Angost 3G, 1869. ] 



JOITRNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



167 



before applying it to plants, and then, if proper jajgment be exercised, 

 the resuits cannot fail to be satisfactory. 



Before concluding, I foel anxious to call attention to a few irregu- 

 larities in the system of waturing practised in many places, the prin- 

 cipal being periodical watering and not clioosiug the proper time for 

 it. The former is bad in principle, because it induces the operator to 

 anticipate tbe dryness of many of his plants, while others will have 

 become so dry as to baffle all efforts to soak the ball of soil by means 

 of the watering-pot ; as a natural consequence many plants are over- 

 watered, while the dryness of others renders it necessary to immerse 

 the whole ball in water. This I consider as great an evil as the 

 former, because the roots are inactive from drought, find an excess of 

 water suddenly sets them to work, forming a number of irregular and 

 deformed growths, and in some cases decomposition and death follow. 

 As regards the proper time for watering, I am of opinion that the best 

 is before the house is opened in the morning, or at shutting up in the 

 after part of the day, because, as the house is closed to external air, eva- 

 poration is not going on so rapidly, consequontly the action of the 

 roots is steady and progressive, and at all times equal to the demand 

 made upon them by the branches. Excessive dryness and excessive 

 moisture at tho roots are the great enemies to plant cultivation. — 

 T. EiicoRD, Qardcwr to Col. E. Uoycl, LUUsden, Hmokkurst. 



DAVENPIAM GOOSEBERRY SHOW. 



August 2si>. 



dwts. grs. 



Twins P. Bancroft.. Yellow .. Antagonist .S6 12 



Stewai-d's Prize . . P.Bancroft.. Ked RedKobin 24 14 



Steward's Prize . . R. Forster . . Yellow . . Mount Pleasant 24 6 



Steward's Prize . . \V. Ryley .. Green ,, Thumper 22 



Steward's Prize . . G. Plant .... 'V\'hite . . Iving of Tramps 21 

 r.ED. 



P.Bancroft PLcd Robin 23 10 



P. Banerofl London 23 



J. Sanders Clayton 22 10 



G. Plant Beauty 21 



E. Forster ■\Voudertul 19 12 



K. Forster Flixtonla 19 10 



YELLOW. 



P.Bancroft Leader 22 16 



E. Forster Leveller 21 VA 



W. Ryley Stella 21 



P.Bancroft Drill 20 10 



E. Forster Catherine 19 IB 



G. Plant MountPleasant 19 



GRflEX. 



P.Bancroft Turnout 22 20 



P.Bancroft Thumper 22 10 



J. Such Greenock 21 



W. Ryley , Telegraph 20 11 



J. Sanders Gretna Green 20 



W. Ryley Tom Joiner 19 14 



WHITE. 



P. Bancroft Antagonist 23 12 



E. Forster ." Hero of Nile 22 10 



P. Bancroft Snowdroj^ 21 



J. Sanders Lady Leicester 20 18 



G. Plant Careless 20 10 



G. Plant King of Trumps 20 



— Thomas Doeell, Seedsman, Northmich, Secrelmy. 



SOUNDS OP TREES. 



The sounds and motions ot trees constitute subtle but impor- 

 tant elements of pleasure. It is not enough tb>U a tree shall 

 have a comely form as a wholo ; that it cast a dense shade in the 

 sultry days of summer, and that, perhaps, it yield a nut or 

 fruit ; and finally that, when it falls before the inevitable axe, 

 its prostrate trunk shall furnish good timber. Besides these uses 

 of bodily comfort and of economy, a tree, like a rich-hearted 

 person, has a hundred harmless ways, which we h.irdly stop to 

 analyse; but which, if they were suddenly taken away, we 

 stould miss. 



The murmuring ot trees is profoundly aCeotiug to a sensitive 

 Bpirit. In some moods of imagination one cannot help feeling 

 that trees have a low song, or a conversation of leaves. They 

 whisper, or speak, or cry out, and even roar. No one knows 

 this last quality so well as those who have been in old Oak 

 forests in a storm, with violent winds. A dense forest opposes 

 such a resistance to the free passage of the air, that the sound 

 Is much deadened. Cut in a park, or Oak opening, where 

 spaces are left for the motion of the air, and among open- 

 branched trees, a storm moves with such power and majesty 

 that not even the battles of thunder clouds are more sublime, 

 and under certain ciroumstanees it becomes terrific. At the 



beginning of the tempest the trees sway and toss as if seeking 

 to escape ; as the violence increases, the branches bounce back ; 

 the leaves, turning their white under sides to the light, fairly 

 scream. The huge boughs creak and strain like a ship in a 

 storm. Now and then some branches which have grown across 

 each other are drawn back and forth, as if demons were scrap- 

 ing infernal base-viols. Occasionally a branch breaks with a 

 wild ciash, or some infirm tree, caught unawares in a huge puff 

 of the storm, goes down with crashing as it falls, and with a 

 thunder-stroke when it reaches the ground. I would go further 

 to hear a storm concert than any music that man ever made. 

 No one who is familiar with forest sounds but is sure, when he 

 hears Beethoven's music, that much of it was inspired by tha 

 sounds of winds among trees. 



There are milder joys, however, in tree converse. Only this 

 morning I awakened to hear it rain. That steady plash of 

 drops which a north-east wind brings on, is not easily mistaken. 

 I flatter myself that my ear is too well trained to all the ordinary 

 sounds of nature to be easily deceived ! I rise and throw back 

 the blinds, when lo ! not a drop is falling ! It is the wind in 

 my Maple trees. I had thought of that, and listened with 

 the most discriminating attention, and was sure that it was 

 rain. 



Twice in our lives we lived in houses built on the edge of tho 

 original forests. These had been thinned out and recesses 

 opened up. It happened in both eases that an A^h and Hickory 

 had been left, which shot up, without side branches, to a great 

 height. The trunks were supple and tough. 'Whenever the 

 winds moved gently, these long and lithe trees moved with 

 singular grace and beauty. As there was no perceptible wind 

 along the ground, their movement seemed voluntary. And yet 

 there was in it that kind of irresolution that one sees in sleep- 

 walking. Bat as soon as the breath became a breeze, the wide 

 circles through which these rooted gymnasts moved were won- 

 derful. They seemed going forth in every direction, and yet 

 surely and quickly springing back to position again. And in 

 every motion, such was their elasticity, they manifested the 

 utmost grace. The sighing of winds iu a Pine forest has no 

 parallel sound except upon the seashore. Of all the sounds of 

 leaves it is the sweetest and saddest, to certain moods o£ 

 summer leisure. 



The Pine sings, like the poet, with no everyday voice, but in 

 a tone apart from all common sounds. It has the power to 

 change the associations, and to quicken tho poetic sensibility, 

 as no other singing tree can do. Every one should have this 

 old harper, like a seer or a priest among trees, about his dwelling. 

 Under an old Pine would naturally be found the young maiden, 

 whose new lover was far across the sea. In the sounds that 

 would descend she could not fail to hear the voices of the sea — 

 the roar of winds, the splash of waves running iu upon the 

 shore. A young mother, whose first-born had returned to God 

 who gave it, would at twilight go tu the Pines ; for, to her ear, 

 the whole air must needs seem full of spirit voices. They 

 would sing to her thoughts in just such sad strains as would 

 soothe sorrow. Nor would it be strange if iu the rise and fall 

 of these sylvan syllable.^ she should imagine that she heard her 

 babe again, calling to her from the air. 



Every country place should have that very coquette among 

 trees, the Aspen. It seems never to sleep. Its twinkling 

 fingers are playing in the air at some arch fantasy almost with- 

 out pause. If you sit at a window with a book, it will wink and 

 blink, and beckon, and coax, till you cannot help speaking to it! 

 That must be a still day that does not see the Aspen quiver. A 

 single leaf sometimes will begin to wag, and not another on the 

 wholo tree will move ! Sometimes a bidden breath will catch 

 at a lower branch, then shifting, will leave them still, while it 

 shakes a topmost twig. Though the air may move so gently 

 that your cheek does not feel it, this sensitive tree will seem all 

 of a shudder, and turn its leaves upward with shuddering chill t 

 It is the daintiest fairy of all the trees. One should have an 

 Aspen on every side of his house, that no window should _bo 

 without a chance to look upon its nods and becks, and to rejoice 

 iu its innocent witchcraft. I have seen such fair sprites, too, in 

 human form. But one does not get off so easily if he takes too 

 much sport with them. Tbe Aspen leaf makes no wounds. Its 

 frolics spin no silken threads which one cannot follow and will 

 not break. 



The musical qualities of trees have not enough been con- 

 sidered in planting around our dwellings. The great-leaved 

 Magnolias have no saund. Willows have but little. Cedars, 

 Yew trees, and Lombardy Poplars are almost silent. It is said 

 that the Lombardy Poplar is the male tree, the female never 



