720 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



because the soil is loose round their roots. It is a good plan to examine 

 them a month or two after planting and press the soil tighter if required. 



C. W. D. 



Tropical Fruit Trees and other plants, Propagation of. By G. 



W. Oliver {U.S.A. Dep. Agr. Bur. PI. Lid. Bull. 46, 8/1903 ; 8 plates).— 

 This bulletin notes the districts of North America where Mango, Loquat 

 (Eriobotrya japonica), Fig, Tea, and Manila Hemp (Musa textilis) may be 

 profitably cultivated, and insists upon the necessity of vegetative reproduc- 

 tion in order to obtain the best results. In the case of the Mango 

 budding is recommended, the method advocated being that described by 

 Sharrock in 1672, except that buds at least one year old should be used ; 

 they should be taken preferably from wood old enough to have lost its 

 leaves. Stocks raised from seeds are best ; cuttings, although they callus 

 well, do not root readily. Mango scions packed in various ways, were sent 

 to Washington from Colombo, Ceylon ; some bud sticks less than three- 

 quarters of an inch in diameter having their cut ends coated with collodion 

 and covered with clay mud, packed in a small amount of moist coir in a 

 tin tube, arrived in the best condition. The Loquat should be propa- 

 gated by buds from young, well-ripened wood, inserted on stocks raised 

 from seed. 



Figs are best raised from cuttings, but now that the insect which 

 pollinates the flower of the Smyrna Fig has been naturalised in California 

 grafting of Smyrna Figs on hitherto unprofitable stocks is advocated. The 

 method suggested is to prepare the stock as for shield budding, but, 

 instead of inserting a single bud, to use a small twig having a terminal 

 and one or two lateral buds. Tea is best propagated by cuttings of newly- 

 ripened shoots, but layering, veneer grafting, and herbaceous grafting may 

 all be successfully carried out. Plants raised from seed show great 

 variation. Manila Hemp is increased by the division of the rhizome, and 

 the method of raising from seed is described. 



The plates illustrate the most important methods of budding, graft- 

 ing, &c. — F. J. C. 



Truffles, Their Cultivation as practised in France. By P. Hariot 

 (Le Jard. July 5, 1903, p. 193).— C. W. D. 



Truffles, The Reproduction of. By D. C. (Bull. R. Soc. Tosc. On. 

 10, p. 306 ; October 1903).— At its session of the 4th of May, 1900, MM. 

 Matruchot and Kmile Boulanger both announced, to the Parisian 

 Academy of Sciences, as a result of their independent experiments, the 

 germination of the ascospores of the Truffle in a watery, sterilised liquid. 

 The following is taken from Matruchot's account : — Spores of Tuber 

 melcmosporum were sown on pieces of potato, sterilised and soaked in a 

 nutritive Liquid. After a few weeks there was a great development of 

 mycelium, an unlimited quantity of which he was able to produce. He 

 succeeded in collecting mycelium in P6rigord and preserving pure cultures 

 of the same, which were identical with those obtained from the germina- 

 t ion of the spores. The same researches and cultures were repeated with 

 the Burgundy Truffle (T. uncinatum), from which mycelia were obtained 

 differing only in secondary characters from those of the preceding species. 



