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THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
Mr. Fowler says :—“ The Castle Kennedy Fig, when grown’ alongside the 
White Marseilles, planted out and treated in every respect in the same manner, 
is about a fortnight earlier than the latter, fully three weeks earlier than the 
Brown Turkey, and more than a month earlier than the Brunswick. 
“ The importance of this will be apparent to those interested in the culti¬ 
vation of Figs, not only for early forcing, but also for out-door cultivation, as it 
may be expected to ripen in cold and unfavourable localities where Figs have 
not heretofore been grown. In our wet and cloudy climate (Wigtonshire), it 
has ripened out of doors on a standard, and always ripens on a wmll having a 
south-east aspect, early in August. 
“ When within a few days of being ripe, a clear honey-looking substance, 
of exquisite flavour, commences to drop from the eye of each fruit. When 
quite ripe this substance becomes somewhat viscid, hanging like an elongated 
dew r -drop, from half an inch to three-quarters in length, clear as crystal, giving 
a very remarkable appearance to the fruit. 
“ The fruit of the Castle Kennedy Fig which was before the meeting of the 
Fruit Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society on the 30tli of May, was 
commenced to be forced on the 20th of February. The first ripe Fig was 
gathered on the 27th April; the first dish on the 23rd May: thus proving that 
when forced early it can be ripened in about three months. The Figs here are 
planted out in a border in the inside of the house, and all treated in every 
respect in the same manner.” 
Taking it altogether—its size, earliness, and fine handsome appearance—this 
is one of our most valuable acquisitions to pomology. 
AUTUMN PROPAGATION OF BEDDING PLANTS. 
This is a topic which has so often been elaborately treated of, and one about 
which it may be considered most difficult to say anything to better purpose 
than has already been advanced by men of long and large experience. It may, 
however, be safely admitted that the saying that “ in the multitude of coun¬ 
cillors there is wisdom,” is peculiarly applicable to every department of gar¬ 
dening. Depend upon it, men of spheres the most circumscribed may be as 
well able to teach and suggest on some particular topic as are those w r ho have 
the direction of operations on the most gigantic scale; and we have each so 
much to learn in all that is comprehended in that wide and ever-widening 
word—Gardening, that it ill becomes any to hold forth with tones of imperious 
dogmatism on whatever subject he may think proper to treat. The diversity 
of wavs and means with which different individuals accomplish results in many 
respects alike are almost as different, in some parts of their details at least, as 
are the individuals themselves : hence the never-failing interest that is kept up 
on the subject of gardening, and the certainty that may be assumed that, however 
different the doctrines that may be advanced and the method described, they 
cannot fail to prove of service to a few r , at least, of the many wdio peruse these 
pages, even if, from circumstances over which they may have no control, they 
may not be able to follow out the ideas and practice which are from time to 
time brought forward. I therefore hope that, as the season of propagation is 
at hand, some tyro may benefit by what shall be briefly advanced. 
If w r e could but fully understand the means by which the most important 
results are accomplished in the great laboratory of Nature, it would invariably 
be found that the means are in themselves simple, although, like all else, in the 
abstract, marvellous. And so I think it is found to be in gardening: the 
simpler the means, in most cases the greater and more satisfactory the results. 
