THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 3, 1860. 
213 
larly formed. Skin smooth and shining, pale straw colour, 
sometimes with a faint tinge of red next the sun, and 
strewed with small dots. Eye very small and closed, set 
in a small, shallow basin, Stalk three quarters of an 
inch long, stout, fleshy, set in a small, round cavity. 
Flesh white, fine-grained, buttery, and melting, rich, 
sugary, with a fine piquant and vinous flavour, and a 
delicate perfume. 
A delicious fruit. Ripe in September and October. 
The tree is hardy, a free bearer, and succeeds well as a 
pyramid either on the pear or quince. 
Wilding of Caissoy. See Bezi de Caissoy. 
Wilhelmine. See Beurre d’Amanlis. 
Willermoz. —Fruit large, obtuse-pyriform, ribbed and 
bossed in its outline. Skin of a golden yellow colour, 
with a red blush on the exposed side, and covered with 
fine russet dots. Stalk an inch long, woody. Flesh 
white, fine-grained, buttery, and melting, very juicy, 
sugary, and highly perfumed. Eipe in October and 
November. 
William the Fourth. See Louise Bonne of Jersey. 
Williams’. See Williams' Bon Chretien. 
Williams’ Bon Chretien ( Bartlett; De Lavault; 
Williams’). —Fruit large, obtuse-pyriform, irregular and 
bossed in its outline. Skin smooth, of a fine clear yellow, 
tinged with green mottles and with faint streaks of red 
on the exposed side. Eye open, set in a shallow de¬ 
pression. Stalk an inch long, stout and fleshy, inserted 
in a shallow cavity, which is frequently swollen on one 
side. Flesh white, fine-grained, tender, buttery, and 
melting, with a rich, sugary, and delicious flavour, and 
powerful musky aroma. 
One of the finest of pears. Eipe in August and Sep¬ 
tember. It should be gathered before it becomes yellow, 
otherwise it speedily decays. The tree forms a handsome 
pyramid, and is a good bearer. 
Windsor (Bell Tongue; Bellissime; Figue; Figue 
Musquee; Green Windsor; Grosse Jargonelle; Konge; 
Madame; Madame de France; Summer Bell; Supreme ).— 
Fruit large, pyriform, rounded at the eye. Skin smooth, 
green at first, and changing to yellow mixed with green, 
and with a faint tinge of orange and obscure streaks of 
red on the exposed side. Eye open, not at all depressed. 
Stalk an inch and a half long, inserted without depression. 
Flesh white, tender, buttery, and melting, with a fine, 
brisk, vinous flavour, and nice perfume. 
A fine old pear for orchard culture. Eipe in August. 
It should be gathered before it becomes yellow. 
{To be continued.) 
CULTUEE OF PEACHES AND NECTARINES 
IN POTS. 
A great deal lias lately been written on the culture of the 
Peach and Nectarine in pots for forcing or for the orchard-house; 
but there are some points of management on which I should very 
much like to obtain further instruction from those who have been 
successful. Perhaps the best way for me to proceed is briefly to 
describe my own plan ; so that, if any part of it appears to be 
faulty, the error may be pointed out, and the reason given for the 
mode recommended instead. 
Beginning with maiden, or two-year-old trees. They are 
planted in pots in the autumn or early winter of a size suitable 
to the roots ; so that they may not, on the one hand, be forcibly 
crammed in—or, on the other, have a large quantity of soil 
placed about them. This latter, I consider, the worst error of 
the two, as every one knows the evil of over-potting any kind of 
plants. Thus firmly potted in the usual soil, the trees are put in 
a sheltered place in the open air, the pots plunged or covered 
with half-decayed manure, so as to be secure from the severest 
frost. Here they remain during the following season, making 
their shoots, and being stopped and trained as desired, until 
about the beginning of September ; when they are removed under 
glass wherever convenient, in order that the wood may be tho¬ 
roughly ripeued. When this appears to be (he case, which will 
I bo about the end of October, I am not quite decided which is 
better—to allow them to remain under glass all the winter and 
during the following growing season; or to place them in the 
open air again, there to remain until they are taken in to be 
forced (or otherwise merely forwarded under glass without fire 
heat) in succession, as may be required. There seems to be a 
difference in practice among gardeners on this point—see Me Ewen 
Rivers, &o. I therefore should like to have an opinion, with 
reasons for the method recommended. One year I exposed them 
to the frost, in hopes of killing the brown aphis j but I found 
that even severe frost had no effeefr upon them. 
I have commenced cultivating Peach trees in pots for the last 
three or four years with moderate success ; but I had some little 
experience of the method about thirty years ago. About that 
time I was at the sale of a gentleman’s effects in this neighbour¬ 
hood (the more elevated part of Northamptonshire), in the 
winter season, and found one lot to consist of several nice bushy 
Peach and Nectarine trees in large pots, well set with abundance 
of blossom-buds. I purchased them, and placed them in a house 
and pits which I had then in forcing, and obtained from them a 
very fair crop of fruit—of far better flavour than that from the 
established trees growing in the borders. I forced them again 
the next year, but found they lacked nourishment. This induced 
me in the following autumn to have the trees taken out of the 
pots, and much of the soil removed, so as to disturb the roots as 
little as possible. They were put again into the same pots, as they 
were the largest I had. One or two when taken out were acci¬ 
dentally deprived of nearly all their old soil, and the roots con¬ 
siderably disturbed ; so I supposed these would entirely fail with 
regard to fruit the ensuing season—but, to my surprise, they 
bore fruit as well as the others whose roots had not been so much 
disturbed. This experience has guided me in my present 
management since I have commenced growing them again ; and 
my plan now is to have two sets of trees in pots for forcing, 
fruiting them alternately. Those that have borne a full crop one 
season are taken out of the pots about October, and put into the 
same or larger pots according to the size of the tree, and with 
almost entirely new soil. These the following year are merely 
grown under glass, but not forced at all; and by the autumn 
they have filled the pots with fresh roots and are iu good con¬ 
dition for forcing again in their turn—not disturbing the roots 
again in the autumn, as the others are that have borne a crop of 
fruit the previous summer. These, then, being so prepared, and 
the wood early and thoroughly ripened, are placed when forcing 
begins so that their roots may easily penetrate through the bottom 
of the pots, to keep up a due supply of nourishment until the 
fruit is ripe. They are placed, either on a station in a border, 
according to the plan adopted by Mr. Rivers ; or, if on a plat¬ 
form, a box full of soil is placed under each, which answers the 
same purpose. 
Speaking of Mr. Rivers, I see in his work entitled “ The 
Orchard-House,” he seems to say that in 1819 he discovered the 
method of growing fruit trees in pots ; whereas it was about the 
year 1829 that I first grew them in that way, and the gentleman 
from whom mine were purchased was growing them hi like 
manner—so that the method could not have been very uncommon 
thirty years ago. But perhaps Mr. Rivers merely means that he 
was the originator of the system of allowing the trees to extend 
their roots out of the pots into the soil beneath. No doubt he 
was so; and whenever he gives his experience on the subject, it 
causes great interest and attention in the minds of all who are 
trying his method, whether in an orchard or forcing-house. 
I ought to have stated that when the trees are first procured 
and potted, whether maiden or otherwise, I have found it much 
the best not to put them under glass until the following Sep¬ 
tember ; then to have their wood thoroughly ripened for fruiting 
the following year.— Clericus. 
New Esculent. —The French Academy of Sciences has just 
received information of a new esculent of the tubercular kind, 
called Shicams, which grows in the neighbourhood of Cuenza, 
New Granada. The plant is a shrub which grows to the height 
of about three feet; its roots engender two different sorts of 
tubercles—those nearest the surface of the soil are yellowish and 
bitter, and are only used for tlie propagation of the plant; the 
second sort, situated much deeper, are white, juicy, and so sweet 
that they can be eaten raw. The Shicams will bear cold weather 
extremely well; and might, therefore, be easily introduced into 
Europe, where it would be a formidable rival to the Beet-root, 
since it is an annual and richer in sugar. 
