252 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGHST. 
/ 
[ November, 
luxury of fruit consumption seems to take a very practical turn in the mind of 
true town-frequenters at this season of the year. The very best must not exceed 
the florin-piece. If grapes exceed 2s. per lb., they are not buyers ; the bloomless 
M foreigns” at Is. to Is. 6d. are preferred. If small punnets of these foreign 
grapes, or any other kind of good fruit, are displayed for sale, they sell readily 
basket and all for the florin ; whereas if ticketed 2s. 6d., they “ hang,” to use the 
trade term. A very large Melon has been introduced more freely this season, and 
sold—even in Piccadilly—at a penny a slice. The fruit was a peculiar one, the 
seeds being distributed like plums in a pudding, promiscuously throughout the 
flesh, which seemed moderately consistent; they were not situated in the centre of 
each fruit, as in other of the Oucurbitacese. 
Finally, the home Apple crop is, I fear, a very scanty one. Already the dealers 
who are shrewder than their neighbours at trade statistics have issued post 
circulars, making inquiry if any disposable stock exists, and the price required, 
per cwt.—a somewhat novel method of purchasing, though perhaps not so bad 
for the buyer, who knows how very abundant is the pest of the maggot at the 
core.” By the by, how exceedingly destructive these maggots are this season ! 
Every tree seems smitten with an excess of them. A large Ribston Pippin here, 
which was well fruited this season, is constantly shedding its large fine fruit, of 
which at least 75 per cent, will drop, and go to satiate the appetite of this little 
glutton. 
When the very fair Plum crop we have had is exhausted, and the foreign 
Grapes are u sold out,” the English grower may look forward to something more 
like remunerative prices. Indeed almost any kind of apples seem u to fetch ” 
about 6s. per sieve at the present time. Hence, unless the foreign supply is 
great, high prices must rule.— William Earley, Valentines. 
PICTURES OF PALM TREES. 
Deckenia nobilis. 
« HE genus Deckenia proposed by M. Wendland is closely allied to Acantho- 
phcenix , of which we gave an illustration at page 221. The only species 
W at present known is Deckenia nobilis , represented in the accompanying cut, 
borrowed from the Gardeners' Chronicle , and representing a specimen in the 
collection of Mr. W. Bull. It is, as will be seen, a very elegant plant, such as 
may be admitted with satisfaction to choice collections of cultivated palms. The 
leaf-stalks are red, furnished with longish needle-like spines, and support broadisli 
arching pinnate leaves, the linear leaflets of which are not very numerous, but 
are long, drooping, and tapering to a narrow point. 
This plant is named in honour of the late Baron von der Decken, the African 
explorer, and was first known as Areca nobilis , and subsequently as Oncosperma 
Van Houtteanum , under which latter name it is nicely figured in the Flore des 
Serves. It is a native of the Seychelles Islands, and is quite distinct from the 
