GARDENING TERMS EXPLAINED 505 



carefully taken out with the point of a sharp knife, but the bud germ 

 must remain intact in the bud. In budding the same freedom of sap 

 flow is essential in the stock. 



Bulbs- It is a common error to assume that all roundish roots are 

 bulbs. Thus many class Crocus, Gladiolus, and other hard round roots 

 as bulbs. They are, however, simply corms, and they differ very much 

 from bulbs. A Hyacinth has a true bulb root, because it consists of a 

 series of layers or circles of flesh or scales that enclose the growing 

 germ. Lilies have bulbs, but these are composed of masses of small 

 or separate scales, all attached to the centre by their bases. These two 

 are excellent examples of true bulbs. In vegetables, Turnips, though 

 of bulbous form, are solid masses of flesh only. On the other hand, 

 Onions are true bulbs. 



Compost. This is a gardener's term for any combination of soils 

 and manure. Whilst generally applied to soil used for potting plants, 

 it is equally used where Vine, Peach, or other special borders are 

 being prepared, of which the natural soil is not sufficiently good, and 

 a combination of soils is prepared. An ordinary soil compost usually 

 consists of good loam, well-decayed leaf soil, old hot-bed manure, 

 and sharp white sand, in diverse proportions, and well mixed. 

 Gardeners and florists of old once held that such strong elements as 

 dried blood, and other noxious matters, were good plant foods, but 

 these views are not held now. Everything forming soil composts 

 should be sweet, free from insect life, and thoroughly aerated. Such 

 composts should not be allowed to become saturated with heavy rains. 



Cordon. This term is more commonly used in gardens in relation 

 to trees, but it must not be compared with the term cordon as used in 

 military language. In the garden sense it implies a single stem alone ; 

 and if there be more than one stem, then the trees are called double or 

 treble cordons. Many fruit trees are now grown as cordons, especially 

 Apples, Pears, and Cherries. Any fruit that will bear hard pinching 

 of the side roots makes a cordon. Gooseberries also make capital 

 cordons. The trees are grown with the one main stem or single 

 cordons, and side shoots, as they are thrown out, are pinched or pruned 

 in, so as to induce the formation of fruit spurs, as without these there 

 can be no fruitfulness. Some cordons are trained to walls, some to 

 trellises in the open ground, and some to stout wires fixed 1 2 inches 

 from the ground, and called horizontal. In planting against walls or 

 trellises, it is customary to run the stems in a slanting direction to give 

 them greater length. 



Cross Fertilisation. This term applies in all cases in which the 

 pollen of one plant, if a separate and distinct variety, be used to fertilise 

 the productive organs or pistil of another variety of the same species. 

 Thus cross fertilisation is practised by raisers of Sweet Peas, Edible 

 Peas, Potatoes, Begonias, Chinese Primroses, and indeed many things 

 growing in gardens, of which it may be desired to raise in that way 

 some new and better varieties. Flowers possess generally what are 

 commonly described as male and female organs. Thus the male element 



