182 General Notices. 



year, the appearance of the plant will be any thing but pleasing after a few 

 seasons' growth. As soon as possible after the flowers begin to fade on 

 the free growing kinds, bring the knife into requisition ; and, in the use of 

 it, some little practice is necessary, not so much in the mere mechanical 

 application as in judging of the most suitable places in which to apply it. 

 Physiology teaches us, and the theory is correct, that those parts of a plant 

 possessing the greatest amount of fully organized cellular tissue, or that 

 substance from which all the several parts of a plant, including the repro- 

 ductive system, derive their formation and nourishment, will produce the 

 most perfect branches, if means are taken for their proper development. 

 It follows that the pruning of any given shoot should take place precisely 

 at the point exhibiting these characteristics in ths highest development. 

 This being done, the otherwise dormant buds in the immediate vicinity of 

 the incision will immediately start into activity, and the result will be strong 

 and vigorous shoots, which, if left untouched, will continue to grow up to 

 the expansion of their flower-buds. In fact, a heath can scarcely ever be said 

 to be wholly inert ; for, except when under the liberal application of the knife, 

 when of course the system receives a partial check, it is perpetually growing. 



I have said, if the shoots produced after pruning are left to themselves, 

 they will continue elongating till the flowers begin to expand. Now, in 

 many cases, and in the formation of the formal specimens before alluded to, 

 it is indispensable that these shoots should again be topped ; the result is 

 for every shoot which, if left untopped till after blooming, would have pro- 

 duced nine or twelve inches in length adorned with bloom, three or four 

 inches each occupy its place, producing a more bushy and pyramidal plant, 

 it is true, but far deficient in nobleness of appearance. 



In conclusion, I would say, never prune beyond the current season's 

 growth : if so, the result will be puny and sterile shoots, a prey to insects 

 and such as will never reward you with a creditable bloom. I ought to 

 mention that, in pruning E. Mirabilis, great caution is necessary, if, indeed, 

 it should be pruned at all ; blooming, as it does, the whole season, it is apt 

 to exhaust itself, producing blooms at the top of nearly every shoot when 

 scarcely an inch in length. The tendency should be checked by pinching 

 off" a portion of the flowering tops immediately they can be recognized, 

 which is all that can be done in the way of pruning it. In those species 

 which never require the knife, the blooms, immediately they begin to fade, 

 should be removed. As they are invariably produced at the points of the 

 shoots, great care is necessary that the bud, from which the future shoot 

 is to spring, is not injured or destroyed in performing the operation. The 

 best apparatus is a sharp pair of scissors. If the bud is injured, no bloom is 

 produced the following season. — [Gard. Chron., 1848, pp. 171, 172.) 



Asparagus. — The notice in your Calendar of Operations last week, that 

 " asparagus beds must be manured and pricked over," reminds me of an 

 intention, formed long ago, of oflTsring a remark or two on the general man- 

 agement of asparagus beds, which I now ask permission to do. 



I am not aware that any writer has ever attempted to explain how it is 

 that the market gardener and the gentleman's gardener differ so very widely 



