151 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 8, 1858. 
I 
CETERACH OFFICINARUM — RHODODENDRON 
1 EDGWORTHII. 
, 
“I inclose you two fronds of Ceterach ,—one of the common, 
and one of the giant variety,—of which I wrote you an 
account some short time ago, and which was found close to 
l my cottage, although no specimen of the common Ceterach 
j has ever been found in this vicinity. 
“ The frond I inclose is but a very small one , compared with 
original ones which were on the plant when found; hut I 
i think that, when you examine it, side by side with the com¬ 
mon kind, you will agree with me, in thinking it a distinct 
i variety. The edge of the leaflets is distinctly crenated, or 
I scolloped, while in the common Ceterach they are entire, and 
smooth, and the leaflets also are in a way imbricated, or over¬ 
lapping each other, which is not the case in the common 
variety. 
“If a faithful representation of both fronds, of natural 
size , and making the frond of my variety equal in length and 
breadth to the original frond, of which I sent you a rough 
sketch some time since, was inserted in your valuable pe¬ 
riodical, it might call the attention of others to this point, 
and eventually aid in determining whether it is a variety 
or not. 
“ I should also he glad to find out whether Rhododendron 
Fdgivorthii has yet flowered in Ireland. I made inquiries 
of the Editor of the Farmer's Gazette , in Dublin, and he 
appears to think not. I am anxious to know, because it is in 
flower now with me, and is a most lovely thing; the flowers 
being, singly, full four inches across, of a pale blush, shaded 
with primrose, and tinted with carmine on the edges and out¬ 
side. The fragrance most exquisite. The plant itself is ugly, 
long, lank, and leggy, and the foliage also not prepossessing. 
Hybridization will, however, improve that, and in a few 
years I expect we shall have it with flowers varying from 
white to scarlet, and with the ample foliage and close habit of 
the Azalea.”— Italicus. 
[This varied form in the Ceterach ojficinarum is not new, 
but is found in many localities. A rich soil and moist situa¬ 
tion will alter the forms of many plants, and this giant plant 
of the Ceterach happens to be one in a favoured situation. 
This variety has been long known to botanists as Ceterach 
officinarum, var. crenatum. Moore, in his “ Hand-book of 
British Ferns” (third edition), says, “ It has the margins of 
the lobes distinctly crenato-sinuate, and, being usually of 
large size, is, perhaps, the result of luxuriant growth.” We 
shall be glad of any information relative to the blooming of 
Rhododendron Fdgivorthii. — Ed.] 
PRUNING YOUNG TRAINED FRUIT TREES. 
“There is one subject upon which I think amateur gar¬ 
deners would be very grateful for more explicit information, 
and that is—the treatment of young fruit trees, after they 
have been trained according to the lucid directions already 
published by you. I think, in this matter of the pruning of 
fruit trees, you take for granted that we know a great deal, 
whereas we know nothing, and you will, I fear, find it as 
troublesome to teach us to prune and train dwarf fruit trees 
i as it is to teach children their ABC. I should be glad to 
j see an article on the mode of treating Apples, Pears, Plums, 
Cherries, and Apricots, after they have filled the space al¬ 
lotted to them, whether on a wall, or in espalier or dwarf 
| standard ; that is to say, when all the horizontal shoots have 
been developed, and the trees are expected to bear fruit. I 
will, for the sake of example, give you a description of a 
Pear tree which I have myself trained against a wall, taking 
Mr. Errington’s directions as my guide. It is now six 
years old, and has ten horizontal shoots on either side its 
trunk, and is looking remarkably well, though it has not had 
any blossoms upoii it as yet; and I am not aware how the 
little shoots, which are now coming in great quantities out of 
| the horizontal branches, should be treated, to make them 
! form spurs, as, if they are to be rubbed olf altogether, many 
of the limbs will have no spurs on them at all. Hoping very 
soon to be enlightened.”—A Constant Eeadee. 
[Your requirements shall be attended to in time. In re- 
| lation to your example of the Pear tree, our treatment would 
vary according to circumstances. The Pear generally bears 
on spurs of two or three years old. Sometimes, we have had 
fine Pears this season from the terminal bud of a nice young 
shoot formed last year. Sometimes, by stopping the point of 
a young shoot, and, perhaps, bending it, so much vital force 
and maturing influence was thrown into the buds near its 
base, that in one season these would form fruit-buds for next 
year. That, however, is not commonly the case, as fruit-buds, 
to be so formed, generally take two years. Now, on main 
branches, wdiere you haye spurs, it would not do to remove 
these vigorous young shoots at present; for, if you did so, you 
would, no doubt, give more light to the spurs, and place 
them in a better position for maturing into flower-buds so 
far ; but then, unfortunately, from removing the outlets of 
vigorous growth, the vital growing forces would be thrown 
into your short, stubby spurs, and you would have extension 
in wood-buds, instead of maturation into fruit-buds. If these 
side summer shoots are not very thick set along the branch, 
nor yet individually very long—say not above one foot—then 
they might remain as they are a few weeks longer, and then 
be shortened back half their distance in August, and still 
farther in September. If above that length, merely nip out 
their points at present; in another month break them half in 
two, at six or four inches from the stem, and let them hang 
down, and by September move them away altogether from 
the broken part. The object is to secure light and air to the 
spurs, and to the base of these shoots, without causing the 
buds on the short spurs to elongate into wood shoots. 
If there are already no spurs on your main branches, and 
you must trust to the young shoots along them to produce 
them, then we would nip out the points of these side-sboots 
at once,—merely the point however. This will have a ten¬ 
dency to swell the almost imperceptible buds at the bases of 
the shoots, but not so much as to burst them. The vigour 
of growth is more likely to start a bud into extension, near 
the point of the shoot, where you had stopped it. When 
that takes place, stop it again, and shorten altogether farther 
back in September. In such a case, the great thing is to swell 
and ripen the lower buds, and not to cut so soon back, as to 
tempt them to extension into shoots, but early enough for the 
suns of autumn to mature them. 
Near Winchester, last summer, we saw a young Orchard, the 
young summer shoots of which had the points so nipped out, 
that we rather expected that fruit-buds would bloom on these 
shoots, at least near their base, this spring, and produce fruit 
this autumn, which, without that merely nipping the point olf, 
would not have taken place for another year. Now, if these 
nice, sizeable shoots had been cutback in June or July,—for a 
third, or for a half of their length,—the consequence most 
likely would have been a great profusion of small shoots from 
the started buds, and most likely, whatever treatment was 
given to these comparatively unripened shoots, it would be the 
second or third year before fruit spurs could be got from 
them. Stopping the points of such wood shoots, then, is so 
far an exhausting process, as to gently lead the instincts ol 
the plant, so to speak, to think of increasing itself by seed or 
fruit-buds instead of wood-buds. And thus the finger and 
thumb, by merely nipping, can do much to regulate the re¬ 
lative action of the roots, and the branches of a tree; but too 
much nipping, or too early cutting back, or too severely 
cutting back, only retards growth for a time, to cause it to 
flow into more numerous channels of small spray, and thus, 
also, very likely break into a shoot what would otherwise 
have been matured into a fruit-bud. If a tree is healthy, and 
this pinching and stopping does not make it healthy, two 
things will very likely be necessary,—a thinning of the head 
to admit more light and air, and a cutting or shortening, or 
bringing nearer the surfaco the mam roots, so that the sun 
may act more powerfully on them.—R. Fish.] 
THE BEE SEASON. 
A PAEAGEAPH has been “ going the round of the press,” 
in which two cases are mentioned of bees swarming on the 
18th of May. A two-year-old stock of mine gave a strong 
swarm on Sunday, the 16th, and 11 lived them into Stewarton 
boxes; and on the 2nd of June they had made 11| lbs., as 
shown by my indicator. On the 22nd, the same stock gave 
