314 Notes and Gleanings. 



Planting Trees and Shrubs. — I wish to make a few remarks on this 

 subject. We often see on large estates very great mismanagement in these 

 matters. Of course, owners have a perfect right to plant whatever they please, 

 and wherever they choose, regardless alike of failure or success, and I am will- 

 ing to believe that in some cases they alone are in fault ; but it is also equally 

 true that gentlemen are often ill advised to plant trees and shrubs in localities 

 where, from their very nature, it is utterly impossible for them to thrive, or where, 

 at the best, they do but miserably exist, a disgrace to some, and an eyesore to 

 all ; the plants receiving the blame that is justly due to those who have had the 

 mismanagement of them. I have seen the Abies Menziesii planted on a dry, 

 warm soil, with a gravelly subsoil, so infested with red spider as to render it 

 unhealthy and unsightly, and A. Alorinda planted in low, damp places, where 

 the young growth is generally killed by spring frosts ; Araucaria imbricata dead 

 and dying on cold, stiff clay soils that are not drained ; Cryptoiiieria jfapojtica, 

 brown and unsightly, and withered up by keen east winds ; C. vin'dis, a most 

 beautiful plant, thrown aside from the same cause ; Sequoia sempervirens, in- 

 jured to such an extent, by being planted in exposed places, as to be scarcely 

 recognizable ; and Juniperns recurva struggling for existence, covered with red 

 spider. I have seen this, not in isolated cases, but frequently, and in different 

 parts of the country and town ; estates where there has been soil and situation 

 admirably adapted for the above-mentioned, as well as other beautiful trees, 

 shrubs, and coniferae, which have in some instances been tried, and pronounced 

 too tender for the climate, or something else ; the fact being, that the wants of 

 the plants were too little known or studied. How often do we see, perhaps ad- 

 joining a drive, a fine open place in a plantation, beautifully sheltered from the 

 north and east, where the Sequoia would grow magnificently, and where the Cryp- 

 tomeria would look as though at home ! The same might be said of many more ; 

 but this must suffice. I wish, however, to offer a few remarks on pruning. When 

 a large branch of a deciduous tree requires removing, the best place to take it 

 off is at the protuberance caused by swelling, close to the body of the tree ; the 

 proper time about the middle of June (which is the best time to prune all de- 

 ciduous trees), the edge of the outer bark being at the same time neatly trimmed 

 off with a keen knife. The plane would doubtless succeed on the Thames Em- 

 bankment, but would the scarlet oak ? — F. Flitton, in Gardener''s Chronicle. 



