AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HORTICULTURE. 



513 



Orchard House continued. 



trees may be pinched to three leaves or joints ; bnshes 

 and pyramids may be allowed from four to six. Over- 

 crowding must specially be prevented, otherwise sun- 

 shine, light, and a free circulation of air, are much 

 impeded, to the detriment of the fruits, if there are 

 any, or, at any rate, to the proper ripening of the 

 shoots for the following year. Yoiing trained trees of 

 all sorts, suitable for culture in Orchard Houses, may 

 be purchased from nurserymen who make such things a 

 speciality, already established in pots, and set with 

 blossom buds. Pruning may be performed in early 

 spring, but it will not amount to very much, if summer 

 pinching has been properly attended to, beyond thinning, 

 and removing weak and superfluous shoots. 



Airing and Temperatures. The Orchard House, above 

 all other garden structures, should be provided with 

 plenty of ventilation. This matter has already been 

 referred to, but may receive a further notice. A span- 

 roofed house, for the purpose named, should, preferably, 

 run north and south ; consequently, the side next the 

 cast will need to be carefully managed when cold winds 

 from that quarter prevail, and there are any blossoms 

 or tender foliage. In winter, the house, supposing the 

 trees are inside, should be kept wide open whenever the 

 temperature is above the freezing point. In spring, under 

 such treatment, the trees will naturally move somewhat 

 earlier than they would outside, yet they must never be 

 unduly excited. A night temperature of 40deg. will be high 

 enough, or even less than this, if the weather is severe. 

 It should be remembered, that a confined atmosphere -a 

 more destructive to fruit blossoms under glass, parti- 

 cularly Apricots, Cherries, Plums, and Pears, than even 

 a little frost. A circulation of air should, therefore, 

 always be maintained, by leaving the ventilators open, 

 more or less, night and day, according to the weather, 

 until the fruits are properly set. Pears and Plums 

 especially require a dry atmosphere, and plenty of air, 

 to insure their setting freely. If fire-heat is at com- 

 mand, it will prove of immense advantage at this season, 

 should frost or very dull weather prevail, yet it must 

 be most cautiously applied, or more harm than good 

 may result. By the time all the fruits are properly set, 

 the season will have considerably advanced, and more 

 solar heat will be procurable. This must be taken full 

 advantage of, by closing early in the afternoons, with 

 the exception of a little ventilation, which should be 

 always kept on. In summer, early attention must be 

 given to airing each fine morning, and the greatest 

 possible amount of air be gradually admitted during 

 the hotter portion of the day. No fixed scale of tem- 

 peratures for the summer need be given, as it would be 

 unnecessary to attempt following it in dealing with fruit- 

 trees in Orchard Houses. The sun usually supplies suffi- 

 cient heat after the end of April or May, without the 

 use of hot water; and it is left for the cultivator to 

 moderate its, at times, overpowering influence, by the 

 admission of air, and the application of water about the 

 house, and to utilise and conserve its valuable proper- 

 ties, by nearly closing the structure each day when the 

 sun's power has sufficiently declined. 



Syringing is an important point to be attended to in 

 the culture of Orchard-house trees. From the time the 

 fruits are safely set, until they begin to ripen, each tree 

 should be thoroughly syringed, both in early morning 

 and in the afternoon, except at times when experience 

 and the weather suggest omissions. The water used 

 should be of a similar temperature to that of the house, 

 and it should be applied preferably through a garden 

 engine with considerable force, after the foliage gets 

 strong enough to withstand it. So soon as the fruits 

 are gathered, pot trees may be stood in a sunny posi- 

 tion outside, to thoroughly ripen their wood. They 

 must, however, receive an equal amount of attention, in 



vol. n. 



Orchard House continued. 



respect of watering, &c., as before. Trees planted under 

 glass must have all the exposure possible. 



Insects. Orchard-house trees seldom escape the attacks 

 of several most destructive insect pests. No sooner are 

 leaves developed, than Green or Black Aphides appear; 

 sometimes the latter are to be seen first on the wood, or 

 fruit blossoms. Fumigation, on two or three successive 

 evenings, will dislodge these pests ; but this must only be 

 practised previous to, or after, the trees have flowered. 

 Red Spider is invariably found, in greater or less quan- 

 tities, on fruit-trees under glass. It can be kept in 

 check by the frequent syringing already recommended, 

 both beneath and above the leaves, but seldom altogether 

 destroyed by any available application. Brown Scale is 

 also frequently to be seen on fruit-trees; it fixes itself 

 in crevices, and on the bark, and can best be destroyed 

 by hand-washing, or scrubbing with a rather strong 

 solution of soft-soap water. 



ORCHESTES (Spring Weevils). The name given to- 

 a genus of Curculionidce (small beetles) that, at times, 

 do great harm to Beech-trees and hedges, and, in a less 

 degree, to Oaks, and to a few other trees. They ar 

 usually about 6in. long, but may vary from win. to iin., 

 and, in colour, are reddish, brown, or black. The body 

 is nearly oval ; the head is small, and the beak about as 

 long as the thorax, and strongly bent downwards; the 

 antennae are situated near the base of the beak, and 

 are eleven-jointed and elbowed, with the club oblong- 

 ovate. But the most ready means of recognising them 

 is their power of leaping, which is given by the great 

 size of the thighs of the last pair of legs. The enlarged 

 thighs contain correspondingly powerful muscles, and the 

 beetles, when touched, leap surprising distances. 



Mode of Life. Those that survive the winter eat their 

 way into buds, and the females lay their eggs alongside 

 the midribs, on the lower surface of the leaves. The 

 larvae burrow into the leaves, and there form large gal- 

 leries or patches between the surfaces, and in these 

 change to pupae, from which the beetles soon emerge. 

 A severe attack by these insects on any kind of tree or 

 shrub causes the leaves to become prematurely withered, 

 or even useless, and considerably injures the health of 

 the plants. 



Remedies. In the mornings, shake the beetles off the 

 plants, over a tarred vessel, from which they cannot 

 escape, and pick off and destroy the leaves that show 

 mines of the larvae. Of course, both methods are ap- 

 plicable only to small trees. Very little can be don& 

 to limit the injury to forest-trees ; but of these we ar& 

 not treating here. The most hurtful insects in this 

 genus are : 0. F agi a small species (Ain. long), black, 

 with a faintly reddish, less often greenish, thin coating 

 of short hairs, limbs paler, thighs one-toothed often 

 very abundant in June and July on Beeches ; and 

 0. Quercus which is larger (iin. to iin. long), of a dull 

 brick-red colour, slightly hairy, eyes black, wing-cases 

 with a large triangular ashy patch over their place of 

 meeting at the base, thighs of front legs each one- 

 toothed, of hinder pair each with a double row of six or 

 seven spines frequent on Oaks. Others occur on 

 Alder, Hazel, V.\m l &c., but do not call for a longer 

 notice. 



ORCHIDE2C. A very large order of monocotyle- 

 donous plants, and one of the most natural families of 

 the vegetable kingdom. Herbaceous terrestrial perennials, 

 with tuberous or fascicled roots; epiphytes (with or 

 without pseudo-bulbs), found generally growing on tho 

 trunks of trees, to which they attach themselves by 

 their long adventitious roots ; or saprophytes. Flowers 

 solitary, spicate, racemose or paniculate ; perianth supe- 

 rior, irregular, of six coloured segments, the three outer 

 (the sepals) nearly similar, free, or the two lower ones 



