THE ROSE, POME, AND DRUPE FAMILY. 491 



are the following : Common Crab, which flowers in May ; 

 Dutch Paradise, a straggling grower, flowering in April ; Rivers's 

 Nonesuch or English Paradise, flowers in May ; Rivers's Minia- 

 ture Paradise, equally late; Scott's Paradise, a distinct pyra- 

 midal-habited variety, flowering in April ; and the true French 

 Paradise, of straggling habit as a tree, flowering in April, and 

 bearing a medium-sized golden-yellow fruit of excellent flavour. 

 (See 'Florist,' 89, 187 5, p. 9 7, for excellent figure and description.) 

 This last is one of the best of all stocks for bush, cordon, or 

 espalier trained Apples, but is not suited for standard orchard 

 trees. It exercises a wonderful dwarfing influence on any 

 variety worked on it, and induces short compact growth and a 

 profusion of blossom or fruit buds. It is an early bloomer, 

 but this is not so desirable in stocks or fruit-trees as at first 

 sight appears. As a rule, all our fruit-trees bloom too early for 

 our climate, and as the result of this, we frequently lose our 

 crops through the effects of severe spring frosts; and if we 

 could transmit a late-blooming habit to our fruit-trees, either 

 by working them on late-blooming stocks or otherwise, it is 

 likely our chances of a regular crop of fruit every year would 

 be materially increased. Early crops are readily obtainable 

 under glass ; but for our general crops, late-flowering and 

 hardy kinds, which escape spring frosts, are to be preferred ; 

 and the question of stocks deserves careful study from all our 

 fruit-growers. 



The ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' has the following remarks on 

 this subject : Mr Dancer has been induced to plant large 

 quantities of fine Apples and Pears on the Doucin, Paradise, 

 and Quince stocks. The Chiswick soil is deep and holding, 

 and highly manured, and where young trees on the common 

 Crab or Pear stocks are planted, the result is seen in a coarse, 

 barren growth that it is difficult to keep in check. On the 

 other hand, trees on the foreign stocks give only a moderate 

 growth, and fruit in great abundance, the fruit being second to 

 none for size and quality. A most remarkable example of 

 this divergence of character, as produced by stocks, we saw 

 there a few days since. A number of small bush-trees of the 

 Dutch Mignonne Apple, worked on the Paradise stock, have 

 most marvellous crops of fruit, large and finely coloured. 

 Some of these small trees had quite a bushel of fruit on them, 

 and were literally borne to the ground with the weight. Yet 

 close by were trees of the same variety worked on the Crab 

 stock that had hardly a dozen fruit on them, but were at least 

 of three times the size. The French stocks would hardly be 

 suitable for poor gravelly soils ; but in deep, rich loams, and 



