Notes and Gleanings. 307 



Grapes about Rocks. — The past season was a very peculiar one, — wet and 

 cold ; and the grapes in many localities East failed to ripen. While this was 

 generally true, it was rather refreshing to observe at one of our horticultural 

 exhibitions splendid specimens of a well-known variety, apparently fully ripe, 

 which we found, on inquiry, had been grown near a ledge of rocks. Some years 

 ago, we visited a place where we observed similar results from a similar cause. 

 The whole secret of the thing is, that the rocks absorb the heat of the sun by 

 day, and give it off at night ; keeping the roots of the vine warm, and the tem- 

 perature about it more fully equalized. Our attention was once attracted to this 

 same subject by observing that the melon-vines in a hill around which some 

 stones had been placed were much larger, at the end of a few weeks, than those 

 in the hills that had not been so treated. The same principle is observed in 

 cities, where grape-vines are trained in front of brick walls, which absorb the 

 heat by day, and reflect it when most needed by the vine. We propose to test 

 more fully the value of such treatment for the vine by placing stones about the 

 roots of several bearing vines, in different parts of tlie vineyard where they 

 failed this year to ripen a single grape. 



Rosemary Russet-Apple. — This esteemed English apple is figured in 

 "The Florist." It is one of the most popular dessert-fruits in England; but 

 its origin is unknown. It first came into notice in 1831, but had been in culti- 

 vation many years previously. 



" Fruit below medium size, ovate, broadest at the base, and narrowing 

 obtusely towards the apex ; a good deal of the shape of a Scarlet Nonpareil. 

 Skin yellow, tinged with green on the shaded side, but flushed with faint red 

 on the side exposed to the sun, and covered with thin pale-brown russet, par- 

 ticularly round the eye and the stalk. Eye small, and generally closed, woody, 

 with erect segments, set in a narrow, round, and puckered basin. Stalk very 

 long, inserted in a round and wide cavity. Flesh yellowish, crisp, tender, very 

 juicy, brisk, and sugary, and charged with a peculiarly rich and highly aromatic 

 flavor. 



"A most delicious and valuable dessert-apple, of the very first quality: it is 

 in use from December till February." 



Grafting. — Dr. Regel describes a new method of grafting as practised by 

 Herr Freundlich, one of the Russian court-gardeners, with remarkable success. 

 Instead of taking the scions from the previous year's wood, with the bud just 

 beginning to swell, the still soft, growing, lateral shoots are selected, when from 

 half to one and a half inches long, and either bark or tongue grafted ; care being 

 taken not to draw the ligature too tight, as they swell much more rapidly than 

 hardwood scions. Success, he says, is certain, if care be taken that the sap of 

 the stock is in motion at the time the operation is performed. He recommends 

 this mode as superior to all others, especially for hard-wooded trees, such as 

 oaks and beeches, which are usually difficult to propagate from the old wood. 

 New roses, and other plants which it is desirable to increase as rapidly as 

 possible, may also be advantageously worked in the same manner. 



