JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
366 
[ May 4, 1882. 
than was expected ; the market soon became well stocked, and the 
holders of the fruit, finding that prices were falling off, were 
obliged either to store their goods or to sell at a loss. The warm 
weather of the late fall months, as well as during December, 
made it almost impossible to keep fruit in good condition, and 
many bushels were rendered worthless by decay. Large dealers 
have been compelled all winter to repack their goods from time 
to time. This practice is not generally found necessary until the 
1st of March, when Apples have been kept all winter, but this 
year repacking has been kept up since the first of the season. 
The exports of Apples from Boston, and indeed from the whole 
country, has been unusually light as compared with other years, 
owing to the scarcity of strictly first-class fruit. Apples shipped 
to foreign parts have arrived in such poor condition that only 
small prices could be obtained, the shipper frequently losing 
money.” 
- The same publication observes :—“ Horticulturists gene¬ 
rally take the view that tbee planting has a tendency to 
increase the rainfall, while the reverse is the case in sections 
denuded of trees. The correctness of this position is illustrated 
from the fact that greater rainfalls have occurred in Utah during 
the past season than had occurred previously since the Mormons 
have held possession of that territory. During the past ten years 
large numbers of trees have been planted throughout the farming 
sections of the territory, and the agriculturists are now beginning 
to reap the reward of their perseverance and foresightedness in 
this regard. The subject of tree-planting is one that has attracted 
universal attention during the last decade, and its benefits are 
beginning to be appreciated.” 
-Messes. James Caetee & Co. have sent us the Pa- 
leemo Artichoke which is very handsome, the roundest and 
firmest we have ever seen, but the scales are so close together the 
water drains from them with difficulty, and when served at table 
they are too w r et. The flavour, however, is good. They have also 
sent us specimens of the Italian Fennel or Finochio named 
“Dalmatian Celery-rooted Fennel.” It is a robust form of the 
common Fennel with a fleshy dwarf stalk, which is u ed by the 
Italians as a salad in the same way as we do Celery, eating it with 
vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. It is also boiled along with fowl, 
meat, or maccaroni. Finochio is seldom seen now in cultivation 
in this country. 
FRUIT AND WOOD BUDS. 
Under this heading, on page 329, an “ Irish Rector ” intro¬ 
duces a subject in which I am much interested, and which I had 
intended to bring forward at a time when gardeners have more 
leisure to discuss anything bearing upon horticulture. However, 
your correspondent’s experiences are instructive, and serve to 
convince me of the correctness of certain views I have recently 
formed. My knowledge of plant physiology, I am sorry to state, 
is very limited, and therefore shall not venture to account posi¬ 
tively for any phenomenal occurrence, but will confine myself 
more to results, and further solicit information from those compe¬ 
tent to offer it. 
As to when the wood buds are converted into fruit buds is to 
me a moot point. At one time I thought the character of the 
buds was invariably determined in the summer and autumn alone, 
and nothing we could do would change them. For instance, 1 
was under the impression that root-pruning performed, say, at the 
fall of the leaf, would not materially affect the fruiting capabilities 
of the tree the first season, but would have the desired effect the 
second fruiting season. However, my authority, a most trust¬ 
worthy one I well knew, convinced me I was altogether wrong in my 
surmises, and that the very fact of root-pruning properly performed 
at the fall of the leaf would of a certainty result in the conversion of 
a considerable number of wood buds into fruit buds. Of this I 
have since had ocular proof, as at the present time (April 21stj I 
can point to two contiguous Pear trees—one experimented on 
blooming freely, the other, as usual, bare of blossom. Unfortu¬ 
nately the varieties are dissimilar and both unknown to me, con¬ 
sequently my experiment does not amount to a demonstration, 
and I shall be glad to see the history in these pages of a most 
elaborate and conclusive experiment I have good reason for 
stating has been made. 
Judging from the above results of root-pruning I might perhaps 
be justified in asserting the phenomenal flowering of “Irish 
Rector’s ” young Plums to be due to lifting rather than to the 
mild atmosphere of the orchard house in which they were placed 
after being potted. I do not, however, consider this lifting the only 
cause, as probably if they had been returned to the open air, and ex¬ 
perienced an average winter, so many fruit buds would not have 
been developed as was the case in the more favourable atmosphere. 
My reason for favouring this theory is simply because I am 
under the impression our fruit trees of all kinds on the open 
walls, and more especially Pears, have flowered much more abun¬ 
dantly than the appearance of the buds in the winter gave pro¬ 
mise for. I had scanned them closely, and was confident we 
should have anything but a good blossom ; yet on the whole the 
Pears flowered more freely than last year, trees of W illiams’ Bon 
Chretien being laden with blossom, while Peaches, Apricots, Plums, 
Cherries, and Figs have not bloomed so freely for years past. 
The individual flowers, too, were strong, healthy, and in most 
cases thinning the young fruit will be needed. A large Fig in an 
unheated house is fruiting remaikably well, some shoots having 
as many as ten healthy fruit. All this may be the result of the 
short period of tropical weather experienced in the summer, but I 
am inclined to think was due to both this anti the extremely 
genial weather we were favoured with through the past winter 
and spring.—W. IGGULDEN. 
CRINUM PEDUNCULATUM PACIFICUM. 
Many beautiful Crinums are now known, and there are some 
which merit a place wherever stove plants receive the attention 
of cultivators. The flowers are usually elegant in form, either 
pure white, tinted or striped with rose, and possess a most pleasing 
fragrance. They are not, however, restricted to the stove, for 
some thrive in a greenhouse temperature, and a few are quite 
hardy in the south of England ; amongst the latter the well- 
known C. capense being the chief. In the two former groups of 
species, however, we have the most beautiful forms, such as 
C. asiaticum, C. Kirki, C. Moorei, C. amabile, and that represented 
in the woodcut (fig. 75, page 367)—viz., C. pedunculatum pacificum, 
now being sent out by Mr. W. Bull of Chelsea. This, as can be seen 
by the engraving, is a remarkably handsome form with very large 
hea Is of flowers, the divisions of which are pure white, narrow, 
and gracefully recurved. 
C. pedunculatum has been long known, having been originally 
introduced towards the end of last century, and presumably that 
now specially referred to is a superior form of the older type. 
Mr. W. Bull thus describes it—“A noble species, known as the 
Wedding Lily, introduced from Lord Howe’s Island, producing 
immense umbels of deliciously scented, pure white blossoms. The 
individual flowers are from 4 to 5 inches in diameter, and as many 
as from twenty to thirty are produced in each umbel. The plant 
is of bold habit, with lanceolate recurved leaves and cylindrical¬ 
shaped bulbs. The delightful fragrance of its large and handsome 
heads of chaste blossoms makes this plant a most desirable 
acquisition.” 
FERTILISERS—POTASH. 
A careful comparison between what I have written and the 
remarks at page 325 will show that the views of “Inquirer” and 
myself are identical, or very nearly so. Were it an agricultural 
question only it would be much more simple, for a great mass of 
facts exist which certainly indicate if they do not decisively 
point the way. Viewed from a horticultural standpoint there is 
no room for dogmatism at all, for the light that shines ever 
stronger and stronger on scientific agriculture has done no more 
than shed a few isolated rays on the question horticulturally. 
At the same time certain facts exist which may help to guide us 
with the help of reason. True, we can only reason analogically, 
for no experiments worthy the name have been made to let us 
know whether phosphoric acid or potash are most in demand 
by Vines, for instance ; but we certainly know that they remove 
very much more potash from the soil than phosphoric acid. 
Whether Vines would continue to flourish for an indefinite 
period in soil showing a natural supply of available potash to the 
extent of, say, 0 5 per cent., with a locked-up supply present in the 
usual quantities in such a soil, or whether an annual supply 
would secure better results, is just a point that the horticultural 
world is, or ought to be, interested in knowing. There is every 
probability that the natural supply would be sufficient, and this 
