376 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



our readers, and for no other purpose. The fact is, the dwarfing system has been 

 carried loo far, and we are expected to be delighted with the smallness and wiry- 

 character of the pigmies, instead of at once perceiving that, as fruit-hearers, such 

 paltry things are of necessity worthless. There must be wood before fruit, and 

 there cannot be wood unless we encourage growth. Root-pruning is another 

 matter. We do not hear it proposed to nip back the roots all the summer ; no, they 

 are allowed to extend as they will, and the pruning is done at the season of rest. 

 So winter pruning of the shoots is different to summer piaching, for the simple 

 reason that the buds and spurs allowed to remain have had the advantage of the 

 whole vigour of the shoot during the season of growth.] 



Grafting '^is-Eii.—Suhscriber. — The best mode of grafting vines is that called 

 the whip or tongue graft, but any mode may be pursued that insures a good junc- 

 tion. If the roots of the vines to be grafted are within the house, the graftiug may 

 be performed at the end of February ; but if in an outside border, the latter part of 

 March will be preferable, or even the middle of April may be early enough. The 

 branches to be used as gi-afts should be cut some time in advance, and be kept in 

 damp earth to preserve them in a plump condition. When the graft is put on, 

 carefully tied, we prefer to cover it with clay rather than use grafting wax. The 

 French cultivators put on grafts in autumn by splitting the stock at a fork, and 

 inserting the graft as a wedge ; thev then tie and clay. The American cultivators 

 frequently graft just above the roots of the stock, and then heap soil over, j ust 

 allowing the point of the graft to peep thi'ough. Amateurs not skilful in grafcmg 

 will find it safer to inarch, and this process is most easy of accomplishment. 



H.t:moxt. — A. L. G. — We promised to consider your query at the first oppor- 

 tunity, and we have at last made an opportunity for it. The lines in Milton's 

 ComtirS (1. 638), in which reference to the plant occurs, are as follow : — 



a small, unsightly root, 



But of divine eff'ect . 



The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, 



But in another country, as he said, 



Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil ; 



More medicinal is it than that Moly 



That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave ; 

 He called it Hsemony, and gave it me, 

 And bade me keep it as of sovereign use 

 'Gainst all enchantments." 



The same plant is perhaps referred to in Ovid's " Metamorphoses" (lib, vii., 

 1.264) — "Illic Hremonia radices, valle 'resectus." In Dodven's " Herbal" (a. d. 

 1578), a plant useful against enchantments is described under the name of 

 " Allysson," which would suggest to us a plant which we are all used to, namely 

 Alyssum saxatile, the leaves of which are rather woolly (but not with prickles), 

 and the flowers are golden-yellow. That it should be described as "not flowering 

 in this soil" is consistent with the fact of the plant being but little known in 

 Milton's time. Coleridge (" Statesman's Manual," Appendix B) I'cfers to it as a 

 purely mystical thing, and derives its name from the Greek oT/ia, ''blood," and 

 olvos, " wine," and adds, " Bear in mind, reader ! the character of a militant 

 Christian, and the results (in this life and in the next) of the redemption by the 

 blocd of Christ, and so peruse the passage." Pliny (xxv. 20 ; xxvi. 25 ; xxvii. 17) 

 speaks of a plant called Hcmionion as a kind of rush or broom. We may, by such 

 a stretch of fancy as is allowable in construing the descriptions of ancient writers, 

 suppose the plant to be the furze; but " not in this soil" forbids us. The sug- 

 gestion offered in " Notes and Queries" (vol. ii., p. 410), that the plant is a fern, 

 known as Ceterach officinarum, or as Aspleniuni adiantum nigrum, seems to be 

 scarcely worth consideration ; Ibr if we suppose the plant to be a reality, it must 

 have yellow flowers. But who shall say that Milion had in his mind any plant at 

 all ? Perhaps we are searching for that which never existed but in the fancy of the 

 poet, and which never had any use in the world, even of fancy, than to serve the 

 purpose of the charming story. 



HABUILD, FBINIBB, LOJTDON. 



