THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 113 



mens in one season. The situation it occupies in the house is one 

 important point to be considered. If placed where a current of 

 air passes over the foliage, it will dwindle and die. A quiet cool 

 position is what it especially requires ; and it should be partially 

 shaded during bright sunshine. It will be found to luxuriate in the 

 temperature of an ordinary conservatory, where the frost is merely 

 kept out. I have known it to be exposed to nearly the freezing 

 point without sustaining any injury whatever. The soil in which I 

 have found the Luculia to thrive best is turfy loam, with an admix- 

 ture of one-fifth leaf-mould, and one-fifth silver sand ; let the pot be 

 well drained, and the soil used in a rather rough state. Few con- 

 servatory plants are more ornamental than the Luculia, and if 

 planted out where there is no draught, it will thrive and bloom in 

 perfection every winter. 



COVERING AND SUMMER MANAGEMENT OF WALL 



FRUITS. 



BY A CORRESPONDENT. 



Y purpose in writing this article is to draw attention to 

 the subject of covering fruit trees, and also to offer 

 some suggestions as to the summer management of 

 those, especially, which have missed a crop ; and such 

 will, I fear, prove a fearful majority. For my own 

 part, I have for years been an advocate of some kind of covering, 

 have so repeatedly witnessed the benefits to be derived from it ; 

 and it does appear an extraordinary thing that any man in his 

 sound senses should object to even a mat being hung over his pet 

 apricot on a frosty night, and, not to go to extremes in the argu- 

 ment, say, with a thermometer eight or ten degrees below freezing 

 point — by no means an unusual affair. 



But, says the non-protection advocate, " I do not like covering, 

 fur it has a tendency to ' draw ' the buds." It may certainly do 

 this when coverings of very close materials are used ; but, for my 

 part, 1 have never seen anything worth recording in this way, and 

 I have used covering extensively for at least twenty years. On the 

 contrary, such things as thin canvas, spruce, fir boughs, etc., most 

 decided lv retard the buds; for this reason I endeavour to get my 

 trees covered at the end of February, drawing it off, if moveable, on 

 all cold and windy days, and keeping close covered on those which 

 are sunny or exciting. 



My peaches are now in full blossom, or nearly so, and a finer 

 si^'ht in the peach or nectarine way I have never seen, and probably 

 never shall see. The frost, to all appearance, does not seem to have 

 affected thorn in the least. I need not inform the readers of the 

 Flora i. Wokld that we do not possess a Devonshire climate in 

 Cheshire ; but I may add that these remarks, concerning the 



April. 8 



