September 11, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
235 
agree with either of them. Hard firm ripe growths I will readily 
grant are conducive to the formation of blossom buds, and also, 
I willingly concede, to the perfect development of the flowers; 
but I am nevertheless unable to accept the dictum of your corre¬ 
spondents as to such blossoms being in any sense proof against 
injury or destruction by frost in spring. Although I always 
have endeavoured, and always shall endeavour, to do all that is 
possible to mature the growths of fruit trees in my charge whether 
they are under glass or in the open air, because that is a safe 
course to pursue for the production of blossom, I am yet never¬ 
theless painfully conscious of what appears to me a stern fact— 
that blossom is killed by frost in spring, however well the wood 
may be ripened in the autumn. I go further than this, and 
assert that if the wood of fruit trees were what may be termed 
only fairly well matured, and no spring frosts followed, more 
fruit would be had than if the growths were ripened to the utmost, 
and sharp frosts prevailed in April and May. 
Let the wood of the fruit trees be as hard as it may, that has 
no influence whatever in hardening the blossom. The pistils 
of the flowers of Apples, Pears, Plums, and Cherries—indeed of 
all fruits — are essentially tender, and will only endure a certain 
degree of cold, and when that is exceeded they succumb. The 
stamens and petals are more hardy; but I have known the pistils 
of fruit blossom killed time after time, however perfect the 
flowers were, and however hard and rijie the wood, and the same 
thing will occur again. If severe frosts occur next spring the 
same dearth of fruit will follow as so many persons are now 
experiencing in spite of the highly satisfactory state of the trees 
at the present time. 
Nor do I consider that such growths which are not made hard 
and brown by long exposure to the sun are so inferior in fruit- 
producing capacity as many persons appear to imagine. Wood 
well ripened is more hardy and less liable to lie injured by frost 
in winter—the forerunner of canker—than immature wood is; 
but I venture to say that that portion of the growth of an Apple, 
Pear, Peach, or Plum tree that is produced in May is not essen¬ 
tially more fruitful than portions produced two months later; 
yet the former ought to be, and is, harder than the latter. 
1 have many times seen the finest blossom, and fruit too, on 
those parts of shoots that are not the hardest and ripest. This 
is often the case with Peaches; and I have observed Plum trees 
that would have been practically blossomless but for the flowers 
that expanded towards the tips of the shoots, and these ai’e, I 
think, younger than the base. Time after time I have gathered 
the best Apples from the extremities of the young shoots that 
could not have been regarded as “ well ripened.” They were 
ripe enough no doubt, but were not hard in the sense that Mr. 
Abbey and his supporter “Thinker” appear to suggest as indis¬ 
pensable. This, however, is not the chief point on which I 
dissent from them. 
If ripeness of wood in the autumn is of more importance than 
the absence of frost in spring in the production of fruit how are 
we to explain the fact, for fact I believe it is, that there are 
more Apples in Northumberland than in Kent this year. I am 
told on good authority that the Kentish orchards, including old 
trees that made little growth last year, are practically barren, 
while trees 2u0 miles north are bearing excellent crops. Such 
trees I have seen, and I cannot suppose their growths were better 
ripened than were those of trees on the sunny slopes of Kent. 
Roasting and starvation is not wood-ripening, at least for 
purposes of fruit-production, as many a stunted weakened fruit¬ 
less tree in orchards proves; and even if such trees produce 
blossoms in shoals, no matter how hard the wood is, the blossoms 
will be just as tender and liable to destruction by frost in spring 
as flowers that are fewer on healthier and free-growing trees, the 
wood of which is not popularly considered so ripe as it should 
be, Mr. Abbey’s and “A Thinker’s” opinions to the contrary 
notwithstanding.— An Old Gardener. 
GILIAS. 
Most forms of Gilias that are widely known and d servedly admired 
in masses, and much used for vases when cut, are annuals. The biennia 
and perennial section are extremely rare, and although most of them are 
pretty and deserving a place in all collections, it is seldom they ar 
seen outside a botanical garden. 
G. aggregata, a handsome biennial, flowered beautifully about two 
years ago at Floore Weedon, where I believe it also ripened seed, which is 
a very rare occurrence in this country, owing to the late wet seasons ; and 
to grow the plant well it must have a warm sheltered position, either 
against a south wall or other suitable place where the above conditions 
can be attended to. The flowers are extremely handsome, and are borne 
in loose corymbs, reddish purple, but variable. 
G. Brandegei, the perennial represented in the annexed engraving 
(fig. 40), makes a compromise between Gilia and Polemonium, as it falls 
exactly between the two, and indeed in habit and outward appearance 
has more of the character of the latter than the former, yet diflering in 
the colour of the flowers from both of these genera. 
G. Brandegei forms tufts of small peculiar and pretty leaves, alter¬ 
nate on the leafstalk; the flower stems are erect, from 6 to 8 inches in 
height, giving a succession of bright primrose-yellow flowers all through 
the summer and autumn. 
It is perfectly hardy, and seems to flourish best in a damp shady 
situation ; if on rockery the natural drainage will be found sufficient. 
Planted out in a frame where it can be treated liberally it attains a large 
size for a Gilia, forming in one year a clump from 1 to 2 feet in diameter. 
The young growths or side shoots may be struck readily under a hand¬ 
glass in August and September. Native of the Kocky Mountains of South 
Colorado.—M. S. 
NON-PRUNED APPLE TREES. 
Will some of your readers send in the names of Apples and also of 
Pears which bear on the last year’s shoots 1 “ Non-Believer ” gives the 
normal type of growth in the Apple, Mr. Waiting and Mr. Bunyard 
have favoured us with some of the exceptions. As far as my limited 
experience extends it appears that certain varieties both of Pears and 
Apples fail to make what is commonly known as the “ midsummer shoot,” 
and consequently mature some of the buds on the first growth. Amongst 
Pears Josephine de Malines is a good example, and I think Vicar of 
Winkfield. To the list of Apples mentioned by Mr. Bunyard Cornish 
