335 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Fsbbuabx 28, 1860. 
Apple was so improved as to make it truly beautiful; its colours, 
both red and yellow, were very bright. In the Courl-pendu the 
improvement was still more conspicuous, the colours being 
changed from green and dull red, to brilliant yellow and scarlet 
(Hart. Soc. Trans, iii. 367). The benefits conferred upon Pears 
by ringing are still more striking; but to all stone fruit and 
Figs it seems to be injurious; and this arises, probably, from 
the bleeding which occurs from the wound. 
When adopted, as above, for accelerating the maturity of the 
fruit, to increase its size, and to improve its flavour, the pi’oeess 
is called Maturation ringing ; but when adopted to induce the 
formation of flowers, it is termed Production ringing. This 
shows its effect in the year next after that in which it was per¬ 
formed ; but Maturation ringing during the same season. Pro¬ 
duction ringing may be practised at any time while the trees are 
without their leaves, but maturation ringing should be deferred 
until the flowers are fully expanded, or, rather, until they are 
passing into fruit, or even until the fruit is set.— {Hid. iv., 557.) 
That production ringing is influential has often been proved. 
Mr. W. Baxter, when gardener to the late Countess de Vandes, 
had a Waratah Camellia which he had never been able to flower. 
He cut a ring round the stem, so close to the root that he could 
cover the wound with the earth in the pot. The ring closed 
at the end of the year; abundant flower-buds formed, which ex¬ 
panded into blossom perfectly in the following spring. The 
branch of an Aubletia Tibourbon similarly ringed, was the only 
one which produced blossoms; and a similar result occurred to 
a branch of Pj/rvs spectabilis. — {Ibid., iv., 128.) So certain is 
this ringing to cause the production of blossom-buds, that it is 
often employed to hasten such a production in young fruit trees. 
Mr. Knight thus explained the mode in which ringing operates. 
Whatever portion of the descending sap is not expended in the 
growth of the plant sinks into the alburnum and joins the 
ascending current, to which it communicates powers not pos¬ 
sessed by the recently absorbed fluid. WTien the course of the 
descending current is intercepted, that necessarily stagnates and 
accumulates about the decorticated part, whence it passes into 
the alburnum, is carried upwards and expended in an increased 
production of blossom and fruit. Consistently with this theory, 
Mr. Knight found that part of the alburnum situated above the 
disbarked space exceeded in specific gravity very considerably 
that lying below the space.— {Ibid., iv., 159.)—J, 
( To be continued .) 
MUSA CAVENDISHII CULTURE. , 
T SEE a correspondent wishes to know the treatment of Musa 
Carendhhii: so, if you think it worthy, the following outline of 
the culture I have given two plants may be acceptable. 
I procured a sucker, or plant, on the 10th of August- 1856, 
which was in a four-inch pot. I planted it in the corner of a 
bark-bed in a square made with old boards two feet and a half 
each way, and the same in depth. The soil I planted in was 
turfy loam, rather strong, and one-third two-year-old dried cow- 
dung (all being very rough, some of the pieces as big as half 
bricks), and a little leaf soil and sand to plant in. I syringed 
the plant about a month after planting, and watered well at the 
roots until the latter part of October, and then gave no more 
until the March following; the temperature during that time 
ranging from 40° to 45° ; and several nights in mild weather no 
fire was given. The thermometer fell to 32° two nights during 
winter. I raised the temperature to about 50° on tire 1st of 
February, and gave the Musa the same treatment as the Vines, 
which was never above 65° by fire heat, and oftener 60° for a month 
during the time the Grapes were setting. The greatest part of 
the Vines was Muscat of Alexandria-, and they set equal to 
their neighbours, Hamburghs and Frontignans. One bunch 
weighed three pounds and three-quarters, and forty bunches 
averaged above two pounds each, with not a misplaced berry in 
them, and all as large as pigeons’ eggs. 
Nowy I believe most gai’deners forget, or do not like, to give air 
freely until they get the berries partly through their first swelling. 
But I gave air both at the top and bottom freely until the Vines 
began to flower; then I kept them more close, and kept the 
water in the evaporating-pan9, as I think a little air-moisture 
agrees with them as well when in bloom as at other times, but it 
is not right- to syringe them at that time. The fruit was excellent 
in flavour as well as in size. 
But I am wandering from the Musa : yet, I think by giving 
the outline of the Vine’s culture you will know the temperature 
the plant has grown iu. I commenced watering it on the 1st of 
March, giving about twenty gallons at once every two weeks until 
the 1st of October, when the fruit had done swelling. 1 cut the 
first fruits in the second week in November, and then brought 
the trunk into a warm shed, and it ripened them well. They 
lasted about five weeks, being 207 excellent fruits, and about 100 
never swelled. 
The plant sent up five suckers in June, and I left the strongest 
to succeed it. When I cut the parent- down I pointed the old 
soil out from the root, and top dressed in the spring following; 
and treated it the same as the parent; but it did not sw r ell its 
! fruit so well, and I think there were more of them. I think it 
| was too gross to stand the low temperature, as it lost several 
lower leaves in winter. I cut the fruit on the Sth of September, 
: 1858, having two crops in little more than two years ; and then 
cast the old plant and nearly a dozen suckers along wiili it on the 
dunghill, as it requires plenty of head room, besides being liable 
to the red spider unless well looked after. It was eight feet high, 
and twenty inches round the stem. 
I forgot to mention that the plants both soon showed flower 
| after the first watering in spring; and had liquid manure in a 
; clear state, guano, and cowdung alternately—rather strong, as 
| they seemed to like it.—.1. A. G. 
SAMUEL CURTIS, F.L.S. 
Since the publication of our last number, death has taken 
from us a zealous horticulturist, for many years proprietor of this 
Magazine—Mr. Samuel Curtis. About fourteen year's since Mr. 
Curtis disposed of his interest- in the current issue of the work, 
j and having retired to the residence of his son-in-law, the beau- 
[ tiful cottage of La Chaire, at Rozel, Jersey, he continued to 
occupy himself at- an advanced age in his favourite pui’suits of 
planting and gardening. 
The “ Botanical Magazine ” was commenced in 1787 by William 
Curtis, an excellent botanist as well as horticulturist, author of 
tjie “ Flora Londinensis,” and for some time Demonstrator of 
Plants and Prcefectus Horti to the Apothecaries’ Company. At 
his death in 1799, the Magazine was carried on for the benefit of 
his daughter by Dr. John Sims, one of his executors ; and in 1801 
the daughter was married to the subject of this memoir, a relative 
with similar tastes, who had established himself as a florist at 
Walworth. The Magazine continued to prosper under the editor¬ 
ship of Dr. John Sims ; and Samuel Curtis, who" had inherited 
the property by marriage, removed to Glazenwood, near Cogge- 
shall in Essex, and settled there as an extensive cultivator iu 
most branches of horticulture. 
In 1826 Dr. Sims retired from the editorial responsibilities of 
the Magazine, and it, has been conducted by the present editor 
ever since. In 1827 the daughter of Mr. William Curtis died, 
leaving a numerous family, and Mr. Samuel Curtis was hence¬ 
forth assisted in the business management of the work by the 
grandchildren, his daughters, who were his constant helpmates, 
and remained with him with affectionate tenderness to the last. 
He died at La Chaire on the 6th of January, at the ripe age of 
eighty-one. 
In testimony of the respect in which he was held in the island, 
we conclude our sketch with the following extract from the 
Jersey Times, to the correctness of which every one who had the 
pleasure of knowing him will be ready to respond : — 
“Few men have won more esteem than the subject of this 
notice. His general disposition and his hospitality and kindness 
to all visitors, his unobtrusive but unbounded beneficence to¬ 
wards the poor, had endeared him to all who came within the 
circle of his acquaintance. For a long time past his health had 
gradually failed. One of his greatest trials was the loss of his 
eyesight, which deprived him of the pleasure of observing the 
growth and development of the plants and flowers to which he 
was so much attached. He was a very warm supporter of the 
Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society, of which he had 
, been elected an honorary member. His services were particularly 
valuable as a judge at the Exhibitions, and his observations were 
always received with interest and attention. He is more widely 
known in connection with the arrangements and laying-out of the 
Victoria Park, which he was summoned from his favourite haunts 
in the beautiful valley of Rozel to undertake. But probably he 
will be best known and most widely remembered iiyconnection 
with the publication of the ‘ Botanical Magazine,’ m which he 
