1843.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 789 
admission of the greatest amount of light, another fact 
must be attended to in the construction of plant-houses, of those four little Queens have done.—MV. Dawson, | or depute some one on w 
and that is the familiar one of plants always growing Bicton Gardens, 6th Nov., 1848. 
towards the strongest light. If the light, therefore, is 
admitted only in one direction, the plants will infallibly | tory of this plant. I have for some time been endeavour- “ Humphreys’’ and “ , c 
ing to discover if any rule can be found for the estimation | burgh) a man well known in the scientific world. You 
shoot out in that direction, and it is only by a process of 
continual turning and tying that they can be kept erect. | of the probable effect o r 
In steep-roofed greenhouses this is particularly the case, | ance of hybrid plants. In certain tribes the male type is 
but in those more flat it is much less so, for most light | very strongly developed in the progeny, put there are 
being admitted through the glass perpendicularly, the | others on which I have been able to form no decided opi- 
plants advance to meet it perpendicular to the glass. To |nions. As soon as I saw the notice of Rosa Hardii in 
obviate as much as possible this tendency, there ought to Paxton, for October, 1 became very desirous to know n Xt 4 
fact light ought | more of the history of a hybrid in which the type of one praning his plantations. 
be a north slope as well as a south, and in 
to be admitted from all aspects of the sky. The foregoing | of the parents was so remarkably predominant 5 
remarks all apply to houses for plants which naturally | statement in Paxton that it was a hybrid between R. ber- 
&tow exposed to the full influence of the sun: for such berifolia and R. involucrata, was about as unsatisfactory 
as delight in the shade, a habitation should be provided and indefinite as could well be imagined. In the first 
place, it took no notice of the relative sexes of the re- 
puted parents ; and, in the second, it does not present 
the smallest i t invol I 
i 
Manual,’’ 1838, 
tained this year, by the accidental impregnation of that 
remarkable plant, the Rosa simplicifolia, or R. mono- 
phylla (Lowea berberifolia, Lindl.), by R. microphylla 
growing near it.’? Now this was a much more sa Le 
4 pedigree for the plant if the leaves only were to be 
to peep from beneath the branches of shrubs, so long as cgheitereds but hea I observe that fliey flower is of 
accordingly.— J. L 
(To be contin: ) 
AMATEUR’S GARDE No. XLV. 
A rrw weeks back, when pointing out some of the 
Greatest defects in garden scenery, I enumerated borders 
deficient in soil as one of them, and I would now add 
another defect, viz, indiscriminate mixture of shrubs, 
trees, and herbaceous plants. There is not the least 
objection to allowing the Aconite, the Snowdrop, or Crocus 
they appear to have sprung up naturally, but there isa 
Breat objection to surrounding a noble shrub with dug | tion arises, how can this be—how can a mixture of a ‘ide 
Rose with a yellow one produce another yellow eho a 
_ trace of pink in it? Besides, there is another difficult 
vator should be to have everything as well grown S| in the Mie perben falas aeNigle Roreemivreptigla 4 
seneco one: is it, therefore, likely that the ree 
. Ske . produced by the hundreds of anthers of the flower proauc- 
yaa air and light on all sides in the enett Seen ing the me should have failed to effect that which is 
to shrub ors ae not only wrong but Pose NAG h reputed to have been done by the scanty pollen of the 
ubs or trees to allow them to be crowded with | other Persons who pay attention to the raising of 
e trees are planted Toe the first a bean ea hybrids well know the great care required to prevent any 
among th erally Res pone oe Rela fter | Portion of the pollen of the female plant from touching 
g them for the sake of covering the ground ; but after | the stigma, because they have found by experience that in 
Eround, 80 as to impart to it an artificial appearance. a 
€ scenery of a pleasure garden the object of the culti- 
Possible, and to allow each plant to assume its most 
natural form. To attain this the plant must be properly 
herbaceous plants. 
the shrubs have attained any size, a very different course 
should be pursued. Then the ground should be turfed 
ve close to the shrubs, and beds for the cultivation of 
eee plants be formed in such places along the line 
Shrubbery as is most suitable for their cultivation. — 
egies these remarks at this time from the conviction 
m ae Amateur more frequently fails in the cultivation 
fen pet plants from this indiscriminate mixture than 
the ni ae other cause, because the roots of the shrubs rob 
Tee plants of their nutriment, and therefore it is 
a ossible that they can flourish. would, therefore, 
a nestly impress upon the Amateur the necessity of 
inning out the trees and shrubs where they are at all 
crowded, so as to allow each plant to become a handsome 
ae specimen, and to turf the ground close up to the 
Bee and cultivate his herbaceous plants in beds by 
emselves. In this manner he can give both classes of 
plants the treatment most suitable to them, which it is 
impossible to do when they are mixed in the same bed. 
Shrubs and trees are also’ much injured by annually dig- 
ging among them, but on this subject I shall have some 
remarks next week. 
With greenhouse plants and plants in pits or frames, 
the principal care for the next two months will be to keep 
em clean, and as dry as is consistent with their not 
Suffering for the want of water. Nothing is more injurious 
to plants at this season than to allow them te be infested 
ae insects or decaying leaves, because, as they are in a 
recon state, the loss of every leaf is the loss of the life- 
Rem of the plant, and therefore must be attended with 
ee _ Every decayed leaf should be removed directly it 
Ae as should also every speck of mildew or moss 
ee mae collect on the plant or soil. Plants of all de- 
a ptions will now require very little water, but they 
anot have too much air in fine weather. 
Loe of Rhododendrons and Azaleas is likely to 
er allure in many places next spring, and therefore, 
va itis desired to remove large plants, this will be a 
CicaRe ern do so, as ee will not sustain so ENS a 
Lube ey were covered with bloom.—W. P. Ayres, 
HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 
+ Large Pines.— Observing at page 773 a correspondent 
Beane himself  Doumhuil,’” and another, doubting the 
Ccuracy of my statement respecting the weights of four 
een Pine-apples, published correctly at page 759, 1 
fei having omitted sending the dimensions, &c. of each 
a - Inow beg to forward it, and at the same time to 
Say that such Queen Pines are no particular novelty here. 
No. | Weight. | Length. | Circumference. |/8hsth ofjLengthof 
alk. 
ats eae rown Stalk 
y — |———— | ——__——_- pe Sata 2 
4 Sib. 202, 11 in. 18 inches 2 in, sane 
3 fs 10g Yoows 2 3 
4 : 9 10% 17. ” 3 3 
rs dU 9 sis es 3 4 
ie anonymous correspondents will come out of their 
eas and furnish their proper names and addresses, 
Jiak Aeaee a to answer their questions and remove 
mole ws 3 but I decline altogether replying to anony- 
eve loubters. I have myself been in practice under 
Cosa: cultivators of this King of fruits, both in this 
Stains in the north ; have visited many Pine-growing 
aie ba eee and have read much concerning Pine cul- 
i a ne method here practised is altogether different 
“Gardeoe ‘ing wT have before seen or heard of The 
thers eee Magazine”’ announces that the method is 
Cains é published very soon, and I suspect it will 
More consternation among the Pine cultivators, 
through its simplicity"and certain success, than the weight | —and with what success? Come and examine for yourself, 
hom you can rely, who will 
report to you the condition of his woods, and I have no 
Rosa Hardii.—I should be glad to know the real his- | doubt confirm the report of your two correspondents, 
R. S. L.,.”” (Scott Russel of Edin- 
ff the male parent on the appear- | are also aware that the Doctor managed, from the year 
1804, Mr. Wilson Jones’s plantations in the same manner 
till that gentleman came of age. r. T. is pursuing 
the same system at this moment, and will have a number 
of hands so engaged the greater part of the winter—that 
is, in pruning hedge-row trees, and in thinning and 
Can ‘ Quercus” point out a 
the | single acre of wood thus treated, in any part of the king- 
dom during a period of 20 years, which has been a 
failure? Recollect this land only cost the Doctor one 
ound per acre, and by the falling of the leaves there is a 
tolerable herbage in many places, and the mountains all 
around afford only'a miserable pasture to the Welch sheep. 
—Cymro. (Nemo sibi vivat). [If we did not know 
from the best private authority that Dr. Thackeray's 
plantations are all that they are described to be, we should 
believe it, when we have the assertions of so many re- 
spectable correspondents in confirmation of it. But we 
do not attribute their state to the pruning so much as to 
the care otherwise bestowed on the trees, and to Dr. T.’s 
general skill. We do not mean to say that this gentleman's 
pruning has done any harm; probably it has done good ; 
moderate pruning by prudent and skilful persons is useful: 
but it is because foresters are so often neither the one nor 
the other that we have urged a discontinuance of the knife 
and axe. However this matter cannot be discussed in a 
corner ; we shall very soon return to it formally.] 
Pruning.—1 have observed in several of your late 
Numbers articles on the old controverted subject of 
pruning forest-trees. Throughout them all is the erro- 
neous notion that to reduce the head of a tree proportion- 
ately augments its stem ; and it is this general mistake or 
error I have endeavoured to combat ever since I took up 
the subject. The first article 1 allude to is an outline of 
“G, Cree’s.”” system of pruning, based on physiological 
principles, given at p. 691. I cannot enter on a physio- 
logical disquisition, but I consider the article to be self- 
contradictory, as it is argued, “ that when the uppermost 
lateral branches are shortened, &c., the sap has less sur- 
face to cover than when allowed to extend to an improper 
length and thickness.’’ Against this 1 beg to quote the 
following statements :*—‘ For the maintenance of a plant 
in health it is indispensable that the supply of fluid by the 
roots should be continued and uninterrupted. 2d. The 
smallest leaf at the extremity of a branch of a lofty tree 
must assist in setting in action the absorbing power of the 
roots, at whatever distance from the other organs these 
roots act. If this reciprocal action is not maintained 
without interruption, and if anything occurs to check it 
during the period of vegetation, the plant will suffer 
in proportion to the amount of interruption.”’>+ This I 
consider to be sounder Physiology than Mr. Cree’s. I 
have argued for uninterrupted reciprocity from the first ; 
pruning forest-trees certainly tends ‘* to protract or sus- 
pend the reciprocal action of their organs, and in propor- 
tion impairs their vital: energy.” (Wood.). Mr. Cree ina 
communication some time since, if I mistake not, recom- 
mended, and said he practised, the removal annually of the 
lowest tier of branches. Iam sure no such practice could 
be deduced from sound physiological principles, if the 
object sought was an accelerated growth of timber. I 
shall now advert to the t your pond 
“Pro Bono Publico,’”’ and beg to assure him that I am 
quite as much 4 friend to planting as either himself, 
W. H. Humphreys, or Dr. Thackeray, and that teo 
for the good of the public and the ornament of 
the country. But I contend that these objects, how- 
ever patriotic in themselves, will never be promoted 
am aware of. It 
b accord- 
o R. 
ngly searched further, and in “Gore's Rose Fanciers’ 
T found ‘Rosa Hardii berberifolia ob- 
uite as deep a colour as berberifolia itself, the ques- 
general the contact of the smallest portion of the proper 
pollen renders all their attempts abortive, All that ap- 
pears certain about the plant in question is, that it was 
raised from seed of R. berberifolia ; 1 am, therefore, in- 
clined to think that it is no hybrid at all, but merely a 
seminal variety; at the same time, I should like to know 
if there is any other account of it than those I have men- 
tioned, because, hybrid or not, it is doubtless a very re- 
markable plant.—J. C. B. [We have always understood 
that one of its parents was R. clinophylla. 
Protection for Plants.—-1 had raised since the middle 
of last July, in the open air, on Mr. Catleugh’s plan, 
several hundred Pelargoniums, which were exposed in pots 
to the severe frosty nights occurring in the middle of 
October, after much rain. Every leaf, and the surface of 
the earth in every pot, were stiffly frozen, and in tbe hollow 
of many of the leaves were thick globules of ice. The 
whole were left unshaded from the sunshine which suc- 
ceeded, and syringing with cold water was not resorted 
to. Onmany of the plants several of the leaves perished, 
and about a dozen of the plants perished altogether. Had 
the cuttings been struck and reared under glass, probably 
about a dozen only would, under the above circumstances, 
have survived. This leads to the notice of an excellent 
article in ‘* Paxton’s Magazine of Botany,” for the present 
month, on ‘Economy in Floriculture,’ recommending 
external coverings for greenhouses, during severe frost, in 
preference to fire-heat. Nevertheless, so long as the ther- 
mometer shall retain the privilege of sinking in midwinter 
nights in the open air, from 30° nearly to zero, the ready, 
safe, and easy protection, which fire-heat affords will be 
commonly employed. Coverings can only retain heat, 
they cannot supply it; hence the universal adoption of 
some means affording a source of warmth. Perhaps the 
natural source found at a few feet below the surface of the 
earth, could be successfully taken advantage of for the 
preservation of vegetable life, by means of a platform 
made to slide up and down in a pit, under a glass frame 
kept thickly covered in severe nights. This might be 
effected by proximity to the glass during the day, and se- 
curity from frost during the night, with exemption from 
stimulus.—C. 
Blackberry Jelly.—In the receipt for Blackberry Jelly, 
J ought to have said to every pint of juice add 1b. of 
Joaf-sugar. The stewed fruit, after the juice is drained 
off, is to be thrown away ; and it is the juice which is 
reduced to jelly.—G. W., Warwickshire. 
‘Asolepias curassavica.—This plant is now in flower in 
my garden. It was put out early in the summer, and my 
place is one of the most exposed in the island. We have 
had a frost, which affected my Dahlias, and entirely 
destroyed a magnificent Gourd plant, grown from seed 
sent by Colonel Stoddart from Bokhara. I write this, in 
consequence of reading in a late Number of the Chronicle 
that it is thought the plant cannot grow elsewhere than 
in a stove. The Mahernia incisa and Gesneria elegans 
have both flowered in the open ground, besides others 
usually grown in-doors. I have some young plants from 
the seed of the Tacsonia pinnatistipula, apparently 
hybridised by the P. Buonapartii; no fruit save those 
impregnated ‘matured their seed; the foliage at present is 
peculiar.—7. J., Jersey. ‘ 
Forest Pruning.—* Quercus,’ in your Chronicle now 
before me, states, “ My only fear is, and my only reason 
for writing this, is to caution planters against carrying the 
practice too far by continuing it after it should be entirely 
laid aside, for there is a mistaken tendency that way far too 
these have been carried to any extent.‘ Pro Bono Pub- 
lico”’ calls on me to point out plantations of the same age, 
extent, and elevation as those at Nerquis; but this is not 
I venture to say a 
size, or had its growth of stem accelerated by curtailment 
of its branches, no matter by whose system that curtailment, 
waseffected. As‘¢ Pro Bono Publico” calls on me to point 
to plantations of certain extent and elevation, &c. to cope 
with those at Nerquis, may I call on him to point to any 
extent of plantation, great or small, at any elevation—40 
or 50 years old, that has been subjected to any system of 
pruning, that would not have been better and more valu- 
able without it? All other things are unobjectionable— 
such as thinning, &c- Plant judiciously ; thin judiciously 
when needful; but beware of pruners, and systems of 
pruning—they are dangerous playtLings.— Quercus. 
Advertisements of Boilers.—\s it not odd that scarcely 
srevalent amongst us.” Now, Sir, this practice has been 
* Lindley’s Principles of Horticulture, p, 32. 
+ Theory of Horticulture, p. 50, 
continuing uninterruptedly since 1814 by Dr. Thackeray, 
