ON THE EARLY FLOWERS OF FRUIT TREES. 
165 
better ; but if the young shoots continue growing, the unnailing should 
be delayed till after the growth ceases. 
Let us now advert to the effects of strong light and the direct beams 
of the sun on flowers. Of these, many appear to rejoice and expand 
under the morning light and solar rays, as the convolvulus, crocus, and 
many of the composita3. Others only expand under the sun’s direct 
action,as the an agallis, and which will close its flowers in a few minutes 
if a passing cloud only happens to intervene; almost all are fugitive 
under bright sunshine ; and a few shun the sun’s light altogether, as 
the night-blowing cereus and some of the fig-marigolds. 
It is observable that the flowers of most delicate structure are 
mostly early , or twilight Jlowerers ; such are those belonging to the 
Linnaean classes, Icosandria and Polyandria ; and it would appear 
that this precocity of flowering, and this constitutional shyness of strong 
light and heat, is really a provision of nature bestowed for the greater 
safety of the products. 
The native countries of the fruit-trees under consideration enjoy 
a temperate spring, and frost is seldom felt, so that the flowers are 
never in jeopardy from cold; but the summers are excessively hot, 
and the solar heat is often aggravated by the withering sirocco, in 
which an Icosandrious flower would be parched and killed in a few 
minutes. But, it may be answered, we have no such visitations in 
Britain. True, not in the same degree certainly; but we sometimes 
experience effects of the like kind ; for instance, buck-wheat ( Poly¬ 
gonum fagopyrum) is extensively cultivated in some of the light land 
districts in the south of England, and much more commonly in Holland 
and Belgium. It is sown about the beginning of June, and is ripe in 
October. The flowers are small and exceedingly delicate. Should the 
weather be dark and showery during its flowering season, a great yield 
is the consequence; but if the weather be bright and dry while the 
plants are in flower, a very light crop follows. In some places cherry 
orchards are attached to every farm; the fruit being a considerable 
source of profit in favourable seasons. If when the trees are 
in flower the weather be cloudy, with frequent showers of rain, 
plentiful crops follow; but with dry and clear skies the reverse. Many 
kinds of hardy fruit trees are found from experience to be much more 
fruitful on an east or west, or even on a north aspect, than on one 
directly facing the south, particularly pears, plums, and cherries. And 
we have often witnessed that where some of the earliest varieties of 
pears, as the Petit Muscat, and Jargonelle; of apples, the red and 
white Juneating; and of plums, the Italian Damask and Precoce de 
Tours, have been preferred to stations on the south wall to get the fruit 
