TEA 



[787] 



TEA:, 



surface of the leaves required for the 

 digestion of the juices. 



The position of the branches is im- 

 portant, because, if trained against a 

 waii, they obtain a higher temperature 

 and protection from winds ; and if trained 

 with their points below the horizontal 

 the return of the sap is checked. Shy- 

 flowering shrubs, as Di'placus puni'ceus, 

 are made to blossom abundantly, and 

 freely -flowering shrubs, as Cy 'tis us hy'- 

 bridus, are made to blossom earlier, by 

 having their branches bent below the 

 horizontal line. 



The reason of this appears in the fact, 

 that a plant propels its sap with greatest 

 force perpendicularly, so much so that 

 the sap rising in a vine branch growing 

 in a right line from the root, with a force 

 capable of sustaining a column of mercury 

 twenty-eight inches high, will, if the 

 branch be bent down to a right angle, 

 support barely twenty-three inches, and 

 if bent a few degrees below the horizontal 

 the column sustained will not be more 

 than twenty - one 

 inches. This is the 

 reason why, at such 

 angles, gardeners 

 find the trained 

 branches of their 

 wall-trees rendered 

 more productive of 

 blossoms, and fur- 

 nished with a small- 

 er surface of leaves. 

 A similar effect is 

 produced by train- 

 ing a branch in a 

 waving form, for 

 two-thirds of its 

 length are placed 

 horizontally, as in 

 the accompanying outline. 



Besides the usual modes of training 

 for which see also ESPALIERS and STAND- 

 ARDS there are two other modes which 

 deserve notice. 



Quenouille Training consists in training 

 one upright central shoot in summer, 

 and shortening it down to fifteen inches 

 at the winter pruning, in order that it 

 may, at that height, produce branches 

 forming a tier, to be trained, in the first 

 instance, horizontally. The shoot pro- 

 duced by the uppermost bud is, however, 

 trained as upright as possible during the 

 summer, and is cut back, so as to produce 

 another tier fifteen inches above the first, 



and so on until the tree has reached the 

 desired height. In this climate it is 

 necessary to train the shoot downwards, 

 which is easily done by tying those of the 

 first tier to short stakes, those of each 

 successive tier being fastened to the 

 branches below them. When the shoots 

 are thus arched downwards at full length, 

 or nearly so, they soon come into a bear- 

 ing state ; but in this climate, if cut short, 

 as the French do, they only send up a 

 number of shoots annually. The plan 

 answers very well where it can be at all 

 times properly attended to; but if this 

 cannot be guaranteed, the ordinary form 

 of dwarf is preferable. Quenouille s re- 

 quire more time to be devoted to them 

 than espaliers. 



Balloon Training is forcing downwards 

 all the branches of standard trees till the 

 points touch the earth, and they have the 

 merit of producing large crops of fruit 

 in a very small compass. Their upper 

 parts are, however, too much exposed to 

 radiation at night, and the crop from that 

 part of the branches is apt to be cut off. 



TRANSPLANTING is most successfully 

 performed whenever the roots are least 

 required for supplying the leaves with 

 moisture. The reason is obvious, because 

 the roots are always in some degree broken, 

 and lessened in their absorbing power, 

 by the process of removal. That such is 

 the rationale of seasonable transplanting 

 is proved by the fact, that plants in pots, 

 with reasonable care, may be transplanted 

 at any season. This rule, too, is sanctioned 

 both by theory and practice transplant 

 as early as possible after the leaves cease 

 to require a supply of sap ; the reason for 

 which is, that the vital powers in the roots 

 continue active long after they have be- 

 come torpid in the branches, and fresh 

 roots are formed during the autumn and 

 winter to succeed those destroyed by 

 transplanting. 



For transplanting most deciduous trees 

 and shrubs October and November are 

 the most successful months. In trans- 

 planting evergreens, Mr. Beaton says : I 

 do not now concur in the general belief ; 

 that autumn is the best time to plant all 

 kinds of evergreens indiscriminately. I 

 have planted evergreens every week in 

 the year, more from necessity than choice 

 it is true, but still the result of the whole 

 convinces me that a dogmatic adherence 

 r,o this or that given period of the year is 

 just as bad and unphilosophical as the 



