The Canadian Horticulturist. 5 



Gowan Cottage, the home of Mrs. Gowan, is pleasantly situated in Mount 

 Royal Vale, a suburb of Montreal, and here it is that she entertains her children 

 and grandchildren when they come from distant Idaho, or New Mexico, to pay 

 her visits that seem all too short. 



She has passed the allotted three score years and ten, and will soon have no 

 need to read our poor literature on fruits and flowers, for will she not have access 

 to the celestial gardens and to the tree that bears the "twelve manner of fruits" ! 



Long may she be spared to us, and many be the opening odes prepared by her 

 for future volumes of our journal. 



THE RUSSIAN APRICOT. 



THE American Garden gives a good deal of space to the Russian Apricot, 

 and from the correspondence of various correspondents concludes that it is 

 not an entire failure. Its conclusions are that it is somewhat hardier than 

 the peach, being able to endure one or two more degrees of cold, but on account 

 of its very early blooming it is very liable to have its fruit-buds destroyed in 

 the spring. Another difficulty in obtaining fruit from it is its great liability to 

 the attacks of the curculio and the plum gouger. The seedlings are, many of 

 them, worthless. We would therefore warn our readers against* buying a tree 

 that is simply a " Russian Apricot " without any name. The varieties that are 

 considered the best are the Alexander, Nicholas and Budd. There are quite a 

 number of other varieties, but they are less desirable. All these are inferior 

 quality of fruit to the older varieties of apricots such as are grown in England 

 and California, but by hybridization good results may be attained. 



Our readers will have noticed in our " Letters from Russia " that all these 

 varieties of Russian apricots, brought out of the Mennonites, are from Southern 

 Russia; while some varieties, grown farther north, are much hardier and of superior 

 quality. 



There is also a variety brought from China, known as " Shense " which is 

 very promising. 



SELLING FRUIT ON COMMISSION. 



®F late years this mode of selling perishable fruits has come into very 

 common patronage among growers. The necessity for quickly disposing 

 of fruit, and the difficulty of getting a connection with retail shops for 

 such a short season, has brought this about ; and, no doubt, very much fruit 

 thus finds its way into market, which, only for the commission merchant, would 

 have perished in the orchard. This middle man, therefore, is a benefactor, and 

 his usefulness should not be under-estimated. But, in an experience of twenty 



