6X4 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
May 81, 1890. 
fusely, and the colour is of a brighter hue than I can 
remember to have seen on any other occasion. 
I had always thought, wrongly I now find, that 
Statice spathulrefolia was confined to the limestone 
cliffs of the Orme’s Head, in Wales, but I met with it 
in some quantity along the coast beyond the bay. 
Apart] from the neat habit, the pretty flowers and 
spoon-shaped leaves render it a desirable rock plant. 
Of the wild Geraniums several of the smaller-growing 
species are to be found along this coast, but they are 
very locally distributed. The Catchfly (Silene), wild 
Mignonette, and several uncommon species of Carex 
grow in the grounds of the Hermitage, but to give even 
a tithe of the names of plants that I noted down as 
growing on this part of the coast would take up more 
time than I have at disposal. 
Amongst trees and shrubs that do well at the 
Hermitage, I might make particular mention of the 
Austrian and Scotch Firs (Pinus austriaca and P. 
sylvestris), and the Evergreen Oak (Quercus Ilex) 
amongst evergreen trees, and the common Sycamore, 
Elder, and a couple of species of Willow and Poplar. 
Of shrubs the Euonymus, flowering Currant, Sweet 
Bay, Laurustinus, Guelder Rose (Yiburnum Opulus— 
British), Lilac (common), Veronica spicata, Fuchsia 
globosa, Mahonia aquifolia, Privet (oval-leaved), 
Hypericum calycinum, Honeysuckle (perfoliate), Box, 
Thorn, Snowberry, Lavender, and Darwin’s Barberry. 
The Hew Zealand Flax grows with great freedom in 
the Hermitage garden, forming noble plants of nearly 
5 ft. in height, the deep green sickle-shaped leaves 
averaging 4 ins. wide. When thus seen it’ is certainly 
one of the most desirable of garden plants and a 
worthy companion of the better known Pampas Grass, 
which likewise grows here with unusual freedom. 
Pinks, Alliums, Saxifrages, Aquilegias, various kinds 
of Primulas, the good old Honesty, Ixias and Wall¬ 
flowers all combine to make the Hermitage garden one 
of particular interest even at this early date, the 19th 
of May.— A. D. Webster. 
-- 
CELSIA CRETICA. 
Readers in search of yellow flowers should grow this 
Celsia, as although such an old inhabitant, it is but 
seldom seen in gardens now-a-days. Why this should 
be I cannot imagine, considering of what a pleasing shade 
of yellow the flowers are. Seed should be sown in 
March fn a pot or pan filled with finely-sifted loam, 
leaf-soil and sand in equal parts, and then placed in a 
warm hohse until the seedlings appear, when they 
should be removed to a frame. Prick them out in 
boxes when large enough to handle, and transfer them 
into 4-in. pots before they become crowded, keeping 
them outside all the summer. In September shift 
them into their flowering pots—one plant in a 6-in. or 
three in a 10-in. pot proves satisfactory. At the end 
of October place them in a cold house or pit, and stake 
them as soon as the spikes push up. They will 
commence to flower in March, and continue doing so 
until June. The flower spikes range from 4 ft. to 10 ft. 
in height, and are admirably adapted for lofty struc¬ 
tures .—Barnaby Budge. 
--->X<-- 
ON PLANTING TREES IN TOWNS. 
Under this title “the two Aberdeen members of Mr. 
Ruskin’s Guild of Saint George” have issued, in a 
handsome form, two papers read before the North of 
Scotland Horticultural Society by Mr. Robert Walker, 
head gardener, Victoria Public Park, Aberdeen. The 
first paper treats specially of the question of planting 
trees in towns, not only in gardens or in wide open 
spaces and parks, but in streets and roads. Mr. 
Walker says :—“Planting of trees in streets, from a sani¬ 
tary point of view, cannot be over estimated. Trees 
not only afford shade and shelter, but adorn the land¬ 
scape and purify the air. They improve the heart as 
well as the taste ; they refresh the body and enlighten 
the spirit, and the more refined the taste is, the more 
exquisite is the gratification that may be enjoyed from 
every leaf-building tree.” Full information is given as 
to the kinds of trees best adapted for city growth, 
whether they are to be planted in smoky streets where 
population is most dense and traffic is constant, or in 
the streets and roads in the suburbs, where the condi¬ 
tions are more favourable, and a greater variety may be 
used. In the ’treatment of the subject Mr. Walker 
evinces thorough knowledge, and his poetic touches 
and quotations prove that he is in all respects watchful 
of beauty and grace alike in the construction of his 
sentences and in the adornment of the dull byways 
and highways of the town. 
In his second paper Mr. Walker goes farther afield, 
and deals with “trees suitable for villa and suburban 
planting.” Here again there is manifested a fulness of 
information and an enthusiasm of spirit that tend to 
make the writing alike valuable and attractive. 
Throughout the pages there are happy references to 
trees growing in New Aberdeen and in Old Aberdeen. 
Regarding Hawthorns of great age still to be found at 
Gilcomston Park and King’s College, Mr. Walker thus 
concludes his brochure : — “ These maybe taken as a 
fair sample of what may be done by the use of such 
trees in our city streets. They show at a glance the 
superiority of permanent embellishment over fleeting 
annual display . . . Their lives, from the unfold¬ 
ing bud to the tottering trunk, are as the lives of men, 
and there is infinite change in the individual and 
boundless variety in the species.” The papers appear 
in handsome form, and are embellished with about 
half a score of full-page drawings of trees, lithographed 
in fine style on thick paper. A beautiful cover further 
enhances the appearance of the work. — Cor. 
-- 
CALIFORNIAN FRUIT PRO¬ 
DUCTION. 
A correspondent, writing toth e Economiste Francais, 
says that at the present time California is one of the 
principal fruit-producing centres of the world. It is 
more particularly in the southern part of the State that 
this industry is the most developed, and Sacramento is 
the centre of it. It produces all kinds of fruits—Pears, 
Peaches, Figs, Grapes, &c. The Pear, which is one of 
the choicest and most easily transportable of fruits, was 
the first to attract the attention of the grower, and was 
cultivated on a very considerable scale. The Pear tree 
in California bears at the end of three years, but it is 
only in full bearing at the end of six or seven. An 
acre of ground, well planted and carefully attended to, 
should yield at the expiration of this period about 
35,000 lbs. weight of fruit, worth £200. Grapes are of 
three descriptions—those for the table, for wine making, 
and for drying. Each description has its own special 
centre of production. Grapes for drying are grown in 
the valley of San Joaquin, those for wine making further 
to the north, and the table fruit is cultivated in the 
neighbourhood of Stockton and Sacramento. Southern 
California is distinguished by very varied climates, 
which admit of all descriptions of fruit culture. The 
choicest kinds of table Grapes are those known as Tokay. 
A San Francisco paper—the California —states that 
over an area of fifteen acres planted with Tokay Grapes, 
the vines being fourteen years old and well tended, the 
gross yield was valued at nearly £4,000. Deduction 
being made of the expense of cultivation, irrigation, 
transport, and commissions, the net product is estimated 
at £1,738, that is at the rate of £124 per acre. This, 
however, is stated to be an exceptional case. 
After Grapes come the Figs. These latter are 
cultivated in very large quantities in California, and 
there are many different descriptions. An attempt has 
been made to acclimatise the true Smyrna Fig, but it 
has not hitherto been a success, although fruits have 
been grown very nearly resembling it but inferior in 
perfume. The choicest variety and the one most easily 
obtained is the Fig called the “White Adriatic.” At 
Ventura, where it is most successfully cultivated, one 
grower alone has planted a very large extent of ground, 
and estimates, judging from past results, than in ten 
years’ time his annual yield will amount to about 1,250 
cart-loads of fruit, which at the rate of one cent, a 
pound will produce an amount of £50,000. The fruit 
growers of California having a supply of fruits greater 
than is necessary for home consumption, are naturally 
desirous of finding outlets for their supplies, and for 
some years they have been endeavouring to establish 
markets on the Atlantic coasts. In the fruit season an 
exhibition of choice fruits is sent over the principal 
lines of the Lnion in a specially constructed wagon, 
which is called “California on wheels.” The cost of 
this travelling exhibition is borne by the Board of Trade 
of the State of California and the Southern Pacific 
Company. At the same time the Board of Trade 
supports, not without considerable expense, at San 
Francisco, a permanent exhibition of fresh fruits. The 
Eastern States, the large cities such as New York, 
Boston, Philadelphia, and more in the west Chicago, 
and in the south St. Louis, equally receive regular 
supplies of fruits. Railways have been constructed to 
unite the principal produeng centres of California with 
the great transcontinental lines, and to carry the fruits 
rapidly from one end of the country to the other. But 
no matter how abundant the yield may be, and the 
cheapness of transport, fresh fruits are still a luxury, 
and their sale cannot exhaust the production of 
California, so for some years now attention has been 
paid to developing the sale of preserved fruits. At first, 
these were prepared on the evaporation system, and the 
fruit was then packed in boxes. This industry has had 
an enormous development, and the manufacturers of tin 
boxes in California are considered among the most 
skilful aud the richest in the world. Since 1887 the 
yield of fruit has been so abundant that the special 
apparatus for artificial evaporation have been insufficient, 
and recourse has therefore been had to natural 
evaporation by solar heat, but the latter system has not 
given, everywhere, satisfactory results. In the greater 
part, however, of California, the air is extremely dry, 
and the desiccation of fruits under the influence of the 
sun is, says the Economistc, absolutely perfect.— Journal 
of the Society of Arts. 
-—>=£<*.- 
SPRING-FLOWERING TREES 
AND SHRUBS. 
Mr. Williaji Goldring had an excellent subject for 
a paper on the occasion of the last meeting of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, namely, “ Early Flower¬ 
ing Trees and Shrubs,” and he had the advantage of 
his subject being illustrated by many cut specimens of 
flowering trees and shrubs supplied for the puroose. 
The lecturer also had the advantage of a good knowledge 
of his subject, but his delivery was a little abrupt, his 
sentences disjointed and incomplete, as if he had not 
so fully prepared himself as seemed desirable. There was 
just a little harshness about some of his remarks that 
appeared to grate upon the feelings of those present ; 
but the matter was, on the whole, good and reliable, 
though there was a disposition to dissent from his 
conclusions in one or two instances. 
He admitted with much truth that we are largely 
indebted to North America for many of the trees and 
shrubs which adorn our gardens ; but he went on to 
state that the planting of trees and shrubs is one of 
those things the ordinary gardener knows least about. 
Herein I think he was quite right, for I have often 
noticed, that many gardeners who are experts in some 
aspects of their craft, yet appear to be wofully ignorant 
of many trees and shrubs that ornament any garden. 
One of the most pleasant places in "West Middlesex—a 
demesne of which any gentleman of position might be 
proud, is singularly deficient in flowering shrubs of a 
choice kind, and, as Mr. Goldring remarked, a great 
deal of unwise planting is often done, followed by 
persistent neglect afterwards. He contended that in 
planting the better class of shrubs they should be 
liberally treated, the soil trenched and manured, that 
they should have ample space in which to develop, and 
that when necessary they should be pruned with the 
greatest carefulness. Thick planting he affirmed to be 
a bad practice, and when it was necessary to resort to 
it in order to cover unsightly places, a careful weeding 
out should be resorted to by transplanting some of the 
subjects annually to some other sites. 
Only the choice kinds of trees and shrubs should be 
planted. Of late years our collections have been 
much enriched with additions from America, China 
and Japan, and these should take the places of com¬ 
moner things; and he particularly instanced the newer 
forms of double Lilacs, such as Alphonse Lavallee, 
Charles X , Comte Horace de Choiseul, Leon Simon, 
and the one certificated by the Floral Committee that 
day—as soon as procurable—Madame Kreuter, with its 
deep purple-crimson flowers. Of large trees, he 
particularly recommended the planting of the double¬ 
flowering Horse Chestnut in preference to the single, 
as it does not seed, and the flowers are thereby more 
persistent; the trees being seedless, there was not 
such a temptation for children to injure the branches 
by throwing stones to get the fruit down. He also 
recommended some of the smaller-growing forms of the 
Horse Chestnut, the best varieties of the old Robinia 
or Acacia, especially that kuown as Decaisneana ; 
and for the sake of creating a beauty spot, a group 
of Magnolias. He mentioned the vernal beauty of 
the pure white M. conspicua, and particularly men¬ 
tioned Soulangeana, which, he stated, was the result 
of a cross between M. cordata and M. conspicua, though 
regarded by some authorities as merely a variety of M. 
conspicua. 
The common Amelanchier vulgaris and the Snowy 
Mespilus, A. botryapium, were particularly mentioned 
by the lecturerjas first-rate undersized spring-flowering 
trees ; and the old Judas Tree (Cercis siliquastrum), 
said to be 300 to 400 years old, and of which some 
large flowering branches were shown, was mentioned 
with marked approval. A few things to be planted 
more than they now are, were Pyrus spectabilis, 
