January 10, 1865. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



27 



variety of these which was shown separately and received a 

 first-class certificate. An excellent collection came from the 

 Society's Garden at Chiswick. Messrs. A. Henderson sent 

 a collection of flowering and ornamental-foliage plants ; Mr. 

 Short, Clewer Park, Libonia ilorihunda, a very ornamental 

 Corrffla-like plant ; Mr. Hedges, Wallingford, Bougainvillisa 

 speciosa in excellent condition; Mr. Coysh, Sericographis 

 Ghiesbreghtiana, Oncidium divarieatum, and other flowering 

 plants, also cut blooms of Camellias and Lapageria ; and Mr. 

 Smythe, gardener to Lord Sondes, a good specimen plant of 

 Coritea magnifica. Mr. Ingram, gardener to Her Majesty, 

 had a fine Cayenne Pine and Mushrooms ; and Sir Joseph 

 Paxton, M.P., some very good Black Hamburgh Grapes, 

 ripened without artificial heat in one of his patent houses. 

 Heat had only been occasionally applied after October to keep 

 out frost and dispel damp. The centre of the table on which 

 this little show was set out was occupied with a fine En- 

 cephalartos Altensteinii, which is just throwing up three 

 heads for flowering. 



eipekijN"g op late peaes. 



Septembbk 16th, 1864. — Gathered Marie Louise (a) from 

 a standard in a sheltered corner, the largest on the tree 

 being selected, and stored in a dark, vaulted cellar of a 

 nearly uniform temperature of 52". 



October Sth. — Gathered Marie Louise (e) from same tree, 

 and stored them similarly. Fruit stiU hard and unripe, but 

 nearly one-half larger than a, which are to-day quite ripe 

 and melting. 



October 24th. — A over-ripe and decaying ; e still hard 

 and not at all melting. 



November 9th. — b slightly over-ripe. 



November 29th. — Gathered Marie Louise from same tree 

 hard and unripe. Stored a portion (c) in a dark cellar as 

 before, another portion (d) in the open air, protected over- 

 head fi'om rain by a glass covering, but freely open to ven- 

 tilation laterally, and fully exposed to sunshine. 



December 15th. — c over-ripe and decaying. 



December 25th. — d part over^'ipe and decaying, part ripe 

 and melting. 



The above noted in my pomological diary, may contain a 

 fact or two in furtherance of the inquu-y started by " T. G." 

 (page 512j. Early Pears, if I mistake not, are retarded in 

 their ripening by premature gathering, but the rule would 

 seem to be otherwise with later sorts, for by successive 

 gatherings it would appear that Marie Louise from the same 

 tree may be had fit for table use for a period of upwards of 

 eight weeks. At all the dates given the fruit was fully 

 entitled to be called delicious, that which was ripened slowly 

 under glass being quite equal to the other lots forwarded 

 more rapidly in the higher temperature of the cellar. 



It would be an interesting subject of inquiry whether we 

 are not altogether wrong in excluding the light from late- 

 ripening fruit. Light is, indeed, pre-eminently the great 

 ripening agent in nature, and though unquestionably a low 

 temperature and darkness will retard the process, still when 

 the desired period of perfection approaches we are wrong, I 

 think, in not employing light as well as heat to further our 

 object. The firuit d rested on a plate of glass elevated about 

 2 inches above the surface of the ground, the protecting 

 glass overhead being some 6 or 8 inches higher. The wind 

 played freely over the fruit, which was, notwithstanding, 

 plump and free from shrivelling like that from the cellar. For 

 very late Pears I would suggest the Waltonian case as the 

 best of all means that could be employed for ripening them. 



Win " T. G." and a few others join with me in experi- 

 ments in this direction ? Light in its relations to vegetation 

 has not received its due share of attention from horticul- 

 turists, who seem to overlook the fact that Nature always 

 increases heat and light simultaneously. On another point 

 also there is wanted a collection of facts to base sound 

 practice upon, I mean the periods of inci-ease in size of some 

 of the commoner varieties of fruit. Will some of the many 

 interested in pomology devote a few minutes once a- week to 

 registering in the coming season the length from the junction 

 of the stalk to the eye, and the greatest diameter perpen- 

 dicular to the axis of growth, of the Jargonelle, Marie Louise, 

 Louise Bonne, and a few others ? The immense increase in 

 size of the Marie Louise (b) in the short interval of twenty- 



one days, and after a period when I had supposed the fi'uit 

 had reached its full size, suggests the means of ascertaining 

 the period, differing in different fruits, when moisture should 

 cease to be applied to t'he soil, and the roots be to some 

 extent carefully protected from rain. And this is only one 

 of many points in the same connection worth thinking about. 

 — Fbtjit Eatek. 



SKELETONISING LEAVES. 



"What are you doing so mysteriously, Mary," asked 

 Marion, " with that pan of very dirty-looking water ?" 



" I am trying to make skeleton leaves," she replied. 



" Oh, I remember, Mr. Hope said something about our 

 trying that ; but it has been forgotten, for we have found so 

 very much to do this summer. I never felt so busy in my 

 life." 



" It is too late in the year, now," said Mary. 



" Then why are you ti-ying, if it is too late y" 



" Oh I began more than six weeks ago, and this is only 

 part of the method." 



"Do tell us all about it," asked Margaret, "and then we 

 can try next year." 



" I shall be very glad to tell you, and show you all I can. 

 I procured this large earthen pan and put into it a quantity 

 of leaves. At first I thought any kind of leaves would do, 

 but Mr. Sinclair told me that those of the Oak, Chestnut, 

 Elm, Sycamore, and Walnut, which I thought would all make 

 pretty skeletons, had so much resin in them that they would 

 not decay themselves, and they would also prevent other 

 leaves that were mixed with them decaying, because the 

 resinous quality in them would afi'ect the water ; so I had to 

 throw all those away, and lost some time. He then advised 

 me as to the choice of leaves, and seed-vessels also, which 

 must be gathered just before the seed is ripe. He wrote me 

 out a list of leaves, and Harry and I gathered a quantity of 

 those we could procure." 



" Do tell us what they were." 



" The leaves we gathered were those of the Poplar, Lime, 

 Tulip Tree, the Apple, Pear, Apricot, Orange, Lemon, Box, 

 Ivy, Holly, Magnolia, and Passion Flower. Then we added 

 the calyxes of several plants, as the Nicandra, Campanula, 

 Dictamnus, Mallow, Poppy, and several more ; and also a 

 few stalks of Cabbage, Flax, Hemp, and Stinging-nettle 

 We procured a good quantity of each, as that helps the 

 decay." 



" What did you do then?" 



" We put them all into the pan, and poured a quantity of 

 boiling soft water over them." 



" Why boiling water ?" 



" Mr. Sinclair told us it would destroy the vitality, as he 

 called it, and hasten the process. Then gardener put the 

 pan on the top of this low out-house to be out of the way of 

 the fowls, and that it might be exposed to the sun and rain." 



" But did not the water dry up soon?" 



" No, the rain filled the pan again several times ; and 

 Harry used to get up once a-week and stir it. Now gardener 

 has taken it down for me, as I believe in sis weeks some of 

 the leaves are ready." 



"And what are you going to do now? They look so 

 messy and discoloured that I cannot imagine anything pretty 

 being made of them. 



"I will ti-y one," and Mary put her hand into the dis- 

 coloured water and drew out a Tulip-Tree leaf, which was 

 already showing some of its fibrous formation, the green 

 part having decayed and partly fallen away into the water ; 

 this leaf she held carefully by the stalk under the tap of the 

 butt. The stream of water quickly washed away all the re- 

 maining fleshy decayed green part, and left the leaf a 

 skeleton, to the great delight of the gu-ls ; then placing it 

 carefully in some clean water, Maiy tried another leaf with 

 the same result. Now and then one gave them more trouble, 

 being so tender that the force of the water broke it all to 

 pieces ; then Mary remembered Mr. Sinclair had told her 

 that in this case she should lay the leaf on a little piece of 

 board, and holding the two together between her finger and 

 thumb, the stream of water would run over and through the 

 leaf without breaking it. Some they found, even after this 

 process, had little bits of green substance which would not 

 come away ; when it would not yield at all, even after beiug 



