FOR 



[ 395 } 



FOE 



ably. Rarity is good, but excellence is 

 best. 



FORE-EIGHT SHOOTS are the shoots 

 which are emitted directly in front of 

 branches trained against a wall, and 

 consequently cannot be trained in with- 

 out an acute bending, which is always 

 in some degree injurious. 



FORE - SHORTENING. A method of 

 pruning back fruit-trees in summer, 

 and of pruning forest trees at any time, 

 by which the lower branches are short- 

 ened, without removing them altoge- 

 ther. 



FORGET-ME-NOT. Myoso'tls pahcstris. 

 FORK. This instrument is preferable 

 to the spade, even for digging over 

 open compartments, for the soil can be 

 reversed with it as easily as 

 with the spade ; the labour is 

 diminished, and the pulverisa- 

 tion of the soil is more effec- 

 tual. (See Digging.') For stir- 

 ling the soil in plantations, 

 shrubberies, and fruit borders, 

 a two-pronged fork is often 

 employed, but that with three 

 prongs is quite as unobjection- 

 able, and a multiplicity of tools 

 is an expensive folly. The ac- 

 companying is a sketch of 

 what is termed Dr. Yellojy's 

 fork, and is certainly a good 

 working implement. Entire 

 length, three feet three and a 

 half inches ; handle's length, 

 two feet two inches ; its dia- 

 meter one and a half inch; 

 width of the entire prongs 

 seven inches at the top; width 

 at the points six inches ; prongs thir- 

 teen and a half inches long, and at the 

 top seven-eighths of an inch square, 

 tapering to a point. The straps fixing 

 the head to the handle are eleven 

 inches long, two inches wide, and half 

 an inch thick, feathering off; weight of 

 fork, eight pounds. 



Leaf-fork. Mr. Toward, of Bagshot 

 Park, describes a very serviceable im- 

 plement of this kind ; he says : One 

 person with this implement will take 

 up with greater facility more leaves 

 than two persons could do with any 

 other tool. It is simply a large four- 

 tined fork, made of wood, shod with 



iron ; the tines are eighteen inches 

 long, and are morticed into a head 

 about seventeen inches long, and one 

 and a half inch by two and a quarter 

 inches thick. The tines are one inch 

 in width, and one and a half inch in 

 depth at the head, gradually tapering 

 to a point with a curve or bend up- 

 wards. The wood of which they are 

 formed ought to be hard and tough ; 

 either oak or ash will do, but the 

 Robinia Pseudo-Acacia is preferable to 

 either. The head should be made of 

 ash, with a handle of the same, and 

 should be two feet four inches long. 

 Its recommendations are its size and 

 lightness, the leaves also do not hang 

 upon it as on a common fork, the large 

 size of the tines tearing them asunder. 



FORMI'CA. See Ant. 



FORSY'THIA. (In honour of Mr. For- 

 syth, royal gardener at Kensington. 

 Nat. ord., Oliveworts [Oleacere]. Linn., 

 2-Diandria l-Monogynia. Allied to Fon- 

 tanesia.) 



Hardy deciduous shrubs. Cuttings or layers ; 

 common sandy loam. F. viridissima requires a 

 little protection. 



F. suspe'nsa (hanging-down). Yellow. Japan. 

 viridi'ssima (greenest). 10. Yellow. March. 

 North China. 1845. 



FORSYTH'S PLAISTER for healing the 

 wounds and restoring to vigour decayed 

 trees, was as follows : One bushel of 

 fresh cowdung ; half a bushel of lime 

 rubbish, that from ceilings of rooms is 

 preferable, or powdered chalk ; half a 

 bushel of wood ashes ; one-sixteenth of 

 a bushel of sand ; the three last to be 

 sifted fine. The whole to be mixed 

 and beaten together until they form a 

 fine plaister. There is nothing in this 

 compound sufficiently differing from 

 others recommended by his contem-^ 

 poraries and predecessors to have en- 

 titled him to call it his invention. 



FORTUN^'A. (Named in compliment 

 to Mr. Fortune, botanical collector in 

 China. Nat. ord., Juglands [Juglan- 

 dacese]. Linn., 2l-Moncecla Q-Poly- 

 andria. ) 



A curious plant with the aspect of a Sumach. 

 By seeds, and probably by grafting on smaller 

 species of the Walnut and Hickory. Likely to 

 prove hardy. 



F. Chine'nsis (Chinese). 30. Green. June. 

 North China. 1844. 



