2OO 



MY GARDEN. 



flourish. I only grow one or two trees for the blossom (fig. 377), 

 which is the glory of bridal wreaths. We have a small Lemon-tree 



(C. Limonuni)) and, really, this may be 

 grown more frequently where there is room, 

 for even in Italy as far south as Florence 

 I observed that the lemon-trees were pro- 

 tected in all the private gardens during win- 

 ter and up to the month of May. Varieties 

 of oranges are raised from pips : though 

 FIG. 377.-Orange blossom. trees may be freely raised in this way, they 



require to be grafted from approved sorts to have eatable fruit, .as not 

 one in a thousand seedlings may turn out good. Oranges may be 

 propagated by grafting or by circumvallation. The blossom of the 

 Otaheite Orange has a peculiar odour, which differs from the common 

 orange. I have already mentioned that in Sir Walter Raleigh's time 

 10,000 of this fruit were grown in a single year at Beddington Park, 

 but it is doubtful whether its cultivation for its fruit is now desirable 

 in England. 



THE CUSTARD APPLE. 



Amongst curious fruits, I have tried to raise seeds from the delicious 

 Custard Apple (Anona), which every winter is brought to Covent 

 Garden Market. The seeds have grown only this year. Mr. Rivers 

 has a tree, but it has not yet fruited. 



FIGS. 



*The green Fig (Ficus Carica, fig. 378) is a delicious fruit, 

 of which there are endless varieties : some are very small, 

 as the White Ischia ; others are very large, as the Figue d'Or. 

 Mr. Rivers has eighty-nine varieties in his catalogue. I 

 have had many kinds, which did well in the back of my 

 "Ydiam. lg vinery till the vines grew; the figs then ceased to bear, 

 and were removed, because the exhalations of the foliae of the 



