NOTES AND ABSTEACTS. 



763 



fruits, which often hang on the trees all winter. The Eed Astrachan 

 apple of gardens has developed from P. astracanica. P. coccinea has 

 red fruits ; in this group are ornamental fruited forms such as * John 

 Downie ' and * Hyslop Crab,' as beautiful in autumn as in spring. 

 P. NiedzwetzMana is distinguished by flowers of a peculiar red tinge 

 which permeates roots, branches, leaves, and fruits. Japan gives us 

 an ornamental species P. Ringo, with light-coloured flowers flushed 

 rose. P. X Scheideckeri is very fine blooming; the flowers large and 

 semi-double. P. sikkimensis is curious for the bark and branches, 

 which are thickly set with short, almost spiny, growths. P. spectahilis 

 is of large growth, resembling an ordinary apple; a variety, ' Kaido,' 

 is recognized by its rich coloured flowers, and River si by its red ones, 

 flore alb 0 being white. — H. R. D. 



Apples for Cold Storag-e. By W. H. Grant {Agr. Gaz. N.S.W. 

 vol. xxi. pt. vii. pp. 567-569; 1 fig.).— The apples best adapted for cold 

 storage are 'Stone Pippin,' * Bom^e Beauty,' 'Eokewood,' 'Yates,' 

 ' Statesman,' ' Dougherty,' and ' Granny Smith.' The apples should 

 be wrapped in waxed tissue paper and kept in a cool chamber at about 

 320 ¥.—S. E. W. 



Apples, Packing- for Export. By J. G. E. Bryant (Agr. Gaz. 

 N.S.W. , January 1910, pp. 50-57; 4 figs.).— The fruit is graded, 

 wrapped in paper, placed in dry cases, and covered with wood-wool. 



S. E. W. 



Apples : Relative Order of Flowering-. By the Duke of Bed- 

 ford, K.G., and Spencer U, Pickering, F.E.S. (Woburn, Twelfth 

 Report, 1910, pp. 35-51). — Observations with a view to getting some 

 definite information on this point were made from 1905 to 1909 in- 

 clusive on a plantation consisting of 117 varieties, eight bush trees of 

 each sort, all eight or nine years old at the start, half of each variety 

 on the crab stock and half on the Paradise. The authors give us the 

 average dates of flowering of all these varieties during this period, with 

 their average, when arranged in three classes — dessert, cooking, and 

 those classed as both (pp. 35-41). As a general statement it is true that 

 early varieties flower early, and late varieties flower late, while there is 

 a slight balance of earliness of flowering in favour of those on the 

 Paradise (p. 40). Investigations to test the constancy of relative 

 earliness or lateness show a degree of variation which would make it 

 hopeless to attempt to arrange a number of varieties in a series accord- 

 ing to their order of flowering with any degree of precision (p. 47), the 

 popular idea that some are habitually early and others similarly late 

 being due to the marked habits of certain varieties. The conclusion is 

 arrived at that of the differences in the order of flowering of a collection 

 of apples, ten-thirteenths is due to peculiarities of the season and 

 three-thirteenths to differences in the varieties (p. 47). On the average, 

 in any list of the order of blossoming of a large number of sorts the 

 - same variety may be expected to occupy a place 2| days different in 

 : one season from that which it occupies in another. 



