33G 



JO0BNAL OF HOBTIOULTUKB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



[ Ma; 20, 1869. 



PECULIAR TULIPS. 



Florentine April 10 



Bra(;on or Parrot . . j „ 27 



May 22 



now in 



full 

 beauty 



tall and 

 pendu- 

 lous 



sharp-point'd 

 petalB 



ragged ... 



yellow 

 divers colours 



-J. W. Cobb, Kidmore End, Henley-on-Thames, 



HEADING-DOWN 



NEWLY-PLANTED FRUIT 

 TREES. 



Doubtless the esperience of " Abchambaud " prompted the 

 remarks by him in page 285 on this subject. If I understand 

 him rightly, the question at issue is, Whether a newly-planted 

 tree sustains a greater check if pruned at the time of planting. 

 Bay the first week in November, than it does if not pruned till 

 it has started into growth in the following spring '.' 



Burke, in the introduction to his essay on " The Sublime 

 and Beautifal," observes that " A theory founded on experi- 

 ment, and not assumed, is always good for so much as it ex- 

 plains ;" and I am led to infer that as " Akchamuaud " wDl 

 not admit my theory to be a good one, so I muet have failed to 

 explain its working sufficiently. That it is a good and safe 

 plan I am so thoroughly convinced from considerable experi- 

 ence and observation, that I have no hefcitation in strongly ad- 

 vocating its adoption with the greatest certainty of success. 

 Of course, I take it for granted that all other requirements of a 

 newly-planted tree will be afforded, such as a suitable, earefuUy 

 prepared, and well-drained soil ; mulching, staking, and water- 

 ing when necessary in the following summer ; for if a tree so 

 pruned has its roots thrust into a hole barely large enough to 

 admit them, the soil thrown in and trampled down, and no 

 farther notice taken of it, it would be hardly fair to expect 

 SDOcess. 



Other things being equal, then, I again assert that a stout 

 young fruit tree, having a fair proportion of healthy roots may 

 safely and advantageously be headed-down at the time of plant- 

 ing, no matter what kind it may be, or to what class it may 

 belong ; and this treatment answers equally well in the case of 

 dwarfs, standards, or simple maidens. 



It may, perhaps, not be unprofitable if I state here my treat- 

 ment for the first year of the young standards which I men- 

 tioned at page 203 as being planted in place of certain old 

 decayed trees. After pruning, mulching, and staking securely, 

 nothing farther was required till spring, when, having some 

 fresh night soil at my disposal, I determined to try the eiiects 

 of a sli{!ht top-dressing to the roots of the young standards. 

 Accordingly the mulching was removed, and about an inch of 

 the night soil spread on the surface, a little dry earth scattered 

 over it, and the loose mulching at once replaced. All the trees 

 broke strongly and well, and as often as I considered necessary 

 water was given to them from a pond close by. The result of 

 this simple treatment was an abundance of firm, stout, healthy 

 shoots clothed with leaves, of which the large size and deep hue 

 bore ample testimony to the rude health and vigorous root 

 action of the trees. 



lu regard to the action of the sap, I understand " Aecham- 



BAUD " to infer that it is the action of the sap in spring which 

 causes the buds to swell, whereas I have always understood 

 that the swelling of the buds is the primary cause of the motion 

 of the sap ; and acting upon this principle I have pruned at 

 the time of planting, so that the buds intended to form the 

 future branches of the tree might be those which should attract 

 and profit by the first flow of sap. At page 237 of Lindley's 

 " Introduction to Botany," it is stated that " In the spring, as 

 soon as vegetation commences, the extremities of the branches 

 and the buds begin to swell. The instant this happens a cer- 

 tain quantity of sap is attracted out of the circumjacent tissue 

 for the supply of these buds ; the tissue which is thus emptied 

 of its sap is filled instantly by that beneath or about it ; this is 

 in its turn replenished by the next ; and thus the whole mass 

 of fluid is set in motion, from the extremities of the branches 

 down to the roots." And therefore, if this view of the matter 

 be correct, does not that very waiting imtil the buds begin to 

 push in spring before heading-down a tree, cause a greater 

 waste of its vitality, and offer a much greater check to its vigour, 

 than if its sap liad at once been absorbed by those buds which 

 contain the embryo branches, but which, under " Abcham- 

 bacd's" treatment have been kept dormant and inactive? — 

 Edward Luckhukst, Egcrton Mouse Gardens, Kent. 



PROPAGATION OF VARIETIES BY SEED. 



The theory of the individuality of vegetable life residing in 

 the bud, that a plant is a colony of individuals something in 

 the style of a coral or polypus tree, is little noticed or cared 

 about by practical horticulturists, although the formation of 

 separate perfect plants by means of cuttings, eyes, grafts, and 

 budding certainly affords daily proofs in favour of the truth of 

 such a theory. 



Setting aside all abstruse ai'guments on the absolute truth of 

 such a theory, or whether that of each cell being the individual, 

 is the truer, I would simply, taking the former in its bearings 

 on cuttings, eyes, (Src, call the attention of practical men to 

 certain deductions, which if found correct, might probably alter 

 present ideas as to the propagation of varieties by seed, and this 

 is particularly interesting at present, when so much is being 

 said of the wearing-out and gradual extinction of varieties of 

 Pears as propagated by cuttings and grafting. May not this 

 individuality of the bud extend to or continue in the blossom ? 

 and may not the great diversity among seedlings proceeding 

 from a single and isolated plant — an Apple tree or a Pear tree 

 for instance — be ascribed to individuality residing in each 

 blossom ? In other words, as like begets like, if all the blossoms 

 on an isolated Apple tree were only parts of one and the same 

 individual, how could it produce by seed all manners and kinds 

 of Apple trees, even to Crabs? And why should it be so very 

 difficult to reproduce the identical variety or kind by means of 

 its pips ? And the same of an isolated Larkspur, Mirabilis 

 Jalapa or Portulaca, the seeds of which will produce all sorts of 

 colours difierent from that of the parent. In this matter we 

 are quite in the dark as to the experimental part, even the 

 apparently very simple question, Is there, or is there not, a 

 difference in the aggregate produce of hermaphrodite flowers 

 impregnated by themselves, and that of such flowers impreg- 

 nated by others on the same tree ? has never been positively 

 solved. As, however. Nature never docs anything uselessly, and 

 as an ample crop of impregnated blossoms would be sufficiently 

 secured by the work of bees and other insects aided by the wind, 

 were certain fruit trees and other plants with hermaphrodite 

 flowers simply monoical — i.e., with the sexes in separate 

 blossoms — we may naturally surmise that there must exist 

 some difference in the result of the two sorts of fecundation. 



Now, if it should be found correct that these crossings and inter- 

 marriages between branch and branch, blossom and blossom, by 

 means of insects and the winds are really the cause of the 

 variations in the colour of flowers, the taste of fruits, and the 

 conformation of the plants produced by one isolated plant, the 

 next question would be, Might not similar selections among 

 blossoms be made that are habitually made among buds for 

 cuttings and grafts, and with like results ? We choose for a cut- 

 ting, a short spur-like shoot at the base of a Pelargonium to 

 obtain a compact bushy plant, and a large vigorous shoot near 

 the summit if we wish, which is seldom the case, for a tall and 

 straggling plant, and the same with graftf . Just so would not 

 artificially impregnating a blossom by another ou the same 

 branch, or at least on another branch of the same sort, both 

 partaking of the nature which one would desire to see reproduced 



