70 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



foundation of a fine handsome, bushy plant. Good plants may also 

 be obtained by grafting on the Spurge Laurel (Daphne Laureola), 

 and placing them, till a union takes place, in a similar situation to 

 that recommended for cuttings. 



If any remark I have made in this paper be the means, in the 

 most remote degree, of drawing the attention of those who have the 

 convenience at command of doing justice to this neglected plant, my 

 object will be fully accomplished. Planted out in the border of a 

 conservatory, orangery, or camellia house, it would be quite at home, 

 and be an object of considerable interest during the whole winter ; 

 and prove invaluable to those who require nosegays at that dull 

 season. 



PKUNING OF CAPE HEATHS. 



|EFOBE the Heath grower has recourse to the knife, he 

 must determine which of two objects ha intends to 

 effect — to improve the natural habit of his plant, or to 

 induce a perfectly artificial one. By the former, he 

 procures the greatest amount of fine blooming branches, 

 and at the same time preserves the natural characteristics of the 

 plants ; by the latter, a beautifully symmetrical plant, with its natural 

 character destroyed, is obtained, and with what would have been 

 noble masses of bloom broken into a host of small spikelets. The 

 prevailing practice of tying and clipping a plant into a perfect pyra- 

 mid is, I conceive, at variance with good taste, sacrificing, as it does, 

 in many instances, noble bearing, graceful and picturesque outline, 

 at the shrine of unmeaning formality. 



Gardeners who profess to take Nature as their preceptress would 

 better illustrate her precepts by improving than by creating. There 

 are many Heaths which never require the knife. Their natural dis- 

 position of growth is such that its application would mar instead of 

 improve them. Of such may be instanced tricolor, Banksiana, 

 aristata, its varieties and allies. These are only instanced at ran- 

 dom, to illustrate the method of growth alluded to. 



They are naturally bushy and symmetrical, but without artificial 

 formality. The vestitas are disposed to grow naked ; they can be im- 

 proved by the judicious application of the knife, but to tie and cramp 

 them into pyramids is to destroy the noble appearance they would 

 otherwise assume. Again, pyramidalis, trossula, perseluta, Wilmorei, 

 Pattersoninna, admit of an extensive use of the knife. Some, as 

 cerinthoides and its varieties, with costata superba, exhibit peculiari- 

 ties of a growth unperceived in any others. The former is con- 

 tinually throwing out young shoots from its collar ; stem it cannot 

 lay claim to any. The latter throws up blooming shoots twelve or 

 eighteen inches in height, bearing whorls of bloom at intervals of 

 four or five inches. Cerinthoides can at any time be induced to 

 form a bushy plant by cutting it down to the cycas-like protuberance 

 at the collar. With costata superba little can be done besides 



