Fkrruauy 5, 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
331 
eight years. But this statement requires some qualification, j 
or else M. Du Breuil has a good deal to learn yet. No 1 
cause is assigned for M. Decaisne's retirement. After ex- I 
plaining that he is so much occupied, both in Baris and in | 
the provinces hy the government, teaching ]tcoplo how to 
prune and train their fruit-trees, M. Du Breuil owns to the 
j very natural weakness of being afraid to encounter the 
I responsibility involved in the direction of a fortnightly woik 
having such a circulation. But after thinking the matter 
over for some considerable time, M. Du Breuil has succeeded 
. in overcoming all scruples, and acceeded to the i'C(iuest of 
the proprietors, on condition that the assistant editors and 
i leading contributors are continued. 
' Then follows a statement of the improvements to be in- 
- ti’oduced. Hitherto it has been considered enough to 
register in this Journal only the new facts bearing on 
horticulture, thus making the mistake of supposing that all 
' the readers are perfectly aecpiainted with the inqu'ovements 
I efiected up to the present day. For the future, then, the 
j Jlevcii will include, besides the new facts, a description of 
the most important operations already adopted in pi actice. 
I ■ The space which has hitherto been given to floriculture, 
and strictly botanical details, is now to be diminished, in 
order to leave room for notices relating to the fruit and 
kitchen-garden. No doubt the superb collections of fruits 
and vegetables sent to the Exhibition in the Champs Klysees 
, have led to the consideration fif this important feature. 
I Until very lately, continues Rf. Du Breuil, tlie cultivation 
: of fruits and vegetables has been carried on in dilferent 
I counties and different localities only according to the re¬ 
quirements of local consumption. But now that railways 
are spreading in every direction, and affording the means of 
ready conveyance for all kinds of horticultural products, this 
state of things ought not to be continued, I’bose counties 
which, by their soil and climate, are best fitted for tin', pro¬ 
duction of every kind of fruit or vegetable, ought to send 
their produce to other countic's which are less favoured by 
nature, and where the best returns can be obtained ; more 
especially the grand centres of consumption, of which Baris 
and London take the lead. In order to atford iiiformatiou 
to distant growers as to the market value of garden juoducts 
in Baris, a regular revised price current will be published in 
every number of the Revue. 
Notices of new fruits and vogetables, with engravings and 
coloured figures, when uecessaiy, will be given from time to 
time. 
Such is the programme which the new editor presents as 
a New Year’s gift to his readers ; and if it is fully carried 
out, or, perhaps, improved upon a little, it is reasonable to 
expect that the Revue will lose none, of its former prc.sJb/c, 
whatever that may have been, by the recent chango in its 
editorial management. This number opens with a figure 
and notice of Cleniutis puteus, var. nioiialrosu, a large, semi- 
double, white dowered variety, introduced from Japan by 
Dr. Yon Siebold. 
M. De Breuil has a lengthy article on training fruit-trees 
in a spiral manner round a column-like arrangement of live 
stakes driven into the ground, and kept in position by hoops 
at certain distances. This is a good and simple plan ; but it 
is not new, for, if I recollect aright, the same thing, or some¬ 
thing like it, was noticed years ago in lioudon's Gunleuem' 
M(i>ia:iue, or his Eu( j/<:l<)p(pdiu of Gordculuij. The column, 
or rather cylinder, formed by the stakes is, according to the 
directions, about two feet in diameter, and from seven to 
nine feet high. Five stakes, at least, are recommended. 
Three hoops are nnmtioned, but two ought to be quite suf¬ 
ficient ; at least, there does not appear to be any necessity 
' for one near the bottom. M. Du Breuil thinks it probable 
that a light iron cylindrical frame woubl be cheaper than 
wood, and, on the whole, more elegant till the trees had 
made some ])rogress. The operations of planting, and 
training, and pinching back, and pruning, are then treated 
of, as if they had never been treated of before, and with the 
utmost nicety and precision. All the varieties ol I’ears, 
M. Du Breuil says, which ripen their fruit readily in the 
open ground, can be grown in this manner, either grafted 
on the Quince stocks, or otherwise, as is practised for the 
other modes, according to the vigour of the sorts or the 
fertility of the soil. The same remark applies to most kinds 
pf Apples as well as stone fruit. 
j This manner of training is called, in French, en cordon 
\ spirule. Its chief advantages are said to be, first, uniform 
j or regular growth in all the branches, an object of great 
I irajiortance, but which is very difRcult of attaimnent with the 
ordinary modes of training. With the spiral mode, every 
shoot bears fruit-spurs, and the whole produce of the annual 
growth economised; while, with other forms a third of every 
new shoot is sacriliced at the winter pruning, in order to | 
produce fruit-spurs. Second, the fruit are completely ex- I 
posed to the light, and less shaken by the wind than on 
other trees. Again, in very small gardens the pyramidal 
form of training takes up too much room, and, consequently, 
the number of varieties must be limited. Under such cir¬ 
cumstances, people sometimes adopt the upright column- 
fashion of training. But that arrangement of the branches 
has the serious drawback, especially in rich, fertile soils, of 
producing too much gross wood, which is not favourable to 
the growth of fruit-buds. Now, the spiral form has all the 
advantages of the other, with regard to the little space of 
ground required ; for the cylinders may be placed at about 
four feet apart, and as only a certain length of shoot is main¬ 
tained, the sap is not too much excited in the growing spurs, 
which are thus easily induced to fruit, and that, too, even in 
the richest soils. 
In considering these diflerent points, M. Du Breuil ar¬ 
rives at the conclusion that the spiral form may be generally 
adopted with advantage; and, in small gardens, it maybe 
substituted with equal convenience for the old column-like 
arrangemenU 
Of late years we have had, in London and elsewhere, 
some new attraction in the form of American-gardens, Bose- 
gardens, liollybock-gardens, &c.; but iM. Jamin, the great 
fruit-tree nurseryman, of Baris, has lately occupied himself 
with the formation of a fruit-garden—not an orchard, or a 
stiff and formal kitchen-garden, but uu jurdiue d'uiirentent, 
that is, an ornamental English pleasure-ground of fruit trees, 
in clumps and borders, combining, to the fullest extent, the 
useful with the agreeable; for the whole is freely inter¬ 
spersed with flowers and flowering shrubs, Boses, Holly¬ 
hocks, Azaleas, &c. The fruit-list includes every kind, 
fiom Strawberries and Gooseberries, up to the choicest 
Beaches and Apricots. Evei-y form of training may also be 
seen. 
M. Lemarchaiid De LaFaverie, an amateur, residing near- 
Baris, has given an interesting account of some experiments, 
in which he has for some time been engaged, in growing 
Melons on espaliers along the walls of bis plant-houses. 
The system adiqited by this gentleman, who seems not to 
be aware that it has ever been tried before, is fully described 
in j\Ir. T. iMoore's book on Melon and Cucumber culture, 
published by Groombridge, Baternosler Bow. The sorts 
grown by Id. Lemarchand De La Faverie are, Brescott’s 
Ciiutidoup, Xoir de Cormes, <truuije, Musciitetio, and Uhito ; 
l>ut all the other sorts are e({ually good for this purpose, 
though, of course, it would be necessary to prop up the 
larger fruit. 
The articles accompanying the usual figures of plants are 
now signed “ Vidor Borie." The second number contains 
a notice of (iuumoilit vitijoliii, and it is stated that this plant, 
so fur as Al. Borie is aware, has not yet been grown in the 
open ground near Baris. At the Aluseum, that is, the 
Garden of ITants, it is kept in a low, dark house, where, 
however, it flowers freely every year; but we have reason to 
believe, says the writer, that with plenty of light, and shelter 
from the north and north-east, it would succeed equally well 
in the open air. But the roots should be well covered up 
in wjnter, qr placed in a house at the end of autumn. This 
supposition becomes almost a certainty, applicable to every 
part of France where the winter is generally mild, as the 
departments of the south and east. 
ai. Dupuis, Brofessor of Agiiculturo at the Eade Impe- 
riule, of Grignon, says, in reference to the Apoinujelon dis- 
tuelii/ou, that it is generally considered as a warm green¬ 
house plant, which statement may be true in northern 
latitudes; and in any case the plant may be placed with 
advantage in open tanks in stoves or aquariums. But it 
has been proved that this aquatic will thrive vei-y well in the 
open ground, and even support a very low temperature. For 
instance, it did not sustain any injury last winter (1H5I—b) 
at Alontpcllier, when the ice on the ponds was aboirt nine 
