PREFACE. IX. 



shady, and damp, the hot air, especially in a fierce-blowing hot wind, 

 will penetrate into the house and injure their air-roots, if growing on 

 blocks, thus checking the growth of the plants materially, so that some 

 time elapses before the roots show young growth again. The only 

 prevention is to grow the plants in orchid-pots in sphagnum for the 

 protection of the roots. During the summer months great attention is 

 required for the plants in the stoves, conservatories, palm and green 

 hbuses. To protect the plants from the burning rays of the sun the 

 houses must be shaded by blinds. In fact, the effects of the sun on 

 the glass act like a burning-glass, so that the leaves of the plants 

 exposed to the sun's rays are burned in a very short time. On days 

 when tlie thermometer shows 130° to 140° in the sun, every precaution 

 is necessary to keep the temperature down in the houses. 



"With the exception of the intertropical fruits, although there are only 

 a few of these, all fruits from other parts of the globe thrive most 

 luxuriantly in South Australia, and come to such perfection in size, and 

 frequently in flavor, as is hardly known in other countries ; and many 

 fruits are found to improve materially by the change, as the climatic 

 conditions often succeed in modifying and improving their condition. 

 On the plains grow apples, pears, apricots, peaches, nectarines, orang^es, 

 citrons, lemons, plums, cherries, figs, almonds, mulberries, olives, and 

 grapes ; while in the hills and gullies besides are grown strawberries, 

 raspberries, gooseberries, currants, walnuts, chestnuts, filberts, &c. 



The apples grow to great sizes, but do not always possess the same 

 fine flavour as at home, and contain more acidity. The apple trees 

 suffer much from the attack of the American blight, for which no radical 

 remedy is at present known. The trees which grow in the hills or in 

 rich soil suffer most, and succumb at last to this scourge. The pears 

 grow to perfection, and maintain the same flavor as in the old country. 



The fruit of the peaches, apricots, plums, reach to a size and contain 

 a flavor unknown in Europe. The cherries do not attain the perfection 

 of home. All the stone-fruit producing trees are short-lived, especially 

 those of the peach, which live scarcely fourteen to sixteen years. This 

 early decline may be owing to the quick, luxuriant growth and early 

 and excessive bearing, circumstances which produce over-stimulation and 

 early exhaustion. 



It often happens that by a fierce, hot north wind the parts of fruit, 

 viz., apples, pears, plums, apricots, and peaches, on the plains, which are 

 exposed to the north become quite black, and are, in the true sense of 

 the word, " baked." Such days we are experiencing at the present 

 time. During the last eight days the reading of the thermometer has 



