84 



THE GARDENERS* CHRONICLE. 



The absence of fertility in planti, generally, may be 

 attributed to an imperfect application of the agencies 

 (whether in excess or deficiency) which are essential to its 

 formation. The following case will illustrate this : — Two 

 years ago the writer forwarded a duplicate of the beautiful 

 Leonotis Leonurus to an eminent cultivator, and in the 

 autumn the same cultivator thus writes : " I have Leonotis 

 in splendid growth, and also Fuchsia corymbiflora, the 

 latter 10 feet high, but without any appearance of bloom 

 on either ; what is the cause ? w The reply was — M Both 

 are attributable to one cause, viz., an undue excitement, 

 either by organic or atmospheric stimulants, thereby 

 causing an excess of growth beyond the season of bloom. M 



What Dr. Johnson has well observed in respect to hu- 

 man nature, that it 4I i6 everywhere made to furnish the 

 machinery which may work most effectually upon itself/' 

 may be equally applied to plants. — that they, too, (when 

 understood in the relation which their organic structure 

 bears to the agencies which sustain them,) best afford the 

 knowledge which may most effectually be rendered sub- 

 servient to their perfect culture. 



In accordance with these views, a principle is given at 

 p. 757, IF, til, as follows: An accurate acquaintance with 

 the physiological or organic structure of plants is of es- 

 sential importance to a knowledge of the nature, extent, 

 and application of the agencies which sustain them. 



Every fact, whether derived from observation, ana- 

 logy! or practice, favours this conclusion. If our present 

 knowledge has put us in possession of the means of 

 approaching more perfect growth in any department of 

 Gardening, it only remains that the conditions which 

 operate upon the productive organs of plants throughout 

 their respective stages of growth should be duly applied, 

 to render such growth subservient to its ultimate object 

 of fertility. 



As ** every leaf-bud has its own distinct system of 

 life and growth," and also, as every plant is individu- 

 ally M a collection of a great number of distinct identical 

 systems of life/'* it follows that a system of cultivation is 

 perfect, in proportion to its capability of causing a deve- 

 lopment of the greatest number of leaf-buds into 

 branches, and vice versa. 



Again, by the laws which govern the productive organs 

 of plants, •• all flower- buds arc analogous to leaf-buds," 

 and M whatever are the laws of the arrangement of 

 branches, with respect to each other, the same will be the 

 laws of the arrangement of flowers, with respect to each 

 other M t; therefore it may be inferred that as the 

 formation of leaf-buds is a predisposing cause to the 

 production of flower-buds, the most perfect system of 

 cultivation will be that which produces the greatest number 

 of systems of life (in the highest vigour), by the pro- 

 duction of leaf-buds, subservient to the formation of 

 bloom. 



One of the most common errors as regards the forma- 

 tion of bloom in plants, is a notion that they must be 

 necessarily restricted in the proportion of soil, or size of 

 the pot in winch they are grown ; this mistake is founded 

 on a forgetfulness of the various abilities of cultivators, 

 the skill of whom may so far differ that in one case a plant 

 may be so treated as to require the space of a 1/!- sized pot, 

 whilst, by inferior management in other hands, a similar 

 plant might not occupy more than a 32. A plant in a 16 

 or 12 pot may be as effectually restricted (as regards the 

 unfolding its bloom) as another in a 48, if the growth, in 

 both cases be produced by a given period prior to the 

 season of bloom. — William Wood, Pine- Apple Place. 



{To be continued.) 



THE ROSE GARDEN.— No. IV, 



{Continued from page 68.) 



The most promising plant to be taken for budding upon, 

 provided size can be obtained, is a well-ripened and woody 

 sucker of the present year, whose root will almost always 

 admit of being trimmed and placed within a plunged pot, 

 for the purpose of avoiding a check on the subsequent 

 removal of the plant when become ornamental. Next 

 to this (if not equal to it), a plant of the preceding year is 

 to be preferred for the same reasons and with the same ad- 

 vantages. For free growers, however, stocks of the 2d or 3d 

 year should be preferred, as less likely to be cut off by frost, 

 and being also more capable of self-support. There seems 

 a question, also, if these be not more vigorous, care being 

 taken when worked that the buds entered are neither 

 sluggish nor delicate in their habit of growth ; such 

 buds should invariably be entered upon young and 

 succulent stocks. 



In choosing young and rather slight stems, care 

 should be taken to select such plants as are woody, and 

 tolerably able to support themselves and defy the frost ; 

 these should be sought amongst the shoots of grey, brown 

 and green, or rather grey and green striped, which event- 

 ually run to a large size, and are particularly clean and 

 healthy in appearance ; and green suckers from them may 

 be readily obtained of good size, and of the height of ten 

 or twelve feet. Without this precaution there is some 

 danger of an unexperienced person mistaking the small for 

 the large sorts, and the quantity of pith some of the 

 former contain, render them liable to rot down, on acci- 

 dental exposure of wounds, &c, and their general want of 

 vigour makes the possession of them undesirable. 



There are two varieties of the Wild Rose more pecu- 

 liarly unfit for working, both suffruticose or half-shrubby, 

 and both slight in the stem ; the one grows upon a 

 most prolific root, which throws up innumerable suckers, 

 looking almost like a tuft of Rushes, and as far as the 

 number of plants to be obtained by the division of one 

 stool may go, a most desirable prize to the collector ; the 



1 other similar in~cdour and pithiness ; but whereas the equally vigorous after transplantation ; but one thing tttttt 



first is dwarf and bushy, the second produces few suckers be attended to, viz., that the stocks be free from ,i de . 



' and climb, to the height of 20 ft. or more, but neither of -»— - •»- — ' " f ■*«* m -"" 1 - * K - • 



them are adapted for standards. 





shoots, the removal of which mangle the stem and anoil 

 the appearance of the future tree ; but if these be 



* " Principles of Horticulture," p. U2, 113. 

 t Lindley's " Principles of Botany," 



a A stock of the Wild Briar 1. The branches shortened in 



as brought from the hedge. November. 



b The same stem,; the roots 2. The branches cut back to 



and head having been trimmed the sap-buds in spring, 



for planting. e The same plant the suc- 



c Another plant, with ceeding summer; one bud hav- 



younger and more fibrous roots; ing failed, the branch has been 



the dotted line indicating the cut away, and the other buds 



passage of the saw in the re- are figured as flowering 



moval of superfluous wood. / A side-shoot of the Wild 



d The stock B., with the Briar, with an inserted bud, 



shoots made during the sum- previous to its opening* the 



mer, and the buds entered in sap-bud above it being on the 



August. eve of breaking. 



A plant is not to be rejected on account of its age, as 

 unconnected with its appearance, youth being by no means 

 a sine qud non in the collection of stocks. A sucker just 



ripe and a plant in its third season frequently proving 



avoidable, care should be taken to remove the branch 

 desired, by a clean cut quite to its base. 



The Wild Rose displays so much variety in its mode of 

 growth, colour of bark, shape of stem, formation of root 

 &c, that any attempt to convey an adequate idea of theie 

 by figuring, would alter the nature and intention of thi* 

 work entirely. The accompanying engraving will give a 

 distinct idea of the plant in its progressive stages ; to* 

 frontispiece being intended to represent its completion. 



y FAMILIAR BOTANY. 

 Morphology. — No. II. 



'O&i rSr fvMvt fj.iTK<rxrf**Tto-/jic: xcti irtfut **W iru y*j Tet - 



Thfophrag* 

 tus de Catissis Plantarum II. 2. 



Principium florum et foliorum idem est.— Linnteui. 



When the Greek philosopher declared that nature 

 always proceeds from imperfection to perfection, he it 

 thought to have distinctly announced the principles upon 

 which Morphology depends. There is not, however, such 

 further evidence in what remains of the works of Aristotle 

 as entirely justifies our admitting more than the existence 

 in his mind of some perception of its truths. It j s hia 

 pupil, Tbeophrastus, who has distinctly shown in the words 

 above quoted, that by him, at least, the order of forma, 

 tion in plants was clearly appreciated, and that compli- 

 cated forms are in all cases, and of necessity, the remit 

 of simple forms. M The common transformations of leaves 

 and other things is manifest. In the Croton leaf, for in. 

 stance, some which grow round in the beginning, after- 

 wards become angular, as if completing themselves. For 

 simplicity is easier than what is complicated. The be- 

 ginning is strengthless." To be sure it is. Infancy 

 is weak, whether in the structure of the globe, or the 

 organs of plants, or the fabric of man. It was only as 

 strength was gained, and power acquired, that gaseous 

 emanations were consolidated into rocks in the creation of 

 this planet. It was only as the climate of our earth be- 

 came fully adjusted that the simple forms of plants and 

 animals were increased by the addition of mammals, trees, 

 and highest beings. The insect is still feeble in the grub, 

 the bird in the egg, the quadruped in the fostus, and the 

 plant in its seed. All by degrees clothe themselves with 

 organs, having a common origin, but mere attempts at 

 structure in the beginning ; and all, by gradual changes of 

 the elemental forms of organisation, rise into perfection. 

 In every case the beginning is strengthless. 



The high philosophy of the Greeks expired with their 

 so-called liberty, and fell into a slumber of nearly 2000 

 years. It was not till the sixteenth century that the great 

 views of the school of Aristotle met with men capable o( 

 comprehending them, and more than two centuries again 

 elapsed ere their doctrines began to assume a definite 

 form. In 1583 Csesalpinus, an Italian Botanist, spoke of 

 the origin of the parts of plants, and alluded obscurely 

 to the common origin of them all ; but it was reserved 

 for Linnaeus to give life and reality to the far-seeing 

 doctrines of the Greeks. In the year 1759, he main- 

 tained that all the organs of plants are of the nature of 

 leaves, and that the various floral organs are only so many 

 anticipations of foliage ; that is to say, leaves that have 

 not time enough to grow into their proper form. The 

 year after he published his famous " Prolepsis Plantarum," 

 in which he explains his theory in ample detail. Let as 

 see what he says : — 



41 As soon as leaves have expanded themselves in spring 

 a bud is observable in the axil of each. This bud swell*. 

 as the year advances, and in time becomes manifestly 

 composed of little scales : in the autumn the leaves fall 

 off, but the bud remains ; and in the succeeding spring 

 swells, disengages itself from its envelopes, and becomes 

 lengthened : when its outer scales have dried up and fallen 

 off, the inner ones are expanded into leaves (like the wings 

 of a butterfly emerging from its pupa), which separate 

 from each other by means of a gradual extension of the 

 young branch, and presently each new leaf is found to 

 contain in its bosom a little scaly bud, which, in the fol- 

 lowing season, will also be developed as a branch, with 

 other leaves and other buds. Now, when I see a tree 

 adorned with leaves, and in the bosom of those leaves pro* 

 vided with its little buds, it is natural to inquire, of * fl " 

 do these buds consist? Do they consist of the rudiments 

 of leaves with their gemmules, the latter of other leaves 

 and buds, and so on to infinity, or, at least, as far as tna 

 extension of the plant is likely to proceed ? Nature or- 

 ganises living beings out of such minute particles, « n 

 even from fluids themselves, that the best eye may in ram 

 seek to penetrate far into her mysteries." 



" If a plant, which has flowered and fruited for many 

 successive years in a pot, is transferred to a rich soil an 

 warmer station, it breaks forth into branches instead o 

 flowers. Hence it appears that branches and leaves ca^ 

 be produced from the provision made for flowers, provi 

 circumstances are favourable to their developeroent. 



" As to bracts, « the bulbs of Hyacinths and Ornithoga- 

 lums afford good evidence of their nature. Both bulbs 

 buds are winter coverings of plants, with this difteren » 

 that bulbs are the bases of leaves of the previous yea » 

 while buds are the rudiments of leaves of a coming )' e ' 

 Wherever bulbs grow, there are formed the persistent bas^ i 

 of leaves, within which young leaves are to be develop • 

 within these latter leaves repose the buds or rudime ^ efC 

 future plants, exactly the same as the buds of trees, 

 buds consist of the rudiments of leaves of the 8 uccee ^J 

 year ; small indeed, but containing in their axils o 



