256 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ April 7, 1870. 



few minutes of gardening, and for plucking a blossom to bear 

 away in thankful remembrance of those who are in peace. 



" Various plants may suit various feelings and circumstances. 

 One flower may have been the favourite of the departed ; another, 

 by its delicacy, its brilliance, or its fragrance, may present some 

 faneied resemblance to his character. Some are by tradition 

 annexed to different qualities, as — the Lily to innocence ; the 

 Violet to modesty ; the little Wood Sorrel is said to signify 

 parental love ; the Clematis that of a child to a parent; and 

 the Woodbine that of a brother or of a sister. Round the grave 

 of an infant we might place Bingle Snowdrops, so much more 

 graceful than the double ; or the bright Aconite, the first to 

 bloom, and the first to fade. When these have paBsed away, 

 let us sprinkle a morsel of Mignonette seed, which will afford 

 ns many a sweet blossom to take into church. Mignonette and 

 Sweet Verbena are unlike most earthly pleasures, which require 

 economy and self-denial to lengthen out their existence, for the 

 oftener we indulge ourselves with cropping the tops of these, 

 the more freely the plant sends forth new and delicious shoots. 

 For the resting place of a young female every one will think of 

 a Rose, and no Rose can come amiss ; but there is one whose 

 name signifies beloved (Aimfe Viberl) of which the glossy ever- 

 green foliage, pure white flowers, and pink-tipped buds, pro- 

 duced without intermission from July to winter, seem peculiarly 

 appropriate. 



" Against the tomb of the village pastor we would place the 

 Christian's plant, the Passion Flower, emblematic of that sub- 

 ject on which he loved best to dwell while we listened so often 

 to his honoured voice. The azure rays around the graceful 

 central column represent the glory which belongs to the sacred 

 objects there suggested, but it is not easy to discover the crosB. 

 The writer had often Bought for it in vain, till, while holding 

 the flower on the road to church, a sunbeam suddenly revealed 

 it. It is the shadow, which forms a very beautiful cross, if so 

 held that one of the three stigmas should appear higher than 

 the others, and form the upper part. Thus, if we train the 

 plant against a grave-stone, the holy sign may fall upon it, and 

 by simple means we may imitate the beautiful idea which, in 

 suspending the sacred emblem above the resting place of the 

 Rev. William Adams, has cast upon his tombstone " The 

 Shadow of the Cross." Another plant, suggestive of high and 

 holy thoughts, is the Iris, or Flag-flower. In ancient church 

 decorations a frequent ornament is the three leaves bound 

 together, which are called the Fleur de Ub, and supposed to 

 represent the Most Holy Trinity, but it is not the Lily, as the 

 name imports, but the Iris, which is so imitated, as must be 

 obvious if the flower is inspected. The Forget-me-not, the 

 Pansy {ptnsie, or reflection), the Balm of Gilead, and the 

 Everlasting, would be appropriate to any grave border. 



" Another thought in reference to this memorial is, that 

 gardening may be pursued by planting the grave of a friend 

 with some flower which may be in beauty at the season of the 

 year in which that friend entered into his rest. To ourselves, 

 the anniversary of a bereavement is apt to bring very mournful 

 thoughts. But will not these appear earthly and selfish if, on 

 visiting the sacred spot, we find it glowing with the biightest 

 hues of nature, as if the earth which holds the loved form were 

 striving to equal the glories of that Paradise which holds the 

 loved spirit? 



" For this purpose, if the season be May, a root of Gentianella, 

 the rich blue of which is called the colour of constancy, may be 

 chosen ; for June or July, a Robo bush, or perhaps a root of the 

 double-flowering Sweet-briar, or of the Fairy Rose, which will 

 open still earlier. For the succeeding months there are endless 

 pretty annuals which may be sown so as to flower at the proper 

 time, and autumnal Roses, whose bloom may be improved by 

 cutting off the buds in June. Then may follow Chrysanthe- 

 mums, and in the very depth of winter there are Russian 

 Violets, Christmas Roses, a Holly, or a Pyrus japonica, either 

 tied to the headstone or pruned as a bush, in which case it will 

 flower later ; and all our darlings of the spring complete the 

 year again." — G. 



GRAFTING APPLES AND PEARS UNDER THE 

 SURFACE. 

 Two years ago I tried grafting Apple and Pear trees thus, 

 and the result was 90 per cent, of the grafts took, the scion 

 rooting in nearly all cases as well as the stock. Some of the 

 slower-growing kinds of Apples are well set with fruit buds, 

 and the rest, to all appearance, bid fair to produce a good crop 

 of fruit next year. It is a question with me whether the root- 



ing of the scion will not tend to prevent canker, to which some 

 of our best varieties are so subject. The mode of proceeding 

 isBimple; I whip-graft the stock, and bury the junction just 

 below the surface. No claying nor waxing is required. The 

 work can be done in the dry.— J. Whce, Gardener to E. V. 

 Brunder, Esq., Benhill House, Sutton, Surrey. 



WELLINGTONIA GIGANTEA FAILING. ^ 



In No. 439 of vol. xvii. of this Journal there appear .*> 

 communication from Mr. Robson, of Linton Park, rela \ tea 

 the probable decline of the Wellingtonia. The description e 

 gave of the appearance of his trees at that time caused i'" 

 great anxiety for the future welfare of the trees under my car,, 

 not only because they presented an appearance very similar to 

 those he described, but since the dry summer of 1868 I had 

 noticed a conspicnous falling off in their attractiveness. In 

 the September of that year most of the trees here — upwards 

 of a dozen, large and small — Bhed the greater part of their 

 inner foliage, and continued to do so at intervals up to last 

 autumn, or, I believe, till nearly Christmas. During these 

 two seasons the remaining foliage gradually lost most of that 

 green colour so characteristic of the plant in a healthy state, 

 and, with two or three exceptions, the growth of the trees, 

 including that of their leaders, was considerably less than in 

 former years. 



Mr. Robson speaks of only one of his trees being affected, 

 and that so seriously as to have lost one or two of its branches ; 

 but although all the trees here are more or less injured, no 

 branches have died, nor do these show any signs of dying, but 

 the trees exhibit Buch an unusual appearance as to create 

 alarm, and induce one to search for a clue to the cause of their 

 partial decline. With this object in view, I have watched the 

 trees most carefully, and have studied all the circumstances I 

 thought likely to influence their condition, but so far as my 

 own trees are concerned (and I have seen no otherB) I am 

 unable to discover anything so likely to bring about such a 

 result as the severe drought of 1868 and the critical summer 

 of 1869. I have since found some things to strengthen my 

 opinion. LaBt month I was ordered to destroy three specimens 

 of the Wellingtonia that were brought here and planted in the 

 autumn of 1865, and when the men were digging out the roots 

 I was surprised to find some of the soil about them nearly dust 

 dry. This may not be so surprising, seeing that at planting 

 time the trees had several hundredweight of soil in one mass 

 about their roots, and there was a difficulty in thoroughly 

 soaking the ball with moisture, even if applied artificially ; 

 but considering that the Wellingtonia is a fleshy and vigorous- 

 rooting subject — the roots very much resemble those of a Vine 

 — and that its roots run very near the surface, one can hardly 

 imagine the injury such a plant must sustain if growing in a 

 soil even half bo dry as that above described. 



The healthiest tree here is about 21 feet high, and covers a 

 space 44 feet in circumference ; it is at present very symme- 

 trical, and is growing in a dark retentive loam several feet in 

 depth, brought there for the purpose. This tree, from being 

 near the water, has always had a good supply of moisture ; 

 this fact, and its having a good deep soil, are in my opinion 

 sufficient to account for its healthiness. Neither of the other 

 trees has had these advantages. We have another specimen 

 3 feet higher than that just named, and which exhibited all 

 the signs of a healthy tree until the summer of 1868, although 

 it is growing on an embankment sloping sharply to the south' 

 west, and in the poor clayey soil of the locality. If it had 

 been possible to have given this plant the quantity of water it 

 lequired, I think it would have escaped uninjured. 



I consider the Wellingtonia, with regard to water, to be 

 similar to a large Heath or Epacris in a pot — that is, if it is 

 allowed to become at all dry no amount of watering at the 

 time will prevent its showing signs of distress. I think its 

 wants, as regards water, should be anticipated by an abundant 

 supply. 



From the trees here having thriven in both good and bad 

 soil up to the summer of 1868, I thick that, should a more 

 favourable growing season be in store for us, we shall see the 

 trees affected fast recovering themselves ; in fact, I have 

 noticed them more than once making an effort to do so, by 

 shoots breaking out exactly where the others came off, and I 

 shall wait patiently to the end of another season before I con- 

 clude that the Wellingtonia is suffering from constitutional 

 debility. I think, however, that after the trees have arrived 



