288 ON PROTECTING THE STEMS OF FRUIT-TREES FROM FROST. 



of which the stem is wholly covered by the branches and foliage of the 

 ivy, has annually produced more abundant flowers, and exhibited symp- 

 toms of more luxuriant health, than any other tree of the same kind in 

 my possession. The soil in which it grows is poor and unfavourable ; and 

 I am unable to discover any cause, except the protection it receives, from 

 which it has derived its luxuriant health and growth. 



Ivy is generally, I believe, known to gardeners as a creeping dependent 

 plant only : but when the trees have acquired a considerable age, and 

 have produced fruit-bearing branches, these exhibit an independent form 

 of growth, which they retain when detached, and form very hardy ever- 

 green shrubs of low stature. If these were intermixed with plants of the 

 more delicate varieties of the Chinese rose, or other low deciduous and 

 somewhat tender flowering shrubs, so that the stems of the latter would 

 be covered in the winter, whilst their foliage would be fully exposed to 

 the light in summer, I think it probable that those might be successfully 

 cultivated in situations where they would perish without such protection : 

 and the evergreen foliage of the ivy plants in winter would be generally 

 thought ornamental. Detached fruit-bearing branches of ivy readily 

 emit roots, and the requisite kind of plants would therefore be easily 

 obtained. 



LVIIL AN ACCOUNT OF A METHOD OF OBTAINING VERY EARLY 

 CROPS OF THE GRAPE AND FIG. 



[Read before the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, March 1st, 1825.] 



MR. ARKWRIGHT * has proved that vines, of which the wood and fruit 

 have ripened late in one season, will vegetate late in the following season, 

 under any given degree of temperature ; and I have shown the converse 

 of this proposition to be equally true t ; the plants under each different 

 mode of treatment requiring a period of rest, during which they regain 

 their expended excitability. The following statements will show that 

 Mr. Arkwright and myself have met at the same point, like navigators 

 who have continued to proceed east and west in diametrically opposite 

 courses, the one with an apparent loss and the other with an apparent 

 gain of time. 



A Verdelho vine, growing in a pot, was placed in the stove early in 

 the spring of 1823, where its wood became perfectly mature in August. 



* Horticultural Transactions, Vol. III. page 95. f See above, p. 228. 



