774 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



mould, sand, or moss nearly to the level of the pavement, so that each tree so placed and dressed, will ap- 

 pear as if planted in a small compartment of earth. Such is the plan of the large conservatory in the 

 royal gardens at Monza. The walk, unless where a stage is adopted, should be in the front of the house, with 

 corresponding doors in each end ; but where the trees are young, and placed on a stage like green-house 

 plants, the walk should be in front, as in no other situation could the eye of the spectator meet the foliage 

 of the plants. Where the walk is in the middle, and a double row of trees on each side as at Monza, the 

 effect in winter is truly magnificent and gratifying. 



5930. Where the trees are to be planted as standards in the borders or floor of the house, it is essentially 

 requisite to the health and beauty of the plants that the building be glazed on all sides, (fig. 521.) 

 Showers might be supplied in Loddige's manner ; heat by steam or flues (fig. 522. ) and in winter, the 

 beds (b) might be covered with turf, strewed with daisies, violets, and primroses ; these .would come early 



into flower, and if the turf were kept very short about the roots of the flowering plants, and the trees in 

 excellent condition, only those who have seen the first-rate, regularly planted, standard orange-groves of 

 Nervi could form an idea of the effect, which, by contrast with the external winter, would be felt as lux- 

 urious and as anticipating real spring. 



5931. Where orange-trees are to be trained against the .back wall or a trellis, under the glass, the forms 

 adopted for common peach-houses or vineries are perfectly suitable ; but as by training close under the 

 glass, as is done with vines, much of the beauty of the foliage would be lost, training on a trellis a few feet 

 distant, with a path between it and the glass, is preferable. 



5932. Plans for tubs, pots, and boxes. Unglazed pots of earthenware are preferable to glazed stone ware 

 or China pots ; the form need not be different from that in common use, and the size must depend on that 

 of the plants. At Florence, where the largest and best garden-pots in Europe are made, the rim and part of 

 the outside of pots destined for oranges and ornamental plants, are often decorated with festoons of flowers 

 or fruit, and lions' heads, or other ornaments ; which some potters near London have begun to imitate. 



5933. Ti/fomay be of any size, and in these and in boxes, trees thrive better than in pots. One advan- 

 tage of tubs is, that by unhooping them, the staves are instantly removed, and the roots examined and 

 dressed, and by having a copper at hand they are immediately replaced ; thus saving much of the trouble 

 necessarily incurred in shifting plants in pots or boxes. 



5934. Boxes. All boxes which are larger than the largest-sized pots, should be contrived to take to 

 nieces, in order to examine the roots, or to shift into larger boxes. Square boxes held together by an iron 

 hoop, and taking to pieces on the principle of tubs, are most convenient for trees which do not require 

 more than five or ten cubic feet of earth ; and such as are used at the Tuilleries and by Mean (figs. 177 

 to 179.) answer very well for plants requiring from ten to sixty cubic feet. Those of Mean contain sixty-four 

 cubic feet of compost. 



5935. Proportioning the site of boxes to that of the plants. The general opinion, of gardeners is in favor 

 of small pots or boxes ; and where the object is dwarf plants, or merely to preserve the trees without much 

 increasing their size or regarding their fruit, they are the most proper. But where the object is luxuriance 

 of growth and fruit, it does appear to us that the pots or boxes cannot be too large ; unless, as Van Osten 

 observes, it is meant to be asserted that plants grow larger in pots than in the free ground. It is, however, 

 expedient to plant at first in small boxes, and remove into larger ones by degrees. The largest boxes in 

 use in Holland and France are four feet square, which serve for trees with stems from six to eight feet 

 high, with globular heads of six feet in diameter, and above a century old. Henderson has " always found 

 that the citrus tribe, and plants in general, grow best in pots or boxes, regarded as rather small in propor- 

 tion to the size of the plants." (Caled. Mem. iii. 303.) 



5936. Choice of sorts. Where the object is more ornament than fruit for the dessert, 

 a selection may be made from the varieties of each species at pleasure ; where the object 

 is fruit for the dessert, the following sorts are to be preferred : the common, bloody- 

 fruited, Bergamot, Maltese, sweet China, Seville, and Mandarin oranges ; the com- 

 mon lemon, citron, and lime, and one or two plants of the shaddock. These include 

 all the essential varieties of the orange tribe as far as respects fruit ; variations in the 

 leaves and mode of growth. 



5937. Choice of plants. For moderate-sized trees to be treated like green-house plants, such as are 

 raised in this country or in the Parisian nurseries are preferable ; but where the object is large handsome 

 trees in boxes, standards in the free soil, or trained trees, then plants from Genoa or Malta are decidedly 

 preferable ; indeed, no plants fitting for the purpose of standards could be elsewhere procured. Miller is 

 of this opinion, observing, that " by much the quicker way of furnishing a green-house with large trees, 

 is to make choice of such as are brought over every year in chests from Italy ; for those which are 

 raised from seeds in England will not grow so larje in their stems under eighteen or twenty years, as 

 those are when brought over ; and although their heads are small when we receive them, yet in three 

 years, with good management, they will obtain large heads, and produce fruit." When the plants are 

 purchased in London, at the Italian warehouses, without names, the greater number will be found to be 

 of the shaddock and citron kinds ; as the Italian gardeners find these sorts make stronger shoots and more 

 showy plants, and therefore send a less number of the less luxuriant but more useful varieties. But the 

 best way is to send an order, through a British merchant who has a correspondent at Genoa, for named 

 sorts, ordering so many of each class, either from the table of Dr. Sickler (4880.) or the synopsis of Gal- 

 lesio. (fig. 4881.) 



5938. Management in pots and boxes. The management of dwarf English or French plants in moderate- 

 sized pots or boxes, for the green-house stage, consists in common green-house treatment. Being potted 

 in the proper soil, the roots are to be annually examined before the growing season in spring, and when 

 matted or diseased, trimmed off and repotted, or shifted into larger pots at discretion. Henderson says, 

 " The general management of the orange-trees from the middle of March till the 1st of October, may be 

 discussed in a few words. I give the trees a good watering all over the leaves once a-week with the en- 

 gine, excepting when they are in flower. Till the end of May this watering is given about 11 o'clock in 

 the forenoon. After the end of May, I give them a good dashing over the leaves twice a-week with the en- 

 gine, and now I do it in the evening. In very hot weather I repeat the engine-watering thrice a-week. 



