19G 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ September, 
Narcissi , Jonquils, Tulips , &c., in turfy loam, sandy peat, and a little rotten 
dung, for early forcing.—M. Saul, Stourton. 
CAPRICES OF THE FRUIT CROP. 
3 ^0W else sliall we designate exceptionally heavy crops of Apples with a 
j) general failure, not only in the same district, but often in the same garden ? 
Were the exception confined to the same varieties, it might be accounted 
for by some peculiarities in the time of flowering, hardiness or other¬ 
wise of the trees, &c. For instance, the Court-pendu-plat apple is, as a rule, 
quite three weeks behind many other apples in flowering ; consequently, if it 
escaped where others failed, there would be no marvel about it. But here are 
four or five New Hawthornden apples on the same borders—two laden with fruit 
and the others bare. Again, here are two Irish, or Manks’ Codlin, one on either 
side of a narrow walk—one is as full of fruit as possible, the other has three 
apples on it. Again, for miles as you drive along, every orchard is bare or 
barren; but presently you come upon an orchard literally groaning beneath its 
heavy load of fruit. I passed one such the other day, and could but marvel at 
the caprices of the fruit crop. I wish the readers of the Pomologist would 
resolve themselves into a jury to collect evidence and endeavour to pronounce a 
verdict on this interesting matter. Doubtless there are causes for the effects 
we see, either in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the interference 
of man. Could we only discover and comprehend them, it seems likely we 
might become less the sport and more the master of climatical conditions than 
we, unfortunately, are at present.—D. T. Fish, Hardwicke. 
LISIANTHUS PRINCEPS. 
S OME twenty years ago or more this fine plant was first described in the 
Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (iv., 261). Subsequently, a 
coloured figure appeared in the Flore des Serres (t. 557), and the woodcut 
¥ illustration we now reproduce, and for which we have to thank the pro¬ 
prietors of the Journal of Horticulture , was published by us in the Gardeners' 
Magazine of Botany (ii., 77). It is described as a tufted shrubby plant of great 
beauty, with numerous smooth dichotomous branches, bearing shortly-stalked oppo¬ 
site ovate-lanceolate acute deep green leaves, and having at the apices of the branch- 
lets subumbellate clusters of several large drooping showy flowers, exceedingly 
unlike those of the ordinary Lisianthus. u The cup of the flower is half-an-inch 
deep ; the corolla is five inches long, and rather more than an inch wide in the 
thickest part,” with a limb of five short ovate acute segments. These segments 
are green, with the yellow at the top of the tube extending upwards and forming 
a yellow star, as indicated by the light parts in the engraving ; the tube for 
about an inch at either end is also yellow, the intermediate longer portion of the 
tube being of a crimson-red. The accompanying figure is, of course, considerably 
reduced. 
