1879.] 
CAMELLIA MADAME AMBROISE YERSCHAFFELT.—READ’S SEEDLTNft AURTCFLAS. 
a'j 
and when detected, it should be operated on 
without delay. The decayed part of the bark 
should be clean cut out, and the wound covered 
with grafting-wax, or neatly tied up with cotton 
wadding, to prevent the air getting to it. I 
have saved branches innumerable and often 
trees by this operation, as the Apricot is very 
subject to canker in our cold, heavy soil. 
In pruning, the spurs should be kept as close 
to the wall as possible ; the best fruits, and the 
first to ripen, are those lying in contact with 
the wall. Summer pruning should always bo 
attended to. I noticed in a contemporary 
recently a well-known writer recommending 
the summer shoots to be left on. I think if 
the writer had our northern climate to contend 
with, he would be of a different opinion. Fruit 
covered up with leaves, unless in a hot, dry sea¬ 
son, seldom or never ripen fit to be eaten. It 
causes another evil—it draws the spurs too far 
from the wall, and makes the spurs too coarse 
for good fruiting. 
The sorts to be grown in the North are very 
limited in number, none hardly being worth 
growing except the Moorpark. The Turkey 
Apricot rarely ripens on the cold wall, and the 
tree is very tender and subject to canker in the 
large branches. The Breda, in some seasons, 
bears well, but the fruit is small, and only fit 
for preserving. Here we have given up grow¬ 
ing it altogether, and grow nothing but the 
Moorpark.— William Culyerwell, Thorpe 
Perroiv, Yorks. 
CAMELLIA MADAME AMBEOISE 
VEESCHAFFELT. 
f HIS beautiful Camellia, with flowers of 
a delicate rose, spotted and striped with 
carmine, should be in every collection 
of any extent. The blooms are large, and of 
fine form. The plant is of a handsome erect 
habit, and although ours is not a large plant, 
we find it to be always a profuse-flowering 
variety, making a good pot-plant, on account of 
its close habit of growth. To have the flowers 
fine, however, the plants are best put out in a 
properly prepared bed. We find them do very 
w’ell in a light, sandy loam, the turfs not being 
cut too thick, chopped up and mixed with 
charcoal, using only a little sand when planting 
a fresh plant. When the flowering season is 
over, the old loose soil is all taken off. and a 
dressing of cow-manure laid on the surface, 
both in the case of beds and pots. They all 
then get a good \vatering, and after standing 
for a day, are dressed ov^r with fresh loam, 
occasional waterings being given throughout 
the summer, sometimes aided by guano and 
soot. The last has a wonderful effect in making 
the foliage of a beautiful green, besides acting 
as a manure to the roots.—A. H,, Thoreslij. 
READ’S SEEDLING AURICULAS. 
N May last, Mr. John Read, formerly of 
Market Easen, and now of Lincoln, sent 
me a few pips of his Seedling Amiculas 
for inspection It was a little late to have 
the pips in the best condition, but there w'as 
sufficient character about them to show that 
they all possessed promising features, and a 
few of them are likely to make a name for 
themselves, by-and-by. 
Mr. Read is favourably known to Auricula 
cultivators as the raiser of a good red self 
named Awiy, a variety possessing several 
excellent qualities, and likely to be very useful 
as an exhibition variety; also Dr, Horner., a 
good grey-edge, which will prove an acquisition 
when it can be got into good size. A small 
pip of Dr. Horner came with the batch of 
Seedlings, and though past its best, the dense 
character and purity of the paste was a pro¬ 
minent feature. Ruhy is a good grower, and 
produces a fine and telling truss of flowers. 
Of new grey-edged flowers raised by Mr. 
Read, Sultan was a very promising variety; 
pip large and bold, large, finely-formed smooth 
segments, clear white paste, good tube, and 
black body-colour, showing a little tendency to 
run out in the pips sent; but this could bo rec¬ 
tified, no doubt, by good cultivation. Another 
grey-edged seedling was Victor Emmanuel., a 
medium-sized well-formed flow'er, fine tube, 
dense pure paste, and dark body-colour, the 
tube inclined to be over-large; else a well- 
proportioned flower, and certainly promising. 
An unnamed seedling. No. 6-11, was of very 
large size, a little weak and angular in the tube, 
paste thin, but with a gi’eat breadth of body- 
colour running out into the edge. In the hands 
of a skilful cultivator it might yet prove to 
be valuable, the pip being stout, solid, and of 
good form. Another grey. No. .5-6, was some- 
