DIRECTION. 903 
Sometimes when the top of the main stem is de- 
stroyed by disease or accident, one of the heretofore 
lateral shoots takes its place, and continues the de- 
velopment of the tree in the original direction. It is 
often an object with the gardener to restore the sym- 
metry of an injured tree so that its beauty may ulti- 
mately not be impaired.' 
Climate appears sometimes to have some influence 
' The following details as to the method pursued by Mr. McNab, of 
the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, may not be uninteresting in this place. 
They are from the pen of Mr. Anderson, and originally appeared in the 
‘Gardeners’ Chronicle.’ 
“The mode of inducing leaders to proceed from laterals is a matter 
of comparatively little concern among the generality of deciduous trees, 
for they are often provided with subsidiary branches around the leader, 
at an angle of elevation scarcely less perpendicular, but the laterals of 
all Conifers stand, as nearly as possible, at right angles. Imagine the 
consternation of most people when the leader of, say, Picea nobilis, P. 
Nordmanniana, or P. Lowii is destroyed.” 
In a specimen of the latter plant the leader had been mischievously 
destroyed, to remedy which Mr. Mec Nab adopted means which Mr. 
Anderson goes on to describe. ‘“ Looking from the leader downward to 
the first tier of laterals, there appeared to have been a number of 
adventitious leaf-buds created, owing to the coronal bud being destroyed. 
These were allowed to plump up unmolested until the return of spring, 
when every one was scarified or rubbed off but the one nearest the 
extremity. To assist its development and restrain the action of the 
numerous laterals, every one was cut back in autumn, and this restraint 
upon the sap acted so favorably upon the incipient leader as to give it 
the strength and stamina of the original leader, so that nothing detri- 
mental was evident twelve months after the accident had happened, and 
only a practical eye could detect that there had been any mishap at all. 
This beautifully simple process saved the baby tree. 
* Another example of retrieving lost leaders may be quoted as illus- 
trative of many in similar circumstances. Picea Webbiana had its leader 
completely destroyed down to the first tier of laterals. There was no 
such provision left for inducing leaf-buds as was the case with P. Lowii 
above referred to. Resort must, therefore, be had to one of the best 
favoured laterals, but how is it to be coaxed from the horizontal position 
of a lateral to the perpendicular position of a leader? The uninitiated 
in these matters, and, in fact, practical gardeners generally, would at 
once reply, by supporting to a stake with the all-powerful Cuba or bast- 
matting. Butno. A far simpler method than that, namely, by fore- 
shortening all the laterals of the upper tier but the one selected for a 
leader. Nature becomes the handmaid of art here; for without the 
slightest prop the lateral gradually raises itself erect, and takes the 
place of the lost leader. All that the operator requires to attend to is 
the amputation of the laterals until this adventitious fellow has gained 
asupremacy. Singular provision in nature this, which, thanks to the 
undivided attention of a careful observer, has been fully appreciated and 
utilized.” 
