APRIL. 



01 



EFFECT OF CLIMATE UPON FRUIT. 



The reviewer of Decaisne's beautiful -work, " Le Jardin Fruitiers du Museum," in 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, page 1049, of last year, makes the following remarks on Napoleon 

 Pear :— " This Pear has been for many years so well known in this country, that we need 

 not give the description, which is very correct in the work before us, except as regards 

 quality. This Professor Decaisne does not speak so highly of as we should of fruit grown 

 in this country, especially on a standard in a good soason. ' The fruit,' he says, ' as variable 

 in flavour as in form, is rarely of first-rate quality.' The writer further says, ' But, perhaps, 

 the tree producing the specimens had been grown in a soil too highly enriched. The Napoleon 

 Pear is one of those sorts that will not bear to be grown to a large size in very rich soil without 

 great deterioration of flavour, or, perhaps, a dry continental summer may "not suit it.' The 

 latter I should say was the true cause, as Ave find this Pear in America quite as variable and 

 as uncertain as Professor Decaisne has described it. There are many other varieties of the 

 highest repute, in France and England, equally as unreliable. Passe Colmar may be named 

 as one; so also of Beurre Fiance, and others of your best fruits. On the other hand, many 

 varieties are improved by our warm dry summers, whilst we possess many native seedlings 

 of first-rate quality that fill their places." 



Strawberries. — A writer in the Gardeners' Chronicle not long since, expressed surprise 

 why British Queen Strawberries were not grown in the United States. The reason why 

 they are not cultivated, is the very best of reasons. They will not succeed. I have had 

 beds of British Queen in my nursery the past ten years, and have never had a dozen good 

 berries in that time. This variety and many of the same race, burn sadly in our hot dry 

 summers. Not only will the foliage burn off the plants, but when we get a drought of any 

 length at midsummer, plants will burn in the ground, so that I have occasionally nearly lost 

 my stock. Keens' Seedling, Carolina Superba, and many others are equally uncertain. 

 They are also bad setters in spring, the flowers proving abortive, the latter caused by the 

 sudden change of temperature in spring from cold to an English summer's heat when they 

 are in bloom, giving no time for the formation of the fructifying organs. Some English 

 varieties succeed as well here as in their native home. Among these are — Alice Maud, 

 Trollope's Victoria, Kivers' Seedling Eliza, the latter the most successful large Strawberry 

 we have as yet had from Britain. Many French and Belgian sorts also do well— such as 

 Vicomtesse Hericart de Thury, Triomphe de Gand, Comte de Flandre, Jucunda, the foliage 

 of these latter is as thick as leather, never burns under our hottest sun, or is injured by our 

 most intense cold. They are also exceedingly productive, setting their crop of blooms well. 



Washington City, B.C., U.S.A. John Saul, Nurseryman and Seedsman. 



NOTES ON NURSERIES. 



Mr. Standish, Bagshot.— The many interesting new plants recently introduced from 

 Japan by Mr. Fortune are now undergoing, at the hands of Mr. Standish, the necessary 

 processes of multiplication, previous to their distribution to the public. Among these may 

 be specially mentioned a variegated variety of Thujopsis dolabrata, a hardy Conifer of ex- 

 tremely elegant character, and in this new variety having the flattened branchlets freely and 

 elegantly blotched with white. Other strikingly handsome plants were Osmanthus aquifolius 

 variegatus and 0. aquifolius variegatus nanus, two beautifully variegated shrubs related to 

 Olea, having very fragrant white flowers ; and Eurya japonica latifolia variegata, a hand- 

 some shrub like a small-leaved Camellia, in which the foliage is bordered with creamy white, 

 and while young flushed wit a a fiery orange tint ; a charmingly variegated Saxifra°-a near 

 sarmentosa has the leaves marked with broad sections of delicate pink. Mr. Fortune's 

 collections include several Japanese varieties of Chrysanthemum, among which are some 

 with flower-heads wholly unlike those cultivated in Europe, the florets being tubular, with a 

 dragon-like_ gaping mouth, or in other cases long, narrow, and almost thread-like; a finely 

 striped one is also reported to be in the collection. All these we may expect to see flowering 

 next autumn. Mr. Fortune has also brought over several Liliums. One of these, L. Fortunef 

 has already flowered, though weakly; it has bright yellow flowers, spotted over with deep 

 red brown and will doubtless prove a distinct and pretty plant when better established. 

 Another, allied to L. speciosum, is said to have immense flowers, very boldly blotched with 

 red. Among Conifers there are large quantities of seedling plants of Sciadopitys verticillata, 

 the grandest of all the Japanese Firs. Of Ferns Mr. Standish has some extraordinary fine 

 plants, with tree-like stems, of Todea hymenophylloides, and of Lomaria discolor, both 

 remarkably handsome, hardy, New Zealand species ; also Cyathea Smithii, the most elegant 

 oi all the introduced species of that genus. Most of the New Zealand Hymenophyllums are 

 also cultivated very successfully ; and we saw here the very rare Gleichenia alpina, which 



