FROG 



364 



FRUIT-ROOM 



pots, three or four bulbs in a pot, or plant them in patches 

 near the front of the mixed flower-border. The above 

 remarks apply only to the smaller kinds of Fritilla'ria. 

 The noble F. imperia'lis, when the bulbs attain a certain 

 size, produces two flower-stems, and each stem perfects 

 a bulb. They may then be taken up, divided, and re- 

 planted. This species, on account of flowering early, 

 may be planted when divided into beds in the grouped 

 flower-garden, which they will highly ornament, and will 

 die down early enough to be succeeded by summer 

 flowers. This species is too large for pots. 



Soil. The Crown Imperial, with its varieties, should 

 be planted in a deep, rich soil, well drained. If the soil 

 is not rich, it must be made so by the addition of a good 

 dressing of well-decomposed manure. The stems send 

 out, just above the bulbs, a large number of young 

 strong roots. The plants will be benefited in that stage 

 by a top-dressing of very decayed dung placed close 

 to the stems. 



If the smaller species be cultivated in pots, the proper 

 soil for them will be a compost of turfy loam, peat, and 

 vegetable mould, in equal parts. 



Growing Season. All the smaller kinds of the Fritillary 

 will flower beautifully in pots. Pot them in October in 

 5|-inch pots, four bulbs in each, in a light, rich compost. 

 Plunge the pots in coal-ashes in a bed, and protect them 

 through the winter with hoops and mats. There they 

 may remain till they flower, and then be removed into 

 the greenhouse. When intended to bloom in the open 

 ground, plant them in patches in the mixed flower- 

 border. 



Resting Season. As soon as the blooming season is 

 over and the leaves decayed, take the bulbs up, and keep 

 them in a cool, rather moist place, till the season for 

 planting arrives again. 



FROG ORCHIS. Habena'ria vi'ridis. 



FROST. If a plant be frozen (and though some defy 

 the attacks of frost, others are very liable to its fatal 

 influence), death is brought upon them as it is in the 

 animal frame, by a complete breaking down of their 

 tissue ; their vessels are ruptured, and putrefaction 

 follows. 



The following contingencies render a plant especially 

 liable to be frozen : 



First. Moisture renders a plant susceptible of cold. 

 Every gardener knows this. If the air of his greenhouse 

 be dry, the plants within may be submitted to a tem- 

 perature of 32 without injury, provided the return to a 

 higher temperature be gradual. 



Secondly. Gradual decrements of temperature are 

 scarcely felt. A myrtle may be forced and subsequently 

 passed to the conservatory, to the cold-pit, and even 

 thence to an open border, if in the south of England, 

 without enduring any injury from the cold of winter ; 

 but it would be killed if passed at once from the hot- 

 house to the border. 



Thirdly. The more saline are the juices of a plant, the 

 less liable are they to congelation by frost. Salt pre- 

 serves vegetables from injury by sudden transitions in 

 the temperature of the atmosphere. That salted soil 

 freezes with more reluctance than before the salt is 

 applied, is well known, and that crops of turnips, cabbages, 

 cauliflowers, &c., are similarly preserved, is equally well 

 established. 



Fourthly. Absence of motion enables plants to endure 

 a lower degree of temperature. Water may be cooled 

 down to below 32 without freezing ; but it solidifies 

 the moment it is agitated. 



The seeds of some plants are benefited by being 

 frozen, for those of the rose and the hawthorn never 

 germinate so freely as after being subjected to the 

 winter frosts. 



Freezing is beneficial to soils, not only by destroying 

 vermin within its bosom, but by aiding the atmosphere 

 to pervade its texture, which texture is also rendered 

 much more friable by the frost. A soil in our climate is 

 rarely frozen to a depth of more than four inches, and 

 in extremely hard winters it does not penetrate more 

 than six inches in light soils, and ten inches in those 

 that contain more clay, or an excess of moisture. 



If a plant be frozen, dip it into the coldest water, or 

 syringe it, and put it into a dark, cold cellar, so that it 

 may thaw gradually. 



FROST, DEGREES OF. When a gardener uses this 

 phrase, he means degrees of cold below 32 Fahrenheit, 

 the freezing-point of water. 



FROTH-FLY. See TETTIGONIA. 



FRUIT-ROOM. Fruit for storing should be gathered 

 before it is quite mature ; for the ripening process, the 

 formation of sugar, with its attendant exhalation of 

 carbonic acid and water, goes on as well in the fruit-room 

 as in the open air at the season when the functions of the 

 leaves have ceased, and the fruit no longer enlarges. In 

 gathering fruit, every care should, be adopted to avoid 

 bruising ; and, to this end, in the case of apples, pears, 

 quinces, and medlars, let the gathering basket be lined 

 throughout with sacking, and let the contents of each 

 basket be carried at once to a floor covered with sand, 

 and taken out one by one, not poured out, as is too 

 usual, into a basket, and then again from this into a 

 heap ; for this systematic mode of inflicting small bruises 

 is sure to usher in decay, inasmuch as that it bursts 

 the divisional membranes of the cells containing the 

 juice, and this being extravasated, speedily passes, from 

 the stage of spirituous fermentation to that of putre- 

 faction. To avoid this is the principal object of fruit 

 storing, whilst, at the same time, it is necessary that the 

 fruit shall be kept firm and juicy. Now it so happens 

 that the means required to secure the one also effects 

 the other. 



The following, we think, will be found safe principles 

 to guide the inexperienced : 



Site. A somewhat low level, with a sub-soil, perfectly 

 dry, or rendered so. We have said low, because we feel 

 assured that by keeping the floor, if possible, even a 

 little below the ground level, less fluctuation of tempera- 

 ture will be experienced. Sooner, however, than be 

 liable to much damp, we would go as much above the 

 level as is necessary in order to avoid it. Concrete 

 should be used for the flooring, and a portion of the 

 foundation walls done in cement, to prevent the trans- 

 mission of damp upwards by capillary attraction. The 

 rats and mice are great annoyances ; the cement and 

 concrete would keep them at arm's-length. A preventive 

 drainage may be applied also round the exterior if the 

 locality be damp. 



Aspect. An easterly or northerly one ; any point but 

 south or south-west. 



Frost. The house to be rendered perfectly secure 

 against this. We would never have the general store- 

 room sink below forty or rise above fifty degrees. To 

 create an artificial warmth, and merely to keep out the 

 cold, or rather, to procure, as much as possible, the 

 amount of warmth which the interior possesses, are two 

 very different affairs. The preservation of the natural 

 interior warmth in winter is best effected by double 

 walls, possessing a cavity of some three inches in width ; 

 and if the walls are of wood, the space between them 

 should be filled with sawdust. The sides and roof should 

 be heavily thatched with reeds. The power of what are 

 termed hollow walls, as non-conductors of heat, is well 

 known. Neither can exterior damps be readily trans- 

 mitted ; and, moreover, such are cooler in summer ; for 

 the sluggish agency of such walls in transmitting heat is 

 as much in keeping put summer heats as the colds of 

 winter. If the roof is an exterior one it should either 

 be double, or other means taken to keep out the summer 

 heat. 



Air. The power of thorough ventilation when neces- 

 sary, and equally the power of rendering it almost 

 hermetically sealed is necessary. Of course, a very 

 liberal ventilation is needed when much fruit is housed 

 in the autumn. There should, therefore, be a special 

 provision for both the egress of moisture, and for the 

 ingress of fresh and dry air. The higher the level at 

 which the latter enters, the brisker will, in general, be 

 the circulation. 



Light. Windows to admit light, of course, for the sake 

 of operations in the room ; generally speaking, however, 

 a fruit-room cannot be kept too dark. Most good prac- 

 titioners agree in the necessity of excluding light as much 

 as possible. Scientific men say that the surface skin of 

 fruits perspires exactly as the surface of leaves, and that 

 light is a prune agent in inducing such perspiration : 

 hence, heat and light are conjoint causes of shrivelling. 

 The windows or other apertures, therefore, must be pro- 



