THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



103 



that the shoots pinched may have 

 time to push again, the sap so expen- 

 ded serving to mature the buds which 

 lie at the base of the shoot and which 

 it is intended to develop into fruit- 

 spurs. 



When the pinched shoots do again 

 push, the secondary twigs must be 

 pinched back to two leaves ; this 

 check will probably suffice to defeat 

 the purpose of the tree. Instead of 

 struggling to produce wood, it will 

 now elaborate the buds at the bases 

 of the pinched shoots into embryo 

 spurs, and the result will be early 

 fruitfulness of small trees instead of 

 late fruitfulness of large ones. 



The principal difficulty of the 

 beginner is to discover the limits 

 within which these pinchings and 

 prunings may be practised. It is only 

 up to a certain point that we may 

 interfere with nature with any advan- 

 tage to ourselves. Let me give you 

 a case in point. Among a number 

 of trees grafted in 1859, were some 

 Victoria plums. These were grafted 

 near the ground with the intention of 

 forming them into bushes. The 

 trees said " no," for they threw up 

 powerful leaders and acquired a 

 height of six to nine feet the first 

 season. I then endeavoured to 

 make distaffs of them, but in spite of 

 every attempt to check their growth, 

 they started again, then divided 



naturally and formed heads. At the 

 end of 1860 a few of them were 

 severely cut back, in fact to skeletons ; 

 others were left unpruned. Those 

 left unpruned enlarged their heads 

 in 1862, those severely cut back threw 

 out a forest of shoots in all directions; 

 they were pinched and cut, but all 

 to no purpose ; they would grow. In 

 the autumn of 1862 a few of those with 

 fine heads were selected and planted 

 out from the nursery and left 

 to grow as they pleased ; the others 

 that had been pruned severely were 

 again cut back, but were left covered 

 with short twigs. The first lot are 

 now handsome young trees, and, at 

 the moment of writing this are com- 

 pletely smothered with bloom. But 

 where is this bloom? It is on the 

 top branches — that is to say, regu- 

 larly distributed throughout the heads 

 of the trees ; and on the stems where 

 the side-shoots were pinched and cut 

 there is a regular bristling of little 

 twigs, all green with leaves, but not 

 a bloom amongst them. Thus, you 

 see, we must not interfere with 

 Nature rashly ; sometimes, by allow- 

 ing a certain degree of vigour, we 

 may do more to encourage fruitful- 

 ness than by checking the growth, so 

 that the whole tree becomes debili- 

 tated. The sap is the blood ; it must 

 circulate, or there can be no work 

 done. S. H. 



THE COTTAGE GARDEN. 



NOTES ON A FEW OF THE FINEST HARDY HEEBACEOUS BOEDER FLOWERS. 



In looking over a catalogue of plants, 

 the amateur is much more apt to be 

 bewildered than informed. He sees 

 lists of names longer than his purse, 

 and to pronounce some of them he 

 ought to be capable to go through the 

 process unhurt of combiningthe sound 

 of a cough, a sneeze, a wheezing in the 

 head, and a husk of barley in the 

 throat. If he could pronounce them 

 all, he could not in another way pro- 

 nounce which to have and which to 

 refuse, for are they not all described 

 with the use of laudatory adjectives 

 — " splendid, " " brilliant, " " fine, " 

 " handsome," and " prodigious" ? 



Yet if a few really useful, hardy her- 

 baceous plants can be selected, they 

 are invaluable to people who do not 

 soar into the highest heavens of hor- 

 ticulture, and those who do so cannot 

 despise them. Generally speaking, 

 they propagate themselves, so that, 

 once obtained, they spread, and may 

 be divided every season ; then the 

 majority are not at all particular 

 about soil, and a considerable number 

 will thrive under the shade of trees, 

 and produce an abundance of showy 

 spikes of bloom the whole summer 

 long ; some bloom early and some 

 late, and some are always blooming, 



