COMMONPLACE NOTES. 



595 



outside source, and they are attacked. They came from a friend's garden, 

 where last year they were in excellent health, but where this year they 

 are attacked. It seems as if the bulbs must have caught the complaint 

 between dying down and being replanted, and not (as my own three bulbs 

 seem to prove) after being planted." It is a most vexatious disease, 

 because one can never be sure that one is not introducing it to a friend's 

 garden even when giving him an apparently quite healthy bulb, which the 

 previous season showed no trace of disease. However, we do not yet 

 know whether it is infectious or not. Certain varieties, e.g. 'Princeps,' 

 ' C. J. Backhouse,' and ' Sir Watkin,' are very liable to it, and ' Horsfieldi ' 

 slightly so. If all growers who are troubled with it this season would 

 send us their experiences, coupled with exact conditions of planting, 

 manuring, and nature of soil, we might be able to collate the evidence 

 and make some deduction. 



Late Peaches. 



A " Fellow " recently inquired how it was that he could purchase fine 

 fruits of Peaches at the end of September, yet could never get any from 

 his own garden in that month at all, although he had several Peach- 

 houses, and excellent Peach-walls, on which the trees grew well and 

 produced good crops of fruit. As late Peaches are always much appre- 

 ciated in September and early October, if of rich flavour, the answer may 

 be of interest to others. In the first place, one would not advise planting 

 any of the yellow-fleshed varieties of Peaches, for though they are large, 

 handsome, and some of them very late, the quality is usually so poor 

 as to be little better than a Turnip. Among the best late varieties that 

 are hardy, vigorous, large, handsome, of excellent quality, and set their 

 fruit well, the following can be recommended, viz. : — 4 Bellegarde,' a 

 fine reddish-purple coloured fruit of first-class flavour ; ' Barrington,' 

 another highly-coloured variety of good quality, which, like the last named, 

 ripens on an outside wall about the middle of September ; ' Princess of 

 Wales ' and ' Gladstone,' two large pale-coloured varieties, coming into 

 use about the end of September, ' Princess of Wales ' being a few days the 

 earlier, and the better flavoured of the two. On heavy soils ' Raymaekers ' 

 is a grand late Peach, while on others it is poor. At Lord Llangattock's, 

 The Hendre, it is very fine, and is highly esteemed. 1 Marquis of Down- 

 shire ' is a beautiful pale red Peach of fine quality, and a very valuable 

 late variety, coming into use at the end of September. ' Walberton 

 Admirable ' is an excellent flavoured variety, usually coming into use early 

 in October. Several others might be named, but quite sufficient have 

 been given to ensure a good supply of late Peaches, if planted where 

 Peaches will succeed, and the requisite cultural attention given. 



The Beech-tkee Pest. 



The terrible Cryptococcus fagi continues to spread, as almost weekly 

 consignments of it sent to us for identification prove— or possibly it is 

 partly that people are beginning to take more notice of such things, as 

 their minds become more educated to perceive the inherent beauty of our 



