150 THE CANADIAN" IIORTICULTUEIST. 



layers will produce a small crop during the first season of planting, 

 I have vines propagated in this way from the Burnet during 1879, 

 from which I had to remove a large number of branches this spring to 

 keep them from over-hearing. No layer-cut, wiring, or any other 

 process is required ; the main feature is not to cover the layer until 

 ^he buds have well started some inches above the ground. 



THE ENGLISH CAEEOT, ( Daucus Carota.) 



BY J. FLETCHER, OTTAWA. 



Eeferring to Mr. Claypole's most interesting note on the English 

 Carrot in the September Horticulturist, I may state that this plant 

 is found as an "escape from cultivation" in several localities round 

 this city; as to its being a "weed" depends upon the meaning attached 

 to that word. The whole of this question would be a most interesting 

 one for the botanical society advertised by the Association last year, 

 and which I am in hopes may still be formed in connection with it. 

 There is no doubt that a knowledge of botany would be of great 

 service to horticulturists. They can do without it, it is true, by 

 profiting by the botanical researches of others, but why not investigate 

 and discover for themselves ? 



There are perhaps no more striking examples of the effects of 

 cultivation of wild plants than are presented by the Carrot and 

 Parsnip. Different as the wild and cultivated forms of both are, they 

 have been proved by experiment to be identical. From the wild, 

 woody root of two or three inches in length and half an inch in 

 diameter, can be produced by the fairy cultivator the fleshy and 

 succulent vegetables we know so well. 



I am afraid the Carrot will not prove such an accomodating visitor 

 •as Mr. Claypole states the Canadian Thistle (Carduus arvense,) has 

 been in his district. The curious birds'-nest shaped umbels of seeds 

 of the Carrot certainly ripen freely here, and the individual seeds, 

 ^although not provided with wings of down, as those of the thistle are, 

 have yet received from Dame Nature ample means of dissemination 

 in the shape of a miniature armament of bristles and hooks, by which 

 they attach themselves to cattle and other objects coming in contact 

 ■with them, and are thus carried in all directions. 



