a 
— 
284 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 
[Max 2, 
ose-coloured flowers from June until | carried round the upright stakes, so as to form a cylinder | 
d 
brigh 
September. Its ready growth in common soils renders 
it specially adapted for portable specimens in pots, or 
slate boxes, to be placed on sheltered balconies, or for 
terraces and drawing-room entrances. Its decumbent 
growth is also advantageously displayed on the margin 
of classic flower-vases, and skirting the base of rock- 
work, offering an appropriate contrast to its worthy 
rival Lobelia erinus. 
When allowed to continue its naturally attenuate 
growth, it is peculiarly adapted for softening the sharp 
and rugged outline of massive grotto-work (where it 
has sufficient soil), by its comparatively slender but 
wiry stems being less injured by the wind than others 
of a more brittle or succulent character ; and lastly, it 
forms a charming object when planted upon partially 
elevated mounds of blue concrete or iron-stone (in the 
open borders), where, if permitted to gain an autumnal 
growth previous to its formation of flower-buds for the 
ensuing season, it amply repays the cultivator by its 
increased vigour and multiplicity of lively blossoms. 
Thus treated, it appears in “its own place,” gay an 
effective. 
8. Oxalis floribunda.—Were I desired to select the 
most picturesque plant, yielding a long-continued and 
profuse erop of flowers without artifical attention to its 
after-growth, I should without hesitation fix upon this. 
Tt is a dwarf, tuberous, herbaceous plant, rising from 
2 to 4 inches in height, each plant forming a terminal 
crown of leaves (similar to a small-growing Clover), 
from the centre of which arises a profusion of bright 
l 1 flowers, inui in ion from 
June until September. : 
The principal precaution required for its successful 
management consists in adapting the soil to the 
tuberous strueture of its roots, which differ from most 
others in their thick, fleshy, unbranched form, capable 
of absorbing an excessive amount of fluid, beyond what 
is required for the support of the simple crown of 
leaves upon their summit. Stiff and retentive soils 
(when not absolutely cold) are generally favourable to 
an excess of growth, and vice versa, A diminished cir- 
culation of fluid, by a restricted supply of nutritive 
stimulants, or by a lower temperature, less favourable 
to growth, are necessary means to be taken where great 
fertility is sought, especially in those plants whose 
organs (whether roots or otherwise), are remarkably 
adapted for assimilating an excess of food under ordi- 
nary means of culture. 
As a general rule, the amount of soil, and'the nutri- 
tive properties which it contains (when applied to plants) 
should always bear a strict relation to the extent o 
growth which they are capable of maturing during the 
current year. Every degree beyond this is an evil, 
which lessens the vital energy of their organs. 
To induce greater fertility in the plant to which these 
remarks refer, an artificial soil should be prepared in 
equal portions of old light garden-loam, heath mould, 
and well washed river or silver sand, and well incor- 
porated with finely broken brick refuse, equal to one- 
third of the whole amount. Thus treated it forms a 
very beautiful object, either for edging or in the parterre, 
and when seen expanding its bright blossoms for suc- 
cessive weeks, it appears as one of the few objects of 
which it may be remarked, that it has “few equals, and 
no superiors.” In common with some others, this in- 
teresting plant is much degenerated by the inferior 
varieties from seed which have almost supplanted the 
original species, the former being much less compact in 
their growth, and less brilliant in their flowers. The 
latter is known by its leaves being not more than from 
two to three inches in length, and by its flowers being 
uniformly circular, and firm in their texture, varying 
from bright to darker shades of rose colour, and, when 
found in favourable situations, the profusion of bloom 
almost covers the foliag: W.Wood, Pine-apple-place. 
FANCY TRAINING. 
(Continued from page 268.) 
No. 5.—Pear, 7 ft. high ; hoop, 2 ft. 6 in, diameter. 
I f 
HESS 
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fyained in the descending form, but the branches not 
brought exclusively from the top, and in the iraining 
¢| I have grown the Golden Drop Plum in 
when finished. 
No. 6.—Any kind of fruit tree, same height and 
diameter as No. 5. 
7 
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Trained with the branches ascending, and in about 
three tiers, in order to get the figure completed sooner 
than if the bottom branches alone were to complete the 
whole cylinder. 
No. 7.—For any fruit tree except a Plum, which 
does not like its branches to be subjected to such 
sudden bends ; the Plum-trees may be trained in this 
iy, if wished. 
his method of training has a good appearance, and 
is very productive of fruit. It has also 
this advantage : being so narrow, in all 
notabove a foot or 14 inches wide, even 
when in leaf, it can be placed at intervals 
along a south border, in front of a Peach 
wall; may be 6 feet distance from the 
wall without casting any shade to injure 
the fruit on the wall, and itself deriving 
the greatest advantage from the radiation. 
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this way that has ripened full a week 
and even 10 days earlier than the same 
kind of Plum grown upon a wall with an 
east aspect, and not 20 yards distance 
from the pole thus spoken of. 
A single Larch or other pole 7 feet 
high, 4 or 5 inches’ in diameter at the 
bottom. Tree trained with two branches 
twisted round the pole, and spurred, or 
suffered to have short depending branches, 
if the tree be a Maria Louise Pear, or 
other sort bearing from the termination jy 
of such kind of wood. The convenience 
of having two branches trained up the 
pole is that you may be continually using 
one of them as the means of a supply of 
young wood, without at any time de- — 
nuding the pole. The pole should be charred for a 
space of 18 inches where it meets the ground (1 foot 
under and 6 inches above the surface). 
Ne. 8.—For any kind of fruit tree. 
A centre stake and four outside stakes, of small dimen- 
sions, The four out- 
side stakes, placed 
about 2 ft. 6 in. from 
each other, and 20 
inches from the centre 
stake; where the tree 
is planted. Height, 
7 ft. Spurs should be 
encouraged very much 
on the ascending or 
mainbranch. Another 
way of treating ‘the 
n 
upright stem—which 
looks well also—and is 
a little variety from 
the usual way of 
furnishing ^ bearing 
wood thereon by spurs, 
is by turning down cer- 
tain side boughs (as 
hererepresented), into, | bes 
the form of garlands, 
observing to make the 
shoots take a, descend- 
ing form instead of 
an ascending one. 
THE AMATEUR GARDENER. 
Insects.—The cultivatorsjof the soil both on a large 
and small scale require a considerable portion of 
patience, since their efforts are continually opposed by 
tribe: depred h season brings 
with it peculiar enemies, whose attacks will soon over- 
turn ‘the efforts of labour, and taste, and skill, unless 
they are diligently guarded against. Birds will rob you 
of all your seeds before one is allowed to germinate ; 
cats will disfigure your fl beds and most provokingly 
scratch up young plants, however choice they may be ; 
hares and rabbits will nibble off Carnations and Pinks, 
leaving only some unsightly stumps; and moles will. 
form miniature tunnels under the roots of Roses, &c. 
On the morning in which I am now writing, the last 
pest has regularly ploughed through my only Ranun- 
culus bed, and has turned topsy-turvy some of the best 
roots. Lastly, the noble race of man will often sadly 
perplex the amateur gardener. Children do not hesi- 
tate sometimes to run over a flower-bed in search of a 
ball; and adults who are ignorant of the mysteries of 
floriculture, often leave their odious footprints on spots- 
where tender seedlings are just coming up. Verily, we 
need the patience of Job in the midst of such repeated 
and constant inflictions. 
Long as the above catalogue is, it includes only a few 
advanced skirmishes of the camp of the enemy, for 
myriads of insects are always pursuing their destructive 
tactics in a greater or less degree. How can the pen 
adequately describe the mischiefs wrought by the slimy 
race of slugs and snails? In frosty weather, indeed,, 
these ruthless foes disappear, or a long drought may 
seem to have driven them away, but let a mild day 
visit us even in the {middle of winter, or a shower of 
rain lay the dust of summer, and there they are, de- 
vouring all before them, as if called into new life. Woe 
be to the florist in whose frame two or three slugs lie 
concealed. How often has one, in a single night, marred 
the labour of months. Then come ‘the woodlice, hav- 
ing a fine taste for all that is tender in vegetation, from 
the cotyledons ‘of seedling Ranunculuses to the petals. 
of Roses. Earwigs hide their detested shapes in every 
hole and corner, and, assassin like, deal their deadly 
bites under the cover of darkness. Red spiders and 
the green fly bring up the rear, and with wounderful 
fecundity niultiply by thousands in a day, till the un- 
happy gardener is almost at his wits end. 
The above are all either dwellers on the surface of 
the ground, or carry on their operations there: but 
there are other insects, whose attacks are concealed 
beneath the soil, and which it is still more difficult to 
guard against. In the early spring, the wireworm 
saws away at the lower stems of Pansies and Carna- 
tions, and we know nothing of the matter till the wither- 
ing of the whole plants makes us acquainted with our 
loss. Through all the year, larvee of various kinds thus 
blast the hopes of the cultivator by undermining or 
destroying the roots. In short, the attacks of enemies. 
are constant, and therefore war must be interminable. 
A gardener must necessarily be a great destroyer of 
life, or that life, if spared, will soon destroy him. You. 
must indulge no i l notions pecting the 
happiness the poor insects enjoy, and of which you are 
about to deprive them ; nor must you entertain trans- 
cendental or metaphysical opinions as to their capacity 
for pain. The sentiment of the gentle Cowper respect- 
ing the impunity to be granted to the snail who crawls 
in the evening on the garden path, is generally good, 
but by the floristlit will be received cum grano; nor 
will the dietum of the immortal Shakspeare be reduced 
to praetice, when he tells us the beetle feels as mueh 
* as when a giant dies.” Such theories cannot stand in 
the way of practical utility, and if gardens are to 
flourish either for beauty or usefulness, the insect 
tribes must die. Young gardeners are often very 
squeamish on these matters, and certainly great snails, 
with their houses on their backs, are rather awkward 
things to kill. But the more you kill, the sooner the 
work will be done, and by industry and perseverance, 
ou may soon be relieved (as far as snails are concerned), 
from the task of killing at all. 
As very minute and interesting descriptions of all 
these insects have appeared in former Numbers of the 
Chronicle, I shall not enter into their natural history ; 
I shall confine myself to the best methods of extirpa- 
tion, so that the amateur may be assisted in guarding 
himself against the annoyance of loss.—H. B. 
~ ENTOMOLOGY. 
Axryropes Cocois (the Cocoa-nut Aleyrodes.)—There 
is a little white mealy fly which sometimes infests the 
Cabbages, and an allied species has been sent from the 
West Indies, which differs from it in its structure and 
economy. We are indebted to Sir Robert Schomburgk 
for specimens of this curious and destructive insect, the 
publication of whose history will be acceptable to the 
cultivator of exotics, and it is to be hoped that it may 
lead to the discovery of some mode of extirpating it. 
Sir Robert says “On my arrival in Barbadoes, I was 
forcibly struck with the withered appearance of the 
Cocoa-nut trees, and I have since been told that a dis- 
ease is prevailing amongst them which threatens to 
destroy all the Cocoa-nut trees in the island. This re- 
markable disease showed itself in the island after the 
fatal hurrieane in 1831, and. there are only a few trees 
which are not afflicted by it. It is no doubt to be as- 
eribed to an insect allied to Aleyrodes. A great many 
of the plantations of Cocoa-nut trees which formerly 
yielded an income of 2007. or 3007. per annum have 
not a single tree which bears fruit. The lower leaves 
die first and fali off, the flowers follow, or if nuts should 
have beer, formed they dwindle away and do not arrive 
at maxurity ; ultimately the budding leaves are attacked, 
cx the crown drops off, leaving the withered trunk.’ 
