General Notices. 233 



among the oldest varieties cultivated in our orchards and gardens. Like 

 those mentioned above, the name is of French origin, and is derived from 

 coin, a corner, from the appearance of corners or angles on the sides of the 

 fruit ; hence, also, we have coins or quoins, the corner stones of a building. 

 This seems to have been the sense in which our early Pomologists viewed 

 it, because Rea, in his " Pomona," when speaking of the Winter Queening, 

 says, " it succeeds incomparably on the Paradise Apple, as the Calville and 

 all other sorts of Queenings do," regarding the Calville also as a Queening, 

 because of the angularity of its shape. 



It will be observed, that the names of the fruits noticed above, are derived 

 from the French, but it does not follow that the fruits themselves were in- 

 troduced from the Continent. "We have no mention of any of these varie- 

 ties by the early French writers ; on the contrary, De Quintinye, in speak- 

 ing of the Pearmain, calls it " La Drue Permein d'Angleterre," the dense 

 English Pearmain, in allusion, I apprehend, to the firmness of its flesh. 



When it is considered that the French was, for a long period, the spoken 

 language of the higher classes of this country, we need not wonder at our 

 oldest fruits receiving French appellations ; they rather confirm us in the 

 belief, that they existed in the country long before the period at which au- 

 thors generally have fixed their introduction. It is on this account, there- 

 fore, that I believe the varieties I have here noticed, so far from being of 

 foreign origin, are the original and rightful representatives of our early 

 English Pomology. — {Gardeners'' Chronicle, 1849, p. 180.) 



Treatment of Cactuses in Windows and in the Open Air. — The plants 

 commonly called by the name of Cactus belong to the natural order Cac- 

 tacea;, but are known, among botanists and scientific gardeners, by vari- 

 ous appellations more or less distinctive of their generic peculiarities ; as, 

 for instance, the Epiphyllum, from a Greek word signifying upon a leaf, in 

 allusion to the flowers growing upon the flat stems, commonly called leaves ; 

 and the Cereus, so called from the waxy and pliant nature of the shoots of 

 some of the species, the Latin word cereus meaning waxy. Cactuses are 

 very common in this country, on account of the rough treatment they will 

 bear; for, although they are natives of hot climates, as Brazil, Mexico 

 and Peru, and consequently are soon killed by frosts, yet, in other respects, 

 they are sufficiently hardy to allow of their general cultivation. They are 

 magnificent objects in the stoves and conservatories of the wealthy, where 

 they startle by the contrast between their gorgeous flowers and wrinkled 

 unsightly stems ; they also help to set out many a cottage window, and 

 they are usually found, to some extent, among the floral collections of the 

 middle classes. Yet with this general disposition to cultivate them, few 

 plants are less understood in those habits on which their successful flower- 

 ing depends. 



" I wish you would look at my Cactus," said a lady to the writer the 

 other day ; " it is a very fine plant, but it never flowers." On being intro- 

 duced to this unproductive occupier of pot and window room, a fine piece 

 of vegetation indeed presented itself; above a yard high, as green as grass, 

 and every flat stem as plump as a traditionary alderman. " Madam," said 

 VOL. XV. — NO. V. 30 



