APRICOTS. 



i3 



AQUATIC PLANTS. 



,-xhibit eight or ten shoots, and a selection 

 must now be made of five or six, which 

 shall give a cup-like form to the head, re- 

 moving all shoots crossing each other, or 

 which interfere with that form ; thus 

 leaving the head hollow in the centre, 

 with a shapely head externally, shortening 

 back the shoots retained to two-thirds or 

 less, according as the buds are placed, and 

 leaving all of nearly the same size. In the 

 course of the summer's growth the tree will 

 be assisted by pinching off the leading 

 shoots where there is a tendency to over- 

 throw the balancing of the head. At the 

 third year's pruning the same process of 

 thinning and cutting back will be required, 

 after which the tree can hardly go wrong. 

 The shoots retained should be short-jointed 

 and well-ripened ; and in shortening, cut 

 back to a healthy, sound-looking, and 

 veil-placed bud. After the third year, 

 little of no shortening back will be re- 

 quired, especially where root-pruning is 

 practised ; the tree should now develop it- 

 self in fruiting stems, which will subdue the 

 tendency to throw out gross or barren 

 shoots. 



Large standard trees in their prime only 

 require pruning once in two or three 

 years. At these intervals cross-growing or 

 exhausted shoots, especially those in the 

 centre of the tree, require thinning out, 

 bearing in mind that the best fruit grows 

 %t the extremities of the branches, and that 

 diese branches must be kept under control. 

 3ee also Pruning Trees , Training of Fruit 

 Trees, Standard Trees, Pyramidal System, 

 Palmette, or Fan System, Verrier's System 

 of Pruning, Cordon System, 



Apricots. 



Apricots, as most other fruit trees, 

 flourish best in a good sound loam. For 

 planting, prepare the soil about a yard 

 deep, and manure with rotten leaves one 

 part of leaves to four or five 01 soil. 



Place a substratum of brick or other im- 

 perishable material below each tree. The 

 apricot, when in a healthy state, pro- 

 duces more natural spurs than most other 

 trees, and although some kinds will 

 blossom and bear fruit on the young wood, 

 yet the chief dependence for a crop of fine 

 fruit must be on the true spurs. In 

 pruning, stop all leading shoots, and pinch 

 off to a few buds all shoots not required to 

 fill up vacant places on the wall. Thin 

 partially all fruit where it is thickly set, 

 but reserve the final thinning until the 

 fruit has stoned. The apricot, and especi- 

 ally the " Moor Park," the finest of them, 

 is subject to a sudden paralysis : first a 

 branch, then a side, dies away, until scarce 

 a vestige of the tree is left ; and this 

 generally occurs on fine sunny days in 

 spring and early summer, when the sap- 

 vessels are young, and the sap is easily 

 exuded by a few sunny days. In this state 

 a frost occurs, the sap- vessels are burst by 

 the thawing of the frozen fluid, and the 

 whole economy of the plant deranged. 

 Under these circumstances, which are so 

 often occurring, the injured limb having 

 consumed the sap, can draw no further 

 supply ; it yields to the solar influence, 

 languishes and dies. The remedy is to 

 retard, or rather prevent, premature vegeta- 

 tion, and when that can no more be done, 

 to provide protection ; for this is recom- 

 mended netting made of sedge, of about 

 four-inch mesh, to envelop the main 

 branches. 



The following are good varieties for 

 walls or orchard houses under glass : 



i. Breda. 



a. Hemskirke. 



3. Kaisha. 



4. Large Early. 



5. Moor Park. 



6. Peach. 



Aquatic Plants, Culture, &c. 



There are many aquatic plants which can 

 be cultivated in a piece of water, whether 

 larje or small, or the margin of a stream. 



