May IG, 1866. ] 



JOTJRKAL OF HOETICULTTIEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



375 



just proportion its growth is less rapid. Though its growth 

 and bearing vary according to the seasons and other circum- 

 stances, its maturity approaches sooner or later, and the 

 aim of the cultivator is to retain it in a healthy state as 

 long as possible; nevertheless, there is a time beyond which 

 his utmost skill is insufficient to do this ; probably some 

 natural cause, as an adverse season or other misfortune, 

 may bring on the tendency to decay, and though the tree 

 may have all the attention and assistance that can be 

 given, it must in time succumb. I need hardly mention, that 

 most trees become more prolific in blossom as they become 

 older and decay sets in ; but the lack of vigour in most of 

 those blossoms is such that a great proportion of them fall 

 off abortive. This, however, is'a well-known state of things, 

 but whether the decay of a tree is hastened by that cause, 

 or retarded by cultivation, is a matter now left for our con- 

 sideration, and from what observations I have been able to 

 make, I should be inclined to sav that the spade is an enemy 

 to old trees, and, coupled with that, I am strongly disposed 

 to add, that the knife is so also. Of course, I am speaking 

 of old full-grown standard trees past their best, for, like our- 

 selves, old trees are unable to bear violent changes when 

 they no longer possess the vigour requisite to enable them 

 to recover from any injury we may have done them. I 

 certainly have never seen a fruit tree in a cultivated orchard 

 so old as those in some that have been long laid down in 

 grass, neither do our walls present us with such old speci- 

 mens. 



In classing both the knife and spade as enemies to 

 great age, I expect many will except the latter, and, perhaps, 

 adduce some good reason for doing so, but let us take an 

 ordinary but somewhat severe example and mark the result. 

 Take two aged Apple trees that are still in fair bearing con- 

 dition, and supposing both to be alike in health, &e., let one 

 of them be headed down to a dozen or twenty branches, and 

 grafted in the usual way. The scions we shall suppose to 

 take pretty well (as they generally do if well managed), and 

 a good growth ensues, which is followed by a certain amount 

 of cutting and pruning in the succeeding winter to give the 

 proper shape. This is repeated for two or three seasons, 

 when, probably, it is discovered some spring that a large 

 limb involving quite one-thu-d of the tree has died, and, prob- 

 ably, next year the remainder follows. The other tree on the 

 contrary never having been mutilated in any way will remain 

 in much the same condition as before, a little older-looking, 

 certainly, but still likely to live for many years. This picture 

 is by no means oversti'ained, it being, in fact, of so frequent 

 occurrence that the heading down of old trees is very little 

 practised now, and many whose experience is worthy of much 

 attention, have expressed their disapprobation of meddling 

 with old trees in any other way than by entirely removing 

 them, affirming that extreme measures only tend to hasten 

 their dissolution. I could point out many examples where 

 old trees that had become crowded with mossy-covered 

 branches, did not seem to produce any more or any better 

 fruit by having their branches thinned, and cut into better 

 form. Jfature seemed to rebel against the proceeding, and 

 refused to make amends in any way for the injury done. 

 That there are exceptions to this I admit, but as the present 

 article was intended to relate more particularly to the roots 

 and then action in solid or disturbed ground, the subject of 

 pruning may be left until another opportunity. — J. Kobson. 



CEOSS-BEEEDESTG- STEAWBEEEIES. 



As a hybridiser of flowers and fruits I cannot let pass in 

 silence the article inserted in your Journal at page 362, 

 written by M. de Jonghe, of IJrussels, in which he says 

 all Strawberry flowers are fertilised before the blooms 

 expand. If so, why have many thousands of forced plants 

 gone blind this year? and, in fact, why do thousands go 

 blind every year ? 



If M. de Jonghe could get a good StrawbeiTy that would 

 set its flowers as he says, he would make a large sum of 

 money by it. The fact is nothing is so easy to fertilise as 

 Strawberry blooms, but, to make sure of them, the plants 

 should be forced a little in order to flower before the very 

 hot weather commences. In dull weather I have found in 

 StrawbeiTy flowers it would be sometimes three days after 



they expanded before the poUen made its appearance : con- 

 sequently, as I have proved, nothing is more simple to effect 

 than their fertilisation. — John Standish, Royal Nursery, 

 Ascot. 



KOYAL HOETICFLTURAL SOCIETY'S 

 OECHID SHOW. 



This was held on Saturday last, the 13th, and though 

 none of the great exhibitors of this beautiful order of plants 

 put in an appearance, there was a tolerably good bank 

 chiefly contributed by Messrs. Maule & Son, of Bristol, and 

 Messrs. Lee, who also sent an extensive collection of stovo 

 and greenhouse plants. 



In Class 1, Aerides, Vanda, and Saccolabium, Messrs. 

 Maule were the only exhibitors, and had a first prize for the 

 beautiful white and pink Aerides crispum ; a fine example of 

 the Foxbrush, with a spike nearly 2 feet in length, Veitch's 

 Vanda suavis, and a good variety of Saccolabium guttatum, 

 with eight spikes, grown, as well as several others of Messrs. 

 Maule's specimens, in pottery-ware imitations of stumps of 

 trees, varying from 16 inches to 3i feet in height, having 

 snags here and there with holes in them, and the interior 

 stuffed with pieces of cork. 



In Classes 2, 3, 5, and S, for Cattleyas, Ltelias, Oncidiums, 

 Miltonias, Odontoglossums, An^ctochils, and miscellaneous 

 nine, there was no competition. 



Class 4 was for three Cypripediums, and here Messrs. 

 Maule took the first prize with pans of C. barbatum pur- 

 puratum, and multiflorum, each upwards of 2 feet across, 

 and containing about forty flowers. The plants, it may be 

 remarked, were divided and planted out at equal distances 

 apart, and each bore a flower. The thu-d species was 



C. calyciuum, with small greenish yellow flowers, having 

 short tail-like appendages, after the manner of eaudatum. 

 The second prize was awarded to Mr. CuUen, gardener to 

 W. Wentworth BuUer, Esq., Strete Kaleigh, Devon, for 

 0. multiflorum, a large-flowered variety of C. barbatum, and 

 the curious South American C. eaudatum, with two remark- 

 ably fine, highly coloured flowers with each of the tails 

 20 inches in length. 



Class 6, was for Nurserymen's miscellaneous coMeotions 

 of twelve, in which Messrs. Maule were first with a fine 

 pan, 28 or 30 inches across, containing divided plants of 

 Cypripedium barbatum nigrum, bearing some forty-five 

 blooms, Vandas, Foxbrush Aerides, Saccolabiums retusum 

 and ampullaceum, Dendrobium nobUe, and a good example 

 of D. Devonianum, of which the cream, orange, and purple 

 flowers render it so splendid an object for exhibition ; Aerides 

 crispum and the useful and the free-flowering Oncidium di- 

 varicatum, completed the number of this collection. Messrs. 

 Lee came second with a small plant of Cypripedium 

 hirsutissimum, a good specimen of Dendrobium nobile, 



D. Dayanum, and D. Wallichianum, Oncidium altissimum, 

 Phalsenopsis grandiflora and amabilis, each with thi-ee spikes 

 of bloom, Cypripedium barbatum and its variety nigrum, 

 C. Hookeriffi, with the flowers very bright in colour, and 

 Cattleyas in good bloom. Mr. Parker, Tooting, was third 

 with a collection containing several good Tandas, and varie- 

 ties of Cattleya, Lycaste Harrisonije, a very good plant with 

 fifteen flowers, Trichopilia coccinea, Phalaenopsis grandiflora, 

 and a variety of this called aurea, in which the yellow eye 

 was larger and of a more golden colour than the plant 

 usually presents. 



A miscellaneous collection of six from Mr. Kobson, gar- 

 dener to G. Cooper, Esq., had a first-prize. It contained the 

 jjretty Cattleya amethystina, the beautiful and fi-ee-flower- 

 ing Lycaste Skinneri, one of the best of winter-flowering 

 Orchids, Oncidium sphacelatum, with two good spikes and 

 a small one, Phalsenopsis grandiflora, Vanda tricolor superba, 

 and Cattleya Mossise. Another collection also came from the 

 same exhibitor; and one of three from Messrs. Maule, for 

 which a first prize was awarded, it being the only exhibition 

 in the class for that number. 



In single specimens by far the iinest was a magnificent 

 plant of Vanda suavis (Veitch's variety), from Mr. Hill, 

 gardener to E. Hanbury, Esq., The Poles, Ware, standing at 

 least 4 feet high, and bearing twelve fine spikes of its 

 gorgeous cream-white and crimson blooms. It received a 

 first prize, also Mr. Wilson Saunders' prize for the finest 



