THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. PRIMULA SINENSIS PURPUREA PUNCTATA. REAT strides have been made of late years in the improvement of the Chinese Primrose, Primula sinensis, and when one now happens to meet with the typical form, as originally introduced, one scarcely recognises it as the same plant, its narrow, plain-edged, notched segments looking poor and tame beside the richly-frilled forms now generally cultivated, to say nothing of the immense improvement in respect to colour which has been effected by careful seeding, aided by high cultivation. The original P. sinensis had the leaves palmatifidly lobed, as in the new variety we now figure; but some twenty or five-and-twenty years since a seedling sport was raised, with the outline of the leaves obovate-oblong, as in the common primrose, but deeply lobed at the edge, so as to resemble a fern frond; hence this race, now almost as varied as the original, was called the Fern-leaved. In early days, too, the leaf-stalk indicated the colour of the flower, the whites having pallid-green stalks, and the purples red stalks; but this no longer holds good, Waltham White, for example, one of the best of the whites, having the leaf-stalks of the deepest tint of red. In the flowers, the first changes were from single to double, and from plain-edged to frilled, or fimbriated, as it was commonly called. Then, by selecting the best for seeding, we had the whites increased in fulness and substance, until in Princess Louise these properties reached the highest standard, and the rosy-coloured forms became intensified into the larger rich rosy-purple hues which characterise all the carefully-selected strains of the present day, and which are claimed as specialities by various growers. About a dozen years ago we received in this country from Germany the variety called kermesina, which was of a decidedly different hue, approaching a salmonred, and it is no doubt the admixture with this No. 25. IMPERIAL SERIES. which has given us the crimson-tinted strains now in cultivation. Other variations, sometimes more curious than beautiful, have from time to time made their appearance on the Continent; but some two or three years since Mr. Barron obtained from MM. Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie., of Paris, seeds of a very high-coloured race, amongst which were flowers having the edges dotted with white. This, which M. Vilmorin call P. sinensis purpurea punctata, was the original of the variety represented in our plate, the portrait of which was taken from one of the plants grown at Chiswick last year. From the same strain Mr. Barron has selected Chiswick Red and rubro-violacea, two of the brightest varieties yet obtained, and both Certificated at South Kensington as real advances on others previously in cultivation, the first having more of the crimson tint, the latter of the violet tint flushing the reddish-crimson of the flower, and both having well-marked yellow eyes. Mr. Barron has also subsequently sent us flowers of a particularly beautiful and distinct form, of a bright magenta-purple, dotted with white, and with a very large bronze eye extended half-way across the face of the flower; the edge is undulated, as well as neatly fringed with crenate toothing, and the five original lobes are so deeply cut in, fully in., that the several overlapping lobelets of the corolla appear to constitute an almost continuous double layer throughout. This, which has flowers of full size, is one of the handsomest forms we have seen. A glance at the accompanying plate will show the principal features which mark this punctate Primula to be the large solid flowers, brilliant crimson-colour, the white dotted margin, and large yellow eye. The truss is bold and close, and the habit stout and vigorous, so that altogether this new form will take high rank as a decorative plant. Mr. Douglas has judiciously remarked in a recent issue of the Gardeners' Chronicle (N. s. xi., p. 717), that it is very desirable indeed that these fine strains should be improved not only by selection, which is a haphazard way, but by careful crossing. In every strain there are two classes of flowers-the thrum-eyed. in which the mouth of the tube is quite filled up with the anthers. and the stigma is quite concealed beneath them; and the pin-eyed, in which the anthers are set down in the tube, while the stigma protrudes from its mouth, or at least is even with it. The thrum-eyed flowers should be used as the pollen-bearers, and the pin-eyed flowers as the seed-bearers. The requisites are good shape and substance, with rich and decided colours; the plant should be of good habit, with the leaves stout and set on rigid foot-stalks. Those who have been fortunate enough to obtain a good flower may yet have experienced much difficulty in obtaining seeds from it. The flowers will, no doubt, in such a case, be found, on a closer inspection, to be of the thrum-eyed character; but if a pin-eyed flower of the same colour, and possessing as nearly as possible the same properties, can be selected from the same batch of seedlings, there would be no difficulty in obtaining a plentiful supply of good seeds by fertilising the latter with the former. Every day about noon the pollen should be conveyed from the flowers of the one plant to the protruding stigma of the other. During the fertilising period the plants should be placed near the glass, in a moderately warm, airy house. The plants may be placed on any convenient shelf near the glass in a vinery, greenhouse, or other structure, not a warm close stove, to mature their seeds, which will ripen during the summer, and when the pods show that these are ripe. they should be gathered and laid out to dry.-T. MOORE. OUR FORCED-FRUIT INDUSTRY. HE cultivation of Forced Fruits for the supply of the public is a matter of so much importance to those who are engaged therein, that any improvement which can be made upon the various modes of packing for market, so as to secure a more uniform exemption from damage in transit, will be welcomed, not only as an advantage to the producer, but also as a tangible benefit to the consumer. It is from this point of view that I admire the liberality and wisdom of Mr. Webber, of Covent Garden, in offering prizes for the most successful plan of packing grapes which have to be sent some distance by rail before they reach a market. The growing of choice fruits in this country is every year becoming less remunerative, owing to the increasing competition which it has to encounter through importations of foreign fruits. The object which British fruit-growers ought to have in view is HIGH QUALITY in their productions; and they should be careful not to allow trade convenience to reduce that high quality to the level of foreign-grown fruit, which has to be gathered and packed before it has attained its full flavour. In an article upon packing Peaches in a contemporary, it is recommended that Peaches for market be gathered when "quite hard to the touch." Surely this is an astounding recommendation to come from one who stands in the very front rank of British fruit-growers, a recommendation savouring far more of convenience to the fruit-dealer, than adapted for keeping up to the highest level the standard of merit in our home-grown fruits. Although the system of gathering choice fruits before they are ripe has been recommended by Covent-Garden fruit-dealers for a good many years, I have always felt-convenient as it may be for the retailer's purpose-that it strikes the most deadly blow that can be aimed at the profitable production of forced fruits in this country. There is a stage in the ripeness of all fruits when the flavour is most fully developed. In the case of the Peach, I have invariably found this to be attained when the fruit has been ripened upon the tree. Now, if this be so, it is right that the public should derive the fullest enjoyment from what, under any circumstances, must always be a costly dish in this country, and that the reputation of our hothouse-grown fruits should not suffer merely for the convenience of the dealer. There is no other competing industry, that I am aware of, that could or would allow its productions to be lowered in quality-after all the expense of production has been incurred-simply for the convenience of the retailers of the goods. If Peaches be carefully handled, there is no 1880. ] CHRISTMAS ROSES ON CHRISTMAS DAY.-DUBREUIL ON PEACH-PRUNING. 5 difficulty in keeping them, for three or four days after they have been gathered, in prime eating condition. It is, in my opinion, to improved modes of packing and transit that we must look for retaining British fruit-culture as a remunerative industry, and not to the system of gathering the fruit to pack, instead of gathering it to eat. Horticultural Societies might add very much to their usefulness, by offering prizes-to be competed for whenever a fruit show is heldfor the best and most successful system of packing the various classes of fruit for transit to market. The system should be judged upon trade principles, viz.. so as to bring out clearly the plan of packing for long railway journeys, which shall combine the greatest security against damage in transit, with the most expeditious mode of operation, and the least cost in material and carriage.-Z. STEVENS, Trentham Gardens, Stoke-upon-Trent. HERE is something about the purity of tone of a forced flower of a Christmas Rose that makes it peculiarly acceptable at the Christmas season. I think we see the refinement of the Christmas Rose only when some steps are taken to assist it in opening its flowers sooner than it otherwise would, and to do this well, not only is protection necessary, but some warmth also. It is only in the case of a peculiarly mild and pleasant autumn, that Christmas Roses can be looked for in flower in the open air at that festive season. During the past month of December, the plants were locked up firmly in the soil by the severe frost, that lasted long, and the flowers, which, when the frost came upon us, were sending up their halfformed buds through the soil, were held fast, and could make no progress. Then is the time to step in and assist the imprisoned ones. The most forward of the clumps should be lifted, even though it is necessary to bring the pickaxe into requisition, and the plants with the frozen soil about them should be put into a temperate house, and left to thaw. As soon as this is accomplished, any unnecessary coating of soil should be crumbled away, and the clumps put into pots only just large enough to take them, and placed in a brisk heat. On a shelf in a low span-roofed stove, near the glass, which is a good position for the plants, they soon commence to throw up their blossoms, and in such a position they take on a snowy whiteness, unusual to them in the open air. There are such things as strains of Christmas Roses. I mean by this that I have met with what I consider an early and singularly freeflowering variety which, when obtained, is best adapted for forcing into flower at Christmas. This particular strain also appears to have flowers whiter than others, the blossoms from which are ofttimes tinted with blush and salmon. It is the old Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) that must be used for this purpose. A few days since, I saw some flowers taken from a plant forced into bloom in this manner that were of the purest white, and they had undergone a refinement unusual to the Christmas Rose. The eye is the most cunning of painters, and, as Wordsworth says, brings to land or sea a light that never was upon them. But there is no optical deception in the snowy whiteness found in a blossom of a forced Christmas Rose. We cannot transfigure it, for its purity is as patent as its great usefulness in mid-winter. Let us, then, have Christmas Roses at Christmas, as emblems of Nature's bounty to man at the darkest season of the year, and of that hallowed serenity and pure goodness, centring round the historical figure, which gives to the Christmas season its greatest significance.-R. DEAN, Ealing, W. PEACH-PRUNING-DUBREUIL. HERE are two excellent works on the pruning and training of fruit-trees, Mr. Brehaut's and M. Dubreuil's, and were horticulturists to read and study these excellent works, there would not be so much ignorance abroad. I will summarise a portion of Mr. Dubreuil's advice on pruning and training. Some of his hints are beyond my experience; but I will only quote such as I have found by experience to be true : 1. The wood of the trees ought to be symmetrically trained, which promotes equality of vegetation. 2. The permanency of form in trained trees is dependent on equal diffusion of sap. 3. The strong branches should be pruned short, and the weak branches allowed to grow long. 4. The strong branches should be depressed, and the weak ones elevated. 5. The buds upon the strong parts should be suppressed as early as possible, and as late as possible on the weak parts. 6. The strong branches should be nailed to the wall early, and close, but the nailing-in of the weak ones should be delayed. 7. Suppress a number of the leaves upon the strong side. 8. Allow as large a quantity of fruit to remain on the strong side as possible, and suppress all upon the weak side. 9. Bring forward the shoots on the weak THE DUNMORE PEAR. ROM inquiries received respecting this very excellent pear, I am led to think that it is not so generally known, nor so extensively grown, as i deserves to be. It have looked through several nursery catalogues, and I do not find it in any of them, which to me seems very strange, since I find they have many kinds very much inferior to the Dunmore. In Loudon's Suburban Horticulturist it is thus described:-"Dunmore: Large, oblong-obovate, greenish yellow, and smooth brown russet, buttery and rich; September; a hardy vigorous tree, and bears abundantly as a standard." Downing, in his Fruits and Fruit Trees of America, says, "The Dunmore is a large and truly side from the wall, and keep those on the admirable pear, raised by Knight, which has been strong side close to it. 10. Place a covering over the strong part, so as to deprive it of light, but not for longer than from eight to twelve days: if longer, the trees may lose their leaves. 11. The sap developes branches much more vigorously upon a branch cut short than upon one left long. 12. The more the sap is retarded in its circulation, the less wood and the more fruit-buds it will develop. 13. To retard extra luxuriance, uncover the foot of the tree in spring, cut away part of the roots, and then replace the earth. 14. Make fruit-spurs grow close to the branches by pruning them as short as possible; by so doing, the fruit will receive the direct influence of the sap, and acquire a larger development. 15. Keep the fruit with the fruit stem lowermost. 16. Place the fruit under the shade of their leaves during the entire period of growth. 17. The leaves elaborate the sap of the roots, and prepare it for the proper nourishment of the tree, and the formation of buds upon the boughs. A tree, therefore, that is deprived of its leaves is in danger of perishing. The above directions are useful; and I can testify, by twenty-seven years of experience in Peach and Nectarine culture, that the advice is good and valuable. Many trees will need next spring root-pruning or lifting,-the former is often best.-W. F. RADCLYFFE, Okeford Fitzpaine, Nov. 5. introduced into this country from the Garden of the London Horticultural Society. It is a strong-growing tree, bears exceedingly well, and is likely to become a great favourite. Its blossoms resist even severe frosts." A remarkable thing happened with the standard tree here, some ten or twelve years ago. It was full of blossoms during the autumn and winter -not merely a small spray or two, as one often sees on Pear and other trees, but the entire tree was in blossom; and as the winter proved mild, as soon as some of the blossoms died off others expanded, so that there was more or less bloom all through the winter and into spring. The tree bore a light crop the ensuing season. I got the tree that is here, with a number of other fruit-trees, about 28 or 29 years ago, from Messrs. Knight and Perry, of Chelsea. With the exception of two or three standard Appletrees, the whole of them proved true to name. -M. SAUL, Stourton, Knaresborough. DR. HOGG APPLE. HIS fine new Apple, which was raised from seed by Mr. Sidney Ford, of Leonardslee, near Horsham-who has for some years been a remarkably successful cultivator and fortunate exhibitor of hardy fruits-is described as bearing a close resemblance to the Calville Blanche. It was first exhibited in November, 1878, when it was brought before the Royal Horticultural Society's Fruit Committee, and it was so far approved that it was invited to be submitted again, after being |