GARDENING TERMS EXPLAINED 513 



Moulding up. This term is partially described under the heading 

 "Blanching," but not fully. Moulding up is usually done to breadths 

 of Potatoes, yet without any intention to blanch the stems. The 

 primary object is to keep the newly-forming tubers excluded from light 

 and air, as when exposed they become green and hot, and quite unfit 

 for food. Potato rows should be planted wide enough apart for suffi- 

 cient soil to be drawn from between the rows up to the stem of the 

 plants, to a height of about 4 inches, as then the tubers are well 

 covered. Celery is usually moulded up, but in that case to blanch the 

 stems. Earth is sometimes drawn up to rows of Peas and Beans, and 

 to Cabbages, to help to protect the stems. Tea Roses are often 

 moulded up to a height of some 6 inches early in the winter to prevent 

 injury from frost. Mould is another name for soil, and moulded up 

 means earthed up. 



Own Root. The practice in gardening, and especially in nurseries, 

 of propagating so many things by the artificial process of budding, graft- 

 ing, &c., has made the "own root" needful to distinguish certain 

 plants or things that may be increased by cuttings, layers, suckers, or 

 seed, from similar things worked on other roots or stocks. Thus it is 

 the practice to bud Roses largely, far more widely indeed than it is the 

 rule to raise them by cuttings or layers. When therefore plants so 

 raised are required, it is usual to refer to them as on their own roots. 

 Some Roses when budded suffer from the free growing stocks, producing 

 an abundance of suckers. Roses, however, on their own roots increase 

 in beauty when they produce suckers, as these help to make strong 

 growing bushes. Some Apples are obtained on their own roots, but not 

 many. Fruit trees rarely root as cuttings, hence the scarcity of own 

 root trees, but flowering shrubs should be raised more in this way. 



Peat. For potting purposes this is a form of soil indispensable to 

 certain plants commonly called " hard-wooded '' or shrubby, such as 

 Camellias, Azaleas, Heaths, and others, but it is not at all necessary 

 in the potting of the greater number of plants usually grown in green- 

 houses. Peat is a vegetable product, as its texture shows, being com- 

 posed so largely of vegetable fibre, root, or decayed vegetable life, and is 

 generally associated with bogs or dried bogs. It should be dug out in 

 sods or spits 6 inches deep, and stacked in heaps for several months to 

 sweeten before it is used for potting. There is always associated with 

 it a moderate quantity of sand. Rock or bog plants naturally prefer 

 it, and in constructing rock work a good proportion of peat should be 

 used when it is intended to grow on it such plants as prefer that soil. 

 Generally in potting, when used with loam, it is in the proportion of 

 one-half. 



Pip. This term has two distinct meanings, one of which applies to 

 seeds, the other to flowers. The seeds so designated are chiefly those 

 of Apples and Pears, which they very much resemble in form, and have 

 from time immemorial been thus designated. But in relation to flowers 

 the term is chiefly used to indicate the individual flowers which go to 

 form a cluster or truss. Thus Pelargoniums, or, as generally called, 



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