JANUARY. 



7 



to apply it. Many of us can appreciate the beautiful when it is placed before us ; but bow to 

 obtain or create it for ourselves we know not. Now, however, the path is plain. In Mr. 

 March's very valuable book we are instructed, not only how to design and how to construct 

 table ornaments and bouquets, but what is sometimes a more dimeult task to many — how to 

 harmonise and dispose of coloms. We strongly recommend this admirable book to all lovers 

 of the beautiful, whether in nature or in art. 



SCRAPS ON PLANTING AND TIMBERS. 



"We understand a large quantity of seeds of the Douglas Fir are being sent for Government 

 from Vancouver's Island for planting in the royal forests and waste crown lands. A 

 variety of timber is now much used by the trade, called " Pitch Pine," it is imported from 

 America, and should, according to authority, be the produce of Fimis rigida, but on examination 

 is more likely to be obtained from Pinus Coulteri, ponderosa, or Benthamiana. It is a very 

 valuable timber, and its use is likely to increase considerably. Can any of your readers say 

 which the timber is really produced frorn, as Coulteri is not hardy in Britain, but both 

 Benthamiana and ponderosa are perfectly so ? If the Poyal Horticultural Society would 

 send some competent person to investigate and report on the timber trees of British Columbia, 

 they would confer a benefit on planters. Mr. Gordon has, I believe, nothing to do ; why not 

 dispatch him ? He is, perhaps, the only person competent for the task. 



Who is to investigate the banks of the Amoor rivers, where travellers tell us are magnifi- 

 cent trees which would be hardy in Britain ? and who the Bokhara, Cashmerian, and Thibetian 

 chains of mountains, the only spots likely to give us hardy trees and shrubs ? It appears 

 to me unfortunate sending coUectors to climates where nothing hardy can be obtained, and 

 the Society should remember that not all their FeBows keep conservatories. 



Why not import the Tasmanian and Australian timber trees to South Africa as a 

 co mm ercial speculation ? The Governor of the Cape should take this in hand. g 



British Fruits. — The Spectator, in noticing the International Show of the Boyal 

 Horticultural Society, states that, "The price of fruit in England is becoming preposterous, 

 and the poorer classes see as little of it as they do of meat. There is no more reason why 

 Grapes, for example, should not be cheap in England than why French Beans should not ; 

 and their cultivation in Devonshire and Hampshire — not for wine, but for food— would amply 

 repay a speculator. Nothing pays better than a good orchard ; yet a supply of fruit seems, 

 instead of increasing, to diminish.' ' We scarcely coincide with the author as to the value of 

 English Grapes as an article of food, but we quite agree with him as to the scarcity of orchard 

 fruit, which ought to be ten times more plentiful than it now is. There is no reason why 

 thousands of bushels of Apples, Pears, and Plums, might not be grown in our hedgerows 

 and in odd nooks and comers now occupied only by docks and thistles. The value of a good 

 supply of the above fruit to the population of large towns can hardly be over-estimated, 

 when liberally used as an article of food, as regards its effects on the health of the inhabitants, 

 and they might be so cheaply preserved by drying as to be kept for the greater part of the 

 year. Can nothing be done by large landowners towards this desirable object, or must it be 

 left as a matter for private speculation. 



Orchard-house Fruit. — The failures attributed to orchard-houses, without interfering 

 with the principle, may be accounted for in various ways ; but the test of their value is best 

 proved by the increasing demand for them everywhere ; and in some country districts I hear 

 of nothing else in the gardening way. At this season I have a house particularly useful to 

 me, as it contains now good crops of late Peaches — True Bourdine, Late Admirable, and 

 Catherine ; I have also a few Salways, with the promise of an abundant crop of these 

 latter, judging by the wood I have. Crawford's Early has not been good with me, which 1 

 cannot account for, unless the trees are growing too strong, as I have tasted it very rich and 

 good ; but this more than ever convinces me that the same kind of fruit will vary very much 

 in flavour in different seasons. Every one should grow two Peaches, however small their 

 house — I mean the Barrington and Walburton ; they succeed the mid-season Peaches, and 

 continue on the season until the late ones are in, and besides, produce very handsome fruit in 

 profusion : indeed, about a fortnight since, my trees were quite a picture. I should not omit 

 mentioning two Plums to amateurs, which are very useful at this season — the Old Golden 

 Drop and the De Bavay Gage, which, under glass, are rich beyond expression, especially the 

 former. I expect my late house will carry me on to the middle of November at least, and 

 probably I may be able to keep a few Salways and a late kind of Rivers' and a Plum to 

 December. Not so bad this for an amateur in his third year of orchard- house culture, 

 censidering I commenced with Hunt's Tawny Nectarine, and Early York Peach in July 

 from trees in pots. Amateur. 



