THE FLORAL WOELD AND QAEDEN GUIDE. 207 



see all next year's flowering buds on the trees now. Therefore, if 

 you prune carelessly you are likely to prune the bloom away. But 

 the proper way to prune them is just the same as black currants ; 

 that is to say, wait till the leaves fall, then cut back all the shoots of 

 this year to about four inches, which secures for blooming the ripest 

 •of the wood, and any shoots that are ill placed and spoil the shape 

 of the tree, remove by a clean cut to the base. They mostly grow so 

 upright and orderly that any one can prune them who will first pay 

 a little attention to their mode of growth. Should any of our 

 readers wish for a criterion of a good example of moutan, I should 

 say that a tree of seven years cid ought to measure seven to eight 

 feet in diameter when in flower, and present its owner with at least 

 a hundred flowers. When they get to twenty years of age they lose 

 much of their beauty, and had better be destroyed ; though possibly, 

 if carefully replanted in rich strong soil, they might renew their 

 youth and beauty. The trees in the" open ground need a good 

 annual surface dressing, and sheep's dung is perhaps the best. It 

 they do not have this, a profusion of fine fl.owers must not be 

 expected. 



Propagation. — This is considered a great mystery. Ask all the 

 practlcals amongst your acquaintance about it, and you will soon 

 learn that one reason of the high price of moutans is that very few 

 know how to increase them. Yet the process is very simple, and 

 may be described in a few words. In the month of August take up 

 the roots of common border pa>onies (herbaceous), and pull them 

 apart into separate finger-like tubers. Prepare from the wood of 

 the season a number of scions of moutans one and a half to two 

 inches in length, those taken from the points of shoots being the 

 best. G-raft these into the tubers by cutting the base of the scion 

 in the form of a wedge, and cutting a notch in the crown of the 

 tuber to receive it. Tie carefully and clay them, and then plant 

 them in a warm sheltered place out of doors, in rows one foot apart, 

 the bud of the scion being left just peeping above the ground : or 

 they may be potted in small pots, and put in frames ; and in this 

 case it will be best to plunge all the pots to the rim in coal-ashes on 

 a well-drained bottom, and put the lights on only during severe 

 frost, and in spring to help them in their first start. 



As to varieties, they are all good ; but the following, selected 

 from a collection we saw in bloom some few years ago at Messrs. 

 E. Gr. Henderson and Co.'s nursery, St. John's Wood, can be recom- 

 mended as distinct and extremely beautiful: — Alba plena, Arethusa, 

 Atroviolacea, Carli, Carnea plena, Cericea purpurea superba, Jose- 

 phine, Imperiale, Lilacina, Muhlembeckii, Newmannii, Ocellata, 

 Papaveracea rubra. Prince de Wagram, Eoseoleus odorata, Eubanne 

 de Flandres, Savii, Schalthessi, and Victoria alba. Several new 

 continental varieties have lately been introduced, some of which 

 have flowers eighteen inches in diameter ! These, of course, are at 

 present expensive, small plants realizing five guineas each ; but in a 

 few years they will be obtainable for a few shillings each. 



1 think it proper to apologize for writing more than my usual 

 quantity this month, to the exclusion of some excellent papers from 



