448 THE GARDENER. [Oct. 



long trunk from sunshine, wind, and evaporation. Cut away these lovely- 

 descending curtains, and Nature will clothe the trunk with grey lichens on 

 the windy-side, and with green mosses on the leeward. Scrape off these too, 

 and she will bid the hapless tree bear flower and seed in reckless and exhaust- 

 ing profusion while yet it has strength to do so. It will scatter its seed upon 

 the winds, to propagate its kind far and wide ; and then it will gradually 

 decline upon your hands, and fall a prey to canker or to fungus, to lightning 

 or to tempest. " 



Mr Ellison verges on nonsense here. " Nature " does not do the things he 

 tells — at all events, with the object Mr Ellison believes and tries to make 

 others believe. In the first place, she produces lichens on trees in situations 

 where they are not required to protect the tree from either wind or sunshine — 

 that is, in the densest and most sheltered parts of the forest, and where it is 

 moistest ; and, secondly, she, as a rule, refuses to produce them where they 

 should be most needed, one would think — that is, upon trees in exposed situa- 

 tions ; and lastly, it is difficult to see how a clothing of moss or lichen is going 

 to shelter a tree from wind and prevent it being blown down, just as it is to 

 understand the connection between the scraping off of the lichen and the moss, 

 and the consequent destruction of the tree by " lightning or tempest." 



A correspondent of a contemporary, and a gardener, who hails from the 

 Land's End direction, where witchcraft and superstition still survive, as one 

 frequently sees by the papers, states that he "plants out forced Strawberries 

 after the balls of earth are pummelled as hard as bricks, and tramps the ground 

 firmly about them after they are planted," and asks why newly-planted young 

 Vines "should not be treated in the same way." It maybe answered that 

 there is at present no law for the protection of employers who happen to have 

 gardeners who entertain such notions ; but in the meantime, probably, a few 

 cheap copies of Thomson's book on ' The Vine ' might be gratuitously, and 

 with great advantage, circulated in the locality from which the above inquiry 

 emanates. "Pummelling" pot - Strawberries and pot -Vines "as hard as 

 bricks," and planting both out in a soil "pummelled" to the same consistency, 

 is an idea that must entertain Grape-growers in the north hugely. 



Reader. 



THE RIPENING OF WINTER- FLOWERING PLANTS. 



The rainfall of the past summer, and the thick clouds in which the sun 

 has been enveloped for the greater part of the season, have left gardeners 

 with a legacy on their hands to make up by artificial conditions the 

 deficiencies of a cold sunless summer before the short days of winter 

 are upon us. 



After such a prolonged season of cold and wet, the autumn may yet 

 come in fine ; and if our hopes should be realised, and the heavy clouds 

 should disappear only for a short season, the opportunity must not be 

 lost to assist nature artificially to make a climate which will complete 

 and consolidate the growth of plants. Shade, with its attendant conse- 

 quences on plants, whether it be from the absence of sun and light, or 

 whether the latter be excluded by artificial means, permanently or in 

 part, forms a feature in practical gardening which is of more importance 



