VARIETIES. 459 



regular cutting away all crossing limbs and suckers. " The bear- 

 ing branches, or spurs of the quince, are small twiggy shoots, pro- 

 duced on wood at least two years old. These bear two, three, or 

 more fruit-buds. These produce shoots two or three inches long, on 

 the point of which the fruit is borne singly. These spurs have 

 always wood-buds, as well as fruit-buds, and therefore should be 

 shortened back the Spring after they have borne, in order to pro- 

 duce new spurs at the same point." 



Insects, etc. " The borer sometimes proves a formidable enemy. 

 It is the larva of an insect which attacks the wood of the trunk, near 

 the surface of the ground, and works inwards, usually upwards, but 

 sometimes downwards, to a distance of several inches into the wood, 

 during the summer season. 



" As the borer frequently destroys the tree, various means of pre 

 vention have been resorted to. The remedies described for the 

 apple-borer are found useful. When the insect has once obtained 

 possession, the best method appears to be direct attack. Scrape the 

 soil from the trunk, and cut with a knife, lengthwise, and not across 

 the bark and wood, till the insects are found. Repeat the operation 

 once a week for several times, as a part escape the first examination. 

 Then cover the wounded parts with a mixture of warm tar and 

 ochre or brickdust. It is a great saving of labor to arrest early their 

 progress ; hence, trees should be examined frequently. They may 

 sometimes be extracted by a flexible barbed wire, when cutting out 

 would too much mutilate the tree." 



In Spring or early summer months the ends of the branches often 

 turn black and die. By some, this is declared to be caused by an 

 insect (scolytus), and the remedy said to lie in the cutting off and 

 burning the branches. We do not so regard it, but believe it rather 

 caused by atmospheric change ; as a bright, clear, hot sun imme- 

 diately opening at about midday, after a warm, softening rain, will 

 often exhibit the result of blacking ends of young, tender shoots, in 

 a very few hours. 



Uses. The Quince is never eaten in a raw state, but has, from the 

 days of Columella, been highly esteemed for making of marmalade, 

 preserving, stewing, to give additional flavor to tarts of apple and of 

 pastry, etc. In medicine, the expressed juice, repeatedly taken in 

 small quantities, is regarded as cooling, astringent, and stomachic. 

 Dried quinces are said to be excellent. Gathered carefully by hand, 

 the quince may be wrapped in paper, and, placed in a cool room, 

 kept until near midwinter. 



VARIETIES. 



Of these there are very few really worthy of description, and, of 

 these, three only worthy of cultivation to any extent. The Chinese 

 Quince (Cydonia Sinensit) is cultivated only as ornamental. Its fruit 



