14 
THE FLORIST. 
the fluids with which every part of the plant’s system was surcharged. 
The severe frosts which followed in the early part of the present year con¬ 
sequently produced a fatal effect on the unripe wood of the Peach. Dark 
blotches began to show themselves on the young shoots, which, when 
cut into and examined under the microscope, shewed that the cells and 
their contents were entirely decomposed, and undergoing a species of 
mortification, and this was rapidly extending itself to the surrounding 
parts. Still, however, when vegetation commenced, and the trees 
burst into leaf, the system was so far relieved by it that the functions 
of blooming and setting fruit were perfected; and probably had a 
warm dry May occurred many trees would have overcome the attack, 
but directly the cold wet weather of May commenced all the previous 
symptoms of gum and gangrene became intensely aggravated. The 
young wood and foliage became affected simultaneously and died off, 
commencing from the lower part of the tree where vitality was weakest, 
and progressing upwards until only a few leaves were left on the top¬ 
most shoots ; the young fruit was attacked in the same way and 
fell off shortly after the leaves. The above presents a true picture of 
hundreds of trees which we examined; and where death did not 
follow at once, a serious check has been given to the trees which it 
will take some time to overcome. The fact that Peaches and Nectarines 
on east walls suffered less than those on south aspects is well established, 
and can only be attributed to the trees in the spring having been 
sheltered from the cold westerly winds and rains, which so greatly 
increased the bad effects of the previous October’s frost on trees on 
south walls, to which they were more exposed than those on east aspects. 
Unfortunately, owing to the unfavourable nature of the season for 
ripening the wood, the prospect for the next year’s Peach crop is a 
slender one unless we get a dry backward spring. At the present time, 
many Peach trees have not yet shed their leaves, and the wood is still 
quite green—a state of things which the severe frost we are now 
experiencing will not at all mend. We have, therefore, great doubts 
that unless a dry spring follows (to harden and ripen the wood), the 
trees which survived 18t)0 are doomed to perish in 1861. 
The progress which horticulture and floriculture have made this last 
year is suggestive of a widely increasing interest in all that pertains to 
gardening and gardeners. The Horticultural Society has now fairly 
got into work, and is doing that work well. The Fruit and Vegetable 
Committee on the one hand, and the Floricultural Committee on the 
other, have been established on a sound practical system, and are taking 
every means to ascertain the comparative merits of every new production 
placed before them ; and their published reports bear the highest value 
as references to the properties and merits of horticultural products. 
The Fruit Committee is organising a local committee for separate 
districts, where many fruits doubtless exist of which little is now known 
beyond their own localities. By-and-by we shall have reports on 
garden engineering, including heating apparatus, horticultural buildings, 
ventilation, &c.; and with the splendid garden at Kensington Gore 
completed and the experimental garden at Chiswick in full working 
order, a considerable portion of those bright visions of usefulness which 
