262 GARDENING. 



unless the soil be uncommonly rich, a yearly dress- 

 ing also of stable manure or peat earth. Too 

 much shade is oppressive to the plant and injurious 

 to the fruit, but a degree of it is useful to both, and 

 is best obtained by sowing rows of the Jerusalem 

 artichoke between those of the gooseberry. When 

 the heads become crowded, all cross and water 

 shoots growing in their centres must be pinched or 

 cut off; and if the smaller berries also be 'removed 

 early in the season, the result to the crop will be 

 favourable ; but, in performing the first of these op- 

 erations, we must remember that the summer 

 shoots in general must not be touched. 



Caterpillars of different names, the white, black, 

 and green (larva of the Tenthrendinida), are the 

 \vorst enemies of the gooseberry. Most of these, 

 when full grown, descend into the earth, and remain 

 there for the winter. This habit suggests the most 

 probable mode of destroying them. Some horti- 

 culturists accordingly lay hot lime around the roots 

 of the plants ; others saturate the surrounding earth 

 with boiling water; others with the urine of cows; 

 others dig into the earth seaweed or grass, sprinkled 

 with a solution of salt and water; and J. Tweedie 

 " pares off three inches of the surface earth, which 

 generally includes the eggs of the caterpillar, makes 

 a deep trench, and places this at the bottom, where 

 the temperature is such as to prevent the eggs from 

 hatching." Various washes have also been devised 

 for destroying the larva while above ground and on 

 the plants ; but, in the opinion of Loudon, with lit- 

 tle if any success. " Hand-picking," he says, " how- 

 ever tedious it may seem, will in the end be found 

 more certain and cheap than any other mode." 



The GRAPE-VINE (Vitis vinifera). This species of 

 the vine (the only one of which we mean to speak) 

 is believed to be a native of Persia,* whence it has 



* See Michaux, Olivier, and Sickler. The last of these wri- 



