130 
THE STANWICK NECTARINE. 
the Black Damask escaped much better, and are now fine vigorous trees from four to five feet 
in height, furnished with healthy leaves, some of them eight and a half inches long, remarkable 
for their sickle shape, the footstalks being profusely covered with fully-developed reniform 
glands. It is, I apprehend, somewhat tender while in bud; for, what are called “ French 
Peaches,” such as Grosse Mignonne, Gallande, &c., on the same kind of stocks, and in the’same 
quarter, without the least protection, did not receive the least injury. 
“ In 1849,” Mr. Rivers writes, “ I raised one seedling from it, which is now a plant five 
feet high, and in a bearing state. This season, I have raised three more. They are all exactly 
alike in their foliage and habit. In the leaves of these seedlings the reniform glands are 
minute, and borne, not on the footstalks as in the young plants of the parent sort, alluded to 
above, but on the base of the leaves themselves.” In the leaves from the parent tree, which ac¬ 
companied the fruit sent to us, and which are represented with it on our plate, the glands as there 
shown were of small size, and were situated, not on the footstalks as in Mr. Rivers’ vigorous 
young trees, but on the base of the leaves; which latter were variable in form from the usual 
broad and elongate lance-shaped outline, to oblong, suddenly contracting to a point. From the 
Stanwick seedlings which Mr. Rivers has reared, we learn that he entertains hopes in a gene¬ 
ration or two, of raising up a new race of melting Nectarines adapted to our climate.—M. 
Culture. —In the cultivation of a garden few things are of more importance, or, when 
properly managed, impart a more beautiful appearance, than well trained wall trees, for as 
judicious training is not incompatible with abundant fruitfulness, there is no reason why 
fruit trees of all kinds should not be systematically and properly trained. The first step to 
successful training is, without doubt, proper planting,' for no matter how well a tree may have 
been prepared, if it be not properly planted, and in soil suitable to its certain requirements, 
success in its after management is quite out of the question. 
Now, of all wall fruits, that which is called stone fruit is the most difficult to manage, in¬ 
asmuch as being constitutionally more delicate than Pears and the like, the trees are liable to 
suffer from change of seasons and other atmospheric influences, which have little or no effect 
upon other kinds. To change the climate of a place is a difficult matter, but it is possible so 
to modify our treatment of the plants as to enable them to suit themselves to circumstances 
comparatively unfavourable. The greatest enemy to the proper management of stone fruit is 
a retentive soil and defective drainage, or, as is too frequently the case, no drainage at all. 
In such a situation, all the evils attendant upon immature wood speedily present themselves, in 
the form of suckers from the roots, gum, canker; weak and unhealthy growth in the spring, 
accompanied by blister, blight, mildew, and shoals of insects; strong growth in the summer, 
too strong to be properly ripened, and consequently a defective blossom, and a very short crop 
of fruit. Again, if the wood is immature it contains too much moisture, and by a sudden thaw 
after a severe frost the sap vessels are lacerated, and the plant is speedily reduced to a com¬ 
plete wreck. These are some of the evils which proceed from the accumulation of water in 
the soil, and we may here remark that the same results will follow, in stone fruits, on com¬ 
paratively dry soils, if they are highly enriched with raw cold manure. Strong and rampant 
growth in all soils and in every situation is opposed to the proper management of stone fruit 
trees, and the treatment which tends to such a result is wrong in principle. Some years back 
we saw in several of the Dublin nurseries, Peach trees which, from the maiden plant, had 
made shoots four to six feet long; strong basket rods which would have required an Italian sky, 
rather than the humid atmosphere of the Emerald Isle, to have brought them to maturity. 
Shortly afterwards we had to select some trees to plant, and when we marked the weakest 
plants, the nod, wink, and shrill whistle peculiar to Irish wisdom, was liberally expended by 
the workmen upon our Saxon ignorance. In taking the plants up, we found that they had 
been manured with cow-dung and garbage from the slaughter-houses ; the roots were like whip- 
thongs, three or four feet long, with scarcely a fibre upon them ; in fact, the whole system of 
the plant was in as satisfactory a state of plethora as the most thorough-going tree-destroyer 
could possibly desire. In England, likewise, we have seen very gross trees, and they do ad- 
