THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 231 



RIPENING OF FRUIT. 



RUITS designed to be kept for a considerable time 

 should be gathered with great care, some days before 

 the ripening process commences. The process of 

 ripening on the tree, which is the natural one, seems 

 to act upon the fruit for the benefit of the seed, as it 

 tends to the formation of woody fibre and farina. When the fruit 

 is removed from the tree at the very commencement of ripening", 

 and placed in a still atmosphere, the natural process seems to be 

 counteracted, and sugar and juice are elaborated, instead of fibre 

 and farina. Thus, pears which become mealy and rot at the core, 

 when left on the tree to ripen, become succulent and delicate- 

 flavoured when ripened in the house. Fruit-houses should be cool, 

 with non-conducting walls, or with exterior and interior walls, or a 

 room within a room. Thus the external atmosphere, which either 

 starts the saccharine fermentation, or conveys the agents which 

 produce it, can be admitted or excluded at pleasure. It is possible, 

 however, to preserve the atmosphere at so low a degree or for so 

 long a time, as to destroy the vitality, and therefore all power even 

 to resume the ripening process. This is especially the case with 

 some varieties of the pear. Experience proves that, for the common 

 varieties of the apple and pear, about forty degrees of Fahrenheit is 

 the temperature best suited to hold this process in equilibrium. 

 Different varieties of fruit require different degrees of moisture and 

 heat, according to the firmness of the skin, the texture of the flesh, 

 and the natural activity of the juices. Thus some varieties of the 

 pear will ripen at a low temperature, and in a comparatively dry 

 atmosphere, while others are improved by a warm and humid air. 



THE FORMATION OF A GREENHOUSE FERNERY. 



[IN the formation of a greenhouse fernery it is not enough 

 to gratify a particular taste, which, by the way, may 

 happen to be a bad taste; it is essential to provide for 

 the plants, so that there shall be no struggle with diffi- 

 culties afterwards to keep them alive. If the work is well 

 done, the ferns will grow and fill their owner with delight, and nothing 

 short of the most luxuriant growth possible should satisfy the culti- 

 vator. "We occasionally obtain a peep into ferneries that are 

 founded ou a delusion. We see fantastic pyramids and arches 

 studded with myriads of sharp projections in the fashion of stalac- 

 tites, the colouring of the whole a repulsive tone of bright yellowish 

 grey, the material being furnace clinkers artistically coloured, with 

 not a crumb of soil for the ferns to root in except what can be 

 thrust into wretched little " pockets " of the capacity of a tea-cup 

 each. There may bo in the house a few good ferns in pots on the 



August. 



