106 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ May t 
cap this bracken makes, either for Boses or Broccoli. But the asparagus is the 
best of all, and if carefully husbanded, most gardens produce a sufficiency where¬ 
with to carry the stock of Broccoli with tolerable safety through the winter.— 
D. T. Fish, Hctrdivicke. 
ON PIPPINS. 
7TTIIE origin of this name, which is given to a large section of apples, seems 
^ somewhat obscure, though in all probability it is derived from pip, a spot, 
and refers to the pips or dots upon the skin of the fruit. 
Another 
explanation is given, namely, that pippins were so named from the trees 
being raised from pips or seeds; but if so, why are other kinds of apples from 
ungrafted trees not called pippins ? Besides, they were named thus, from grafted 
trees, even in Shakespeare’s time ; for the great poet says, “ We will eat last 
year's pippins of my own grafting.” Perhaps they were golden ones, great 
favourites in his day, and were dotted with dark specks. These specks vary 
both in colour and size, according to the different kinds of apples, though they 
are less perceptible on russets. 
Pears deserve a passing notice, for they are also dotted like apples. It is 
difficult to explain the cause or utility of these marks. Doubtless the specks are not 
eonnectedhvith blight or mildew. It has sometimes occurred to me that they may 
be the outside pores of the fruit, while the inner parts or receptacles of the seeds 
breathe through the vents of their crowns or eyes, and that, when ripe, fruit give 
out their odours by the same pores. These suggestions seem at least to accord with 
the experience of phytologists, that the leaves of plants are provided with stomata 
or mouths, through which exhalation takes place.—J. Wighton, Cossey Park. 
CONING OF WELLINGTONIA AND OTHER CONIFERS. 
AS the Wellingtonia really seeded in this country, and have young plants 
been raised from home-grown seeds ? Together with many other inquirers, 
I should like to know. Many have been the reports of its cone-produc- 
^ ' tion since I first recorded it years ago, in the Florist and Pomologist.. 
At the same time, I haye not seen any account since my own, about the year 
1866 or 1867, of the production of male catkins,—the first I ever saw 7 , and which 
I at once made use of to fertilize some female cones. The effect of this was very 
soon observable, the fertilized cones rapidly swelling and growing av r ay from all 
those which surrounded them, and which had not been fertilized. Seed was formed 
and was saved, and sown by me on a border at Bicton in the spring of 1869, adjoin¬ 
ing a large number of fine new Conifers, thousands of which I had raised during the 
preceding years, and bedded out in the nursery, afterwards planting them out in 
the plantations, where they are now to be seen of various ages and heights. 
The two first seedlings I raised of that splendid conifer Abies Donglasii were 
above 60 ft. in height in the year 1868, and they had for years themselves pro¬ 
duced cones. The Abies Douglasii was thus raised by thousands year after year, as. 
