108 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOOIST. 
[Mat, 
except that fine late Nectarine, Victoria^ and that best of orange-fleshed Nec¬ 
tarines, Pine-apple^ it is certainly the best of the Sawbridgeworth selection. 
The Peaches and Nectarines seem to have set freely in the orchard-house this 
year, as -usual. We have not had to bewail the loss of a full crop since the house 
was built. The house is warmed with four rows of hot-water pipes, and the 
I 
heat can be turned on at any time, but this is seldom necessary except when the 
trees are in blossom, and then it is necessary should there be a prospect of 
severe frost, or continued dull cold weather, which is the worst condition of things. 
At such a time, the pipes ought to bo warmed in the day-time, to raise the tempera¬ 
ture. These Early Peaches and Lord Napier Nectarine are also to be recommended 
to be grown in pots, and placed in any suitable forcing-house, where they can receive 
a fair share of sunshine. I have had good crops from trees placed against 
the back wall of a Pine-house. They could be placed in a Peach-house if the 
permanent trees did not overshadow them too much, and would give a few 
dishes before the trained trees were ready. The quality of the fruit is not criticised 
very severely, if it is the first dish of the season.—J. Douglas, Loxford Hall 
Gardens^ Ilford. 
LILAC DR. LINDLEY. 
® HIS is by far the best addition which has been made of late years to our 
hardy forcing shrubs. ' We hear and see a good deal of the French pro- 
f Auctions in the way of white Lilac, but their plants are large before they 
are fit for their method of forcing. Here, however, we have a sort that 
will in a short time supersede that, with all persons who require to force, since it 
sets its buds on small plants, and opens freely. We have some plants 18 in. 
high, with a dozen clusters of bloom, and if forced in a shady house, it comes a 
good white. When it is more plentiful, and the plants get up to, say, 3 ft. or so 
in height, there will be no more showy plant for a greenhouse. 
A good deal more has been made of the French practice of forcing white 
Lilac than it deserves. In fact, if a demand were to spring up for it in our 
markets, a good supply would soon follow, because if the tops are cut off, and 
put in with bloom-buds well set and ripened, they will push their bloom as fine 
and as good as whole plants, supposing always that they are forced in some sort 
of dark house, say a cellar-like mushroom-house.—^J. F., Cliveden. 
NEW PRIMROSES. 
OULD we but get the details of crosses made with a view of reaching certain 
results frequently recorded, the information thus obtained would, in all 
probability, throw considerable light on the interesting question of the 
relative influence of the pollen and seed-bearing parents, as seen in the 
progeny obtained from them. I have been very successful in a cross made 
between what we have now in cultivation as Primula altaica^ which is said not to 
be the true altaica, but simply a lilac-coloured common primrose, and the fine 
