MCS 



[ 549 ] 



MOT 



regular but not excessive supply of mois 

 ture, with a partial deprivation of light 

 for awhile. They will need the ordinary 

 routine of transplanting, &c., afterwards. 



Culture during the Growing Period. In 

 the standard state little or nothing can be 

 done ; but those trained on walls or fences 

 must have some assistance. It must be 

 kept in view, that the mulberry produces 

 fruit both on short-jointed young wood 

 and on spurs, and that fruit must not 

 be looked for from luxuriant shoots. The 

 summer's dressing must consist in thin- 

 ning-out and stopping the grosser shoots 

 in crowded situations, observing a regu- 

 larity in their distances for the admission 

 of sunlight. We would advise much stop- 

 ping in preference to much disbudding, 

 as such parts may form a nucleous for 

 future spurs ; and if they turn out barren, 

 it will be easy to remove them totally in 

 the succeeding year. The mulberry, when 

 trained, will extend a great way ; and re- 

 gular training, as the shoots extend, must 

 be practised. 



Culture during the Rest Period. Some 

 pruning is occasionally of benefit, even to 

 standard treej, but it can be merely thin- 

 ning out cross-shoots on those parts of 

 the tree which are too crowded. The 

 shady side of the tree, too, may be kept 

 thinner than the suniiy side ; and watery 

 spray springing from the branches in the 

 interior may be removed. Those trained 

 must have superfluous shoots and barren 

 snags or spurs removed ; but no shorten- 

 ing back is necessary. 



Soil. Any ordinary garden or field- 

 soil will do for them, if not too clayey ; 

 for they rather prefer an upland or mel- 

 low soil, which should be of a generous 

 character, but not enriched with manures 

 until they get rather old and cease pro- 

 ducing luxuriant wood, when a rich, mel- 

 low compost, as top-dressing occasionally, 

 will much benefit them. 



Forcing. The mulberry bears forcing 

 excellently, and will ripen its fruit early 

 in June. It will bear a very high tempe- 

 rature. It may also be grown of a dwarf 

 size in pots, and be thus forced. 



MOSCHA'RIA. (From moschos, musk; a 

 musk-smelling plant. Nat. ord., Com- 

 pnx'ites [Asteracese]. Linn., W-Syngenesia 

 I-jKqttalis.) 



Hardy annual. Seeds in a slight hotbed, in 

 April ; seedlings harden off, and transplant in 

 oncn borders, in May. 

 M. pinnati'fida(leaifiet-cvii-leaved). i. July. Chili. 



MOSCHO'SMA. (From moschos, musk, 

 and osme, smell. Nat. ord., Labiates 

 [Lamiacese]. Linn., l^-Didynamia 1- 

 Gymnospermia. Allied to Ocymum.) 



Tender annual. Seeds in a hotbed, in begin- 

 ning of April ; seedlings potted and grown in 

 greenhouse in summer, or placed in the open 

 border in June, in a sheltered situation ; light, 

 rich, sandy soil. 



M, ocymoi'des (ocymum-like). 1$. White. Au- 

 gust. 1823. 



Moss is useful to the gardener for 

 packing round the roots of plants; and 

 even some bulbous roots and orchids are 

 cultivated in it ; but when it infests the 

 trunks of trees, or our lawns, it is one of 

 the gardener's pests. 



Mossy lawns are on a soil which is 

 unable to support a green sward of grass. 

 When soil is exhausted, grasses begin to 

 die off, and their place is taken by moss- 

 The obvious mode, then, of proceeding, 

 is to give the lawn a good top-dressing in 

 winter, either of malt-dust, or nitrate of 

 soda, or soot, or any manure containing 

 an abundance of alkali. The gardener 

 finds the growth of moss arrested by 

 frequent raking in wet weather, or by the 

 application of pounded oyster-shells ; but 

 these are mere palliatives, and not reme- 

 dies. Make your grass healthy, and it 

 will soon smother the moss. 



The most effectual, most salutary, and 

 least disagreeable remedy for moss on 

 trees is of trivial expense, and which a 

 gardener need but try upon one indi- 

 vidual to insure its adoption. It is with 

 a hard scrubbing-brush, dipped in a 

 strong brine of common salt as often as 

 necessary, to insure each portion of the 

 bark being moistened with it, to scrub the 

 trunks and branches of his trees at least 

 every second year. It most effectually 

 destroys insects of all kinds, and moss ; 

 and the stimulating influence of the 

 application, and the friction, are produc- 

 tive of the most beneficial effects. The 

 expense is not so much as that of dress- 

 ing the trunks with a solution of lime, 

 which, however efficient in the destruction 

 of moss, is not so in the removal of in- 

 sects, and is highly injurious to the treos, 

 by filling up the respiratory pores of the 

 epidermis, and is decidedly a promoter of 

 canker. 



On yravel walks, a strong solution of 

 sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) has 

 been found the most effectual destroyer of 

 moss. 



MOTH. Verba'scum Ualla'ria- 



