138 
THE FLORIST, 
llibston Pippins, and the other five are a small sort, the name of which 
I do not know. These Apple trees are considerably more than one 
hundred years old, and they are still healthy and productive. Last 
year they had very few fruit; but in 1855, they bore a good crop of 
Apples. I that season gathered several bushels of fruit from these trees 
as perfect and as fine as any person could wish to see. There 
is, at the present time, living within 300 yards of these trees, 
an old gentleman who has known them since 1804: and he 
assures me that they have increased little in size these last fifty- 
three years. He says they were old trees when he first knew them; 
and that they have borne crops of fruit ever since when Apples 
have been a crop in this neighbourhood. I see no reason why these 
trees should not continue to bear fruit for many years to come. They 
have never had anything done to them in the way of pruning. 
These are not the only Ribston Pippin trees in this neighbourhood. 
There are others to be found in every old orchard—-in several to my 
knowledge. When Apples are a good crop, Ribstons of a superior 
quality can be bought in any of the market towns around here. This 
is proof that they have not wholly disappeared. That the Ribston 
Pippin has gone to decay in many localities, and that young trees 
become diseased, are facts but too true ; but I repeat that this is owing 
entirely to bad culture and propagation. There is no practical gardener 
who would expect a graft taken from, I will say, the original Ribston 
Pippin tree, when in extremis and put on to a bad stock, ever to come 
to a strong healthy tree : yet this is too common a practice. In general 
there is very little attention paid to the stocks, and much less to the 
grafts. Is it any wonder that we hear so much about the wearing out 
' of races! No, it is only the results of our own bad management. 
When a variety degenerates through the want of proper culture, proper 
attention to the selection of grafts and stocks, and good culture, will restore 
it to all its original vigour. 
Though the original tree at Ribston has disappeared, and those in East 
Lothian have also ceased to exist, it is satisfactory to know that there 
are still many healthy fine old trees throughout the length and breadth 
of the land, and it is also satisfactory to know that the sort can be 
perpetuated in a healthy state as long as man chooses to do so, by 
properly attending to its propagation and culture. 
Stourton. M. Saul. 
ROYAL GARDENS, FROGMORE. 
We venture again to give our readers a brief description of the prin¬ 
cipal features that attracted our notice in looking through these noble 
gardens the other day, hoping it will prove as instructive to others as 
the visit was to ourselves. 
The most interesting part of this establishment at this season of 
the year (viz., 15th April) is the forcing of fruit and the plant-houses. 
On entering the greenhouse at the east end of the principal range a fine 
display of bloom met our eye. A row of seedling Epacrises occupied 
