166 PRINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [CH. V 



sited ready to be communicated to the sap in its 

 upward course the following spring, as it may be 

 required for the developement of the next year's 

 foliage, flowers, and fi-uit. In the potato, dahlia, and 

 other tuberous-rooted plants, it is deposited in the 

 tuber ; in the bulbs of the onion and tulip, and in the 

 fibrous roots of the ranunculus and grasses. 



A knowledge of these facts suggested to the 

 gardener that if the return of the sap were checked 

 by a ligature so tight as to compress the vessels of 

 the bark, the fruit above the ligature would be 

 rendered finer and more abundant. Practice has 

 shewn that this is the desired result ; and it may 

 be taken as a rule, that whatever mechanical means 

 check the downward flow of the sap, causes the 

 enlargement of buds or the production of new. If it 

 be practised upon the artichoke, a ligature being 

 twisted round the stem, about three inches below the 

 head, its size will be very much increased. If a similar 

 ligature be passed round the branch of a fiiiit-tree 

 just previously to the bursting of its buds in the 

 spring, the fiTiit will set more abundantly and be of 

 finer growth. -When the fruit is beginning to ripen, 

 the ligature should be removed, that the refliLx of the 

 sap to the inferior parts may be less impeded, and 

 the growth of those parts be, consequently, less 

 checked. The power to do this renders a ligature 

 much superior to another mode of producing the 



