THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY G EM LEM AN, Athil 12, 1859. 
which was sweet, half melting, but astringent. Bergamot. 
d’Esperen, just ripening, and promising to be very 
delicious. The other kinds sent, or some of them, would, 
probably, have been improved, if they had been ripened 
in a higher temperature. They were as follows :—Lion 
le Clerc de Laval, Colmar des Lnvalides, Bellisime d'Hiver, 
Besi de Caissoy, Bergamot des Baynes, Coulen de St. Marc, 
Due de Brabant, Beurrd de Bretanneau, Beu,i re de Ranee, 
Prevost, Morel, Fortunie Parmentier, and March Berga¬ 
mot. 
The Apples were also very firm, handsome, and in good 
condition, and were generally more ripe than the Pears. A 
few, such as Spring Ribston Pippin, and Golden Harvey, 
were shrivelled, though good in flavour. The best dessert 
kinds were :— Golden Russet, Reinette Franche des Cotes, 
Baxter s Pearmain, Boston Reinette, Court-pcndu Plat 
(very good), Claygaie Pearmain, Braddick’s Nonpareil 
(rather flat), and Hutch Mignonnc. The remaining kinds 
in this collection, and which were chiefly Kitchen Apples, 
were in good state for use, and were as follows :— Cald¬ 
well's' Keeper, Northern Greening, White Stone Pippin, 
Norfolk Bearer, Reinette de Canterbury, Colville Blanche, 
Colville Malingre, Beauty of Kent, Liady Apple, Ladies' 
Sweeting, Humelow's Seedling, Gooseberry Apple, Bedford¬ 
shire Foundling, Stunner Pippin, He Barberie, Winter 
Peach, Cuisse Madame, Reinette Grise, New Baldwins, 
Trevizand, Reinette Biel, London Pippin, Winter Colman. 
The first premium was awarded to a collection by Mr. 
John Cox (gardener to William Wells, Esq.), Kedleaf, 
Kent, comprising eleven kinds of Pears, and twenty of 
Apples. These were also in very fine condition, generally 
large, and not over-ripe. The circumstances of soil, &c., 
at Kedleaf, have been detailed in former reports. The 
Pears were generally from walls, and the Apples from 
standards of from fifteen to thirty years old, very little 
pruned save by occasionally thinning the branches ; great 
attention, however, being paid to keeping the trees free 
from moss, by the use of quicklime in spring. With 
regard to their mode of keeping, the following information 
accompanied the fruit:— 
“ The Pears were laid out singly on the floor of an upper 
chamber, when gathered, and the windows kept open, so as to 
afford a thorough ventilation for two months; they were then 
sorted over, the best selected, and wrapped separately in paper, 
and placed in layers, in deep boxes, the lids of which were laid on, 
but not fastened. The layers were separated from each other by 
very dry, old Brakes {Pieris aquilina). They were not disturbed 
until required for use, and have kept better than I could ever 
keep them before on the shelves of the fruit-room. 
“ The Apples were laid in heaps on the shelves of the fruit-room, 
and ventilation—to which I ascribe great importance—secured by 
leaving the door open, as well as a window at the opposite end, 
until the sweating process was over, when both were partially 
closed. Nothing more has since been done except to sort them 
over frequently, and pick out such as showed signs of decay. The 
fruit-room is a mere shed at the back of a greenhouse; but its 
coolness is very much increased by a strong growth of Ivy all 
over the roof.” 
Of the Peaks :— Bczi (or Bergamot ) d’Esperen was 
very sweet, juicy, melting, and high flavour, with delicious 
aroma—the best Pear tasted at the Meeting ;— Beurre 
Ranee and Old Colmar, melting and very juicy, but not 
rich ;— Ne Plus Mcuris, sweet, half-melting ;— Easter 
Beurre, lialf-melting, but flavourless ;— Passe Colmar and 
a Seedling from it (very like the parent), juicy, half- 
melting and tolerably sweet; and Flemish Bon Chretien, 
not ripe. This collection included, also, a handsome dish 
of Catillac, and some magnificent specimens of Uvedale's 
St. Germain, seven inches long and twelve inches in 
diameter. 
Of Dessert Apples, the following are the most inter¬ 
esting facts :— Old Nonpareil, firm, juicy, and delicious ;— 
Flanders Pippin (True), ovate, conoid, colour pale lemon, 
scattered over with minute round spots of russet; flesh 
tender, sweet, and juicy;— Reinette Grise, under the name 
of Pomme Roy aleSam Young, very nice and juicy, 
with delicious flavour ;— Claude, an Apple not heretofore 
described, but worthy of being more extensively culti¬ 
vated. Fruit oblate : generally irregular inform ; greatest 
diameter, from apex to base, 21- inches; transversely, 3 
inches ; eye smooth, clean and wax-like ; stalk deeply 
inserted, medium length and thickness; colour greenish- 
yellow, irregularly scattered over with minute specks of 
russet, rosy scarlet on sunny side, and semi-transparent; 
flesh firm and juicy; flavour rich and sugary. It was 
reported, also, to remain* good till May. (Grafts hereof 
are requested for distribution on the 1st of February, 
1860, and application for a share of them, or any other 
kind, must be made not later than January 25tli) ;— Blen¬ 
heim Orange, large, juicy, sweet, and good; exceedingly 
well kept ;—Golden Knob, firm, and good-flavoured, but 
not juicy. 
(To be continued) 
TIIE SCIENCE OF GAKDENING. 
(Continued from page 9.) 
AYe have seen that plants search after and acquire food by the 
agency of their roots ; and that hair-like organs near their extre¬ 
mities appear to be the chief, if not the only parts, employed in 
the intro-susccption of all food not in a gaseous state; for 
M. Duhamel observed, that that portion of a soil was soonest ex¬ 
hausted in which the greatest number of the extremities of the 
roots were assembled.— (Physique des Arlres, vol. iii., p. 276.) 
The discoverer of the hair-like processes at the base of the 
spongioles being the organs for absorbing nutriment from the 
soil, is Professor Gaeparini, of Naples. These hair-like organs he 
calls suckers. They are, at first, straight and smooth ; but, when 
more mature, acquire a variously irregular and branched form. 
This irregularity and ramifying do not change the internal 
structure of the main body of the sucker, for this retains a cavity 
throughout its length, and throughout each of its branches. 
Each sucker imbibes from the soil by means of its entire surface. 
They are formed and decay periodically, to be again renewed and 
pass through the same changes. 
MM. Sennebier and Carradori found that if roots of the Carrot, 
Scorzonera, and Radish, are placed in water—some with only their 
extremities immersed, and others with their entire surfaces plunged 
in, except the extremities—the former imbibe the water rapidly, 
and the plants continue vegetating ; but the others imbibe no 
perceptible quantity, and speedily wither. This suggests, also, the 
reason why the gardener, in applying water, or manure, to trees, 
or shrubs, does so at a distance from their stems. A good rule 
for ascertaining the proper distance for such applications, seems 
to be to make them beneath the circumference of the head of the 
tree; for, as M. De Candolle observed, there is usually a relation 
between that and the length of the roots, so that the rain falling 
upon the foliage is poured off most abundantly at the distance 
| most desirable for reaching their extremities. 
This explains why the caudex, or main limb of the root, is 
i continually extending in length. By this extension it each year 
i shoots forth into afresh soil. If the extremity of a root is cut 
! off, it ceases to increase in length, but enlarges its circle of 
j extension by lateral branches. 
i The original direction of the root is generally perpendicular, in 
which it descends to a considerable*depth if not interrupted by 
some obstacle. In taking up some young Oak trees that had 
} been planted in a poor soil, Du Hamel found that the root had 
descended almost four feet, while the height of the trunk was not 
more than six inches. If the root meets with an obstacle, it then 
takes a horizontal direction, not by the bending of the original 
shoot, but by the sending out of lateral shoots. The same effect 
also follows if the extremity of the root is cut off. It grows in 
) length no longer. Du Hamel made some Cherry-stones, Almonds, 
I and Acorns, to germinate in wet sponges ; and when the roots 
I had grown to tho length of two inches, ho then placed them in 
glasses, as bulbous roots aro placed, so that the extremity of the 
root only touched the water. Some were previously slioitened 
by the cutting off of a small bit from the point.; others were put 
in entire. The former immediately sent out lateral shoots, but 
elongated no farther in a perpendicular direction; the latter 
| descended perpendicularly to the bottom of the glass. lie cut off 
| also the tips of some roots vegetating in the earth, and had the 
