May 1893.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. GOl 



and SO was a standard pa-ony, two months before its time. 

 Many other species were in Hower, including the straw- 

 berry, and the general remark was that nothing was left 

 for June. The foliage of all the forest trees, except the 

 ash, was fully out, or nearly so, by the end of April ; old 

 walnuts well advanced on the 6tli May, and mulberry 

 trees expanding their leaves. The foliage everywhere fine, 

 and no great parcliing of the grass or young crops, although, 

 of course, everything was shoit. The total rainfall in 

 sixty-seven days was under half-an-iuch, falling on five 

 days in j\Iarch, one in April, and one in May. Latterly, at 

 least, the air must have been very dry, as, in spite of clear 

 nights, there was no dew. Fortunately there had been a 

 heavy rainfall all through February. 



Here, in the centre of England, the ground has a more 

 parched aspect, and flowering seems to have been checked 

 by the excessive drought. That is to say that flowering, 

 though very early, is imperfect. Fruit, however, promises 

 very well, pears are well formed, and gooseberries fit for 

 cooking since the end of April. 



My host. Dr. Carter, lately of Leamington, takes great 

 interest in his trees, and treats them with the combined 

 skill of a practical gardener, a man of science, and a man 

 of medicine. He showed me several fruit trees, which were 

 languishing, and apparently dying, from fungoid growths. 

 He cut out the growths as if they had been cancers, and 

 applied paraffin oil to the surfaces, and the trees are now 

 flourishing. 



Other fruit trees, suffering from insects harbouring in 

 fissures and axils, were completely restored to health by 

 eradication of the evil. From what he sees in other 

 orchards, he is convinced much more attention should 

 be paid to the fruit trees than they generally get. 



He showed me the results of an interesting experiment. 

 A few years ago he put in a number of young pear trees 

 on the same piece of ground, which was all under grass. 

 A part of the ground he dug up, as it was slightly ridged 

 from old cultivation, and he wished to level it. This part 

 has been left since free from grass. The trees planted 

 there are now twice the size, and have twice as good 

 heads as those planted in the undisturbed grass. The 



