258 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



as the free stocks. Both the free and crab stocks were reckoned 

 to be deeper and coarser rooted than the Paradise. 



The Result of Investigations on the Paradise. — The investigation 

 carried out at East Mailing showed, in the first place, that there 

 were eight or nine types of so-called Paradise in fairly general use 

 in this country. It proved that these types varied very greatly 

 in vigour from the true Broad-leaved English Paradise, upon which 

 I have seen standard trees as strong and vigorous as upon any 

 free stock, to the true French Paradise which forces Bramley's 

 Seedling in the second year from the graft into copious fruiting. 

 Incidentally, it showed that the strong and weak types were frequently 

 badly intermixed, and that the names were interchangeable and 

 inaccurate. 



The investigations also disclosed a series of so-called Paradise 

 stocks more vigorous even than the true Broad-leaved, and, in fact, 

 as deep and coarse-rooting as a good free stock, yet easy to raise 

 vegetatively from layers. It also became apparent that the more 

 dwarfing stocks were often very sparsely furnished with root fibre and 

 were even coarse-rooted, as is the case with the true Doucin or English 

 Paradise, and that some of the deeper-rooting stocks, such as Type 

 III., were nearly as dwarfing as the most surface-rooting ones, such as 

 Type IV. The ample root-fibre of Broad Leaf and Nonsuch Paradise 

 has tended to induce greater vigour than the coarser lateral roots of 

 the Doucin. In other words, there appears to be no direct correlation 

 between free fibrous-rooting and dwarf growth. 



Results of Investigations on the Free and Crab Stocks. — The work 

 carried out upon the classification of the free and crab stocks at 

 Bristol showed that there was no marked distinction between these 

 two trade divisions in root characters. It demonstrated that even at 

 an early stage in the life of seedling stocks root differences became 

 apparent, and that as they developed a wide range of root systems 

 showed itself amongst the free and crab stocks. 



The stocks fell into nine main groups, varying rom 



"A. A mass of fine fibrous roots, practically m coarse roots, and 

 stem usually distinctly dwarfed." 



through a series of groups, of which one of the most characteristic is 



" F. Numerous strong horizontal laterals with fair amount of fibre, 

 and strong growth of stem." 



to the other extreme from A, as represented in group 



Original root system persistent, little adventitious rooting, and 

 (a) stem strong, (b) stem dwarfed." 



In other words, the range of root system in Paradise and Free 

 stocks is almost the same. Free stock is a comprehensive term, 

 meaning no more than seedlings which include dwarf stocks both 



