632 NOTES OF A HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



tree trained to a single stem,, or a vertical cordon^ tlie top 

 being allowed to grow as high as it likes, and thus close 

 columns of leaves and fruits are formed as mucL. as fifteen 

 feet high. Nothing could exceed the fine condition of many 

 of these trees^ perfectly laden from top to bottom in many 

 casesj and in many more bending arched to the ground with 

 the weight of their fruit. They were not staked^ but when 

 they are grown in a regular fruit garden it is the custom to 

 securely connect them near the top by a line of wire, so that 

 they cannot bend down with the weight of the fruit. Their 

 advantages are that fruit and leaves enjoy abundance of sun 

 and air. The fruit is said to be better flavoured than from 



Fig. 370. 



Portion of Self-supporting espalier of Pear Trees, formed of horizontal and verti- 

 cally trained trees, the points of the horizontally trained tree grafted by 

 approach to the outer branches only of the vertical ones. 



I 



the Pyramid tree, in which there is usually a good deal of 

 shade, while they are perhaps the easiest of all forms to 

 conduct, and a great many kinds may be grown on a small 

 space. Their drawback appears to be the great height to 

 which they attain; pruning, and the gathering of the fi:ait 

 are not so facile as is desirable. 



In many French gardens a peculiarly simple and neat way of 

 training espalier Pear trees may be seen (see Figs, on p. 629), 

 and there were good examples both here and in the next place 

 described. It consists of a stout stake for the main trunk of 

 the tree, and of wires running from this to stones or pegs 



