DWARFING. 



100 



DWARFING. 



num. — A kind of Arum, requiring a 

 bark stove, and more curious tiian 

 beautiful. 



Ddvau^a. — AnacardiacecB, or Te- 

 O'ebmthacece. — Chilian shrubs, which 

 prove nearly hardy in the climate of 

 London. They were called^, myris 

 byCavanilles,and Schlnus by Ortega, 

 both professors of botany at Madrid ; 

 <and they are occasionally found under 

 these names in gardens and nurseries. 

 The commonest kind, D. dependens 

 Dec. (A. myris poly gamio,, Cav.), 

 withstood the winter of 1837-8, in 

 the Horticultural Society's Garden, 

 ■flith veiy little protection. The 

 leaves of plants of this genus, if 

 thrown upon water, will start and 

 jump about in a very extraordinary 

 manner ; and they smell strongly of 

 turpentine. The plants should be 

 grown in a light dry soil, and trained 

 against a south wall, where they can 

 be protected by a thatched coping 

 during winter. The flowers, which 

 are white, are produced in small 

 spikes, and they are succeeded by 

 dark-purple berries. 



Dwarf Fan-Palm. — Chanice^roxjs 

 humilis. — This plant is the hardiest 

 of the Palm tribe, and it will succeed 

 if planted out on a lawn, and slightly 

 Ijrotected during severe frosts. It 

 should be grown in rich mould, well 

 drained and occasionally watered. 

 When planted out on a lawn, a pit 

 should be dug for it about two feet 

 deep ; at the bottom of which should 

 be two or three layers of pebbles, to 

 insure drainage, and then thepitfilled 

 up vrith rich sandy loam. Thus 

 treated, and protected during severe 

 winters, by a moveable frame of can- 

 vass, stretched on hoops, or of basket- 

 work, it will grow vigorously, and 

 live many years. — See Protecting. 



Dwarfing. — In some cases, where 

 there is very little room, it may be 

 desirable to know how to obtain dwarf 

 trees ; thoixgh generally speaking, they 



are, like all unnatural objects, in bad 

 taste, and rather disagreeable than 

 pleasing. "Wherever Chinese bull dings , 

 are introduced, however, a few dwarf- i 

 stunted elms in China vases should I 

 be placed near them; as in China it 

 is said that no garden is considered 

 complete without several of these 

 little monsters. The mode of making 

 them is to take a ring of bark off one 

 of the branches of a full-grown Elm 

 tree, and to surround it with earth 

 ■RTapped in moss, which should be 

 kept constantly moist, by water being 

 thrown on it several times a day, or 

 by a vessel being suspended over it, 

 so contrived that the water may ooze 

 out a drop at a time, and thus be con- 

 tinually and regularly falling on the 

 moss. In the course of a few weeks, 

 the branch will have thrown out roots : 

 and when this is supposed to be the 

 case, it should be detached from the 

 parent tree, and planted with the 

 moss still round it in a small pot in 

 very poor soil ; as soon as it begins 

 to grov/, it should be shifted into 

 another pot a little larger ; and this 

 shifting should be repeated several 

 times, into larger and larger pots, 

 always using poor, stony, or gravelly 

 soil, and giving the plant very little 

 water. Thus treated, the plant will 

 soon become a little stunted tree, 

 bearing all the marks of old age ; and 

 looking like a poor, decrepit, old man, 

 bent double with age. It is obvious 

 that other forest-trees might be 

 dwarfed in the same manner ; so 

 that a miniature forest might easily 

 be formed, the Oaks assuming a 

 gnarled and rugged character, and 

 bearing acorns, and the Pines and 

 Firs with rough furrowed bark, and 

 covered with cones, and yet the whole 

 not above two feet high. 



Another mode of dwarfing ligneous 

 plants is employed to throw them into 

 flower or fruit. It is found that many 

 stove-plants only bear fruit at the 



