Jnne 13, 1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
515 
while the former has been classed as a Darwin Tulip, and the 
latter as a Cottage Tulip. , 
It is just possible and, moreover, very probable that most 
or all of the Darwin Tulips, so called, will in the course of tune 
„j v6 rise to variegated Tulips ; we shall not say rectified, be¬ 
cause in this instance they are hardly likely to give nse to 
many forms at all fit to be classed with the Florists Tulips 
nroller Owing to the method of selecting Darwin Tulips, a 
Lie number of them are not on a basis equivalent to breeders 
m- mother Tulips, for the simple reason that the base of the 
flowers may not be either yellow or white. This outclasses 
them at once as a, florist flower, even m the seedling or initial 
stages. A large number of them are furnished with blue or 
black blotches, one at the base of each segment of the flower, 
so that when they sport into variegated forms, these blotc i s 
ZL more persistent than the colour of the upper part of 
the flower, they would still be outside the pale of the flons ■ 
flower D woidd be clearly a mistake then to wait or even 
desire for the breaking of the Darwin Tulips, as they 
would be less desirable in that form than as seifs, tor 
warden decoration. 
The Aconite-Leaved Crowfoot. 
The ordinary single form of Ranunculus aconiti- 
folius is not a particularly showy plant, as far as 
flowers are concerned, for the simple reason that the 
blooms are small and perishable. The leaves re¬ 
semble those of an Aconite in being deeply five-parted 
with serrated segments. 
The double-flowered form, R. a. flore pleno, is far 
more ornamental and useful from a garden point of 
view, because the flowers are more durable. It is 
by no means a common plant, however, in borders 
in southern gardens, but in the north it is both 
plentiful and succeeds admirably. V here the soil 
happens to be of a dryish nature, it would be a good 
plan to specially prepare the ground by deep digging 
and manuring it with leaf mould and well-decayed 
farmyard manure. A better plan still, if a brook 
or stream runs through the garden or grounds, would 
be to plant it on the banks, where the roots can 
simply dip into the water. Like many other species 
of Crowfoot, it requires a considerable amount of 
moisture to maintain its foliage in good condition 
during the heat of the day, and the banks of a 
stream or pond would, therefore, transform this plant 
into one of the most useful ornaments of the garden. 
The petals are exceedingly numerous and closely 
imbricate, somewhat after the style of the yellow 
Bachelors’ Buttons, but different in colour, being 
pure white. 
Oranges. 
It is generally known that Spain supplies us with 
most of the Oranges we eat, but few people are aware 
how enormous the trade has become. The Spanish 
Orange region extends, however, over Eastern and 
Southern Catalonia, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, 
Malaga, and Seville; and in parts of Valencia and 
Murcia the trees now grow in forests. A single full- 
grown tree will yield 1,500, and at times as many as 1,800 
Oranges in a season, fruit-bearing beginning when the trees 
reach their sixth year, and increasing till they are twenty, when 
degeneration usually sets in. 
The extent of the plantations will explain the magnitude of 
the exports. To quote the latest available figures, in the 
course of one week (February 15th to 21st), according to the 
trade organ, “ Los Mercados,” there were shipped no fewer 
*than 135,423 cases of Oranges from Spain to this country, 
London taking 40,539, Liverpool 38,643, Hull 25,034, and 
Glasgow 11,013, the remainder going to Manchester, Bristol, 
and Newcastle. We are by far Spain’s best customer for this 
popular fruit, but during the week referred to, Antwerp, Rot¬ 
terdam, Hamburg, Bremen, and Christiania also took 56,916 
cases among them, bringing the week’s total to 192,339 ; while 
from the beginning of the season to February 21st the total 
exports amounted to 2,511,784 cases of various sizes, the 
smallest containing about 400, and the largest 1,000. 
Clydesdale Fruit Prospects. 
The fruit-growers in and around the upper valley of _ the 
Clyde have been viewing with grave concern the continuance 
of the present wet and cold weather. At this season of the 
year the fruit trees are usually in full blossom, but the absence 
of heat and sunshine is very marked in the appearance of the 
orchards. About the middle of April as many as from 20 deg. 
to 26 deg. of frost were registered in the night-time, and this 
had a disastrous effect on the Pear and Plum trees, where the 
Ranunculus aconitifolius floee pleno. 
buds were but in the process of forming. The damage done 
cannot yet be estimated thoroughly, but growers anticipate 
a very light crop, if not. an entire failure. Much the same 
is the case as regards Gooseberries, Raspberries, and Currants. 
In the higher situated and sheltered situations the damage 
seems not to have been so extensive,,but in the low-lying places 
there has been almost a total blighting. The Strawberry 
plants were not in far enough forward condition for frost to 
affect them, so that they have escaped. The plants are not 
yet in blossom, however, so that the berries will, in all proba¬ 
bility, be late in coming on the market. A rise of tempera¬ 
ture would, however, bring them along rapidly, as Strawberries 
readily respond to the influence of sunshine. 
