632 General Notices. 



locust trees, 10 ; Z7'lmus campestris, 6 ; Dodart/a orientalis, 8 ; ^uphorbw, 6 ; 

 HofFniannsegffe'a falctita, 10 ; <Solanum carolinianum, 10 ; Pulmonaria virgi- 

 nica, .5 ; f rtica cannabina, 4. (Go/y/. C/^/•ora., vol. i. p. 716.) 



Raising Plants from Seed. — Mr. Gordon of the Hort. Soc. Garden states 

 that all seeds from North America and California should be sown in the 

 autumn, as soon as ripe ; to defer sowing them till the spring may in all 

 cases be disadvantageous, except in the case of annuals : that Mexican and 

 Chilian seeds succeed best if sown in spring: that, with regard to Europe and 

 the North of India, trees and shrubs should be sown in the autumn, and an- 

 nuals or perennials in the spring : that all seeds, of whatever kind, should be 

 sown in dry soil, and not watered till they begin to vegetate ; in the case of 

 old or sickly seeds, to water them at the time of sowing is to insure their 

 destruction by rotting : that shading is to be preferred to watering ; and that 

 one of the best constructions for the purpose, is a pit glazed with double 

 sashes, like one in the Society's garden : finally, that all seedlings should be 

 potted or transplanted as soon as possible, except bulbs. {George Gordon, 

 ibid., p. 438.) 



Root-Prmmig is founded on the principle that, " if the roots of a plant are 

 large and numerous, the head must be so too ; for this plain reason, that the 

 amount of fluid food received by a plant is in proportion to the size and 

 extent of its roots, and that food must be expended in the formation of 

 branches ; " and that " whatever produces excessive vigour in plants is favour- 

 able to the formation of leaf-buds, and unfavourable to the production of 

 flower-buds ; while, on the other hand, such circumstances as tend to dimi- 

 nish luxuriance, and to check rapid vegetation, without affecting the health of 

 the individual, are more favourable to the production of flower-buds than of 

 leaf-buds." {Theory of Hort., p. 65.) The operation may be performed at any 

 time between the fall of the leaf and the swelling of the buds in spring ; 

 but it is better to execute it before the end of November. (Gard. Chron., 

 vol. i. p. 683.) 



Acclimatising Plants. — From numerous experiments made upon this subject 

 in the Hort. Soc. Garden, it appears : — 1st, That plants which it is intended 

 to acclimatise should never be subjected to artificial heat during the winter that 

 precedes their being planted out ; that if obtained from seeds, as little heat as 

 possible should be employed in raising them ; and that starved or stunted 

 plants are more likely to succeed than such as have been forced into a rapid 

 and luxuriant growth. 2d, That the plants should not be committed to the 

 open ground earlier than the end of May ; that the soil should be poor, dr}', 

 and thoroughly drained ; that, if against a wall, the border should be protected 

 through the entire winter by a roof of hurdles thatched with straw, and 

 projecting about 3 ft. A thermometer placed under such a covering did 

 not, during the three months of February, March, or April, stand more than 

 two or three degrees higher than one freely exposed ; from which it appears 

 that it is the dryness of the situation, and not its greater warmth, that ren- 

 ders a border protected by a roof of thatched hurdles so useful to tender 

 plants. (G. Gordon, in Gard. Chron., vol. i. p. 43.) 



Neatness often the Cause ofim2}overishing the Soil, more especially in public gar- 

 dens, where manure is never given. In a forest the leaves fall and decay ; 

 limbs torn off by a storm themselves crumble by degrees; the fruit drops at 

 the foot of the parent, and all, but that minute portion which grows into 

 another plant, rots and restores to the earth what had been abstracted in its 

 own formation ; and that life is perpetually maintained by the operations of 

 death. In our squares and promenades, on the contrary, not a le;if falls, nor 

 a bough is broken, but is immediately swept away, for the sake of neatness ; 

 and the trees give up all that nature bounteously provides for their renovation, 

 without receiving any thing in return. If we rob plants of one kind of food, 

 because it oflfends our eyes, we must give them some other to which the same 

 objection does not apply. (Gard. Chron., vol. i. p. 163.) 



The Scion ivill affect the Qiialifi/, although not the Organisation of the Slock. — 

 Pears grafted on the mountain ash are rendered more vigorous and hardy, and 



