AUTUMN FLOWERS. 



AVERRUNCATOR. 



de Rennes,' and many other fine roses ; 

 ' Solfaterre ' being very little inferior to the 

 ' Cloth of Gold,' both being raised from the 

 same parent. The whole section requires 

 peculiar treatment, approaching in some 

 degree to what we give to the strong- 

 growing tea-scented kinds. 



" Under the starving system," Mr. Saul 

 continues, " I have seen the ' Cloth of Gold ' 

 so semi-double, small, and worthless, that 

 without positively knowing it, I should 

 have doubted its identity. It is a shy 

 bloomer under this system, covering a con- 

 siderable space of wall, and standing year 

 after year without producing a solitary 

 bloom. I have seen it producing magnifi- 

 cent blooms from buds of the previous season 

 if budded on strong stocks, as the ' Celine ' 

 and ' Manetti ' rose. These buds, after 

 having been headed back the first season, 

 when fifteen to eighteen inches long, should 

 have the leading points pinched out, when 

 the laterals will generally bloom abundantly 

 in the autumn. On the dog-rose stem, 

 growing standard and half-standard high, 

 I have bloomed it freely in the same way ; 

 not that I recommend it for a standard, for 

 it is unsuited for the purpose ; but should 

 any one wish to try it in that way, he should 

 protect the head from extreme cold in 

 winter, pruning hard in spring, and apply- 

 ing liquid manure liberally in spring and 

 summer, stopping all shoots at fifteen or 

 eighteen inches, to induce the lateral shoots 

 to bloom." 



Autumn Flowers. 



In addition to the ordinary bedding 

 plants geraniums, verbenas, &c. a good 

 display of flowers in autumn requires a free 

 use of autumnal roses, hollyhocks, dahlias, 

 Lilium lancifolium, delphiniums, phloxes, 

 foxgloves, the hardy bamboo, the holy 

 thistle, pampas grass, Arundo Donax, 

 Iritoma, yucca; and for foliage, sundiy 

 kinds of ferns. 



Averruncator. 



In order to enable persons engaged in 

 pruning parts of trees at some distance above 

 them with precision, and without the use of 

 a ladder, a contrivance known as the aver- 

 runcator has been introduced. The prin- 

 ciple of this instrument is shown in the 

 accompanying illustration, in the three 

 different forms depicted therein. All 

 agree in the fact that the cutting part of 

 the instrument is fixed at the end of a pole 

 or handle ranging from 5 to 10 feet in 

 length, and actuated by a cord held and 

 worked by one hand, while the instrument 



AVEKKUNCATOR. 



is sustained and directed by the other. In 

 I A, the immovable part of the shears for in 

 1 point of fact the averruncator is nothing 

 I more than a pair of shears so fashioned as 

 to effect the purpose for which it is wanted, 

 namely, to lop off boughs and branches of 

 some little thickness, when out of reach of 

 ordinary hand tools consists of a hook, 

 whose inner edge serves to secure and hold 

 the bough ; near the outer edge of this 

 hook a hatchet-shaped blade is fixed by a 

 rivet to the hook itself, and on this rivet it 

 can move freely. A guard behind the 

 hook serves as a guide to keep the cutting 

 blade in position when brought into opera- 



