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lUniettr. 



Peactical Hints on Planting Obnajiental Teees and Sukubs ; 200 pp. By 

 Standish and Noble, Bagshot. Bradbury and Evans. 



This little work is so entirely in onr way, that we hasten to introduce it to the 

 notice of our readers, feeling assured that they will thank us for making them 

 acquainted with a publication every way so trustworthy. 



The title of the work, as above given, conveys a very inadequate idea of its 

 contents ; for, in addition to the valuable instructions on planting, it contains a 

 description of the principal Conifer®, and hardy evergreen trees and shrubs, with 

 remarks on the situation for which each is best adapted. Following these are 

 chapters on the cultivation of American Plants, and of the Bhododendrons of the 

 Sikkim Himalayas, to which we have already referred in a previous page of the 

 present number. To these are added lists of plants especially adapted for particular 

 soils and situations, which will be of great value to the inexperienced planter. 



The following extract has reference chiefly to the Coniferce, but it is also 

 applicable to every species of hardy shrubs : — 



DISADVANTAGES OF TOT-GEOWN PLANTS. 



' A prejudice exists against plants removed from the open borders ; in numerous instances it is a just 

 one. It has arisen from the fact that many growers do not transplant often enough. The consequences 

 are, the plants become coarse-rooted, and being removed in an indifferent condition, are often lost before 

 they can recover the check consequent oil their change of situation. But the remedy for this is in the 

 hands of purchasers ; if coarse-rooted plants cannot be sold, growers will cease to bring them into the market. 



' But the disadvantages of pot-grown plants are, as a general rule, of equal magnitude with the worst 

 condition of those badly managed in the open borders, for as it becomes a matter of great importance 

 to nurserymen that their stock of pot-grown plants should occupy as small a space as possible, pot-bound 

 specimens are the rule, rather than the exception. And for plants intended to be removed to the open 

 ground as permanent specimens, scarcely a worse condition could exist ; it is superlatively bad. 



' For the purpose of illustration, we will suppose a person to have purchased a plant in the condition 

 above described. On removing the pot, he is delighted to find coil upon coil of healthy roots. He knows 

 very well that to commit them to their new situation in an uncoiled state will be highly improper, and so, 

 with great care, he proceeds to disentangle them. However careful he may be, the loss of many valuable 

 roots will result, and damage to the remaining will be equally certain. Those in the interior of the ball, from 

 their size aud woody texture, will not yield at all, and he closes his half-finished labour, with the conviction 

 that he has seriously damaged his plant. But this mutilation, great as it is, is far preferable to having planted 

 it with its matted roots undisturbed. 



' A plant which has once been thoroughly pot-bound, never gets so firm a hold in the soil as one whose 

 roots have never been confined. Instances are numerous where valuable specimens, after years of growth 

 have been blown down in consequence of the very slight manner in which they retained their position. 

 The main roots, when young, had, from pot-culture, acquired a coil-like arrangement, which, durin" all their 

 subsequent growth, they adhered to— enlarging, but not spreading— increasing in bulk, but contributing 

 little to the mechanical support of the tree; in fact, they often destroy each other; and in every instance of a 

 plant which iii its young state has been subject to the confinement of a pot, these conditions will be evident. 



