40 The Art of ornamenting, blooming, 



unripe bunches never get any riper after they are gathered. 

 In selecting bunches, avoid those where any, or even one, of 

 the leaves have been removed from the vine near the bunch, 

 because the berries of bunches so circumstanced will certainly 

 be of inferior flavour. Every one must have observed this in 

 the case of gooseberries and currants. 



In dishing up grapes, the taste of the operator must be dis- 

 played according to the kinds and the size of the bunches ; 

 placing the largest in the centre, and the others round it, so 

 as to form a handsome figure. Between dishing up and 

 showing, keep them in a cool place. 



Plums are to be treated on the same general principles as 

 grapes, only instead of being suspended in the blooming-box, 

 they may be laid upon the wire bottom. No fruit requires so 

 much care in handling as the plum, but in none is the bloom 

 more easily restored. 



Peaches, nectarines, apricots, figs, and, in general, every 

 fruit having a bloom, may be treated as directed for the fore- 

 going: the box, the puff, and the calcined magnesia are all 

 the ingredients necessary. 



At first sight it may appear surprising that a white pow- 

 der should give the bloom to fruits of different colours ; but 

 the colour resides in the skin, and the bloom is merely a semi- 

 transparent colourless powder. A variety of artificial powders 

 have been used to imitate the natural powder, the chemical 

 properties of which seem not yet to have been ascertained. Mr. 

 Gauen thinks it probable that this powder is of an antiseptic 

 quality, and intended to defend the finer pores of the skin from 

 the causticity of the air. He " tried a vast number of expe- 

 riments with various articles, previous to the choice of magne- 

 sia; but, as numbers of articles that would have answered as 

 well as magnesia are deleterious, or offensive to the taste,"' 

 he considers magnesia, which when kept thoroughly dry is a 

 powerful antiseptic, as decidedly the best. 



Millbrook, near Southampton, July, 1827. 



We are glad of the above communication, because it supplies 

 what we have long been desirous of laying before our readers. 

 All the information that we were able to gain among the Lon- 

 don fruit-shops was, that yellow grapes sometimes had their 

 bloom restored by being fumigated with sulphur ; and that some 

 fruiterers of little repute were in the habit of supplying a bloom 

 to plums, by dusting them with the powder of the common blue 

 used by laundresses. The last operation is, in general, so 

 clumsily performed, that it may be readily detected ; the bloom 



