378 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



quality in the fruit being great, especially 

 in a dry season. They are seldom ma- 

 ture until late in October and should 

 hang until mellowed unless sharp frost 

 threatens ; being easily bruised, they 

 should be handled with care and laid 

 to ripen fully in a cool and airy room, 

 becoming bright yellow and very fra- 

 grant when fit for use. Often i lb. or 

 more in weight, the fruits of some kinds 

 reach as much as 2\ lbs., but this is ex- 

 ceptional. Quite small trees will yield 

 half a bushel of fruits, and with age the 

 yield increases rapidly. The trees are 

 best planted in November, and whileold 

 trees move fairly well young ones are 

 better; towards the north the tree is best 

 upon walls, seldom ripening its fruit 

 without thisprotection. The immediate 

 neighbourhood of the sea is unfavour- 

 ble to the Quince. The general way is 

 to leave the tree unpruned,but however 

 picturesque in appearance this is against 

 good fruiting. Being often scanty in leaf 

 little thinning is needed beyond that 

 of weak cross-shoots; when the head is 

 onceformedeachseason'sgrowth should 

 be pruned back to five or six buds, 

 and though this may seem severe the in- 

 creased yield justifies the plan when 

 market is the end in view. The trees are 

 seldom more than 1 5 to 2 c feet high and 

 are many years in reaching that height, 

 being more inclined to spread and droop 

 earthwards than to rise ; good erect 

 shoots should, however, be encouraged 

 as being the most fruitful. 



The Quince may be raised by seeds, 

 cuttings, layers, budding, or root graft- 

 ing, and, as is so often the case, the worst 

 method (from layers) is that most used. 



It is so easy to cut back an old tree and 

 force shoots from its base which quickly 

 root when earthed up, but trees so raised 

 are always throwing suckers in the same 

 way. Cuttings of the ripened shoots a 

 foot long, taken in early autumn, will 

 root as readily as Rose cuttings in warm 

 light soil under just similar conditions. 

 Root grafting — a good way — consists 

 in splicing pieces of apple root to short 

 cuttings ; this assures their rooting, and 

 when well rooted on its own account 

 the apple-root can be removed at the 

 first transplanting. So much care is 

 needed, however, to grow a good stan- 

 dard Quince, that the best way is to buy 

 young trees for planting. For light and 

 dry soils the Quince is often grafted upon 

 the Hawthorn, but for heavy soils seed- 

 ling Quinces make the best stocks. 



Apart from its fruit, the 



Be Form° f beautv °f an old Quince 

 tree makes it worth a pi ace 

 in any garden, with its sweeping pen- 

 dulous branches, knotted and gnarled 

 grotesquely, distinct in their dark co- 

 lour, and quite unlike the ordinary fruit 

 tree in effect. The large cup-shaped 

 flowers of white or flesh-pink are beau- 

 tiful, hanging like single Roses from the 

 tips of every side shoot among the soft 

 rounded leaves, silvery white beneath. 

 And when in autumn the boughs hang 

 yet lower beneath their load of fruits, 

 whose colour outvies the golden leaves, 

 few trees grown for effect are finer 

 than this " golden apple of Hesperides." 

 ! Many an old pond in Kent and Sussex 

 is fringed every autumn with its loaded 

 Quinces, and when bending low over 

 the water with its fragrant burden, the 



