ON DEPRIVING PLANTS OF THEIR EARLY FLOWER-BUDS. 123 



moving every flower-bud that may appear until the greatest expansion 

 of foliage be ensured. I fear this is too often neglected by amateurs, 

 to whom only these remarks are addressed ; and the penalty of early 

 pubescence is defective bloom, if not total abortiveness. Permit me 

 here to repeat the words of Mr. Joseph Hayward, which I quoted in 

 the number for January, 1840, when treating on the Brugmansia, 

 and which, by a singular coincidence, was applied to the culture of 

 the [Dahlia in the same number by Mr. W. Woodmajisey. It is, 

 then, remarked by Mr. Hayward, that " the leaves form the excretory 

 organs of plants and trees ; and whether the supply of food be great 

 or "small, a plant or tree cannot attain, nor sustain itself in, a perfect 

 state of fructification until it is furnished with a surface of leaves duly 

 proportioned to the sap supplied by the roots." This axiom is so 

 good, so essential to a high state of culture, and so desirable to be 

 borne in mind by the horticulturist, that he should adopt it as his 

 motto. Ample foliage before the production of flowers is the deside- 

 ratum : let the cultivator then, by the strictest observation, seek the 

 best means of promoting it; he will generally find a vigorous growth 

 adverse to the production of flowers, so long as such a state shall be 

 sustained ; but it will act conversely when it shall have reached its 

 maximum ; therefore, let him use his best endeavours to promote 

 luxuriance until the plant shall have attained its standard of perfec- 

 tion ; but if, during its progress, there should be any disposition to 

 dilate the incipient flower-bud, let it be removed, and, if it be not in 

 the nature of the plant to reproduce blossom-buds the same season, 

 it will be better to lose a year than to have a premature and puny 

 blossom ; one plant well cultivated is worth any number badly grown. 

 Some cultivators, in order to effect a lofty growth, lop away all the 

 under branches, so as to force the sap upwards. Better that the 

 plant be allowed to follow, as far as may be, its natural habit, re- 

 moving only such shoots as appear stunted or misplaced ; this will 

 give girth to the stem, and preserve a more perfect symmetry. I 

 will here instance the Fuchsia. If the taller sorts be so treated, and 

 regularly stripped of their flower-buds, until they have made their 

 desired growth, they may be made to attain their greatest altitude 

 with a pyramidal form, sustaining themselves without any support, 

 their bottom branches sweeping the ground, the others rising branch 

 over branch; when clothed with their bright, crimson, pendulous 



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