470 GENERAL REVIEW. 



nac, for which the city of Orleans was so renowned, but it 

 was also used as an accompaniment to most kinds of meat 

 dishes. The Quinces of Portugal were considered the best ; 

 but the Cotignac of Orleans was so highly esteemed that it 

 was never absent from the dinner-tables of the French no- 

 bility, and some boxes of this preserve were the first offer- 

 ing presented by the inhabitants of Orleans to Joan of Arc 

 when, after succeeding in raising the siege, she entered that 

 city on the 2 9th of April 1429. C. japonica, a scarlet- 

 flowered and very ornate Japanese plant, bears small apple- 

 like fruit, with a strong perfume. C. Maulei is nearly related 

 to the last, and is also a native of Japan, its fruit being 

 edible, and, like the common Quince, useful for marmalade. 

 The Angers Quince and other varieties are readily propagated 

 by cuttings of the young wood planted in autumn on the north 

 side of a wall or fence. Layers root freely, hillock-layering 

 from headed-down trees being best. Seeds should be sown as 

 soon as ripe in rows in the nursery-beds, or the fruit may be 

 buried in sand, and the sand and fruit mixed up together in the 

 spring, and sown in shallow trenches two or three inches in 

 depth. The Common Quince and its forms is found distri- 

 buted throughout N. and S. Europe, Asia, and in the north 

 of Africa. It is plentiful in Italy, and the Angers and Por- 

 tugal varieties are more highly esteemed than any of the 

 others by most of the Continental nurserymen, who use them 

 as stocks for Pears. There are also forms bearing Apple and 

 Pear shaped fruits, and experiments might be made with all 

 these, as probably one kind may suit some varieties of the finer 

 Pears better than another, and all three may be found to pos- 

 sess particular merits. Rea's Mammoth, a sub-variety of the 

 Orange Quince, is in America highly recommended as being 

 much larger than the common, and more productive. The 

 fruit is tender throughout, like an Apple, and free from the 

 hardness and harshness of the Pear Quince. Those who have 

 grown Rea's Mammoth for two or three years say it is so 

 much larger and more productive than other varieties that it 

 is destined to displace them. All varieties of Quince are very 

 hardy. As the blossoms do not appear till June, there is never 

 any danger of injury from late spring frosts. It would be worth 

 while to experiment with C. japonica and C. Maulei by grafting 

 them on the Quince as a stock, and also by using them as 

 stocks for Pears or Apples. The Chinese Quince, C. sinensis, 

 is rather tender in our climate, and the fruit appears to be 

 slightly gritty. In shape the fruits of this kind are unique, 

 being fully 6 inches in length- and perfectly cylindrical. A cor- 



