356 THE PARADISE, DOUCIN, AND CRAB STOCKS. 



— one that as regards vigour is intermediate between tlie 

 Crab and the Paradise, well fitted for neat standards, 

 pyramids, and large busbes, but growing too vigorously to 

 furnish anything but disappointment if planted as a low 

 cordon, except on very light calcareous or " burning^'' soils. 

 To plant the Apple on the common or Crab stock, and 

 expect to form a dwarf fertile tree, is simply folly. By 

 mutilation and removals you may secure a crop, and keep 

 the Doucin or " English Paradise^'' within bounds ; but what 

 we want is a stock that will furnish a dwarf and fertile 

 growth, without any root-pruning or attention whatever, 

 beyond that of pinching in the shoots two or three times in 

 summer, according to their luxuriance. This we have exactly 

 in the Paradise stock, grown by millions in the nurseries 

 around Paris, and in many other parts of France. 



We have next to determine what is this Paradise stock. 

 It need scarcely be said that a plant Hke this, which exerts 

 so marked an influence on the trees grafted on it, and is so 

 truly valuable for our gardens, deserves to be at least as 

 well known as any one kind of fruit, however good. Yet 

 this is so far from being the case that but very little is 

 known about it. To most of the French botanists its origin 

 is involved in obscurity. I failed to find perfect fruit or 

 flowers in any garden in the neighbourhood of Paris or 

 London, but have had some young trees of the Paradise 

 and Doucin planted with a view of allowing them to fruit. 



As regards the origin of the trees, apparently the clearest 

 account is that of Professor Koch of Berlin, who has paid 

 a great deal of attention to the origin of all our fruit trees. 

 He says : — The name Mains paradisiaca appears to have 

 been first used by Buellius in the year 1537. It is a native 

 of South-Eastern Russia, Caucasus, Tartary, and the Altai 

 Mountains. I have often seen this shrub in the Caucasus, 

 and near the Don and the Volga, where it forms shrubs and 

 dwarf trees, frequently accompanied with suckers.''^ 



Without attempting to throw any light on the origin of the 

 Paradise, M. Carriere of the Jardin des Plantes has studied 

 its characteristics, compared them with those of the Doucin, 

 and described both in the Flore des Serres : — 



