December 9, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 528 
were placed in a wheelbarrow and taken to the flower borders. 
When the head gardener had marked out the situations a man 
followed and dug a deep hole, in which was thrown a shovelful or 
two of old partly decomposed cow manure which was mixed with 
the soil, then followed a few shovelfuls of the compost above 
mentioned, and on this the bulbs were planted, then more compost, 
and finally the ordinary soil. A label was placed to each clump. 
The small bulbs were next attended to. A trench was made as 
for Celery, manure was dug into the bottom of the trench, the 
compost was wheeled into the trench upon the manure, and the 
bulbs planted in rows. I have frequently planted small bulbs 
the size of walnuts, and taken them up in October as large as 
a cricket ball and almost as solid. The past season a friend of 
mine has been trying a similar practice with L. auratum ; he 
was successful, and says he had one or two bulbs as large as a 
quart jug. He also mentioned having two varieties of L. auratum ; 
one blooms five weeks before the other, is dwarfer, and not so good 
as the later one. 
I have often heard of late years that the white L. lancifolium 
or L. speciosum album is gradually dying out. I am now able 
to say something on the point. Old gardeners who recollect 
the handsome Liliums grown thirty or forty years ago in pots 
10 or 12 inches in diameter, the plants being 5 or G feet high and 
bearing twenty or thirty large blooms, will be able to understand 
how pleasing it was to me to see plants of the varieties album, 
rubrum, and punctatum in such pots in the garden of Sir Hum¬ 
phrey Trafford, Trafford Park, some plants with thirty to forty 
flowers, and one specimen of L. lancifolium album had fifty blooms. 
I had not seen Liliums grown so well for a very long time. I 
believe much harm is done by spring planting and by keeping 
the bulbs too long out of the ground. Another cause of injury is 
stowing the pots away anywhere when the plants have flowered 
until next February or March; the soil is then shaken from the 
bulbs, and as fresh fibres have been produced they are broken in 
the operation. Is it surprising that under such treatment the 
constitution of the plant is ruined ? If you desire to have good 
bulbs and good blooms pot or plant the Liliums from the end of 
October to the end of November at the latest, and if manure is 
employed let it be placed deeply, so that it is not in contact with 
the bulb.—N. I. D. 
NOTES ON HARDY FRUITS. 
I am glad that “A. M. B.” intends to give the Apple called 
Stirling Castle a trial. I am sure it will give satisfaction. I have 
this year added three fresh Apples on trial to my stock—namely, 
Yorkshire Beauty, Golden Noble, and Waltham Abbey Seedling. 
The object of my experiments in hardy fruits is to find those 
varieties which combine beauty and utility. I mean by the former, 
beauty of shape if not of colour ; and by utility I mean size as well as 
good flesh, good keeping, good eating, or good cooking qualities. 
One thing let me particularly impress on planters just at this 
time in regard to pyramids : Do not plant deeply ; do not plant 
your tree so low as to cover with earth the part where the tree is 
grafted. If you do in the case of Pears this result will follow— 
the Pear stem will send out roots, your tree will grow fast and 
be perfectly barren for years ; it will then be, “ Plant Pears, plant 
for your heirs.” The whole idea of a pyramid will be upset: the 
lower branches will die, but a huge growth will take place high up, 
and instead of a pyramid you will have a tall tree, in fact a stan¬ 
dard—just what, if you delight in pyramids, you do not want. 
Another hint : Be sure and do not allow your man to cut off any 
of the lower branches. They all wish to do it—all of a less high 
caste as gardeners, in order to work under the tree better. This 
working under it, by the way, is just what is not wanted. Let the 
soil be only turned over a few inches deep, so that no root is dis¬ 
turbed, or, worse, dug up. If it be, then down go the roots into the 
bad soil below, and your hopes will be frustrated. Also beware lest 
your man dig up the roots between the Raspberry canes. I have 
seen in former years barrowfuls of roots dug out and removed, and 
the fruit deplorably injured. A hoe is all that is necessary to 
work between the rows. These may seem homely hints ; and 
some, perhaps many, readers will say, “ We knew all this before.” 
Granted ; but some may not, and on homely hints being taken 
success in gardening depends. I have after long trial given up 
growing Plums as pyramids. I have watched several gardens, 
some near London, others in my own district, and find the result 
the same—no crop, only at best a sprinkling. I train my Plums 
to walls, or, lacking room, give them to friends who have room. 
With Apples I consider myself very fairly successful, and indeed 
we need great success if we are to compete with any chance 
against the Americans. Only recently I was in Bath and sought 
out a large fruit shop and began talking to its proprietor. I said, 
“ You have fine Apples there.” He replied, “ Oh, yes 1 Americans. 
They call them Red Baldwins. We cannot get English Apples 
people like so well.” The same thing I observed in a Wiltshire 
town recently. What we ought to do, therefore, is to grow varie¬ 
ties of Apples which arc large and handsome and of good flavour, 
or we shall be beaten out of the market. One or two remarks 
about American Apples : They will not grow in this country so 
fine as in America. Then I have never tasted any of the tinned 
American Apples which have a fine or even decided flavour. 
The fruit looks well in tarts, but it is tasteless ; no real good 
flavour, not to be compared with our English varieties. If we 
grow abundantly—yes, and superabundantly—fine-coloured, large¬ 
sized, good-keeping, and good travelling Apples, we shall be able 
to hold our own. Plant each year some fresh trees of varieties 
you have tried yourself or know others have tried and approved. 
There are thousands of Apple and Pear trees which are only fit for 
firewood—lichen-covered, miserable, old trees, which are allowed 
to remain because tweuty or thirty years ago they produced “ such 
fine fruit and such a lot of it.” 
One other hint. I grow nothing but pyramids, but I grow them 
naturally. I neither summer-prune nor winter-prune. As they 
come from the nursery in proper form so they grow on. If a 
branch grows across I remove it ; that is about all I do. The 
result is that the trees keep thin, and sun and air penetrate through 
them always ; hence also fruiting spurs gradually but surely form. 
I have well-grown trees natural-shaped and thin, not stunted 
thickets, barren of all things except constantly increasing sticks 
fit only for stakes for flowers in pots. 
One word more and I have done. I was obliged, from liability 
to take cold, to give up keeping fancy Pigeons. I dared not go 
all weathers into a draughty Pigeon loft. The doctor shook his 
head and said “ No ” so decidedly that appeal there was none, 
and to be a Pigeon fancier and not constantly be among your 
pets is miserable work. I then turned as a hobby to hardy fruit 
culture, and now for several years I have found it most interest¬ 
ing, and heartily recommend it to those situated like myself.— 
—Wiltshire Rector. 
P.S.—When you plant a tree I do not recommend placing long 
litter at once over its roots, as I think in mild rainy weather— 
and planting weather must be mild—it creates too much damp 
for the good of the said roots. However, have some near each 
tree to put on when hard weather comes, and again remove it 
when soft wet weather returns. By this means you benefit the 
tree, and you catch an enormous number of slugs, for in frosty 
weather they crawl under the litter for warmth, and on raising it 
you will find them on the ground. I have this day caught more 
than a dozen under some of my trees, where they had secured 
themselves, as they thought, a snug and warm berth for the 
winter.—W. R. 
THE BLACKWOOD TREE OF AUSTRALIA. 
This very handsome and valuable tree, Acacia Melanoxylon, 
cannot be well known in Britain, as it is not mentioned in 
Johnson’s “ Gardener’s Dictionary.” A plant of it grew for 
about a dozen years in the garden of Cromla, Corrie, Isle of 
Arran ; but the situation was unfavourable, the ground being 
very wet. It was at length transplanted, but died. In the month 
of September last year a friend presented me with a fine young 
plant, which I placed in the same garden in Arran. Last winter 
was the most fatal to shrubs that I have known, but the Acacia 
was uninjured. This year the same friend has given me another 
plant of this noble tree, which I have been permitted to plant in 
one of the best situations at Brodick, Arran. As it is of very 
rapid growth, it and the one at Corrie will soon become a tall and 
very ornamental tree. 
The following note regarding it from a report by Baron Ferdi¬ 
nand Yon Mueller, F.R.S., kindly sent by him to me, will interest:— 
“ The bark of this highly valuable timber tree has generally gone 
to waste, after from the logs the splendid wood was obtained. 
The bark is, however, very rich in tannic acid, and ought not to 
be left unutilised, although no Blackwood Trees should be sacri¬ 
ficed for the sake of their bark alone.” 
The fine Ferns Dicksonia antarctica and D. squarrosa, though 
as usual unprotected last winter, are in their wonted health. 
The beautiful Gum Tree beside them, also never injured by 
frost in Arran or at Roseneath, Gare Loch, is, I believe, Eucalyp¬ 
tus amygdalina, as it appears to be identical with plants of this 
species raised by me from a packet of named seed which, along 
with nineteen others, I received from Baron Von Mueller. There 
is a tree of this species in Victoria 450 feet in height. Will it 
ever attain to this height in Arran ?— David Lakd;b020U3H. 
Hollow Celery. —This year I have about seven hundred 
Celery plants and out of this number I have no tmore than two 
