162 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLCGIST. 
[November, 
a closer place in spring, and shortly after a few may 
braird, but I keep the pots over till the following 
spring, when I have generally got the best braird. 
If only a few braird in the spring after they are 
sown, I have generally taken them out with a 
knife and potted them, disturbing the soil in the 
seed pot as little as possible, and filling up the 
places with fresh soil. In some cases when the 
surface of the pots has got much coverfd with 
moss, I have taken off the whole surface deeper 
than I knew the seeds to be sown, turned it upside 
down, taken off the soil gently, and picked out the 
seeds after they had been nearly twelve months 
sown, resowed them, and had a good braird the next 
spring. That job I always did when I had plenty 
of time after working hours, and I managed it with¬ 
out the aid of glasses. 
“ I may state that hard-wooded Heaths when im¬ 
pregnated with soft-wooded ones, such as Linnse- 
oides, produce seeds that will often vegetate in two 
or three months, while seeds taken from the same 
female parent impregnated with a hard-wooded 
Heath will take a year or two to vege ate. 
“ These are the chief things that should in my 
opinion be attended to by those w r ho feel disposed to 
give the matter a fair trial; and they may think them¬ 
selves fortunate if they see the fruit of t ieir labours 
in the shape of flowers four years from the sowing 
of the seeds. If they condnue their effort* yearlv, 
they will, however, be flowering new seedlings every 
year, and this cannot fail to prove very intere-iing. 
“ Andrew Turnbull. 
“Bothwell Castle, Oct. 3, 1882.” 
It may be interesting to note that at Martin¬ 
mas Mr. Turnbull will have completed his 
54th year at Bothwell Castle, under his sixth 
employer.—T. Moore. 
LANE’S PRINCE ALBERT APPLE. 
S ^HE free-cropping character of this fine 
j but too little known hardy variety of 
Apple is one of its most striking 
^ peculiarities. If anything were want¬ 
ing to demonstrate this, the young trees now 
growing in one of Messrs. Lane & Son’s out¬ 
lying nurseries at Potten End, near Berk- 
hamsted, might, some few weeks since, have 
been cited as convincing evidence of its fer¬ 
tility. In this nursery we saw a “ drift ” or 
“ bed ” of young trees, containing some 1,800 
or thereabouts, the individual trees not more 
than 5 ft. to 6 ft. in height, and all bearing 
freely—bearing many of them over a dozen 
large well-formed handsome fruit, the crop 
averaging from 8 to 10 fruits on each plant, 
while scarcely a plant as we searched row 
after row was unproductive. This variety 
does really seem so hardy that even our most 
uncongenial seasons do not prevent it from 
producing a crop of some kind, and when the 
climatal conditions arc at all favourable that 
crop is a heavy one. No doubt the trees in 
question were to some extent sheltered, and 
hence the extraordinary yield which has been 
obtained in spite of the uncongenial season, 
but the same tendency is seen everywhere and 
under all circumstances. The picture was a 
most striking one, for on most of the trees— 
single-stemmed juveniles—the Apples, when 
we saw them towards the end of September, 
hung like “ ropes of onions.” 
Owing, we suppose, to its not having been 
sufficiently exhibited, or to some mishap or 
other, this valuable kitchen Apple, which has 
been grown for many years with never-failing 
success by Mr. Lane, has not become so 
widely known or so freely grown, as it should 
have been. Indeed it was very little planted 
outside the Berkliamsted district until within 
the last few years, when the publication of a 
coloured illustration of it in our volume for 
1875, and subsequently the exhibition of 
samples of the fruit at South Kensington, 
have led to its more general recognition 
amongst fruit growers. Still, it is not so 
widely cultivated as it deserves to be, and as 
it must be when its merits come to be more 
generally known and appreciated. As a 
culinary Apple it is a variety fit to take its 
place by the side of such sterling sorts as 
Warner’s King, Ecklinville, Stirling Castle, 
Stone’s Apple, and others of that stamp. 
The fruits are usually of large size, solid iu 
substance, handsome in appearance, and ex¬ 
cellent as regardh cooking properties. They 
vary in shape from shortly conical or roundish 
with a smoothish surface, to a taller bluntly 
conical and somewhat angular form, and under 
some conditions take on considerably more 
colour than our figure, from an average 
specimen of the growth of 1875, indicates. 
The tree ranks amongst the hardiest of the 
hardy denizens of the orchard. We have our¬ 
selves often witnessed this peculiarity, for on 
a large hillside exposed orchard where Mr. 
Lane cultivates most of the leading sorts 
grown for market purposes, this variety has 
stood altogether uninjured, where many of the 
popular favourites, notably the highly-rated 
Dumelow’s Seedling (Wellington) can scarcely 
be kept alive during untoward periods such 
as we have of late years experienced. 
On all points, then, Lane’s Prince Albert 
may be set down as worthy of a place amongst 
the very few kitchen Apples which are really 
of first-class quality.—T. Moore. 
