December 24, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
547 
not attain to the dignity of trees. The most common of these tvo 
plants and the type of the old genus Pavia is the Scarlet Buckeye, or 
Aibculus Pavia. This is sometimes a low shrub, producing its flowers 
when only a few inches high, and sometimes reaches the height of a 
dozen feet cr more with many slender straggling stems. It is widely 
distributed and very common in all the coast-region of the Southern 
States, from Virginia to Texas, and west of the Alleghany Mountains, ex¬ 
tending as far north as Kentucky and Missouri. The flowers are 2 or 
3 inches long and bright red; they make a great show therefore, 
although individually narrow and placed rather remotely in narrow 
few-flowered clusters ; they appear with the unfolding of the leaves and 
offer a warm and cheerful welcome to the traveller from the snow and 
ice of the north as he first reaches the south in early spring. Although 
this pretty plant cannot withstand the severity of our northern winters, 
the name is often found in the catalogues of nurserymen who confound 
it with some of the red-flowered varieties of the Sweet Buckeye. 
The fourth species of eastern America is the rarest of all our 
American Horse Chestnuts, although, strange to say, it is more commonly 
planted than any of the others, and, therefore, perhaps the best known. 
It is the iEsculus parvifolia or, a9 it was once called, fEsculus macro- 
stachya. It is an inhabitant of the foot-hills of the extreme southern 
Alleghanies, where the younger Bartram found it more than a hundred 
years ago, when he crossed from the sea-board to the head-waters of the 
Tennessee and saw, before any other educated man, the beauties of that 
marvellous region, covered then with one great forest, save where the 
Cherokee had made for himself a home by some swift-flowing river. 
The Dwarf Horse Chestnut, as the plant which Bartram discovered is 
now most often called, spreads in cultivation into a broad bush of com¬ 
pact habit, sometimes 20 or 30 feet across and 6 or 8 feet tall. From 
spring to autumn it is a handsome plant a3 it stands out singly on the 
lawn, and in early summer it covers itself with long narrow spikes of 
slender creamy white flowers, made conspicuous by their long exserted 
stamens and yello.v anthers. Although it is a southern species, peculiar 
t9 a region whose plants are not, as a rule, hardy at the north, the Dwarf 
Horse Chestnut flourishes in all parts of New England, where it flowers 
abundantly, although the season is rarely long enough for the fruit to 
ripen. 
The last of the North American Buckeyes is an inhabitant of 
California—the iEsculus californica of botanists. It is a low tree, 
sometimes 30 or 40 feet in height, with a short stout trunk, often much 
enlarged just above the ground, and spreading branches, which form a 
wide dense head ; or more often it is a shrub with stems 10 or 12 feet 
high, forming dense thickets. It is widely distributed in all the foot¬ 
hill region of the Coast ranges and of the western slopes of the Sierra 
Nevada, from the northern almost to the extreme southern part of the 
state, lining the banks of many streams and the sides of innumerable 
canons. The flowers of the California Buckeye are more beautiful than 
those of the other American species ; they are white or pale rose colour, 
an inch or more long, with broad spreading petals and tong conspicuous 
stamens, and are produced in long, very compact, many-flowered 
clusters. The fruit, which is pear-shaped and rather larger than that of 
our other species, is also ornamental. The only drawback to the 
California Buckeye, as it appears in the valleys of California, is that the 
leaves, which appear early and are fully grown when the tree is in 
flower in May, ripen under the influence of the hot sun very early and 
often fall by midsummer, thus leaving the branches bare for a consider¬ 
able part of the year. 
The California Buckeye is not very often cultivated, although it was 
first sent to Europe nearly forty years ago and flowered in England as 
early as 1858. Unfortuately it is not hardy in the Eastern States, and pro¬ 
bably outside of California it will never really flourish except in climates 
similar to that of the Pacific coast. It is well worth planting, however, 
in all the Mediterranean countries, and perhaps in Australia, as an orna¬ 
mental plant, for it is one of the handsomest of the whole genus, and 
when in flower one of the most beautiful of all North American trees.— 
(American Garden and Forest.') 
FRUIT FORCING. 
Peaches and Nectarines. — Earliest House. —The trees in the 
house closed early in December, and having been started at an early 
period the previous season, will now have the blossom buds well 
advanced towards flowering ; but trees not previously forced will be 
several days later in showing colour in the flower buds. When this 
takes place syringing the trees must cease, but maintain a genial atmo¬ 
sphere in the house by damping the floors and borders on bright morn¬ 
ings and in the early part of fine afternoons. If the inside borders are 
found upon examination at all dry, give a thorough supply of water at 
a temperature slightly in advance of that of the house. Weakly trees 
may have liquid manure, supplying it rather thick after the soil has 
bean made properly moist with water. Where there is a redundancy of 
blossoms remove those on the under side or back of the shoots, and thin 
them elsewhere where too crowded. Admit a little air constantly at the 
top of the house, and this, with the warmth in the hot-water pipes, will 
keep the air in motion, and moisture will be deposited on the glass 
instead of on the blossoms, as frequently occurs in a close atmosphere to 
the prejudice of their setting fruit. The temperature may be main¬ 
tained at 55° by day and 50° at night in mild weather, but 5° less in 
severe weather is more favourable to the trees than the higher tempera¬ 
ture, and the setting is not prejudiced if the temperature fall to 45° at 
night, or in very sharp weather to 40°. Quick work is rarely good work, 
and it is necessary when the flowers show the anthers clear of the petals 
that the house be freely ventilated, avoiding cold draughts, and not 
exciting the trees by too much fire heat. To keep them, however, in 
steady progress, the temperature must be raised early in the day to 50°, 
and kept between that and 55° through the day with a little ventilation 
at the top of the house, and through the day a temperature of 60° to 65° 
should be maintained from sun heat. The aim should be to have 
stout blossoms, sturdy stamens well raised above the pistil loaded 
with abundance of pollen, well developed pistil and properly formed 
ovary. These all require time to develop, and aeration for their per¬ 
fecting, then recourse can be had to fertilisation by shaking the trellis 
or brushing over the blossoms with a camel’s hair brush on fine days 
after the house has been ventilated some little time. The pollen by 
either of those processes is distributed in a golden shower visible in the 
sunlight, and when this is the case, the set is generally a good one, even 
without artificial fertilisation, and sometimes the disturbance of the 
air by lightly syringing the trees serves to effect the setting in a satis¬ 
factory manner. 
Second Early House. —To have fruit ripe at the close of May or early 
in June the trees must be started without delay, but it is desirable to 
merely close the house and only employ fire heat to exclude frost during 
the first fortnight, ventilating freely at and above 50°. This will gently 
incite the sap and buds. Afterwards, say at the new year, fire heat 
should be employed to maintain a night temperature of 40°, and to 
insure 50° by day, above which ventilate freely. This will bring the 
trees on sufficiently to insure sturdy blossom, and once they make a 
move it is necessary to keep them in steady progress. Sprinkle the trees 
and house on fine mornings and afternoons, but in dull weather omit 
the afternoon syringing, as keeping the trees constantly dripping with 
water has a softening and weakening tendency. If the house has had 
the roof lights removed the inside borders will have been thoroughly 
moistened through to the drainage, and not need water for some weeks, 
but where the roof lights are fixed the border may need a thorough 
supply of water, and if dry it will be necessary to repeat the applica¬ 
tions, for nothing short of thorough moisture in the border ought to 
satisfy the Peach grower. Outside borders should be protected with dry 
fern or litter, a few inches thickness of dry leaves with a little litter 
over them answers admirably. Spare lights may be used to throw off 
heavy rains and snow, and for securing a more uniform temperature in 
the border. 
Succession Houses. —The trees are best pruned and dressed after 
loosening them from the trellis. Cut out weak attenuated branches, and 
where crowded thin well, leaving sufficient of last season’s growths for 
bearing, with space between them for training in those intended to dis¬ 
place them. Thoroughly wash the house, the trees with soapy water, 
and if necessary apply an insecticide, for aphides, red spider, thrips, and 
scale lurk about the trees in some form ready to become active and 
multiply when forcing operations are commenced. Secure the branches 
at once to the trellis, leaving spaces in the respective ligatures for the 
swelling of the branches and shoots. Remove the loose surface soil down 
to the roots without disturbing them, and supply good turfy loam in 
lumps from the size of a nut to an egg, with an admixture of about a 
fourth of well-decayed manure, not covering the roots more than 2 or 3 
inches. If the trees are disposed to make long-jointed wood it is advis¬ 
able to avoid nitrogenous manures, also potassic, especially in nitrate 
form, and supply bonemeal, which, furnishing phosphoric acid and phos¬ 
phate of lime, will tend to promote sturdier growth, and where there is a 
deficiency of lime, sulphate of lime or gypsum may be used advan¬ 
tageously as a top-dressing. These substances are useful in the case of 
gummy affectations, taking equal proportions of steamed bonemeal and 
gypsum, and applying it at the rate of half a pound per square yard 
before growth takes place in the trees. On the other hand, where trees 
make too little wood and are more prolific of fruit than desirable for 
attaining to a good size, the borders may be dressed with a combined 
phospbatic, potassic, and sulphatic manure, sav superphosphate of lime 
two parts, nitrate of potash one part, and sulphate of lime two parts ; 
mix, and apply at the rate of half a pound per square yard when the 
trees are starting into growth, or a little earlier in the case of weakly 
trees. These elements only benefit the trees in the year of application, 
except the sulphate of lime, therefore to be of service they must be 
applied when they can be appropriated and transformed into plant 
constituents. This is when the trees are in growth, and to benefit the 
fruits the manure must be available whilst they are swelling. Peach 
trees, however, require other manurial elements, as magnesia and soda. 
Not perhaps directly, but indirectly these substances contribute largely 
to the health of stone fruit trees, and without healthy trees useful crops 
are not forthcoming. Kainit supplies those elements as well as potash, 
and by using it along with bonemeal—two parts bonemeal to one part 
kainit—the trees are benefited in the year of its application and in the 
succeeding one, but the mixture must be applied in autumn or before 
growth takes place in the trees. The bonemeal and kainit mixture is 
