130 THE FLORIST AM) 



didus, but we do not know if it lias been imported into this 

 country. 



The cultivation of these plants is very simple; any l&ose', light 

 soil seems to suit them ; but tiiey do best in baskets planted among 

 chopped moss and fibry peat. Kept in a warm, moist house while 

 growing, and kept dry and in a moderate temperature during the 

 winter, they will grow rapidly and flower abundantly. Cuttings 

 root very readily in sand under a bell glass. 



Rosedale Nurseries, Darby R©jd, May 10th, 1853. 

 SUMMER PRUNING OF THE PEAR. 



Mr. Editor : — I promised in my last to say a word to your many 

 readers, but your calendar writer, S. B., has fairly anticipated me, 

 and has, moreover, said as much in ten lines as book-makers gen- 

 erally do in ten folios — in fact he has done up the subject well — 

 read it again. It is thirty years since I summer-pruned fruit trees, 

 but I have lived to see that the science was very imperfectly under- 

 stood then, and those who may succeed us will, I hope, be able to 

 say so of us. Our pruning was done in August just on the return 

 of the sap ; an error if you wish fruit ; a fit time if you wish 

 wood. Before this reaches your friends it will be time for many of 

 them to begin to prune — not by cutting off shoots and thinning out, 

 but by pinching off the tip of the young growth as soon as it has 

 made six inches of young wood. Some may require nibbing off 

 entirely where they form a thicket ; but that is rarely required 

 when the tree has had a judicious winter pruning. Strong shoots 

 that offer to outgrow all others will require frequent topping during 

 the season ; and those of weaker growth will do with one topping, 

 observing to keep the proportions of the tree in the eye that it may 

 be regular and uniform from base to tip ; much defoliation should 

 never be performed; the smaller the portion the more healthful the 

 tree ; deprive it of its foliage and you at the same time deprive it 

 of a portions of its roots. When the summer pruning is performed 



