1310 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART II 



closely clipped in, the seeds are seldom permitted to ripen. When the seeds 

 are to be sown, they should be gathered the moment the capsules appear ready 

 to open, and sown immediately in light rich earth, consisting chiefly of vege- 

 table mould, which is well drained, so that the water may never lie on the seeds. 



Cuttings of from 4 in. to G in. in length should be put in, in autumn, in a 

 sandy soil, and a shaded situation, and in a year they will be fit to transplant 

 into nursery lines. Layers may be made either in the spring or autumn, and 

 either of the young or old wood. The dwarf box used for edgings is propa- 

 gated by being taken up, divided, and replanted. The roots of the box, being 

 numerous and small, though by no means hair-like, like those of the -Erica- 

 ceae, retain the earth about them ; so that plants of box always come up with 

 a ball ; and hence the tree may be transplanted at almost any season, provided, 

 if in summer, that the weather be moist at the time. Box edgings are best 

 planted early in spring, because the frost in winter is apt to destroy those 

 leaves which have been cut in trimming the plants. Box edgings and hedges 

 may be clipped at almost any season, except midwinter. Some garden- 

 ers prefer trimming box edgings in June, just when the plants have nearly com- 

 pleted their year's shoots ; because they will afterwards make shoots of 

 A in or 1 in. in length, or, at all events, protrude a few leaves, and thus, in a 

 week or two, will conceal all appearance of the use of the shears. When this 

 practice is followed, it is necessary to go over the edgings or hedges in July, 

 in order to cut neatly off with the knife any shoots that may have been pro- 

 truded too far ; taking care not to cut the leaves. The more common prac- 

 tice is to clip the box in autumn ; but in that case, as many of the leaves are 

 injured by the shears, their marks remain till the middle of the following May. 

 The edging or hedge looks well for a fortnight at that season; but afterwards it 

 has rather a neglected appearance, till the next trimming season, which is in the 

 beginning of September. The superiority of the June clipping must be obvious, 

 whether applied to edgings, hedges, or mural or sculpturesque ornaments. 

 Box edgings, when kept low, if they are wanted to endure many years, require 

 occasionally to be cut in almost to the ground ; and this operation should only 

 be performed on one side of the edging in one year, and not on the other side 

 till the second year following. When treated in this way, both edgings and 

 hedges will, on good loamy soil, last an extraordinary length of time ; whereas, 

 if they are continually clipped on the surface only, a network of shoots is 

 formed there, which, by excluding the air from the stem within, occasions the 

 decay of the weakest ; and the edging or hedge becomes naked below, and 

 unsightly. Sometimes this evil may be remedied by cutting down ; but, in 

 general, the best mode is to replant. The form of the section of a box edging 

 or hedge should always be that of a truncated triangle ; the broadest end 

 being that next to the ground. In the case of edgings to walks, or to flower- 

 beds, their breadth at the ground may be 3 in., the height 4in.,and the breadth 

 at top 2 in. ; or half these dimensions may be adopted. In every case, both of 

 edgings and hedges, the base ought always to be broader than the summit, in 

 order that the rain may fall on the sides, and the light of the sun strike on 

 them with more force. In clipping box trees into artificial forms, it is usual 

 to enclose the tree in a slight frame of wirework of the form proposed : the 

 wire should be copper, and painted green, for the sake of durability, and to 

 render it inconspicuous. The same kind of skeleton wirework, or trellis-work, 

 is put up for mural and architectural topiary work. 



Insects and Diseases. The box is very rarely attacked by insects, and has 

 very few diseases. There is a proliferous 

 growth of leaves at the points of the 

 shoots, which appears in some seasons, 

 and isjprobably occasioned by the punc- 

 ture of an insect, but of what species 

 we are not aware. The fungus Puccfnia 

 2?uxi Grev. /?g.!219.) is found occasion- 

 ally on the leaves. 1219 



