592 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



very latest developments of Single Pompon Cactus Dahlias really beautiful, 

 or do they not rather merit the two preceding adjectives we used ? 



Keeping Apples. 



It has been suggested to wrap Apples in paper and pack them in 

 barrels in dry sand o peat-moss dust. It is obvious that either would 

 ensure darkness, an even temperature, and a better " lie " than on 

 open shelves, and a much larger quantity could be stored close 

 together. But without stopping to consider the terrible weight of 

 barrels filled up with sand, either it or peat-moss dust would 

 probably dry all the juice up out of the fruit altogether and give it 

 a haggard appearance, make the flesh of it dry and tough, and 

 almost certainly convey to it a strong earthy flavour. Fruit very 

 quickly acquires the taste of anything that has been associated with it. 

 We well remember a grand lot of Apples being practically ruined by being 

 stored in the loft of a shed whose basement was used for Potatos ; and 

 for Pears to taste musty from being allowed to lie on damp straw is of 

 the most ordinary experience. No, if you want to keep Apples, pick 

 them carefully, store on open shelves for a fortnight or three weeks, then 

 go carefully over them one by one, taking only the perfectly sound ones, 

 place them in clean boxes lined with stoutish clean scentless paper, 

 making a layer of fruit all over the bottom of the box, packing tight, but 

 without using any force ; lay a sheet of paper over the bottom layer, 

 then pack on it a second layer, and a third, and so on till your box is full. 

 Koughly speaking, four layers one upon another are enough, unless the 

 fruits are small. Put on the lid after the last covering of paper and store 

 the boxes in a cool, not over-dry place, where the temperature will not 

 vary much, placing them on the ground ; but if it be a brick or earth 

 floor (which is better far than boards), raise them with a half -brick at 

 each corner, so that the bottom of the box does not actually rest upon the 

 ground. A cellar is a good place, or quite the back of a clean coachhouse. 

 The mistake generally made is the keeping Apples and Pears too dry 

 and too much exposed to air. Apples keep magnificently in " clamps " 

 or buried underground, but under such circumstances it must be difficult 

 to avoid their tasting of the earth. 



Mistletoe. 



A Fellow tells us that " some years ago Mistletoe was introduced into 

 a garden in Bovey Tracey by rubbing the seeds on to an Apple-tree ; it 

 now covers that tree with large bunches, and has spread all over an 

 adjoining orchard and is growing on several Thorn-trees, and there is one 

 large bunch on a tall Acacia near." We ourselves introduced Mistletoe 

 into a garden in 1884, and have often since wondered if w^e had not done 

 a very silly trick, noticing that on a tree in which it is once established 

 it appears able to send out fresh bunches without the necessity of 

 fresh seed-germination. It is very interesting to watch the germina- 

 tion of the seeds. Sow them in April or May, and they lie dormant 

 till the following spring, when two bright green " horns " as it were 

 start forth from the seed straight into the air, and you think, " There 



