166 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ November, 
be damp, but not wet, for wet and dry are both 
wrong. 
I cannot enter now upon the subject of the 
poisonous Mushrooms, but advise eating only the 
sweet-smelling ones with salmon-coloured gills, 
and shunning all those which come from de¬ 
cayed wood, or, indeed, wood of any kind, and 
those others that seem decked out in uniform. 
The puff-ball is safe and easily known when 
young, and by its ball of dust when old. The 
good old plan of growing Mushrooms in the 
kitchen-garden was to insert some spawn in 
the Melon-frame after the Melons were ripe, 
and I have seen fine Mushrooms growing out 
at top, sides, and bottom ; and now that all the 
world is star-gazing, and taken up with science, 
gardeners would do well to study the science 
that helps to fill the pot.— Alex. Forsyth. 
1LETEROMORPHOUS APPLE TREE. 
1” the lievue Uorticole (1881, 54, figs. 16- 
20), M. Carrie re has published an account, 
illustrated by figures, of which the 
accompanying is the most striking, of a case 
in which an apple-tree had produced at the 
same time fruits of normal form, and others 
which resembled those of the pear. The tree 
also bore fruits intermediate in form. 
This phenomenon, we learn, was produced in 
an orchard belonging to M. Meril, of Deville, 
near Rouen. It was first observed in 1878, 
and again in 1880 : on the latter occasion, by a 
mower who was cutting the grass, and who, 
having stopped under the tree, was surprised 
to see on it fruits so distinct in form. 
the shape of the fruit which is affected, for its 
character and flavour are those of an apple, 
and do not resemble those of the pear. This, M. 
Carriere observes, seems to exclude the hypo¬ 
thesis of fertilisation by a pear-flower, which 
certain persons would adopt; and his opinion 
is that the tree proceeds from a natural' seed, 
and has always borne fruits thus differing in 
form, but which have been hitherto overlooked. 
As it was growing in an orchard with many 
others, the fruit of which was all destined to 
the production of cider, it is probable that the 
pyriform fruits of this tree, always restricted 
in number, have passed unperceived among the 
very large quantity of others. The tree which 
has borne these curious diverse fruits is about 
forty years old.—M. 
The diverse fruits were found intermingled- 
on the branches in the proportion of four or 
five apples of normal form, to one of those 
recalling a pear. The origin of this singular 
variety appears to be involved in obscurity. 
M. Car ricre, however, remarks that it is only 
ARCHDEACON LEA’S F RU IT- 
tee es. 
OBSERVE that the omission of the word 
“not,” at p. 146, in the seventh line of 
my brief notice of these fine-fruiting 
treesj would lead one to suppose that root- 
