March 18, 1869. 1 



JOURNAL OP HOBTICULTUBE AND OOTTAGE QABDENEB. 



195 



tance of .'i inches from the prmiiKi, or therenhoiits, less rather 

 than moro. Tlio i-ut should !>•■ niiuic hy jmttin<^ tlic (Mine o{ tin.' 

 shiirj) knife just opjiosito to a liud and iirinf;in<; it o\it an I'iglith 

 of an inch or so aliovo thu bud, niakirf; the cut quite elian and 

 even, with a very gentle slant, ',1 (////. 1). Next put tlio knife 

 to a point ahout an inch below the place where it was first ap- 

 plied, and cut a tliin slip upwanls, 2 ( Ihi. 2). This Kliji sliould 

 remove the haik and a small portion of the wood, hut it ouKht, 

 aji far as possible, to he a section of that layer of living tissue 

 which throws olf a ring of wood on om; side, antl a ring of hirk 

 on the other; the size of the scion, however, moat lie the prin- 

 cipal guide as to the thickness of the slice cut ott', aiul it is here 



Fig, 1. 



Fig. 2, 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 



that correctness of eye is of so great importance, Xe.xt reverse 

 the direction of the edge of the knife, and nm it downwards, 

 beginning at the bottom of the hast cut, and keeping the slip 

 the same .size, so as to form a flap about an inch long, 3 ( t'lji. 3), 

 and then, again, if the scion be not very small, make a second 

 downward cut, 4 {fifl. 4), starting aboiit half an inch from the 

 top of the stock, and about thrce-qu.arters of an inch long, 

 Th,;so four cuts are numbered in order in the figures, and the 

 barbs show the direction in which they are made. With 

 practice you will make them in about as many seconds. This 

 is all the preparation needed by the stock. 



We now come to the scion. If it has been well kept the base 

 ■will be perfectly sound, and most likely will have a large callosity 

 formed from the wound. If it is one having a 

 piece of the second year's wood, cut it through 

 an inch below the junction of the two-years 

 growth, and cut it through again above the third 

 bud above the junction, t'onmionly this will 

 leave you a shoot about 4 or .5 inches long. Now 

 look out for the lowest of these three buds, a 

 (tig. 5), and pvitting your knife from an eighth 

 to a quarter of an inch below it, bring the cut out 

 at the base at the opposite side, forming the bottom 

 of the scion into a wedge, 1 ; secondly, make a 



will tench you to make this slope always at the same angle ; 

 it matters very little what the amoimt of slope is, provided it 

 is mit a violent one. The dejith of this cut must depend upon 

 the thickness of the etoc k and scion. If the scion is small, 

 a>ul the stock moderately small, this cut should go nearly half 

 through the scion ; if the scion is nearly as thick as the stock, 

 the cut should go just half through ; li\it if the stock is much 

 larger than the s<'ion, the cut should go more than half through, 

 just lii'yiindthe pith. Thirdly, reverse the knife, and beginning 

 half an inch from the base, mako a cut upwards, 3 {/I//. 6), to 

 meet cut 2. Fourthly, if llie si ion is thick enough, make another 

 cut upwards, 4 (Jiff. 7), beginning a little below the middle of 

 the wedge to form the tongue to lit into the opening made in 

 the stock by its cut No. 4 (Jiii. 4). I.;istly, cut a thin slip from 

 the opposite side, about an inch long, ending at the base, 5 {tig. 8). 



— W. KlXGSLEV. 



(To be continaed.) 



Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. 



cut, beginning at the same point as before, and slanting exactly 

 the same as the top of the stock, 2 {fig. 6). A little practice 



THE AUCUBA .JAPONIC A. 



H.wiXG seen in the .lournal of March 1th several remarks 

 and queries as to the management of the Aucuba, I will state 

 how successful our management o! it has been here. 



lu the grounds at this place are many larpe plants of the old 

 Aucuba jdponico. Last year one small plant of the male 

 Aucuba was placed on an inverted Sea-kale pot, close to one of 

 the old plants. It remained there perhaps for a fortnight ; it 

 was then removed for only a few days to some young plants of 

 Aucuba, under the trees in the fine old avenue here. The bush 

 near which the male plant was first placed has now upon it a 

 prolusion of large brill iint scarlet berries. The plant in the 

 avenue had only a few, which have been gathered to preserve for 

 Bowing ; but near thet e smaller bushes (distance perhaps about 

 100 yardsi, is a hne old plant with a very considerable number 

 of the fruit upon it. I have no recollection of having placed 

 the male plant near this large old one at all. If this be so, the 

 pollen must be carried by bees, and to a considerable distance. 

 At the time the bush near which the male plant was first placed 

 was in Hower, the old plant was much covered with a greenish 

 metallic-looking Hy, which no doubt tended much to facilitate 

 impregnation. This year the male plant is already in flower; 

 it was unfortunately placed under a warm wall in the kitchen 

 garden. The old female plants have a profusion of buds, but 

 these have not yet opened. I have every reason, however, to 

 hope that they will be in blossom before the male blossoms are 

 over. 



With regard to the propagation of the Aucuba, I believe from 

 experience that it is as easily propagated iu the spring as the 

 common Laurel. 



I hope, also, that birds do not very much like the fruit; 

 several of the berries here have fallen, but they are becoming 

 over-ripe. Some of thete appear as if they had been attacked 

 by birds, but they certaiuly are not a favourite food, for almost 

 touching the Aucuba plant, now brilliant with its scarlet berries, 

 is a Holly bush, the nightly roost of hosts ol sparrows. If they 

 had liked the fruit, the Aucuba plant would have been stripped ; 

 but, certainly, this has been a most unusually mild winter, and 

 food for the feathered tribe has been plentiful. — X. E. Owen, 

 Gardiiwr to H'. JC. E. Wi/nnc, Esq., I'eiiiarlli, Toinjii Merionetli. 



KAST LOTHIAN STOCKS 

 I VERT mujh doubt if your correspondent "G. S.," even after 

 taking the precaution of tending to Edinburgh, has obtained 

 genuine seed of these Stocks. I had considerable acquaintance 

 with what are now called F-ast Lothian Stocks, for several years 

 previous to their acquiring such a.u appellation, or to their 

 being in the hands of the trade, and my experience of these is 

 quite in accordance with all that has been stated iu their favour 

 in The Jourx.\l of HoRTicrLTURK. I am sorry to say, how- 

 ever, that there is a spurious and worthless variety of the scarlet 

 in the trade (the scarlet, by the way, being of much older in- 

 troduction than the purpleacd white), and like your correspon- 

 dent, I had few flowers upon it. Not so, however, with the 

 true varieties, the seed of which was of my own saving. The 

 purple and white varieties sent me from Kdinburgh were per- 

 fectly true, a.s I grew them side by side with others that I knew 

 to be genuine. 



Last year I sowed the seeds of these Stocks at the end of 

 February, and planted them in the open borders early in May. 

 A few plants commenced to bloom at the end of .June ; nearly 

 all, excepting the scarlet variety before mentioned, were in 



