89 



the sap np from the parent tree and keep the stump alive. We aU saw the prin- 

 ciple of this annually carried out by our gardeners. When the branches of a pear 

 tree reached the garden door, or any other point where they could not be trained 

 further, the gardener shortened the branches, allowing a side shoot to take the 

 place of the original leader. The great difficulty with large oak trees was to 

 find leaders on the side of the branches that were required to be cut off; 

 in many instances he knew branches stretched out for 20 feet without a 

 smgle side branch, and it would be very provoking to know what to do in such 

 instances. The subject treated of by the president was one of great importance 

 and in days long gone by, when the forests for the supply of oak for the navy 

 were very carefuUy treated, the subject then received more attention than it 

 did at present, and, if he remembered right, one gentleman, a Mr. Forsyth had 

 received large sums of money from the Government for making known his dis- 

 coveries on this subject, and of a prepared mixture to be applied to the cicatrices 

 of the pruned branches, and which was alleged to make the bark heal quickly 

 over. Mr. Lloyd concluded by thanking the President for his able and in- 

 teresting paper. 



A general conversation again ensued on several points relating to the 

 subject, in which many gentlemen took part, when 



Dr. Bull said, the real difiEculty with neglected forest trees was the 

 practical one of getting at the branches to prune them rightly. They would 

 most of them remember that when Fortune returned from China, amongst the 

 marvels he brought with him, none, perhaps created greater surprise and 

 attention than some dwarf forest trees growing in small China vases -forest 

 trees in miniature. There were some such perfect specimens of the elm tree 

 about la mcbes high, growing in pots about a foot long, eight inches wide, and 

 five deep, and bearing such apparent marks of great age and full growth that it 

 was at once considered by botanists as a peculiar variety, and received the 

 name of Ulmus parvifolia Sinensis. It turned out, however, to be nothing more 

 than a variety of the common Ulmus campestris, for when taken out of the 

 vases and planted in good soU in the Horticultural Society's garden in a 

 year or two they began to make shoots five or six feet long. In short it was 

 nothing more than a dwarfed tree produced by constant and careful manipulation 

 The way m which the Chinese produce these miniature trees so fully bears 

 out the President's paper in its physiology and practice, that he would give it 

 as described by Loudon. They first select a small piece at the end of the branch 

 of an old tree, and put a tight ring on it. A callosity quickly forms above the 

 nng, which they surround with a ball of loam kept moist by wet moss. Eoots 

 are soon thrown out, and then the branch is cut off and planted in a porcelain 

 pot of the size named. In it they also place pieces of stone to represent rock 

 amongst which, moss and lichens are introducerL They then give it only just 

 enough water to keep it alive, and as the pot soon acts as a prison, its growth is 

 necessarily impeded. Its further growth is also stUI more checked by constantly 



