CHAP. V. ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, ETC. 485 



long stems, train these three or four stems from stake to stake 

 in a spiral form, and allow them to grow to their fullest length. 



2. Cut out all sprays and small wood at the bottom of these 

 stems, so as to keep them clear of wood a foot or two from the 

 ground. This will render the plant accessible for applying 

 surface-dressings, which are of the utmost benefit. 



3. When the stems become old, and show signs of debility, 

 cut them out, and train new ones in their place. 



4. The only pruning required, if any, will be just to take off 

 about six inches from the end of the stem ; this will give greater 

 strength to the flower-shoots just below. 



Rubus. 



R. rosaefolius. A small pretty plant with bramble-like foliage, 

 native of the Mauritius ; flowers resemble small, very compact, 

 double pure- white scentless Roses ; very common in the Calcutta 

 gardens, and very troublesome for the numerous suckers it 

 throws up to a wide distance around. 



Potentilla. 



Plants of the several kinds of Potentilla may be raised from 

 seed in October, and kept with no great difficulty through the 

 following Hot season j but the poor flowers they produce, if they 

 blossom at all, are hardly worth taking the trouble for. 



Geum. 



G. atrosanguineum. Bears large blood-red strawberry-blossom- 

 like flowers ; but though raised easily from seed and kept from 

 one Cold season to another, in the vicinity of Calcutta seldom 

 or never blossoms. 



Kerria. 



K. Japonica. A twiggy description of shrub, usually grown 

 nailed to walls in England, but never rising to more than a foot 

 or so high here. Flowers in the form of a ball, of moderate 

 size, very double, and bright yellow; not a very ornamental 

 plant anywhere, and far from being so in this climate, where it 

 thrives but indifferently. 



Spiraea. 



This genus contains the old familiar Meadow-Sweet of our 



