PACKING FRUIT. 



354 



P^EONIA. 



the bubbles of air cease to rise through the 

 water thus dropped, the air is all expelled. 

 You may now pass a dry cloth over the 

 top, and solder the holes by letting a drop 

 of solder fall on each. This seals the 

 canister hermetically, provided it has been 

 properly made, and the fruit will remain 

 perfectly unchanged for years. The im-. 

 mersion of the canisters in boiling water 

 does not impart the slightest taste of having 

 been cooked to the fruit ; but the canisters 

 should be left to cool gradually in a dry 

 place." 



This is probably too expensive a process, 

 except for the more delicate fruits. The 

 main supply of apples and pears which 

 reach us from America come in casks, in 

 which layers of cork sawdust alternate with 

 layers of fruit, which has previously under- 

 gone a drying process by exposure in a dry 

 and shaded room. 



In respect to peaches, apricots, and nec- 

 tarines, their handling must be of the most 

 delicate nature. As the fruit approaches 

 the ripe state, nets or mats stretched on 

 short stakes should be suspended beneath, 

 each having a lining of dry moss or lawn- 

 grass, not to supersede hand-picking, but 

 to guard against accidental falling. When 

 a gathering is to take place, a shallow 

 basket should be selected, covered with 

 a layer of moss or leaves, and each fruit 

 as it is removed from the tree should be 

 deposited in it, separated from those already 

 in the basket by a leaf placed under it, and 

 covered with another, to protect it from 

 contact with the next. 



With such delicate fruit as the peach and 

 nectarine no mode of preservation for 

 winter use will be effectual, unless it be 

 the American process which has been given 

 in detail ; but even packing these and 

 other tender fruits, including apricots and 

 even plums, for short journeys requires 

 much care, although plums are by no 

 means so susceptible of injury as the other 



stone fruit already named, and apricots are 

 less delicate than peaches and nectarines. 

 For this purpose take a box sufficiently 

 deep to hold one tier of fruit, and no more, 

 and pack it with the following precautions : 

 The box being ready, and a quantity of 

 well-beaten and dry moss, or dried lawn- 

 grass in the absence of moss, being pro- 

 vided, wrap each fruit, with the bloom 

 untouched, in a piece of tissue or other 

 equally soft paper, and pack them pretty 

 closely with moss until the first layer is 

 completed, then make it perfectly level by 

 filling up with moss, and put on the lid in 

 such a way that the fruit, without being 

 exposed to pressure, will nevertheless re- 

 main steadily in its place. If the box be 

 deep enough to contain two layers, the 

 first layer should be covered with an inner 

 lid of thin wood dropped on to ledges 

 nailed within to the ends of the box, and 

 the partition should then be so secured in 

 its place as to prevent it from shifting in 

 any way. Grapes should be packed in 

 boxes or small hampers from 6 to 9 or 

 even 12 inches deep, lined with moss or 

 leaves, and covered with the same, care 

 being taken not to injure the bloom. Some 

 cover the moss with tissue paper, and this 

 plan may be recommended. Figs should 

 be packed with vine or other leaves in 

 shallow boxes, and strawberries in the same 

 way, using their own leaves. Apricots 

 should be packed in the same way. 



Pseon'ia (not. ord. Ranuncula'ceae.) 



For late spring or early summer flowering 

 few plants are more useful than paeonies, 

 which are divided into two classes, shrubby 

 and herbaceous. Every flower garden 

 should have some of them. They are 

 mostly very hardy, and in colour vary from 

 pure white, blush, salmon, and rose, to the 

 most intense crirr.son. The Chinese tree, 

 or shrubby, varieties (Peeonia Moutan) are 

 also hardy and early flowering. Bedded 



