Juno 17, 18G8. ] 



JOURNAL. OF , HOKTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER, 



4W> 



anee, is another — white ground, witU heavy flakes of pale 

 pnrplo, a littlu late in blooming, but fine and showy, Kone 

 Bclataote 13 a very f;<>»d and useful rosy maroqu btilf ; aud 

 Ophir d'Or, scarlut, edj^ed aud stii]icd with yellow. 



Of " peciiliiir Tulips," or more (iro[icrly *'peaking, epocies, I 

 can commend T. conuita »a very tlleotivG in masses, the curi- 

 ous threiid-likB petals liiving a good tbouKb t-inguluv eiYect. I 

 have groivn this seasuu four varieties of T. curuuta, but of 

 these only one represented the fac-^iiuile of the original flower 

 — ^viz., T. ooruuta nmculuta, tbii being blotched with yellow. 

 The others word rich dark flowers, one named T. cornuta 

 falgens being particularly so; but Ihey approached nearly to 

 T. Ges^nerlaua in build. T. viridiflora is both curious and 

 pretty, having a greenish tint on a yel!owi^h■whito ground. 

 T. persica is a daurf-growing species, having palo yellow 

 flowers with dark strijiea on the backs ol the petals, the blooms 

 produced in Ihrees. I obtained these species from Holland. 1 

 cannot say the descriptions .are coi-rect of the reul f-pecies, as 

 I have previou.sly found much oonfutim to prevail in Holland 

 in regard to eincies, and anything received from there under a 

 specific name must not be accepted as thoroughly true till 

 aotuiUy tested to be so. 



There are many old favourites of the flower garden waiting 

 to be restored to favour in the coming great restoration period. 

 Many of these, together with hardy herbaceous plants, &c., 

 are steadily but surely rising in popular esteem, and they 

 who contemplate the cultivation of the early Tulips should 

 also possess themselves of a few of these interesting aud some- 

 what grotesque species. They will prove a fountain of un- 

 imagiued interest aud pleasure. Once taken to the floral home 

 as a part of the domestic circle, they will not soon bo banished 

 Irom it to the desolation of being disregarded aud forgotten. 

 —Via. 



SUMMER STOrPING FRUIT-TREE SHOOTS. 



The readers of " our Journal " were last week indebted to 

 your correspondent " Aiicuameadd" for his sea-souable advice 

 on summer pruning (aea page 3(j7). I think with him that the 

 old, but still-too-often-pructised, plan of stripping fruit trees of 

 half their leaves at the end of June or .July is a very bad one, 

 and should be numbered with " things of (he past," 



I think the end of May is the proper time for going over the 

 trees for the first time; but there is so much to be done then 

 that it is too often neglected. Grass requires more frequent 

 mowings, bedding-out has to be attended to, after which come 

 thinning crops, slaking, tying, aud generally a whole host of 

 weeds to conquer. About a great many places all these matters 

 must be attended to before breastwood can be thought of. This 

 year I took a liuedsy, about the middle of Jliiy, before the hurry 

 and bustle of bedding-out commenced, and went over Apricot, 

 Peach, Plum, and Pear trees, tyiug-iu what was wanted, and 

 pinching the tips of the other shoots, and I think the results 

 will be better than if I had left the trees till now, even bad I 

 time to go over them. It is a wonder that there is not more 

 harm done to trees beaiing fruit by this wholesale destruction 

 ol foliage than there is, when we consider bow dependent the 

 roots of a tree are upon its leaves. A very striking illustration 

 of this came under my notice some time ago — the result of bad 

 management, by-lbe-bj ; but 



"Let 'liv« and learn,' onrniotto be. 

 In all we do. or say, or see. 

 And ne'er from dire niisfortono flee. 



h'ov bear iu mind, 

 To failure as succeew a fee. 



You're sure 10 find." 



Three or four young Cucumber plants had all their leaves 

 destroyed by tobacco smoke. Immediately afterwards they 

 were plunged in a bii.'ik bottom beat, aud after having started 

 into fresh growth were turned out of their pots for the purpose 

 of being planted-out, when, much to our astonishment, we dis- 

 covered that their roots bad perished with the leaves. On 

 breaking the balls, however, we found roots pushing from the 

 stem. Now, if by destroying the leaves of a Cucumber plant 

 yon at the same time destroy its roots, how many roots will be 

 killed, or what will ba the result of removing hilf the foliage 

 of a Fear tree, and that the most active half, too, as the 

 youngest leaves always are ? 



"Aechambaud," when he sayp, "Pinch the strongest shoots 

 first, &e.," recommends a very common practice amongst gar- 

 deners, but, notwuhstanJing, I tbmk it la a mistake to do so. 

 If the strongest are to be pinched, then the weak ones should 

 not be touched at all. 1 here quote a jiaseage from Johnson's 



"Science and Practice of Gardening" (page 233), which will 

 say more in favour of this than any words of luino. "Wh«n 

 it is ueceseory to stop all the shoots of a plant, the wcakett 

 ought to be first stopped, in order to get them slronger, and JB 

 easily shown on a common Laurel. Take a branch during 

 Juno with two young shoot* — the one very strong, the other a 

 weak one; stop the weak one, and allow it (o push two or three 

 eyes into leaf, then stop the strong one, and l)efore it can break 

 again, the shoots on the weak one are grown, and able to draw on 

 the sap more than those which are merely breaking bud on the 

 strongest shoot. Tlien, suppose we leave only two shoots to 

 come from the weaker jiarent, and four or five shoots from the 

 stronger, the balance of strength is reslortd in a month, and 

 you have six shoots of equal, or nearly equal, strength ; but if 

 you stop the strongest first, and allow it to break into three or 

 four fresh ones before you stop the weak shoot, these three or 

 four having the start of v/hatever the weakest hhoot will give 

 out, thoy will keep a-head till the end of the season, if they do 

 not starve the weaker and later shoots altogether." — 11. Inglir. 



CLOTH OF GOLD ROSE— THE NORTH-EASI 

 WIND. 



I HAP the pleasure last week of seeing in full bloom two mag- 

 nificent plants of this "coy maiden," wbijh so often refuses 

 to display its beauties. They covered the front of a house be- 

 longing to the Misses Whittle, residing in this parish (WestwelJ), 

 one of whom is an enthusiastic Rose fancier ami grower. These 

 plants were budded on the Bjursault, and have been allowed 

 to grow at will ; they produce annually hundreds of blooms, and 

 nothing can be grander than their appearance. One of the 

 blooms cut for me measured Gi inches in diameter when ex- 

 panded. It is, I believe, under such circumstances only that 

 Cloth of Gold can be grown to perfection, and when so grown 

 it is the queen of all yellow Eoses. 



I have never witnessed anything like the destruction caused 

 by a severe gale of wind accompanied with heavy rain, that we 

 had throughout this neighbourhood on Friday, the 28 hof May, 

 at least as far as the Pear crop is concerned. Previous to that 

 I had a fine crop, but now all under the trees are black balls as 

 big as hazsl nuts, which are, alas, ray crop of Bon ChieiienB, 

 Bearrij de Capiaumont, &c. On the sides exposed to the wind 

 there is not a Pear left, and the only trees that have really 

 escaped are some dwarf Pears, which Mr. Elvers kindly sent 

 mo in the autumn. Not only are the Pears gone, but Filberts 

 have also auffored, and the leaves of the Litne are scorched and 

 withered as if in autumn. I am sura Mr. Kingsley could neyer 

 have owned an exposed garden, or he would not have sung 

 its praises. — J)., Deal. 



RINGING FRUIT TREES. 



Possibly the two extreme cases I am about to narrate may 

 not only be interesting, but elicit from some of your scientific 

 readers and practical physiologists their opinions, and under 

 what circumstances in its immediate or remote elleet the ring- 

 ing of fruit trees can be beneficially adopted. 



First, in the autumn of 18G7, in consequence of an old Pear 

 tree having produced no blossom, consequently no fruit, for 

 manyyear.s, a friend advised the cutting or barking 2 inches of 

 the trunk or cue of its stems. The liber or inner baikof a stem 

 2 inches iu diameter, was cut away 2 inches in length. The 

 whole circle was perfect, even to the loss of some of the softer 

 wood or alburnum. 



About G inches above the cut the stem branched out into 

 three lees ones, each about 10 feet in length. The division 

 was so effectual that none of the descending sap could pass 

 back to the roots -to perform its usual functions. The conse- 

 quences of this operation were bloom aud the lipening of two 

 Pears last summer. Ko other part of the tr£e had bloom. 



This year the appearance of the three branches above the 

 cut stem was one mass of white blossom, there being only one 

 blossom on any other part of the tree ; and there are at this 

 time, besides numbers that I have removed, thirty-six Pears, 

 healthy, and apparently going on to maturity. The tree covers 

 the wall to the extent of ii feet. In the upper portion of the 

 division of the bark cut, there is a very considerable enlarge- 

 ment, apparently from the deposition of the descending sap, 

 but on the edge of the bark of the lower cut next the earth 

 there is no enlargement. 



Second, I have a very old Walnut tree, the trunk about 



