GARDENING TERMS EXPLAINED 519 



they are supported. The common Foxglove of the woods furnishes 

 another excellent illustration of what a spike is. But " racemes " are 

 large clusters of flowers, which hang somewhat loosely or pendant, 

 such as may be found in Laburnum, Wistaria, Flowering Currant, 

 Fuchsia, Orchids, as the Odontoglossum, and other plants. There is 

 much grace and beauty about a tree or plant that bears racemes, 

 because of their drooping expression. Some plants, such as Sea 

 Lavenders, produce stiff or erect racemes. 



Sport. This term indicates something in plants out of the common, 

 and because so it is held to be a sport or abnormal. Thus there are 

 plants that occasionally break into diverse forms on one or most of 

 their branches. Sports frequently occur in Chrysanthemums, for whilst 

 growth and leafage may not differ, one branch on a plant will produce 

 a flower of totally diverse colour from that of the original. Scores of 

 distinct Chrysanthemums have been in that way created. The change 

 or sport is perhaps due to some retention in the plant of certain 

 characters of its progenitors or parents. Green-leaved Zonal Pelar- 

 goniums used to sport frequently and produce Silver and Golden 

 variegated forms. Fuchsias have done the same thing, producing 

 diverse flowers or foliage. It is very difficult to account for these 

 variations, and because they show certain evidence of what may be 

 called eccentricity in plants, chiefly so because of our ignorance of the 

 causes, these breaks have been called " sports." 



Spurs. This appears to be an odd name to give to any part of a 

 tree, but is a familiar term to gardeners, and means the small clusters 

 of growths which proper pruning or pinching of shoots will promote on 

 tree branches, but will not produce shoots, only flower-buds, or ultimately 

 fruit. A common method of creating spurs on trees is by the process 

 of summer pruning. Thus tree branches which annually throw a lot of 

 summer shoots or growths are seldom fruitful. The gardener seeks to 

 correct that fault by pinching or cutting back these shoots at the end 

 of July or early in August, to some four or five leaf buds. Possibly the 

 first bud will make a little growth. If so, that can be pinched to one 

 leaf. The lower buds, in the meantime, go through a process of change, 

 and partially become converted to fruit buds. If the stump be cut back 

 to two buds only in the next winter, those buds will become fruit buds 

 or spurs the next summer, and the following year will produce bloom 

 and fruit. 



Standard. Whilst this term has usually many uses in gardening, 

 it is almost exclusively applied to those trees or plants that are trained 

 to have heads on a tall clean stem. By clean stem is meant one 

 that is free from stocks or branches for a space of several feet. The 

 standard form is conspicuous in grass fruit orchards, where Apples, 

 Pears, Plums, and Cherry branches are supported on tall clean stems 

 out of the reach of cattle. Half-standards are trees the stems of which 

 are only from 3 to 4 feet in height. These are generally grown in 

 gardens. Fuchsias are often grown as standards, and very handsome 

 they are when in bloom Roses as standards are common, but not 



