Popular Errors respecting Trees. 51 



checked by frost ; and its lateral brandies will continue to 

 open a leaf or two after a few warm days of such weather as 

 we had in December or January. 



But this is quite a different thing from the bursting of the 

 buds which have been formed for the succeeding year. 

 These are not so easily started into growth. A week, a 

 fortnight, or even a month of warm weather in December, 

 would have little or no effect upon them. It is their season 

 of rest ; and warm or cold, dry or wet, it requires a vftst 

 amount of heat to produce the least perceptible swelling of 

 the buds. Cultivators who have had plants to manage in 

 greenhouses, will at once state how difficult it is to force 

 plants into growth in winter. 



Take as an example the lilac, which is one of the most ea- 

 sily excited, — and which, by the way, we never saw swollen in 

 the least, though we have hundreds, and have closely exam- 

 ined them. On the first of December we potted four plants, 

 and immediately placed them in a shed for a week, close by 

 the furnace ; they were then removed to the stove or hot- 

 house; (not greenhouse,) where the temperature was from 50 

 to 60° at night, and from 65 to 90° during the day ; they 

 were kept constantly watered and syringed, yet they showed 

 no signs of swelling till the 1st of January, just four weeks 

 from the time of potting. 



Take another plant, the new double Japan Spiraea. In 

 October, after the first white frost, nearly all the plants in a 

 row, a hundred feet long, expanded more or less of their 

 beautiful snowy blossoms. This was undoubtedly owing to 

 the dry summer, which brought on a premature rest; but 

 the heavy rains of September started them into growth and 

 bloom. On the 1st of November, several of them were 

 taken up and potted. After standing in a shady place in the 

 open air for a fortnight, they were taken into the stove. 

 Here, with constant syringing, and in the same temperature 

 as the lilacs, they did not open their buds till January, eight 

 weeks after they were potted! 



Cultivators who grow grapes in greenhouses will testify to 

 the difficulty in attempting to force the vines hito leaf before 



