society and Director 

 of Kew GardenB. Mrs. Hooker translated Le Maout and De- 



caisne's " Traite Gtinerale de Botanique," which was edited by 

 her husband ; and we are sure that all who know Dr. Hooker 

 will sympathise with him in his bereavement. 



DO GRAPES RIPENED IN SPRING DIFFER IN 

 FLAVOUR FROM AUTUMN-RIPENED? 



Have any of our foremost Grape-growers noticed the differ- 

 ence in flavour between Grapes forced or ripened in early spring 

 and summer, and Grapes ripened in autumn, the season of 

 their natural maturity? and if so, would some such growers 

 of Grapes, whether for exhibition or profit, inform us how 

 far the flavour is affected, and in what particulars, by the mode 

 and period of cultivation and ripeness ? Can Grapes be pro- 

 nounced ripe, in full flesh and flavour, at any time other than 

 when Nature has decreed ? or can Grapes be accepted to be 

 dead ripe ere the fruit and leaf shoots of the Vine are brown 

 ripe, and the foUage varied from green to its autumnal tints ? 



I am thinking, too, whether seeds from Grapes ripened out 

 of their proper season — autumn, would germinate and produce 

 vigorous plants ; and if the pulp, too often wanting in un- 

 timely ripened Grapes, is not as essential to maturely-fed seeds 

 as to the piquant taste of each class of Grapes in their season. 



I may be venturing too far, perhaps, to question if any 

 Vines forced and steamed, as we are taught, ever furnish fruit 

 at any season of a flavour and substance that can be reported 

 to satisfy the characteristics of the Vines thus treated. But 

 what say our Grape-growers upon a less artificial and more 

 natural course of culture, assisting greatly rather than spur- 

 ring Nature unnaturally, in reference to the fruit of the Vine, 

 its flavour and season ? — Eeadeb. 



FRENCH NOTES. 



As the readers of the Journal have followed me In my wan- 

 derings this year, and have been told of the things most notable 

 in a horticultural point of view that have struck me during 

 those wanderings, I would close the account of my rambles 

 with a few notes on what was the only holiday pur et simple of 

 the year — my annual visit to Paris and its neighbourhood. 

 In other tours there has been a combination of business and 

 pleasure, but in this it was simply the latter. I could not for 

 many reasons manage it before the end of September, a time 

 when we often have very enjoyable weather ; but when the 

 days are short, and to one who is not a theatre-goer, this is a 

 disadvantage in Paris, for, unlike London, there are no other 

 places for spending an evening. However, I managed tolerably 

 well, and, had the weather been a little better during the 

 earlier part of my stay, should have had nothing to complain 

 of. This hindered me, however, from paying a visit to the 

 seed farms of Messrs. Vilmorin &, Co., which I was very desirous 

 of doing, but which a very wet day prevented me from. I spent 

 one day, however, in visiting Sceaux, which was holding at 

 that time its horticultural exhibition ; and as we have heard a 

 good deal of twaddle lately on exhibiting, and as we are con- 

 stantly told how much better these things are done in France, 

 I was glad that I had an opportunity of seeing an autumnal 

 show in suburban Paris. 



There is no place in the neighbourhood of Paris where an 

 exhibition can be so successfully held, I should think, as at 

 Sceaux. There are the fine fruit nurseries of Jamain and 

 Durand close by, the extensive Kose grounds of Margottin pere 

 et fils, the fine nurseries of Thibaut ct Keteleer— in fact, nur- 

 serymen of all kinds abound here. It was, of course, too late 

 for outdoor flowers, although the very fine autumn had been 

 favourable to the blooming of Roses ; still there were some 

 things which one might have expected to see, but I must say in 

 these respects I was miserably disappointed. The Exhibition 

 was held in the park attached to the old chateau of Sceaux, 

 which has passed into the hands of the pubUc and been made 

 a promenade. It was held partly in what is called the " Eo- 

 tonde," a round building open all round with a canopied roof, 

 in a lent adjoining, and in the open air : this was all in a part 

 divided off from the rest of the park, entered by some fine old 

 avenues of clipped Horse Chestnuts. The Exhibition was open 

 for a week — a miserable mistake, I should think, in every point 

 of view, as the plants and fruits became spoiled, and it was no 

 very edifying sight to see rotten Pears and Apples in every 

 dish of fruit exposed. 



And now as to arrangement. I cannot say that there was 

 anything that struck me as worthy of being copied. The Eo- 



