October 20, 1870. ) 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



303 



great bearers (I see no difference between EIruge and Violette 

 Hative, tbey appear to be the same, or nearly so), and of ex- 

 cellent flavour. Have which your readers will, they cannot burn 

 their fingers. I thank Mr. Rivers and Mr. Sfcandish for raising 

 such noble fruits. 



A good successional selection of Nectarines would be EIruge, 

 Rivers's White, River's Orange, Rivera's Pine Apple, and 

 Rivers's Victoria. The last brings the season to Outober 11th. 



I conclude with a few observations. I prune the trees on 

 the alternate system, as recommended by Mr. Brehaut in his 

 valuable " Peach Pruner." Unless I wish to fill in a vacant 

 spaee, few of the shoots are more than 6 or 8 inches long. Some 

 are pinched to two and four full-sized leaves. I disbud but 

 little, and pinch to two leaves for spurs. The same shoot will 

 never bear again. It is, therefore, best to prune short, and 

 leave three shoots 4 inches long at shorter distances than leave 

 a shoot 12 or more inches long. If you cannot ripen a shoot 

 4 inches long, how can you expect to ripen a shoot 12 inches 

 long ? If the winter kills, as is often the case, an unripened 

 shoot, you get a bare space without a chance of succession. I 

 rarely have a dead shoot in winter. Long twigs in " misery " 

 are often sent to me by other people. If nurserymen would 

 shorten the twigs of their one-year-trained trees one-third, these 

 would probably produce fruit the first year after removal. 

 They look, of course, more worth the money untouched. I 

 keep my trees root-pruned, and hence I am able to grow more 

 sorts. If the roots are allowed to ramble, you must permit the 

 trees to ramble, or they will gum. The result is in time a 

 large bare space at the base and centre of the trees. I have 

 " expletives," or small trees, some on Bhort stocks and others 

 headed-off into standards, to fill up all interstitial spaces and 

 gaps. These are kept short-pruned, and are removed annually 

 to be root-pruned, in order to keep head and roots good friends. 

 I stop the extensions in August, and the other shoots in June. 

 All my trees are now nearly bare of leaves, are pruned, and are 

 tied with bast to cast-iron nails. The bast should be crossed, 

 so as that the nail may not touch the twig. — W. F. Radclyfm:. 



THE CULTURE OF LILIUM AURATUM. 

 This is without doubt the most popular of the Lily tribe, and 

 bids fair to become the most popular of plants, now that its 

 price has placed it within the reach of the humblest owner of a 

 greenhouse. Numerous distinot and beautiful varieties are in 

 cultivation, and a fair field is open to the hybridist, as a most 

 distinct and lovely variety, said to be a cross between L. auratum 

 and lancifolium, was exhibited at South Kensington lately. 

 As to the varieties of auratum, their distinctiveness consists 

 not only in the size, colour, and shape of the flowers, but also 

 in the number of flowers borne on a spike. Some of tho varieties 

 have from three to six flowers on a spike, others from thirty to 

 forty. I obtained a number of bulbs of auratum of nearly 

 equal size, as imported from Japan, in February, 1867. No 

 notes were made of their growth or flowering in that year, but 

 in the following three seasons the subjoined notes were made. 

 The produce of each bulb was each year repotted in a pot by 

 itself. 



No. 1.— 1868 had 1 spike 16 flowers 



1869 had i 



, 32 



1870 had 6 



, 131 



No. 2.— 1868 had 1 



„ 25 



1869 had 1 



, 24 



1870 had 2 



, 89 



No. 8.-18ii8hadS 



,, 9 



1869 had 3 



„ 10 



No. 3.— 1S70 had 11 spikes 33 flowers 



No. 4.— 1868 had 2 , 



, 13 



1869 had 4 , 



, 25 



1870 had 9 , 



75 



No. 5— 1868 had 2 



7 



1869 had 2 , 



, 9 



1870 had 2 



7 



The remaining roots did not succeed well ; bulbs were not in- 

 creased to a large extent, and not more than one or two flowers 

 were borne on a spike. No. 1 had flower-spikes 10 feet in 

 height, and the largest number of flowers on a spike was thirty- 

 five. Some of the varieties do not grow more than from 2 to 

 3 feet in height, and have the finest individual flowers. 



Nearly all the Lily tribe are of easy culture, and Lilium 

 auratum is not an exception. October is a good month to 

 repot the bulbs ; it is not advisable to dry them off, as is done 

 with Hyacinths, Tulips, and other bulbs. Water ought to be 

 administered sparingly previous to potting, and as soon as 

 the leaves assume a yellow tinge the stalks may be cut over 

 and the bulbs potted. In potting, some cultivators disturb the 

 bulbs as little as possible, merely scratching away the loose soil 

 with a pointed stick, and repotting in a pot a size larger; I con- 

 sider it best to shake the soil entirely from the roots, separating 

 eaoh bulb, and saving the fresh roots as much as possible. 

 As many as a dozen bulbs are planted in a 13-inch pot, three of 



the larger bulbs are placed in the centre, and the remainder 

 round the inside of the rim. I find they succeed well in a com- 

 post of three parts of turfy loam and one part of leaf mould and 

 rotted manure, with a portion of silver sand to keep the material 

 open. 



If the compost in which the bulbs are potted is somewhat 

 moist, no watering will be required. The pots ought to be 

 plunged in a cold frame, and I do not know of anything better 

 for this purpose than cocoa-nut fibre refuse ; and if the pots are 

 completely buried in it, so that there may be at least 4 inches 

 of the fibre over the surface of the soil, there will be no danger 

 of the bulbs being injured by frost. The lights ought to be kept 

 off the frame, except during severe frost and drenching rains. 

 The bulbs will continue to make roots all the winter. The 

 cocoa-nut fibre refuse ought to be removed from the surface o£ 

 the pots in March, and if the bulbs are doing well roots will be 

 found pushing upwards into it. The plants ought to remain in 

 the cold frame until May, when they can be placed on a hard 

 bottom in a sheltered position out of doors until the flowers 

 begin to open, when they must be removed to the greenhouse or 

 sitting-room. Manure water may bo occasionally administered 

 to them, but they will do well without it ; of course if they are 

 wanted for exhibition or any other special purpose, extra care 

 must be bestowed upon them. If they have to be removed a dis- 

 tance when in flower, the anthers ought to be wrapped round 

 with tissue paper, in order that the dark brown dust may be pre- 

 vented from shaking on to the petals, as it sadly disfigures the 

 flowers. I have seen them brought to an exhibition when this 

 precaution has been neglected, and the flowers were entirely 

 spoiled.— J. Douglas. 



STOCKS FOR APPLE GRAFTS. 



In reference to the inquiry at page 243, and the information 

 kindly given at page 262 by Mr. Scott, we may pursue the sub- 

 ject with profit, I think to its more complete explanation. 



Wo understand the English Paradise to be the Burr Knot 

 and the Nonesuch, both Apple stocks chosen for this purpose. 

 The Crab stocks, Mr. Scott says, are raised from cider pomace 

 — i.e., the seeds washed out of the cider residuum, and are not 

 the true Crab or wild Apple stocks. Doubtless a host of stocks 

 are produced from cider refuse seeds, but are they not called 

 Free stocks as distinguished from Crab stocks in the nomen- 

 clature of their class ? and is not the Crab or wild Apple culti- 

 vated for stocks ? If not, we are growing varieties of Apples 

 on other varieties of Apples, just as we do on the Burr Knot and 

 Nonesuch (called English Paradise), and are in the dark how 

 far, if at all, any or each variety of Apple stock affects any 

 other variety of Apple, scion and fruit, grafted upon and pro- 

 duced from its Apple stock of indiscriminate use. Such would 

 not be the case if Crab or wild Apple stocks were used as Crab 

 stocks, as they alone ought to be, and not confounded with 

 Apple stocks : insomuch we are all duped, as the Apple Btocks, 

 the medley of cider refuse seedlings, go by the name of Crab 

 stocks amongst our nurserymen. We can predicate the result, 

 in growth and produce, from the Crab or wild Apple stock (the 

 only veritable stock), and perhaps from the Burr Knot and 

 Nonesuch Apple stocks ; but from such a chaotic mass as cider 

 Apple refuse seedlings render, all must be chance and uncer^ 

 tainty throughout — that is, if the stock do— and it does — influ- 

 ence the graft or scion and its fruit for better or for worse. 

 The mischief lies in the sport or variation, apt to show itself 

 in the same fruit on different and haphazard stocks. Do not 

 cider Apple growers cultivate stocks of each reputed cider fruit, 

 on which stocks alone they graft each peculiar cider scion, 

 stock and scion identical, for verity of produce ? So I have 

 been told. 



The Stibbert stock, too, by Mr. Scott's kindness, we now 

 understand is the Dutch Codlin Apple — Apple on Apple again, 

 subject very likely to uncertainty in truth of produce, inasmuch 

 as Apple stock may affect Apple scion and fruit, as is already 



And I may appropriately ask, If and in what respect the 

 Burr Knot, the Nonesuch, and the Dutch Codlin stocks affect 

 the scions and fruits grown upon them respectively ? The 

 answer would indicate what we may anticipate from cider refuse 

 seedling stocks — Apple stocks at a venture. 



Here I will digress, and designate the practice of sending out 

 cider Apple seedling stocks for Crab stocks as, if not a cheat, 

 most reprehensible, and demanding attention from the Royal 

 Horticultural Society as likely to spread a mongrel produce 

 over the face of our gardens and orchards. 



