40 
CONTEMPORARY WRITINGS. 
portion of the rich fertilizing salts contained 
in the manure. One gallon of this liquid, 
mixed with three gallons of soft well aerated 
water, is an excellent preparation for all plants 
requiring liquid manure. 
Pixus Bexthamiaxa. — Mr. Hartweg has 
recently met with this species of pine in Cali- 
fornia ; and, as it appears to be a new and 
distinct kind, has named it in compliment to 
G. Bentham, Esq. He describes it thus : — 
The leaves of this species stand in threes, 
and are longer than the cones, usually eleven 
inches in length ; the cones are five inches 
long, by two inches and a half at the broadest 
point, of a reddish brown colour, the centre of 
the scales terminating in a small sharp point 
bent downwards. The trees rise to the height 
of a hundred feet, with a stem three to four 
feet in diameter, producing the cones in clus- 
ters of three or four, which ripen in September, 
or in about eight months from the time of 
flowering." 
Trailing peach trees. — Professor Du 
Breuil, of Rouen, proposes the following plan 
of training peach trees. A wavy central 
stem is first provided. When young this 
stem is bent first to the left and then to the 
right. Where it commences to turn from 
left to right, a shoot is encouraged on the 
outside of the bend, and trained straight to 
the left in a direction a little above the hori- 
zontal. Where the stem is again turned from 
right to left, another branch is extended to 
the right ; and so branches are produced al- 
ternately on either side from every outward 
bend till the wall is covered. The systems 
recommended by Hitt and Hayward, intro- 
duced upright wavy main stems, but in both 
these there are two straight naked stems, pro- 
ceeding in opposite directions, elevated at an 
angle of forty-five degrees, and four feet and 
a half in length, before these upright stems 
commence. The great objection to these 
plans is, that the long naked stems invariably 
become scorched on the exposed sides, from 
which the trees suffer severely. In the plan 
above noticed this objection is avoided; be- 
sides, the wall is furnished from top to bottom 
instead of being unfurnished in the lower four 
feet, as according to the systems of Hitt and 
Hayward. The method is recommended by 
Mr. Thompson, Superintendent of the Fruit 
department in the Horticultural Society's 
garden, as deserving of trial in Britain. 
Cheap eruit-thee wales. — At Rouen 
may be seen a cheaply constructed wall for 
fruit trees, which might often be imitated 
where brick or stone walls would be considered 
too expensive. The Avail alluded to has a stone 
foundation, carried up a little above the sur- 
face ; the rest is composed of a mixture of 
clay, straw, and a little chalk — forming, in 
fact, a kind of mud wall. These walls are 
found to answer the purpose at Rouen, and 
similar walls, when properly made, stand very 
well in our climate, and would doubtless be 
useful appendages to many gardens. The 
example above alluded to, at Rouen, is about 
eighteen inches thick, and ten feet high, and 
is surmounted by a coping of slate which pro- 
jects several inches. It has been built six or 
seven years, and is in good condition. Such 
walls must, of course, be constructed in sum- 
mer, so as to admit of their becoming well 
dried before winter. The trees must also be 
trained to wires or trellis work, as such walls 
will not admit of their being nailed to them. 
Substitute for Tea. — Mr. Neumann, one 
of the principal Superintendents in the Jardin 
des Plantes, at Paris, states, that, in the Mau- 
ritius, where he for some time resided, the 
leaves of Aerides odoratum are used as tea, a 
very few of the leaves being sufficient for in- 
fusion. Mr. Thompson, who records this in 
the Journal of the Horticultural Society, 
states, that he had supposed, when thus in- 
formed, that the plant was merely employed to 
impart a particular flavour to the tea, but was 
subsequently assured that the leaves of the 
Aerides were employed without any other 
along with them. 
Pixe Apples in the open ground. — At 
Bicton, in Devonshire, the seat of Lady Rolle, 
her ladyship's gardener, Mr. James Barnes, 
planted out, during the past spring, among 
the vegetables in the open garden, a quantity 
of pine apple plants which had attained a 
fruiting size ; these plants were of different 
kinds, but chiefly of the variety called the 
Queen. Referring to these plants, in a letter 
dated about the end of June, Mr. Barnes 
remarks, that, " notwithstanding the cold and 
drenching rains, and the continued morning 
frosts, the fruit continues to swell beyond my 
expectation, and, if we get some sun, we shall 
have a lot of pretty fruit. Queens, according 
to present measurement, are likely to go from 
three to four and a half pounds." One of 
these fruits, sent to the exhibition of the 
Royal Botanic Society on July 7, weighed 
4 lbs. 2 oz. ; and though inferior, of course, to 
fruit swelled under more favourable circum- 
stances, it was by no means a bad-looking 
fruit ; the leaves and crown, however, were 
rather rusty. Mr. Barnes' experiment is 
not, of course, likely to lead to any results so 
far as regards the cultivation of pine apples 
out-door^ — even in the climate of Devonshire; 
but it proves that they may be grown — and 
not unsuccessfully — in a lower temperature 
than is usually afforded them ; and by the aid 
of cheap glass many persons might grow them 
in pits with comparatively little trouble and 
expense. 
