130 



THE FLORIST AND rOMOLOGIST. 



SMOOTH CAYENNE PINE. 



I was very much, surprised at the sweeping condemnation of this Pine, 

 which appeared in your March Number by your correspondent " M. S. ;" and 

 the only impression which it made on my mind was, that it might be possible 

 that " M. S." had not got the true variety. From my own experience I can 

 most heartily endorse the opinion which had previously been given through 

 your columns in answer to a correspondent — namely, "that the Smooth 

 Cayenne is as good as a Queen in summer, and much better than that variety 

 in winter, &c," and was certainly very much astonished to see "M. S." 

 affirming that " he did not consider the Pine worth growing, and that it is apt 

 to come with defective pips, that the bottom part decays before the top is 

 ripe, and that when the fruit is ripe it only keeps for a very short time before 

 it begins to decay." Now, my experience is just the very opposite of this, 

 having cut a great many Pines of this variety lately from 10 and 11-inch pots, 

 at different seasons of the year, weighing from 6 lbs. to nearly 9 lbs. each, 

 never having observed fewer defective pips in any other variety, and the fruit 

 have invariably been pronounced as excellent with regard to flavour and 

 juiciness, while I have frequently kept fruit for three weeks in a perfectly 

 sound condition, after they have been cut, in a dry room. It was only last 

 week that I mentioned these matters to a gardener who has had very extensive 

 experience in the growth of this and other varieties of Pines, and he pro- 

 nounced the Smooth Cayenne, taken as a whole, to be unequalled by all others 

 that he knew. And on stating to him my experience of it as above, he said, 

 that in point of keeping after being ripe, he had frequently kept it more than 

 three weeks in a good condition. He stated also, what I strongly suspected, 

 that there were two other smooth-leaved sorts in circulation for this fine 

 variety, which true and fine variety, he said, had sprung exclusively from the 

 crowns taken from some fruit sent as a present to our beloved Queen by the 

 late King, Louis Phillippe, of France, and said that this was the reason why 

 the Smooth Cayenne had been pronounced defective by some growers. Should 

 "M. S." have the least suspicion that he is growing a spurious variety of this 

 Pine, I will be happy to place in his hands a plant or two of what has proved 

 so very superior here, as well as at other places. 



Archerfield. D. Thomson. 



APRICOTS NOT FRUITING. 



We often see large Apricot trees that never bear a good crop of fruit. In 

 some cases the trees flower freely, but the blossom drops off instead of setting 

 fruit. In other eases scarcely any bloom appears, and the little there is has 

 not strength to produce fruit. Some trees w r ill set a good crop of fruit every 

 yeai', and yet almost all will drop either before or at the time of stoning, so 

 that very few will come to maturity. 



The fault is generally laid to the soil being too wet or too cold, but very 

 seldom to being too dry, which, from close observation, I believe is more often 

 the cause of failure than anything besides. 



Within the last few years I have taken up and replanted a large number 

 of fruit trees of all sorts and sizes, including Apricots planted from twelve to 

 twenty years, which had never been known to bear a full crop of fruit. I do 

 not ever remember taking up an Apricot tree of any size but I have found the 

 soil under and about the roots very much too dry, especially large trees that 

 had not been moved for many years — I have found the soil about the roots as 



