General Notices. 231 



when the fruit, not the flowers, are beginning to swell. Nothing is gained 

 by influencing the size or color of the flower of a fruit tree ; what we want 

 is to increase the size or the abundance of the fruit. If liquid manure is 

 applied to a plant when the flowers are growing, the vigor which it com- 

 municates to them must also be communicated to the leaves ; but when 

 leaves are growing unusually fast, there is sometimes a danger that they 

 may rob the branches of the sap required for the nutrition of the fruit ; and 

 if that happens, the latter falls off*. Here, then, is a source of danger which 

 must not be lost sight of. No doubt, the proper time for using liquid 

 manure is when the fruit is beginning to swell, and has acquired, by means 

 of its own green surface, a power of suction capable of opposing that of 

 the leaves. At that time, liquid manure may be applied freely, and con- 

 tinued, from time to time, as long as the fruit is growing. But, at the first 

 sign of ripening, or even earlier, it should be wholly withheld. The 

 ripening process consists in certain changes which the constituents of the 

 fruit and surrounding leaves undergo ; it is a new elaboration, Avhich can 

 only be interfered with by the continual introduction of crude matters, such 

 as liquid manure will supply. We all know that when ripening has once 

 begun, even water spoils the quality of fruit, although it augments the size ; 

 as is sufficiently shown by the strawberries prepared for the London market, 

 by daily irrigation. Great additional size is obtained, but it is at the 

 expense of flavor; and any injury which mere water may produce, will 

 certainly not be diminished by water holding ammoniacal and saline sub- 

 stances in solution. — (Gard. Chron., 1852, p. 131.^ 



The Tree Violet. — While several varieties of double violets are gen- 

 erally esteemed and extensively cultivated, the real merits of the tree 

 violet are but little known. It is true that, under ordinary out-door cultiva- 

 tion, it does not appear to possess attractions superior to other kinds ; it even 

 assumes a more prostrate form, and on this account it is often confounded 

 with the old double blue violet, from which it differs in several particulars, 

 the principal being a perpetual habit of blooming, while its rival produces 

 flowers at one season only. It is, therefore, as a pot plant, that the tree 

 violet becomes more especially worthy of attention ; and under this kind of 

 management, its profusion of flowers, and delightful fragrance, render it 

 worthy of extensive cultivation. 



The plan I have found eminently successful in its treatment is to take 

 young rooted layers in April, and plant them in light rich soil, on a border 

 having an eastern aspect. During the summer the plants are liberally 

 supplied with water, and as they progress in growth all root-suckers and 

 side shoots are removed. By the middle of September they may be taken 

 up, potted into 5-inch pots, and placed in a cool frame, where in a short time 

 they will commence blooming. As autumn advances I remove them to a 

 light and airy part of the greenhouse, where they continue to flower until 

 April ; at that time they are shifted into pots a size larger than those they 

 occupy, and again receive the shelter of a frame. I prefer this season for 

 the subsequent annual shifts. About the middle of May they are placed 

 out of doors under a north wall, care being taken to prevent worms from 



