THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



247 



of twelve feet in height, an eight-foot 

 border is ample ; in houses orimdci' glass, 

 where evaporation is always less, much less 

 space is ne9e3sary. The depth of soil is a 

 vexed question. This may be partly reo^u- 

 lated by the nature of the soil itself, as 

 light soils, in some situations, may be made 

 thirty inches deep with advantage ; where- 

 as a heavy soil is too deep at twenty-four 

 inches. My usual depth is twenty inches. 

 Soils. — T recommend a rich, unctuous 

 loam, free of manure, not pulverized, but 

 roughly mixed up with turf or cut straw. 

 In all my peacli borders I add full one- 

 fourth part of charred earth, not burnt to 

 ashes, but only singed. This charred 

 earth, if previously soaked in liquid ma- 

 nure, becomes intensely rich, and is calcu- 

 lated to give great warmth and durability 

 to the soil. By its use we have produced 

 bearing wood two inches in circumfer- 

 ence. It must, however, be used with 

 caution, as very strong, immature wood, 

 in dark structures, or in damp and late 

 situations, ought to be avoided ; they are 

 always the result of too much stimulation 

 and excess of moisture at the roots. I 

 desire to repeat, that the charred earth is 

 calculated to give warmth and durability 

 to the borders. It is easy to make peach- 

 trees thrive for a year or two in any fresh 

 soil ; but the practical gardener must aim 

 at making a permanent, and in some de- 

 gree a self-sustaining medium, wherein 

 the roots will thrive for a succession of 

 years. In further S2curing the openness 

 of the soil, and the continued action and 

 reaction of the inexhaustible resources of 

 the atmosphere, lumps of cliarcoal, bits 

 of stones, brickbats, wasting bones, broken 

 drain-tiles^ and smashed flower-pots, are i 



all very serviceable. The end to be sought 

 after is to prevent that cheesy texture of 

 soils in which water and air stagnate, and 

 wliich is a grand predisposing cau<e of 

 disease, inducing a debility of constitution, 

 which renders the trees far more suscepti- 

 ble to the attacks of mildew and red 

 spider, and ultimately causing first the 

 roots and then the branches to languish 

 and die. As a lasting material in the 

 soils of permanent borders, Mr. Fleming, 

 of Trentham, has been using with good 

 effect the strong seamy parts of old 

 clothes, first dipping them in liquid ma- 

 nure. Another way to meet the require- 

 ments of a healthy border is to add fresh 

 soil annually. Young trees will grow 

 very well for two or three years in a four- 

 feet border, and I have found it an excel- 

 lent practice to keep adding as the trees 

 extend. All outside borders should iiave a 

 slope of at least one foot in eight, and in 

 hot sunny weather should be forked over, 

 by which a vast amount of heat cau be 

 worked into the soil. 



This practice of Mr. M'Ewen, of fork- 

 ing in tlie hot soil during sunlight, appears 

 to me very judicious. Recent esperiments 

 in photography have shown that if garden 

 mould be taken from a depth beneath the 

 surfiice, and carried into a dark room, no 

 photographic result is produced ; but if it 

 be mould from the surface, on which the 

 sun has been shining, then the sensitive 

 paper becomes darkened. In this we per- 

 ceive a striking instance of the energy of 

 light, and it is reasonable to suppose that 

 the practice must be very beneficial. — 

 The Culture of the Peach and Nectarine. 

 By G. M'Ewen; Edited by John Cox, 

 F.II.S. Groombridge and Sons. 



BOOKS OX GEA8SES 



Abe by no means too numerous, but fortu- 

 nately such few as are now easily accessible 

 are uuexceptionably good. The grasses are 

 a tribe of jilants not likely to be dealt with 

 in any haphazard way by mere novices in 

 botany ; they .ire not sufficieutly showy in 

 their characters to invite unskilled minds 

 and inexperienced pens ; and hence the stu- 

 dent of this department of botany will have 

 but little difficulty in making a selection of 

 works for purposes of reference, and for a 

 systematic induction into the modern rules 

 of classification. The subject, like many 

 others of a kindi-ed kind, has been treated 

 in a more satisfactory way by English than 



by continental writers ; indeed, continental 

 literature is poor in the science of Agrosto- 

 graphia, and at the present time our French 

 neighbours, who occasionally threaten to 

 start far in advance of us in the practical 

 cultivation and literary analysis of the 

 leading tribes of florists' flower?, would 

 be puzzled to produce four such books as 

 those by Sowerby, Lawson, Buckman, and 

 Lowe on grasses. In this country the 

 study of grasses was conducted in a most 

 unsystematic manner untd Mr. Sinclair 

 published his "Hortus Gramineus Wo- 

 burnensis," to which reference was luade 

 on a previous occasion. To the botanist 



