February S, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



89 



thia colour does not appear on the seed of the maple, it is very potent 

 in the variety, and appears in many parts of the plant and its offspring 

 from cross-fertilised flowers, sometimes on the external surface of, or 

 at the sutures of, the pods of the latter, at others on the seeds and 

 stems, and very frequently on the seeds, and whenever it shows itself 

 on any part of the plant, the flowers are invariably purple. I have 

 also deduced from my experiments, in accordance with the conclusions 

 of the late Mr. Knight and othei's, that the colours of the envelopes of 

 the seeds of Peas, immediately resulting from a cross, are never changed. 

 I find, however, that the colour, and probably the substance of the 

 cotyledons, are sometimes, but not always, changed by the cross- 

 fertilisation of two diiterent varieties ; and I do not agree with Mr. 

 Knight, that the form and size of the seeds produced are unaltered, for 

 I have on more than cue occas'on observed that tho cotyledons in the 

 seeds directly resulting from a cross of a blue wrinkled Pea, fertilised 

 by the pollen of a white round variety, have been of a greenish white 

 colour, and the seeds nearly round, and larger or smaller according as 

 there may have been a difference iu the size of the seeds of the two 

 varieties. I have also noticed that a cross betweeu a round white and 

 a blue wrinkled Pea will in the third and fourth generations (second 

 and third year's produce) at times bring forth blue round, blue 

 wrinkled, white round, and white wrinkled Peas iu the same pod; that 

 the whito round seeds, ivhen again sown, will produce only white round 

 seeds; that the white wrinkled seeds will, up to the fourth or fifth 

 generation, produce both blue and white wrinkled and round Peas ; 

 that the blue round Peas will produce blue wriukled and round Peas, 

 but that the blue wriukled Peas will bear only blue wrinkled seeds. 

 This would seem to indicate that tho white round and the blue wrinkled 

 Peas are distinct varieties, derived from ancestors respectively possess- 

 ing one only of those marked qualities, and, in my opinion, the white 

 round Peas trace their origin to a dwarfish Pea, having white flowers 

 and round white seeds, and the blue wriukled varieties to a tall variety, 

 having also white flowers but blue wrinkled seeds. It is also notice- 

 able, that from a single cross between two different Peas many hundreds 

 of varieties, not only like one or both parents and intermediate, but 

 apparently differing from either, may be produced in tho courss of 

 three or four years —the shortest time whi^h I have ascertained it 

 takes to attain the climax of variation in the produce of cross-fertilised 

 Peas, and until which time it would seem useless to expect a fixed 

 seedling variety to be produced, although a reversion to the characters 

 of either parent, or of any one of the ancestors, may take place at an 

 earlier period. But, in conclusion, I may perhaps, in furtherance of 

 the objects of this paper, he permitted to inquire whether any light 

 can, from these observations or other means, be thrown upon the 

 origin of the cultivated Muds of Peas, especially the il maple " variety, 

 and also as to the source whence the violet and other colours which 

 appear at intervals on the seeds and in the offspring of cross-fertilised 

 purple-flowered Peas are derived"? 



HEADING-BACK NEWLY-PLANTED FRUIT 

 TREES. 



Mi " scribbling fits " have lately been of a private nature, a 

 moiety having been devoted to Mr. Pearson in transacting 

 business for an amateur, who has just been having from the 

 Chilwell Nurseries a few dozens of fine, well-fed dwarf fruit 

 trees. Had they better be pruned at once ? or had they better 

 wait until the sap move in the spring? 



There seems to be nothing definitely settled amongst practical 

 Ci9n as to when is the best time to prune-back newly-planted 

 fruit trees. In regard to these particular trees I am the sole 

 arbiter, and have given my verdict, and no one has any right 

 to complain ; but when I open the general question, and make 

 my opinion public, the public have a right to differ in this as 

 in any other matter. 



I am aware that in my views on this question I am in oppo- 

 sition to a thoroughly practical man, and, undoubtedly, one of 

 the most able contributors to the columns of this Journal, but 

 while I differ from him, I highly respect him, as I do anyone 

 who differs from me kindly. Yet, were my views on this ques- 

 tion in consonance with those of Mr. Luckhurst, I am still in 

 a dilemma by being in antagonism to those of the worthy 

 " Arcttambapd." I have, however, settled that the pruning of 

 these particular trees be deferred until the spring ; at the same 

 time telling the owner that if another doctor should tell him 

 that he has killed them by not pruning at once, to reply, 

 " That as the trees have done nothing amiss, he prefers to see 

 them die a natural death rather than be subjected to death by 

 decapitation." My conclusions on this point are not arrived 

 at so much by a study of the laws of vegetable physiology as 

 by actual observation and careful practice. 



One of the first lessons I ever remember to have received 

 was on this very subject. I am not sure that I was well out of 

 petticoats when, in childish zeal, I vowed I would be nothing 

 tut a gardener. That was a determined and oft-repeated vow, 

 for I really meant it, and for years before I could work it was 



in my humble home recognised, that, if possible, the vow should 

 be carried out. On this subject, then, a wood was my school, 

 and my father was my teacher. 



On one occasion, when watching him at his work, he, perhaps 

 to gratify my young wishes, saluted me with, " Now, Jack, my 

 lad, when ta gets ta be a gard'ner, never out the top and the 

 bottom of a tree at once when ta plants it ; mind that." The 

 " mind that " fixed the lesson. He was a plain, untutored 

 "son of toil," but I believed him then, and I believe him 

 yet. In duo time I got into a garden, and the first Peach trees 

 I ever saw planted were closely pruned at the time of planting. 

 They did not break and do well, much to the gardener's dis- 

 comfort. 



On the next occasion of planting I ventured to repeat my 

 father's maxim. To my joy it was taken kindly ; and here I 

 learned another l9Sson, that the gardener was not above taking 

 a hint from one beneath him. " Shall I tell my father to come 

 to-night, sir?" was my first inquiry. " No, lad ; I want the 

 favour, and I'll fetch it." My father had, I may say, miles of 

 fences to look after, and it was his labour and study for years 

 to make quickthorn hedges grow where they had never grown 

 before, to replace others far less effectual. All ways and means 

 I believe he tried, for the soil was not congenial, to succeed in 

 his object. The plan which he proved to be the best was early 

 planting and a careful late pruning. He waited for the spring- 

 ing of the buds, then by a judicious use of the knife he 

 managed to secure a cleaner, freer growth during the first sea- 

 son than he could by any other means. This he regarded as 

 his secret of success. The effects were certainly very striking, 

 and were incontestably in favour of the plan over lengths other- 

 wise treated, which he left time after time for experiment to 

 establish or upset his maxim. Here, then, are the grounds of 

 my belief. 



The gardener, after seeing, believed, and the next Peaches 

 were not pruned at planting time, and they pushed much more 

 freely. I have since, year after year, tried both plans side by 

 side with, I may say, all sorts of trees, and in some instances 

 I quite willingly admit the difference in effect was slight, but 

 in others the effects and advantages of lata pruning were so 

 manifest, as to justify me to my own entire satisfaction in 

 laying down this dictum — Plant early in autumn, and prune 

 early in spring. 



In instances of success of pruning at the time of planting, 

 I suspect the trees were of the kind described by Mr. Luck- 

 hurst, quoting Emerson, "A good tree that agrees with the 

 soil will grow in spite of blight, or bug, or pruning, orneglect^ 

 by night or day, in all weathers and all treatments." Well 

 such trees need no rule. I am firm in my belief that any tree 

 which succeeds well aft6r being pruned at the time of planting 

 would have succeeded equally well if its pruning had been 

 deferred until spring; and I am equally firm in believing that 

 some trees which have not succeeded well under pruning at 

 the time of planting, would have done better if they had been 

 left unpruned until a gentle move of the sap in the spring. It 

 matters not just now whether the sap oanses the buds to swell, 

 or the buds cause the sap to rise. I am looking at results in 

 a practical light ; the causes may, perhaps, be found in the 

 study of vegetable physiology, but I am not in a philosophical 

 humour just now, and if I wero I might be eaFily put out, for 

 I have not a command of books to confirm or refute my no- 

 tions, and I am not bold enough to submit anything unless I 

 can at the same time bring forward some sort of proof if 

 wanted. — J. W. 



SELF-ACTING FOUNTAIN. 



The annexed sketch represents one, 30 inches high, which 

 is not very expensive or difficult to make by anyone who can 

 use a " copper bit." The top reservoir is a 14-inch galvanised 

 iron basin, with a flat zinc cover soldered on ; the centre, for 

 about 4 inches diameter, slightly sunk ; the base is a zinc 

 reservoir of larger capacity than the upper one ; the shaft or 

 pillar is also of zinc, with a bead round the centre by way of 

 ornament, the whole soldered together ; the jet is the nose of a 

 large-sized carpenter's oil-can, with a piece of compo gas pipe 

 long enough to reach nearly to the bottom of the bowl, soldered 

 to it ; the tube shown, with a slightly funnel top, is soldered 

 into the cover, and passes through to within three-eighths of an 

 inch of the bottom of the lower reservoir ; the only remaining 

 pipe is fixed with one end opening into the top of the lower, and 

 the other under the cover of the upper reservoir. A piece of 

 ornamented perforated zinc relieves the plainness of the top 



