172 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 28, 1884. 
perfect order. The treatment for old plants should be during the summer, 
if standing in the conservatory, full exposure to the sun, and an 
abundance of water. I repeat the words, an abundance of water, for the 
plants may be almost kept with their roots ifl. the water and their heads 
in the oven. As autumn comes on gradually withhold water, until, upon 
the setting-in of winter, you may entirely stop the supply, and keep the 
plants quite dry until the sunny days of spring again set them in motion. 
I prefer growing young seedlings in more heat, and not drying them 
quite so much until they get a few years old, when they may be placed 
upon the same footing as their elder relatives.—E. C. 
PEACH TREES AT WILTON. 
Lest Mr. Simpson should think me discourteous, I beg to say, in reply 
to his remarks in reference to what has been written about these trees, 
that until the trellises were fully covered the extension system of training 
was practised, and the same method would have been followed had the 
trellises been four times as large. When the writers referred to by him 
saw them, they had neither been winter-pruned nor root-pruned, nor do I 
think there will be much necessity for either of these operations at present, 
as the annual crops of fruit they have borne have counteracted to a great 
extent the tendency to form exuberant growth. Should the necessity arise 
I shall not hesitate to root-prune and apply such materials to the borders, 
and provide such an atmosphere, as will assist in preventing too vigorous 
growth. 
In respect to branch-pruning, I have endeavoured to avoid the necessity 
for this operation in winter by frequent and timely pruning during the 
period of growth, a practice which I think is peculiarly advantageous in 
the management of all stone fruit trees. True, this method entails in¬ 
creased labour at the busiest season, and in these days of restricted labour 
it is with great difficulty that they can always be performed at the proper 
moment; but where they can be there is no difficulty in placing a branch 
where, and only where, it is required, and so avoid to a great extent the 
necessity for winter pruning. The labour at my command will not permit 
of this work being performed always at the proper time, consequently these 
trees are not by any means so perfect as I could wish, nor so good as 
I fear the reports of them have led some readers to believe. 
The credit of first using the transverse trellis has been wrongly ascribed 
to me, although I may have been the first to apply it on a large scale and in 
early forcing houses. My reasons for doiDg so were not so much for the 
purpose of carrying out the extension system of training as to secure great 
variety, lengthened and continuous supply of fruit, and a total increase of 
training space without in any way obstructing the requisite amount of 
light and heat on the back wall, on which Fig trees are trained. These cross 
trellises give exactly 109 square feet of space for each tree, which I am 
aware is small enough. Twelve trees can be planted by fixing double 
trellises under each rafter 8 inches apart, and the total training space 
thus secured is nearly three-quarters more than would be obtained by a 
longitudinal trellis. 
From two similar houses we have, during the last three years, succeeded 
in obtaining an almost daily supply for five months by commencing with 
Early Beatrice Peaches in the end of April, and finishing with Walburton’s 
Admirable Peaches and Victoria Nectarines in September. I beg to thank 
Mr. Simpson for his friendly invitation, which I hope some day to be able 
to take advantage of; in the meantime it will afford me great pleasure to 
see him at Wilton. He must, however, not anticipate seeing such perfectly 
trained trees as I fear he has been led to expect.—T. C. 
CRINUMS. 
It may be said with some truth that numbers of beautiful 
bulbous plants are never likely to prove satisfactory under 
cultivation in this country owing to its being apparently impos¬ 
sible for us to provide the requirements necessary to their health. 
Certainly a better knowledge of the nature of some of them has 
enabled us to succeed where success once appeared impossible, 
and this may be taken as hopeful promise of still more of the 
rarer bulbs proving satisfactory when their peculiar require¬ 
ments in respect of heat, light, and moisture are better under¬ 
stood ; but that many others ever will prove serviceable garden 
plants seems with our present knowledge almost beyond hope. 
The Crinums, however, do not fall in this category. They are, 
generally speaking, the easiest to manage among tropical and 
temperate bulbs, so that in the threescore or more species of 
which anything is known we have a large number of beautiful 
and easily grown plants, worthy of considerable favour wherever 
bulbous plants are grown. The species of Crinum known and 
grown in this country do not comprise all nor yet half of the 
number above mentioned ; but when once the demand for them 
increases we may expect to see some of our enterprising plant- 
collectors turn their attention to unintroduced Crinums. 
Now-a-days it is customary to inquire into the capabilities 
of plants for hybridising purposes, and the greater the promise 
of their proving plastic in this respect the more the importance 
and value attached to them in a horticultural sense. So far as 
is known, the whole of the Crinums cross freely with each other. 
Dean Herbert, whose labours among the Amaryllis _ family 
enabled him to produce a work upon them which for interest 
and valuable information is one of the finest botanico-horticul- 
tural books ever written, devoted much time and attention to 
hybridising and crossing different plants; in fact, it may be said 
that to him we are indebted for the magnificent forms of 
Gladiolus and Hippeastrums we now possess, for he was the 
first to experiment on the original forms of both these genera 
with a view of raising improved races. Writing upon Crinums 
he said, “ It is almost certain that the fertility of the hybrid or 
mixed offspring depends more upon the constitutional than the 
closer botanical affinities of the parents. The most striking and 
unanswerable proof of this fact was afforded by the genus 
Crinum, which is spread round the whole belt of the globe 
within the tropics, and within a certain distance from them, 
under a great variety of circumstances affecting the constitution 
of individuals, which nevertheless readily intermix when brought 
together by human agency.” The importance of this statement 
will be at once seen by those who understand the art of 
hybridising. What has been done with the Hippeastrums seems 
achievable in the case of the Crinums; for both in the variety 
of form and colour of their flowers, the habit and nature of 
the plants of this genus, there is abundance of material out of 
which excellent garden plants could no doubt be produced. It 
seems reasonable to attribute the little attention paid to Crinums 
to a lack of knowledge of their beauty, usefulness, and capa¬ 
bilities. If once they be thoroughly understood and properly 
put to the test, the result must be a great gain to cultivated 
bulbous plants. 
The species of Crinum represented in gardens do not number 
more than a dozen, if we exclude what are known only in bota¬ 
nical collections. At Kew there are about thirty species and a 
dozen or so varieties, and as these include both tropical, tem¬ 
perate, and hardy sorts, the flowering seasons of which extend 
over the whole year, it is seldom that there are not some in 
flower in that establishment. Of those to be met with more or 
less in gardens generally, the following perhaps comprise the 
whole, exclusive of varieties and erratic names which always 
exist in garden nomenclature. 
C. amabile .—The bases of the leaves in this species fold 
tightly over each other, so as to form a neck or stem about 
18 inches long. The leaves are about 3 feet long, pale green, 
and curving over. A healthy plant bears from thirty to forty 
leaves together. It is evergreen, and bears in December a long- 
stalked umbel of white sweet-scented flowers, as many as forty 
of these flowers being borne in one umbel. On the under side of 
the segments of the flowers there is a stripe of bright red. 
Each flower is about 8 inches in length, the segments being 
half an inch wide and curving downwards. The stamens are 
red. Being a native of Sumatra this species requires a tropical 
stove temperature. 
C. americanum .—The bulb is short-necked, as large as a Bella¬ 
donna Lily bulb. The leaves are from 2 to 3 feet long, and number 
about ten on a healthy bulb. The flowers are very fragrant, 
pure white, and are borne in sixes on a stalk about 2 feet long, 
each flower measuring some 8 inches in length, with spreading 
lance-sbaped segments. A beautiful species, and almost if not 
quite hardy in the south of England. It is well established in a 
border against a house in the Glasnevin Botanic Gardens, and 
is also planted outside at Kew, Commencing to flower in the 
summer, it continues to produce its sweet-scented blossoms jmtil 
cut down by frost. A native of the southern States of North 
America. 
C- angustifolium .—The Australian representative of the last- 
mentioned; distinguished, however, by its shorter leaves, flower 
stalk and flowers, and by the latter being tinged with red on the 
under side. It is a tropical species, preferring a dry sandy soil 
and a rather dry atmosphere. The flowers, which are scentless, 
are produced in summer. 
C. augustum .—The bulb of this when fully developed measures 
a foot in length and about half that in diameter. The leaves 
are between 2 and 3 feet long and 4 inches broad. The flattened 
flower scape is produced from the side of the neck of the bulb, 
and is nearly 3 feet in length, bearing an umbel of between 
twenty to thirty flowers, which are 4 inches long, bright red on 
the outside, and white tinged with red inside. It is found in the 
swamps of Seychelles and Mauritius, so that it requires stove 
treatment with us. The flowers are produced in early summer, 
and last about three weeks. 
C. campanulatuin.—Oiten known is C. aquaticum. It is a 
native of South Africa. The bulb is egg-shaped and as large 
as a swan’s egg. In foliar and floral characters it resembles 
C. americanum, differing in the purple colour of its flowers and 
