214 
THE FLORIST AND FOMOLOGIST. 
full grown, and from 1 to 2 inches in diameter. When these catkins are ripe, 
on a dry day the immense quantity of sulphur-coloured pollen with which they 
are furnished is astonishing ; and when a drying wind prevails and the sun is 
shining, the dust, or pollen, is Rafted on the air, just as when a miller shakes 
a Hour-bag. So beautiful are Nature’s ways, that actually new catkins are to 
be seen and found on the male trees every day in the year. Thus, to make 
myself understood, there are new and old catkins, or catkins of various ages 
and sizes at all times to be seen on the male trees. We have here up to the 
present time eleven male trees, and only three that we have yet discovered to 
be female. The cones of the female are large and very noble, like large 
Pine Apples in size and shape, and if well fertilised by the pollen from the 
male catkins, they grow to a very large size. Those which are fertilised are 
very soon noticeable by their rapid increase in size. A fine cone will produce 
from a pint to a quart of perfect seed, as large and long as the first two joints of a 
man’s little finger. The cones produced in April, 1866, will be ripe in October 
and November, 1867. The seeds on the summit of the cone are first ripe, and 
those at its base last. They are not very convenient for bipeds, birds, squirrels, 
or mice to gather ; but when they are ripe all seem to be on the watch to 
catch them up as they fall. All the birds of the woodpecker and titmouse 
families, squirrels, and mice, are gourmands in respect to the plump and 
delicious-flavoured seeds. 
Bicton. James Barnes. 
GEISSOMERIA LONGIFLORA. 
This is a very useful and very handsome winter-flowering decorative plant. 
It is easily increased by cuttings planted in the usual way and placed in a 
gentle bottom heat. It is a softwooded free-growing plant; but has a tendency 
to grow tall, and does not branch freely when stopped back. To have good- 
sized specimens three or four young plants should be put into one pot. 
Young healthy plants struck in the preceding summer and well established 
in small pots, should be selected early in spring and potted three or four in a 
pot. When they have made some growth stop all the shoots, and when they 
have broken afresh shift {he plants into good-sized pots, and keep them grow¬ 
ing on all the summer in an ordinary stove temperature. They will flower in 
December and January, and remain a long time in bloom. Small plants are 
sometimes very useful for in-door decoration, and a number should be always 
grown for this purpose. 
JStourton. M. Saul. 
ON THE STRONG SHOOTS OE FRUIT TREES. 
The “ fore shoots ” of wall trees are often of more vigorous growth than 
those close to the wall. In winter-pruning the rank wood is cut off except 
that which is required to fill up blanks, and perhaps with little thought as to 
how the shoots grew so strong. A writer, however, in these pages, maintains^ 
like many others, that their strength is the effect of the “ great amount of sap 
sent down in readiness for the future development of the strong and vigorous 
wood.” This may accord with the old theory of the descent of sap in autumn 
into the roots of trees, but not with the fact that the roots contain less sap in 
winter than in summer, nor with that of the tops being stored with torpid elabo¬ 
rated sap in winter. It is true, however, that the growth of the shoots depends 
much on the state of the roots, the increase of the fibres of which is affected 
more or less by the health of the trees during the previous season. Still, the 
