492 Retrospective Criticism-, 



greatest danger of spoiling it being by heating), and after this operation 

 has been performed it should be again well dried. The best way to keep 

 the tobacco, when properly prepared, is to press it closely into a box where 

 it will be excluded from the air, and which should be placed in a dry situ- 

 ation. Managed thus, it will answer the general purposes of fumigation 

 required in horticulture; but will certainly not be equal to that imported. 

 — A.N. March 3. 1832. 



Italian Practices with respect to the Culture of Sweet and Bitter Oranges, 

 and of Lemons. (Vol. VII. p. 308 — 310.) — Permit me to rectify some of the 

 notices on sweet and bitter oranges communicated by W. Spence, Esq. 

 F.L.S., and inserted in Vol. VII. p. 308— 310. That gentleman, after 

 having said that on the shores of the Lakes Maggiore and Garda, the 

 orange and lemon trees, although planted in the open ground, are co- 

 vered in the winter with wooden tents, which, in very severe frosts, are 

 warmed with artificial heat, announces as a fact that there is no place that 

 he knows of, in the north of Italy, where the sweet orange can remain 

 uncovered in the open air during the winter, beyond the neighbourhoods of 

 Pisa, Massa, Genoa, &c. I can certify that, on the shores of the Lake of 

 Como, which is more northerly than the Lake of Garda, and particularly 

 at Varenna, in the garden of Casa Isambardi, not only bitter oranges, 

 but sweet oranges, are left uncovered in the open air all the winter. They 

 only take the precaution, when they expect a fall of the thermometer to 4 ' 

 of Reaum. (23° of Fahr.), to gather the oranges, because, being exposed to 

 4° of cold, they freeze, and become unfit for food; and being gathered, if 

 they are not speedily sold, they are placed in cellars in wine vats, where 

 they are preserved fresh till spring. I have also happened to see, that, 

 in winters even colder than 4°, when some oranges have accidentally 

 escaped the notice of the gardener, they have remained uninjured through- 

 out the winter on the tree. 



What Mr. Spence relates of covering lemon trees on the shores of the 

 Verbano and of the Benaco is, however, practised on those of the Lario ; 

 though this caution is more useful for the preservation of the fruit than 

 of the plants. I, who am a native of Varenna, and have lived there for 

 many years, have seen lemon trees planted in places exposed to damp 

 winds, standing the coldest winters (relative to that country) without any 

 shelter. Their fruit, however, was a little withered by the frost, and the 

 leaves and the uppermost twigs were discoloured or blighted; but they 

 suffered in no other respect. This particular hardiness, in my opinion, 

 arises from the circumstance of these plants having been from their infancy 

 exposed in the winter without covering of any kind. If, on the contrary, 

 they had been accustomed from the beginning, like their sister plants, to 

 be sheltered from the cold, I think that, if exposed afterwards in such 

 situations, they would have been blighted or injured by the frosts. Thus, 

 in my present neighbourhood, at Monza, the vine stands very well the 

 severity of the winter, without being laid down and covered with earth, as 

 is proved by a number of old vines climbing round the trees, the vine 

 arbours, and the vines trained on espaliers, none of which are ever buried. 

 On the contrary, all the vines planted in rows are buried ; and, if these 

 should by chance be left erect during the winter, they grow unhealthy or 

 die, either from the cold or the fogs. The late director of the gardens and 

 park at Monza, Sig. Luigi Villaresi, procured from Bordeaux and Burgundy 

 some vines which he placed on a hill in the park : during his lifetime these 

 vines were never laid down under ground, notwithstanding which their 

 vegetation was always flourishing and their vintage copious. At his death, 

 through the obstinacy usual in ignorant peasants, and in stewards not better 

 instructed than the peasants, these vines were buried like the rest ; and, 

 would you believe it ? they have now become so sensitive to the rigours of 

 winter, that, if they are not well covered, they look yellow and sickly the 



