THE CULTURE OF OX ALTS CRENATA. 
167 
ON THE EFFECTS AND ADVANTAGE OF TRAINING THE SHOOTS OF 
YOUNG PEAR-TREES DOWNWARDS. 
BY MR. M. SAUL, OF LANCASTER. 
I think the mode of return-training of fruit-trees is not generally 
known in this part of the country. 1 believe Dr. Lingard was the 
person who directed my attention to the plan, about three years ago. 
I had at that period received a few valuable cuttings of choice pears 
from the Horticultural Society of London, and was, of course, desirous 
of having fruit from them. I grafted them 
upon young, healthy, bearing trees, on which 
they took well. In the second year I turned 
and confined the shoots in a downward position, 
as at fig. 1. At the present time, the third 
spring from grafting, the shoots so trained are 
as full of flower-buds as possible, and give pro¬ 
mise of a crop of fruit. The sorts so treated are 
the Easter Beurre, and the Beurre Ranee. Fi g- 1- 
In order to prove the effect of downward training, compared with 
the common way of allowing the shoots to grow upright, 
two other grafts were worked on healthy trees, one of 
which has grown up in the natural way, as fig. 2, and, 
to my great surprise, not a flower-bud is to be seen upon 
it. This, in my opinion, is sufficient proof that grafting 
on bearing trees, and training the first shoots downwards, 
is the quickest way of obtaining specimens of new sorts 
of fruit. 
Fig. 2. 
Sulyard Street, Lancaster. 
ON THE CULTURE OF OXALIS CRENATA. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 
Sir, —In answer to my question (vol. iii. p. 486, by C. M. W.) in 
the last number of the Register, he says, if I dig up the plants about 
Christmas I shall find plenty of tubers, and even if I have not done so 
before I see his answer I shall then find a good supply of tubers. Now 
I beg C. M. W.'s pardon when I state that it is well known the Oxalis 
Crenata will not stand frost—no, not so much as the potato. And 
