88 OPERATIONS OF GARDENING. TART T. 



most distant parts of India. Mr. S. Jennings told me, that he 

 had had wood sent to him at Allahabad even from England, and 

 succeeded in adding thus several new Eoses to his stock. 



Budded plants are for some time very liable to have the 

 branches broken clean off, at the point where the bud was in- 

 serted, by strong winds. To guard against this, stakes should 

 be driven in the ground, to which the branches should be tied. 



PKUNING. 



FRUIT-TREES. With the exception of the Peach, the Grape- 

 vine, the Baer, the Fig-tree, and sometimes I believe the Cus- 

 tard-apple, there are no fruit-trees which it is usual to prune in 

 this country. Whether or not several might be benefited by 

 the operation, if performed with judgment, is a question that 

 remains to be determined. 



FLOWERING-SHRUBS. Nearly all plants of this kind are 

 greatly benefited by being pruned closely in after they have 

 done flowering. They break out again with vigour and blossom 

 in a much more compact and handsome form the following 

 season. The appearance of the plants also is vastly improved, 

 as well as their tendency to flower more freely increased, by 

 their being kept as much as possible to one stem clean of 

 branches for some little height above the ground. 



1 may here mention an operation which on some plants 

 seems to have the tendency to cause them to flower, and which 

 probably might be applied with advantage to very many more. 

 The operation is to confine the plant to one stem, by stripping 

 away all the lower shoots and leaves, so as to cause the stem to 

 make all its growth upwards. To give instances : I have men- 

 tioned elsewhere how the Heliotrope thus treated comes much 

 earlier into blossom ; the Carnation, which is rarely known 

 to bloom in Calcutta, the malee of the Dalhousie Square 

 Gardens told me he had caused to flower in June by this means ; 

 for the same purpose the natives prune away the lower fronds 

 of the cocoanut ; thus also the Yucca is hastened into blossom ; 

 and it is the practice often recommended to cause Cauliflowers 

 to form heads. 



BOOT-PRUNING. This, as applied to Mangos, Peaches, and 

 Grape-vines, is, I believe, a very old practice in India, though 



