2G2 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ November, 
GLASS COPING FOR FRUIT-WALLS, Etc. 
{MMUNITY from the effects of spring frosts would in most instances assure 
the cultivator a good crop of Wall Fruit, provided the trees were in other 
respects treated with a fair amount of skill. It is these biting spring frosts 
which nip the embryo fruit in the bud, or very shortly after its emergence 
therefrom, and cause it to fall off. But for their destructive influence, one might 
generally count on seeing a toler¬ 
able crop. The insecurity and 
uncertainty which have been 
found to attach to fruit crops on 
exposed walls has led to the use 
of protectors of various kinds, 
such as canvas screens, netting, 
coping boards, and temporary 
glass roofs. Mr. Rendle now 
comes forward with a new appli¬ 
cation of his idea of plant protec¬ 
tors, and offers us a glass coping, 
which, put up as he proposes, 
would be a thoroughly efficient 
protection, and much less costly 
than a glass-roof. 
The accompanying figure, 
showing this coping in use, is 
self-explanatory. At the top of 
the wall a piece of wood pro¬ 
vided with a patent metal groove 
is nailed to the brickwork, and 
at about 2 ft. from the wall 
another piece, also provided with 
the groove, is supported by up¬ 
rights. The glass is run into 
these two grooves, falling into 
the under one, so that it is held 
quite firm. As a subsidiary 
protection a piece of netting is stretched between the uprights, and the trees are 
thus most effectually sheltered from frost-bite. 
Copings are admitted to be very efficient protectors against spring frosts, 
which, like rain and dew, act vertically. When moisture settles upon the blos¬ 
soms, and is followed by vertical frost, it is most destructive to the tender blossoms 
of the fruit trees we cultivate upon walls ; but copings ward off both damp and 
Rendle’s Glass Coping for Walls. 
