,.31—1846.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE, 
515 
RIED PLANTS FROM CHINA.—A few sets of 
the VALUABLE DRIED PLANTS collected in China 
by Mr. Forrouns, may still be procured by applying to R. 
Hewarp, Esq., Young-street, Kensington, London. Among 
them are many new and rare species scarcely known to Euro- 
peans. 
VAN HOUTTE'S NEW VARIETIES OF CHILIAN 
ALSTROIMERIAS. 
OUIS VAN HOUTTE, Fronisr to the Kine, Ghent, 
Mark-lane, London ; or application may be made (post paid) to 
Van HourTE, at Ghent. The deliveries will commence on 
the Ist of August, and the plants forwarded to London free. 
The Rey. Dean of Manchester, speaking of his visit to Mr. 
Van Houtte’s establishment at Ghent (see Gardeners’ Chronicle, 
n ort of the same Journal, on the meeting of the 
Horticultural Society of the 5th August, 1845, is the following 
account of this flower:—‘ Messrs. Van Houtte sent a bouquet 
from Ghent, composed of Alstrcemeria blooms from the open 
ground; they were hybrids of various colours, and although 
Somewhat tarnished by the journey and wet weather, to which 
they were said to have been lately exposed, yet they sufficiently 
showed what beautiful objects large masses of them would be 
in the flower-garden, an. y justified the opinion given of 
them by the Dean of Manchester in a late Number.” 
.B. Each packet contains directions for planting and culti- 
vating them, The usual discount to the trade. 
YNE’S “FORGET-ME-NOT” GERANIUM will 
be sent out in November next. It is much brighter in 
colour than Lyne’s * Duke of Cornwall,” having clear and 
brilliant petals of rich vermilion, with a large and intensely 
possesses all the good properties of ‘* The 
Duke," is a bold trusser, of robust habit, and scarcely, if ever, 
produces an imperfect flower. J can be recommended as one of 
the richest flowers of the day. 
Catalogues and descriptions of Mr. Lyne’s new Seedling 
aniums, are now ready, 
Plymouth, August 1. 
The Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1846. 
Wicus E, RENDLE & Co. 
sy MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
MowpAv, Aug. 8—Entomological .  . . . SPM 
TumspAv, — 4—Horticultural . 0. BPM 
FRIDAY, — 7—Botanical DELE 
"Tur discussion relating to Fruit-tree borders 
recently entered upon, will not be disadvantage- 
ously interrupted by our first adverting to SUMMER 
PnuxiNG—a simple operation calculated to do much 
good or harm according as it is judiciously or in- 
judiciously performed, For it is often the cause of 
a tree becoming weak, although its border has to 
bear the blame, It is certain that the pruning-knife 
unskilfully plied among the shoots of summer will 
injuriously affect roots even in good soil. 
at this season we observe a healthy upright 
growing shoot (we will say of a Pear-tree), it will 
be found furnished with leaves, from the base to the 
point, at distances little more than an inch apart ; 
and in the bosom of each leaf there is a bud more 
or less advanced to maturity. When the leaves 
‘drop before winter, the buds towards the extremity 
are far more prominent than those at the base; and 
generally several of the most prominent push into 
shoots in the following spring. The others keep 
alive but remain in a comparatively dormant state, 
unless excited by a powerful flow of sap towards 
them, which is the case when the upper part of 
the shoot is cut away at the winter pruning. 
Advantageously situated on the thickest part of 
the shoot, these buds near the base, when the flow 
of sap is wholly directed towards them, exhibit a 
Stronger development than would be found in 
the more prominent buds on the upper and weaker 
Portion of the shoot. It will: be observed, that 
although only a few ofthe buds push into shoots in 
the season after they are formed, yet that the others, 
generally, keep alive, slowing progressing, year 
‘alter year, in a horizontal direction, ready to shoot 
forth whenever favourable circumstances arise, If 
‘the shoot should acquire the character of a branch, 
and be then cut back at any Winter pruning, one or 
more of its dormant buds will be forthcoming ; or 
if a stem of great thickness be cut through, the 
portion left will still show, by a fresh development, 
that it has preserved the living principle of the buds 
that were originally formed on the medullary sub- 
Stance of the leafy shoot, : 
Here we remark an admirable : provision of 
Nature. 
hand, if all buds died which did not push, one con | this point. 
poaae would be, that the top of a fruit-tree would 
Scan 
If all the buds, let us say 20, on a shoot universal fact, relating to the Potato disease of last 
year, was, that it did not appear at all, or in a very 
» a second production would inconsiderable degree, in genuine peat or “ moss” 
number 400 on an axis only 2 feet in length ; and land, which appeared to have some power of keep- 
thus instead of a stately clean-stemmed tree, an | ing off the decay. What we now are desirous of 
Impenetrable thicket would be formed as is the knowing is, whether the experience of our readers 
Case in those monstrous wig-like clusters of branches tells them that the same rule holds good this year ? 
ty foliage at the extremities would Scarcely | absolutely necessary to rob a pasture of its turf) ; yet, 
save from drying up. But we find no such bungling 
in the works of the création ; buds are found every- 
where, and although dormant for years yet hold 
themselves in readiness to act whenever their 
services are required. 
There is a reciprocal action between roots 
and leaves; and although either organ may 
exist and act, for a time, independently of the 
other, yet that action will gradually diminish, 
and the parts left without their coadjutors’ must 
ultimately perish. When, under favourable cir- 
cumstances, the communication between the roots 
and leaves is uninterrupted, the action and 
reaction are carried on more powerfully than can 
easily be imagined. The mechanical force alone 
ted with the pl must be very 
considerable. Some idea of this may be formed 
from the quantity of water which a tree pumps 
from the soil in a dry day. But something more 
precise will be found on referring to the * Theory of 
Horticulture," p. 45,where an experiment by HALES 
is detailed, and illustrated by an engraving. A 
root, only half an inch in diameter, of a Pear tree 
was laid bare, the end cut off, and the stump en- 
closed in a glass tube, cemented round at top, then 
filled up with water and inverted into a cistern of 
mercury. In six minutes time the water was taken 
up to an extent that permitted the mercury to rise 
8 inches. Allowing 30 inches of mercury to equal 
one atmosphere, or the working pressure of some 
steam engines, here was more than one-fourth of 
the above mentioned representative of force, in- 
stantly exerted by a little bit of Pear-tree root. 
The action between the roots and leaves being 
reciprocal and duly balanced, each supplying the 
other with that which they respectively require, it 
is obvious that the destruction of any considerable 
portion ofthe leaves must affect the roots, aud de- 
range the functions of the whole tree, until the equi- 
librium is restored. If to-day a fruit-tree is loaded 
with superabundant shoots, and if to-morrow they 
be all cut closely off, the tree will not recover the 
shock for weeks. The progress of the roots becomes 
arrested, the healthy foliage which invigorated 
them having been removed, Towards autumn the 
roots begin to recover and make fresh spongioles, 
but these, like the shoots then produced, are un- 
substantial, and liable to canker. Soundness of 
tissue is the result of steady growth. When the 
latter is interrupted by the injudicious application 
of the knife, disease will ensue, and the soil, though 
not in fault, may have to bear the blame. 
t no one imagine from what has thus been 
stated, that summer pruning is needless. It must 
be done, and may be easily done well. The young 
leaves on the upper ends of shoots appropriate 
sap fortheir own growth, and return little or nothing 
to the roots; therefore they may be cut off with 
advantage. They are robbers not nurses. Thin- 
ning and farther shortening may afterwards be com- 
menced, and carried on by degrees. As this is 
being proceeded with, the leaves at the bases of the 
shoots will begin to thrive better in consequence of 
more exposure to light and dews, and their gradual 
inerease will compensate for the diminution of 
foliage consequent on the reduction of the shoots. 
It has already been observed that the buds 
at the base of shoots do not readily start unless 
stimulated by cutting down the shoot above them 
atthe winter pruning. In this case other shoots 
are produced ; but in shortening back in summer, 
the lower buds rarely form shoots ; they are only so 
far stimulated as to become fruit-buds, or commence 
the formation of fruit spurs, And it is mainly with 
reference to this fact that summer pruning is im- 
portant to Apple and Pear trees.|| 
We learn that here and there the new PorATors 
have been found, when dug up, to be sprouting 
rom every eye. We have seen nothing of the 
sort ourselves ; and we venture to ask our corre- 
spondents if they have remarked the circumstance. 
t will be a new phase in the Potato constitution 
should this habit prove to be general. The ex- 
pression of our informant is, *the Potatoes before 
they are half grown are all growing again, ‘throwing 
out roots and fibres from the eyes, and forming 
small tubers ; a second generation in the year.” 
We would also make another inquiry. The only 
We should be greatly obliged by information on 
FRUIT TREE BORDERS. 
In order to form a good border (although it is not 
the sods of an old pasture are infinitely superior to any 
other kind of soil. 1st, on account of the large quantity 
of organie matter which they contain ; and 2d, on ac- 
count of their physical properties, which no labour or 
expense on the part of man can equal, and which 
makes “ the cost of them” a matter of mere secondary 
consideration. 
All fertile soils contain from 3 to 10 per cent. of 
organic, and a certain quantity of inorganic matter. In 
the sods of an old pasture, this organic part has been 
found to amount to as much as 25 per cent., which is 
derived chiefly from vegetables and animals, and sup- 
plies by its decay, in contact with the air which easily 
penetrates this kind of soil, much carbonic acid. They 
also contain, as we know all vegetable substances do, a 
considerable quantity of saline and earthy matters, 
which are set free during decomposition, and furnish to 
living plants a portion of their inorganic food. It has 
been said (p. 459), “not that we object to the sods of an 
old pasture, on the contrary, we recognise their excel- 
lence, and admit that they never will be surpassed ; our 
aversion is to the cost of them.” Now, as their excel- 
lence is acknowledged, why are they ranked with the 
composts of the old florists? for I can see no parallel. 
The great evil in regard to the composts of florists was 
their total want of mechanical properties ; whilst these 
very properties constitute the chief excellence of sods. 
It has been, until lately, eustomary to siftall soilsfor pot 
culture, and to reject the turfy part. Now, thanks to 
science, people chop the turves up and use them in a 
rough state, rejecting the fine soil; and to the supe- 
riority of this system the splendid specimens of horti- 
cultural skill exhibited this season bear ample testi- 
mony. Ihave seen Pine-apple plants from the same 
pit, potted, some in the turfy part of a pasture, others 
in the fine mould from the same piece of land; and 
after they were potted, although placed under the same 
circumstances, and treated alike in all respects, the 
result, at the end of the season, was that the plants 
potted in turves were twice the size of the others. 
This experiment I have several times repeated, and 
always with the same results. The soil in the one case 
was permeable by air and water, thus facilitating che- 
mical changes, whilst in the other the closeness of the 
texture excluded both these essential agents, and pre- 
vented all chemical changes from takin place. Now, 
it may be asked, what has all this to do with fruit-tree 
borders? J answer much, very much ; in fact, every- 
thing. The case is precisely similar. Let a border be 
well drained, then made of good rich turfy sods, and it 
will grow any fruit-tree ; and by the help of manure, 
and'absence of every kind of crop, it will last good for 
many years ; and thus turf will ultimately be found the 
cheapest. 
We are told * put together proper soil, enrich it ar- 
tificially, and bring it to a due mechanical condition by 
means that are obvious to everybody, and where is the 
difference 2” Nothing, certainly, can be better than this 
advice, and it may be advisable to follow it in mam: 
cases ; but ihe plan will not be always found the best 
and cheapest. I know a garden, the original soil of 
which contained 80 per cent, of sand and 10 per cent. 
of oxide of iron. Now, in this instance it would be 
labour in vain to attempt to enrich it artificially, and to 
bring it toa duemechanical condition ; it were better, far 
better, to strike at the root of the evil at once, to remove 
the soil and make a border of turves, This, it may be 
said, is an extreme case, but it is not anfisolated one. 
We have soils also consisting apparently of nothing but 
chalk, and others of nothing but pure clay. In these 
cases the labour of improving them would be more 
than the cost, of “sods ; besides, sods are to be had im 
many places without robbing pasture. In many places 
alterations are made annually, such as widening walks, 
or roads, making new ones, opening trenches, and many 
other sources from which sods may be had. 
My opinion is, that where a good soil is found, the 
advice “to enrich it artificially, and bring it toa due 
mechanical condition,” may be followed with advantage, 
and that this plan will answer I have not the slightest 
doubt ; but that it is equal to a border of sods I do 
doubt. I have seen both plans adopted extensively, and 
invariably the sods answered best ultimately. The phy. 
sical properties of sods, as mentioned above, allow the 
free access of air, which is so essential to the fertility of 
soils and to the healthy growth of plants, and when 
filled with air, the vegetable matter decomposes rapidly, 
producing carbonic acid in large quantities, as well as 
other essential compounds, and even renders the inor- 
ganic matter more fitted to enter the roots, thus su ply- 
ing rapidly what plants require, I would bottom the 
borders, thoroughly drain them, and otherwise make 
them of good rich turfy sods, never cropping them, but 
supplying them with manure, either in a liquid state or 
otherwise, as circumstances required.—_M. Saul, the 
Exotic Nursery, Chelsea. 
The fact of few having “rushed into the field of con- 
troversy” regarding this subject, cannot, I think, be 
attributed to any apathy on the part of practical men to 
discuss it. It is a subject indeed too important to all 
gardeners to die in the outset. 
fruits in our climate requires much care and fore-.” 
thought, and to be at all successful for a number of 
The cultivation of 
consecutive years, more especially with the Peach and 
Nectarine, demands a larger amount of practical skill 
and vigilance than any other exotic fruit that falls to 
the lot of gardeners to contend with. 
_ The border of course is the first thing to which we 
direct our attention, Our firstfcare is the root, and he 
