584 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 80, 1888. 
north of London, and commends itself for the pleasing manner in which 
th e plants were associated.] 
FIGS ON WALLS. 
It is not my intention in this paper to go into the history of the Fig> 
but simply to make a few remarks upon its culture cn walls. My obser¬ 
vations are based upon nearly sixteen years’ experience of trained trees in 
these gardens, covering a wall 10J feet high, and about 350 feet long, from 
base to summit, with healthy and fruitful branches. Two of the Fig trees 
here are of great age and size, having stems nearly 3 feet round, and 
branches extending from 35 to 40 feet therefrom on each side. Yet, 
owing to the method of training practised, the wood forming the indi¬ 
vidual trees is, with the exception of a few thick branches proceeding 
from the base, such as may be found in a six-year-old tree. 
The varieties best adapted for culture against walls in the open air are 
the following :—Brown Turkey, a free bearer of large turbinate fruits, 
with a grooved sutface; skin brown, with a slight purplish tinge next the 
sun; flesh tinged with red at the centre, rich and sugary. White Mar¬ 
seilles is another free-hearing variety, producing fairly large, roundish 
obovate, and slightly ribbed fruit, having a pale green skin, which becomes 
yellowish white when the fruit is ripe ; flesh opaline, juicy, sweet, and 
rich. Castle Kennedy is a rather shy bearing variety, a fact which may 
account for the great size to which its obovate and handsome fruit 
attains to on vigorous trees; skin greenish yellow, pale brown towards 
the eye ; flesh whitish, with stains of red near the eye. Brunswick is 
another somewhat shy bearing variety; the fruit is pyriform, very large, and 
handsome in appearance ; skin pale brown next the sun, and yellowish- 
green where shaded ; flesh opaline outside, reddish-brown at the centre, 
and fairly rich and sugary. 
Seeing that the wood of Figs is naturally pithy and soft, moderately 
good loam, and one part of old mortir rubble and wood ashes well mixed, 
should only be used as soil. When Fig trees are planted in a narrow, 
shallow, but well-drained border composed of the compost indicated, they 
make a short-jointed and firm growth, with an embryo fruit in the axil of 
every leaf. But trees thus grown should have copious supplies of water 
at the roots during the summer months in the absence of heavy rains, and 
if frequent waterings of liquid manure be given, finer fruit will thereby 
be secured. In planting, the trees should not be buried any deeper in the 
soil than they were before. 
A few inches should be allowed for the soil settling down within a 
few weeks from planting time. A wall having a south or south-west 
aspect is the most suitabfe for Fig trees to occupy, say at 30 feet from 
each other. The intervening space can in the meantime be occupied 
with young trees, Figs or otherwise, which, however, should be removed 
as soon as the permanent trees require more space on the walls. 
Young trees should have their branches fan-trained at regular in¬ 
tervals on the wall, and at the same angle on either side the centre of 
the trees, so as to allow of two or more young shoots proceeding therefrom 
during the summer being trained in the same manner over the interven¬ 
ing space, and in order to secure a balance of growth in the individual trees 
strongly growing shoots should have their points pinched out. The tem¬ 
porary check thus given to the flow of sap will tend to the formation of 
embryo fruit on the shoots so stopped. In the case of established trees 
a space of 6 inches should be allowed between the branches of the previous 
year’s growth, and between these one of the current year’s growth should 
be laid in during the summer, and be stopped when they attain to a 
length of 20 inches for the purpose indicated, pinching all other shoots 
out as soon as they appear so as to prevent overcrowding of the shoots, 
and with this object in view the trees should be examined several 
times during the summer. The practice of taking down, bundling 
together, and covering the branches of Fig trees with mats and fern 
during the winter and early spring months is not only unnecessary, in 
the southern, western, and eastern counties at any rate, but positively 
injurious to the trees, inasmuch as it is calculated to thwart the very 
object in view, that of securing a good crop of fruit. 
As soon as the trees begin to push forth leaves, which they usually 
do here the beginning of May, they should be pruned somewhat after the 
fashion of the Peach or Morello Cherry—that is, as many of the old 
branches as can be dispensed with should be cut out to make room for a 
like number of young ones of the previous year’s growth, retaining, 
however, the necessary number of branches to form the tree which are 
best studded with young fruit, which will be obvious at that time, and 
on this account, together with the fact that the trees do not then bleed 
so much by reason of the absorption of the sap by the leaves as they 
otherwise would do, it is advisable to defer the process of pruning till 
May.— H. W. Ward. 
GARDENERS’ GAIT. 
My feelings on reading Mr. W. R. Raillem’s remarks were like the 
Yankee Editor’s, who received a poem for publication. He parsed it, 
examined it with a microscope, and sent it to a chemist to be analysed, 
but could not understand what the poet was driving at. 
Are your correspondent’s remarks meant as a joke, or are they 
intended as a sneer at a body of industrious persevering men ? With 
regard to habitually running at woik, few men are strong enough to do 
so, and a fair day’s work ern be done without it. But it is not so 
unusual as Mr. R. asserts to see a gardener run. Where forcing is carried 
on during the spring months the gardeners often have to “ pop ” and put 
shading on and take it off. 
Jim, too, is an extreme case and not a representative under gardener, 
as anyone may prove by visiting a London nursery when the men are 
going to or from meals. Your correspondent closes with good advice, 
which would have been received better without the illustrations. When 
I was under gardener the reading of such an article in the bothy would 
only have called forth uncomplimentary remarks.—A. L. G. 
The Prince of Wales has been enrolled as an honorary member of 
the Linnean Society. A deputation comprising the President, William 
Carruthers, F.R S., Frank Crisp, LL.B., Sir J. Lubbock, Bart., B. Daydon 
Jackson, and Dr. James Murie, attended at Marlborough House for the 
purpose of obtaining His Royal Highness’s signature in the Society’s 
books. 
- We regret to announce the death on the 24th inst., in his eighty- 
first year, of Me. C. W. Neumann of Wyncote, Allerton, near Liverpool, 
whose gardener (Wm. Mease) has been so successful in the cultivation of 
Chrysanthemums and other plants. 
- The exceptionally heavy Snowstorm which commenced last 
Sunday evening, and continued until Monday morning, has caused a 
great amount of damage to trees and shrubs in many districts. The 
snow was soft and damp, accumulating in heavy masses on trees of all 
kinds, but especially on evergreens, which in numerous cases were crushed 
to the ground. Shrubs of a brittle character, such as Lilacs, were 
snapped off in a remarkable manner, stems 3 or 4 inches thick being 
broken short about 4 feet from the ground. Where Conifers have not 
been quite broken down, handsome specimens have in innumerable in¬ 
stances lost large branches, effectually destroying their beauty. Letters 
from several counties, both north and south, record equal devastation 
and when the full results of the storm are known it will probably be 
found to have been one of the most disastrous experienced for many 
years. In the neighbourhood of London the average depth of snow was 
about 9 inches, but it was considerably deeper in exposed places owing to 
the drifting. 
- Me. S. Windsor, Glangwna Gardens, Carnarvon, sends us a 
fine flower of the peculiar Strelitzia Regina:, which is remarkable 
alike for its strange form and the curious combination of bright orange and 
blue tints. Accompanying it were samples of Zygopetalum Mackayi, a 
strong raceme having seven large flowers of good colouq Calanthe Yeitchi 
a vigorous raceme of richly tinted flowers, the fragr.nt and delicately 
tinted Luculia gratissima, and good flowers of Lapageria rosea. With 
them were Fern fronds and sprays of Asparagus, a I indicating by their 
clean healthy condition the considerate treatment they receive. 
- An old and once well known florist, Mr. Thoma3 Brown, 
formerly of the Royal Nurseries, Slough, died at Honolulu, Sandwich 
Islands, October 22nd last, at the age of eighty-two. Mr. T. Brown 
etired from the Slough nursery in 1840, and in 1846 emigrated to 
Honolulu, where he has since resided, with the exception of a few years 
passed in America. He held for a considerable time an official position 
as Registrar, and his eldest son is a member of the Legislative Assembly. 
- It is evident that at Rodriguez, a small dependency of Mauritius, 
the Indigenous Plants are threatened with Extinction from 
an enemy of a peculiar character. In the Annual Report of the Acting 
Civil Commissioner on Crown Lands and Forests for 1885 it is stated:— 
“ In my report for the year 1884 I pointe d out the existence of a kind of 
white lice, commonly called here ‘ cocheni'le,’ whioh had in a very short 
i me multiplied enormously, and threatens 1 to destroy the forests of 
Rodriguez. During the year 1885 matters looked more alarmina still. 
It was reported to me that these insects had begun to attack the Maize, 
Manioc, and Bean plantations. I, myself, while visiting the mountain, 
ascertained the correctness of the report. However, the Bean harvest 
had not been bad, and the inhabitants had nst to siffer from aDy scarcity 
