(588 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Peach Trees, Laying* Down of. By Wendell Paddock (U.S. A. 

 Exp. Sl7i. Colorado, Bull. 30, March 1903; plates). — After repeated 

 disappointments a device has been elaborated for growing Peaches in the 

 severe climate of Canon City, Colorado. Early in November the earth is 

 removed in a circle about four feet in diameter round the tree. Water is 

 then poured into the hole and the trees worked backwards and forwards 

 until the roots are so much loosened that the tree can be pushed over on 

 to the ground on one side or the other. The limbs are then tied together 

 with cord and covered with burlap held in place by earth. 



Great attention is needed in spring to see that the blossoms do not 

 open prematurely, nor that the branch buds are forced into white growth. 

 The covering should be first loosened and removed by degrees, and by the 

 middle of May, at Canon City, the trees are ready to be raised again into 

 position. Props are usually required to support them in an upright 

 position through the summer. Old trees will not usually bear this treat- 

 ment, which should be begun as soon as the young stock is one year old. 



In Berthoud, fifty miles north of Denver, fifty boxes of Peaches were 

 produced by thirty trees, treated in this way, the third year after planting. 



M. L. H. 



Pearls in CocoanutS. Anon. (Gard. Chron, No. 860, p. 396 ; 

 June 20, 1903). — These curious growths in Cocoanuts are by no means 

 novelties, though they are seldom seen, and it is only comparatively 

 recently that they have been brought to England. It appears that more 

 than two hundred years ago the celebrated botanist, Eumph, sent one set 

 in a ring as a present to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eumph, in his 

 great work, described and figured it. The natives in the Philippines are 

 said to value them very highly, and to keep them as charms against 

 diseases and evil spirits. Dr. Hickson brought one home which is now in 

 the Museum at Kew ; it is almost egg-shaped and quite white. These 

 pearls are said to be of the same formation as the ordinary pearls found 

 in shells, and to be almost entirely composed of carbonate of lime. 



G. S. S. 



Pear ' Le Brun ' (Gartenflora, 1/10/03, p. 505 ; pi. 1519).— Coloured 

 plate and description of this Pear, obtained in 1855 from mixed seed of 

 ' Winter-Dechants ' Pear and ' Beurre d'Arenberg.' — J. P. 



Pear-tree Psylla. By C. M. Weed (U.S.A. Exp. Stn. New Hamp- 

 shire, Bull. 102; 5/1903).— Injuries to Pear trees in New Hampshire 

 were caused by this insect (Psylla pyricola Foerst) in 1902. The insect 

 is an ally of the aphis, and has, annually, several broods, somewhat differ - 

 ing in appearance, the winter form being dark, the summer light. W T hen 

 mature the insect has four nearly transparent wings, and is of a reddish 

 colour, with transverse dark stripes on the abdomen. The first batch of 

 eggs i- Laid by the winter form in early spring and hatches three or four 

 weeks after, the brood becoming mature in about one month. The insect 

 may be kept in check by spraying with a kerosene emulsion diluted with 

 twenty- five parts of water during the growth of the first brood before they 

 reach maturity. The insects suck the sap from the leaves, and this, pass- 

 ing through their bodies, is ejected on the foliage, where it forms "honey- 



