must remain, and be trained upright for fruit the following year, when it may be left five or six feet, and those which produced fruit cut down to two eyes the same as before; thus having, every alternate year, wood and fruit from the same part of the horizontal limb.

Should the wall be too high to be reached by a single series in this manner, a second one must be arranged for the purpose.

I need not add, that the thinning of the bunches of grapes with the scissors will be very essential to their perfection, both in size and flavour, especially of the larger sorts; as, in a fine season, they then nearly equal those grown under glass.

I have been entirely indebted to the late Mr. Speechly for this method of managing the vine, which I believe was never practised previously by any other person in this country. I have adopted it for several years, and I confess I prefer it to that of any other. In Speechly's Treatise on the Vine, p. 106, there is a very neat plate, representing the plant in six successive stages of its growth, each pruned at the end of the season.

I visited Mr. Speechly at Welbeck some years before his death, and had an ample opportunity of witnessing the excellence of his management, both in his vines and pines, and I cannot close this article without bearing testimony to one of the most eminent men of his time in this department of horticulture.

CHAP. IX,

MEDLARS.

THERE are only two sorts of Medlars cultivated in England, the Dutch and the Nottingham; both of which are two well known to require any description. The Dutch Medlar is by far the largest, and on that account may make the best appearance in the dessert; but the Nottingham is much superior in quality, and where one tree only is required it ought to be this.

Propagation.

Medlars are propagated by grafting or budding, generally upon the Whitethorn stock; but as this is of a much slower growth than the Medlar, it seldom produces good trees. The Common Pear stock is by far the best for this purpose, and if trained up standard high, and either grafted or budded at that height, the trees will be much finer and better than by any other method.

Pruning and Management.

Standard Medlars require the same management in forming their heads as Standard Plums: their shoots are not so numerous, but they frequently take a direction which would distort the head if suffered to remain, which renders it necessary they should be frequently looked over for the purpose of correcting and giving them a properly regulated head.

The Medlar, as well as the Quince, may very safely be planted out in the orchard, without any fear of their

degenerating the fruit of either the Apple or the Pear. The idea that has been entertained by some that this would be the case is perfectly absurd, as there can be no deterioration or degeneracy of the existing fruit, through the impregnation of these or other inferior species. The effect produced through impregnation must appear in the rising generation, not in the present one: we might as well expect a degeneracy in animal species by a cross impregnation with each other, as that the Apples and Pears now growing in our orchards should have degenerated, simply because Medlars and Quinces had been planted in the same orchards. Yet I find a caution

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given to gardeners to plant Medlars and Quinces at a proper distance from Apples and Pears;" both by Mr. FORSYTH, and by JOHN ABERCROMBIE, sixty years a practical gardener.

CHAP. X.

MELONS.

THE Melon appears to have been brought into England as early as the year 1570; but whether we possess, at the present time, the sort then introduced, would probably be very difficult to determine.

As an annual plant it is the only one known in our gardens, whose fruit, in its natural state, possesses sufficient merit to recommend it to a place in the dessert: for this purpose, however, it stands so high in general estimation for the richness of its flavour, independent of its magnificent appearance, that no dessert can be considered as complete without it, so long as it continues in

season.