THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



29 



advantages of oar extended com- 

 merce. But it is time I laid down 

 the pen, or I shall be rushing off into 



another digression about Japanese 

 horticulture, or something else quite 

 as irrevalent. 



THE IVY. 



(An Abridgment of a Paper read before the Central Society of Horticulture.) 

 BY SHIRLEY HIBBEED, ESQ., E.B.H.S. 



(Continued from page 10.) 



There are several : at the end of June a number of shoots 

 on which the leaves are without 

 lobes, prepare them in the usual way 

 to form cuttings four to six inches 

 long, and pot them singly in 54 or 

 60-sized pots ; place them in a pit for 

 about eight days, and keep tbem 

 shaded and sprinkled occasionally ; 

 then put them on a gentle bottom- 

 heat, until the pots are full of roots ; 

 shift to 48 or 32-size, using a fourth 

 part rotten dung in the compost; 

 place them on a'bed of fermenting 

 dung out of doors, and there let them 

 remain till the end of September, 

 when they must be removed to a pit 

 or other place of shelter sufficient 

 just to protect them from severe 

 frost. In March these will be in 

 fine condition for grafting, and will 

 require no further potting for another 

 year. But as flowering wood strikes 

 as easily as any other part, real 

 flowering tree ivies, producing none 

 but ovate leaves, may be obtained on 

 their own roots without difficulty. 



Umbrellas. — These are easily 

 formed, and the Irish and Algerian 

 are admirably adapted for the pur- 

 pose, as are also some of the small- 

 leaved kinds, which form long-droop- 

 ing sprays such as Helix poetica, 

 palmata, Taurica, Pennsylvania, 

 Himalaica, crenata, and digitata. 

 Pot young plants liberally, and set 

 them growing ; train out on wire, 

 and the outline is covered, pinch in 

 all the side- shoots so as to form the 

 head into a dense mass of verdure. Do 

 not entirely remove the side-shoots 

 from the stem until a good head has 

 been obtained, as they help to swell 

 the stem, but keep them pinched back, 

 and when they may be dispensed with 



Teee Ivies. 

 varieties of ivy that show little or no 

 disposition to climb, but, instead, 

 form compact bushy masses. It will 

 be observed, that whatever names 

 these varieties bear, and to whatever 

 types they may be related, they have 

 these invariable characteristics : that 

 the growth is forked, twiggy, and 

 tends to form close, symmetrical 

 rounded heads ; that the leaves are 

 either wholly entire or very slightly 

 lobed ; and that there is a disposition 

 to the formation of flowers and fruits 

 abundantly. In the tree ivies we 

 have, in fact, the fruiting form only 

 of the parent types ; and it is a very 

 simple matter for the cultivator to 

 convert a climbing ivy into a tree 

 ivy by first causing it to fruit by the 

 discontinuance of vertical support, 

 and then removing some of the fruit- 

 ful branches, and either grafting them 

 or causing them to form roots of their 

 own. I know of no evergreen shrub 

 that can surpass in beauty a well- 

 grown flowering tree ivy ; and as 

 they are thoroughly hardy, they may 

 be made available for winter decora- 

 tion, and for many purposes for which 

 at present more expensive subjects 

 are required. The quickest way to 

 get up fine specimens is to graft in 

 March shoots cut from flowering 

 wood of the kind to be propagated on 

 strongly-rooted stocks of Irish ivy. 

 The stocks should be struck for the 

 purpose the previous April or May, 

 and be kept in pots, so that when the 

 grafts are put on they may be housed 

 and kept shaded, to encourage a 

 quick union. But flowering wood 

 will readily strike, if the cuttings are 

 made early in the season. Take off 



