THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



251 



Great Britain, for, once get a few 

 buibs, and you are sure of a crop, 

 whether the soil be poor or rich. You 

 are free of the risk attending the sow- 

 ing of seed ; for onion seed is always 

 uncertain, and hence the common prac- 

 tice of mixing two or three sorts, in 

 order that if one fails the others may 

 grow ; and you are free in a great 

 measure of the depredations of the 

 maggot ; certainly we never knew an 

 instance of the tree-onion being at- 

 tacked by it, though we have seen beds 

 of Heading and White Globe, close by, 

 pretty well devoured. Besides these 

 advantages, the ground bulbs are just 

 as good for the kitchen as any other 

 onion, and keep for twelve months if 

 necessary. The best rule for its culture 

 is, "plant on the shortest day, and 

 take up on the longest." Let the 

 ground be well dug, liberally manured, 

 and trod firm. Choose for planting the 

 largest of the top bulbs, which are gene- 

 rally over an inch in diameter. Press 

 these down firmly to the line, and then 

 cover over with three or four inches of 



charred rubbish, charred turf, light rich 

 soil, or sand} - road-scrapings. They 

 may be six inches apart all over the 

 plot, but the best way is io have a few 

 long rows down the side of a piece of 

 ground, where you can conveniently 

 put a few stakes at about a yard apart 

 on each side of the row, connecting the 

 stakes with hazel rods, or laths, or wires, 

 or even rope-yarn, to give a little sup- 

 port to the stems when they get top- 

 heavy with their curious crop of onions 

 at the summit of each. In good soil, 

 and liberally treated — as watering in 

 dry weather— well supported, and kept 

 clean from weeds, they will increase 

 every year at least twenty-fold. On 

 one plant we have had thirty buibs, 

 large and small, on the top, and two 

 ground bulbs in place of the oneplanted. 

 If the ground bulbs are well ripened, 

 they may be planted instead of the 

 largest from the cluster. We may re- 

 mark in conclusion that the tree-onion 

 is a curious and interesting- plant, and 

 when forming its top bulbs, a truly 

 beautiful object. 



LONDON PLANE-TEEES. 



Among the City trees of special note, I 

 suppose the plane-tree at the corner of 

 Wood Street, and the two planes at Sta- 

 tioners' Hall must enjoy the first and 

 foremost place for purposes of compari- 

 son. Of the two at Stationers' Hall, one 

 only is known to the general public, be- 

 cause it occupies the inclosure in the 

 thoroughfare from Amen Corner to Lud- 

 gate Hill. The other is in the garden on 

 the west side of the Hall, in the rear of 

 St. Michael's Church, and accessible by 

 means of a little alley passing under the 

 Hall, which a stranger may discover for 

 himself by simply looking for it. The one 

 hidden from public view is so much finer 

 than its companion in Stationers' Hall 

 Court, that an observer, uninformed as to 

 their history, would pi'onounce itten years 

 older at the least. But they are both of 

 the same age, were planted the same sea- 

 son, and their difference of growth must 

 be attributed to the more favourable na- 

 ture of the circumstances under which, the 

 one on the west side is placed. But there 

 they are ; the one in the thoroughfai-e is 

 drawn and spindling ; the wind has at 



different times stripped it of some of its 

 best branches, and being closely shut iu 

 by high walls, its growth is weak and 

 spare compared with that of its neighbour, 

 which is as retired as if fifty miles away, 

 with plenty of light and air, and is really 

 a picturesque and robust specimen of the 

 so-called occidental plane. As to what 

 such trees are capable of in the darkest 

 nook of a smoky city, these are certainly 

 encouraging examples. They are over 

 fifty feet in height, are well proportioned, 

 quite healthy,and with not awound visible 

 on any part of the trunk of either of them. 

 Their age, from the nursery stools, is 

 something under forty years, so their 

 growth during the whole term of their 

 existence has been at an average of fifteen 

 inches per annum. 



When I asked these trees about their 

 history, their reply was, " Story ! God 

 bless you, we have none to tell, sir ;" and 

 yet, like the knife-grinder, they have a 

 story after all, but it is a brief one. They 

 were planted in the year 1825, by Joseph 

 Clreenhill, Esq., the respected treasurer 

 of the Stationers' Company. The one in 



