66 
PLORA AND SVLVA 
fruits yield in abundance. For seed the fruits 
should be artificially fertilised and allowed to 
hang until fully ripe (usually in November), 
and the seeds then sown at once in pots or 
pans, and the seedlings planted out on becom- 
ing strong. They will grow even when sown 
in the open during early spring, but most people 
will prefer grown plants such as may be found 
in high-class nurseries. They do well in any 
good warm ground, especially if somewhat dry, 
as on a sunny slope or at the foot of a sheltering 
wall, with good drainage and an open subsoil. 
At first this little shrub was grown under 
glass, until found growing wild by Siebold in 
the mountain woods of Japan, and planted for 
fences by the peasantry. In the warmer parts 
of the United States it is now also much used 
for hedges, standing any amount of cutting 
without getting hollow, strong enough to turn 
any intruder, and proof against rabbits through 
its bitter bark. For such temperate climates 
as are unsuited to the Holly, there is perhaps 
hardly a better plant for this work. Its value 
is being further tested by the Agricultural 
Department of the United States, as a stock 
for other forms of Citrus, and with the hope of 
raising hardy fruits of food value by crossing 
with the Orange and Mandarine. A first step 
has already been gained in a hybrid fruit called 
the Citrange, of the size of a Mandarine, very 
juicy, with few pips, and a delicate scented 
skin ; its fiavour however is too lemon-like to 
be pleasant, but Dr Webber of the American 
Society of Horticultural Science regards it as 
a great step towards the hardy edible Orange, 
which, from the progress already made, he 
hopes to see perfected within the next fifteen 
years. As a stock for climates liable to " cold 
snaps" its influence ismarked, tending to sturdy 
and early-fruiting trees of hardier character, 
because starting late in spring and going to 
rest in good time in the autumn. In the 
United States its use as a stock has hitherto 
been mainly confined to the smaller Japanese 
Oranges : — Satsuma, an early fruiting Man- 
darine, and the Kumquat. In New Zealand it 
is also much used for grafting Oranges and 
especially Lemons, of which it increases the 
yield and is said to prevent the disease known 
as " collar rot." Several distinct forms of the 
/Egle are said to exist in Japan, and two of 
minor importance have found their way to 
Europe — microcarpa, with smaller cherry-like 
fruits, and punctata, in which the leaves are 
covered with glandular dots. 
One of the finest of these plants is in Veitch's 
collection at Coombe Wood, where a veteran 
of thirty years, fully exposed, but on a slope 
facing south, has grown into a dense pyramid 
8 feet high and g feet in diameter, of great 
beauty when in flower and never injured by 
frost. In 1 90 1 it fruited freely, with an abun- 
dance of good seed, as did also a fine bush at 
" The Acacias," Worthing, which, though 
much younger (having been planted barely 
1 5 years) and of late constantly clipped, is now 
9 feet high and as much across. Of this plant 
Major-General Lucie-Smith writes, that it is 
branched to the ground ; is a sheet of white 
flowers in May, from the lowest to the top- 
most twig ; and has never needed any care. 
Another plant, seemingly the finest of all, is 
growing in the garden of Bitton Vicarage near 
Bristol, and has reached a height of 10 feet, 
flowering freely and fruiting well from time 
to time, though only a few small and sterile 
fruits were produced last summer. Canon 
Ellacombe sends us a beautiful drawing show- 
ing how finely it fruits in some years, with a 
cluster of four or five oranges nearly 2 inches 
I across, upon one small branch. Other fine 
plants exist at Charmouth, in Dorset, and at 
Wimbledon, but lest these may be considered 
unduly favoured localities, we may instance a 
large plant growing in the Botanic Gardens, 
Cambridge, where the winter cold is often 
severe. Of this, Mr Lynch kindly sends the 
j following note : — "Thislittle tree was planted 
1 5 years ago in a well-sheltered corner, and is 
now 9 feet high and wide, flowering freely 
, and fruiting more or less as the years are 
favourable or the reverse. The value of shelter 
I is shown by the fact that when in an exposed 
[ border, though proving perfectly hardy, this 
\ plant made little progress, and not until in its 
present warm corner did it start into free 
growth." 
Like so many other plants, this has a long 
I list of names, that now used at Kew being 
/Egle sepiaria. 1 1 is however much better known 
as Citrus trifolia, trifoliata, or triptera, from its 
leaf divided in threes. B. 
