226 Foreihi Notices. — Holland and the Netherlands. 



*6 



There is perhaps no plant susceptible of culture, that will not grow in the 

 earth of plants of its own kind, or that might not be supplied with plants 

 of its own kind in the form of liquid manure. It might be worth while 

 trying what could be done with florists' flowers, bulbs, heaths, &c. by such 

 treatment. 



A Marriage Tree, generally of the pine kind, is planted in the church- 

 yard by every new married couple in the parish of Varallo Pombio, in the 

 Tyrol ; a fine grove of pines is said to shade this church-yard, and it must 

 be recollected that the pine of the Tyrol claims to be ranked as a fruit-tree, 

 as well as a valuable timber, being the Pinus pinea, the kernels of the cones of 

 which are frequently served up in the dessert in Italy and the southern Alps, 

 as almonds and nuts are in England. (Bibliot. Ital., Sept. 1826. p. 433.) 



HOLLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS. 



Training en quenouille. — This mode of training standard pear-trees is 

 very generally adopted in private gardens in the Netherlands, and its ad- 

 vantages, as respects the saving of room and avoiding injurious shade to 

 the vegetables near, are obvious. Its expediency, however, considered with 

 reference to the produce of fruit, is not so clear. Occasionally, a few trees 

 are seen bearing a pretty fair crop, but in general they seem much less 

 prolific' of pears than of superfluous shoots, demanding the knife of the 

 pruner, and thus confirming Mr. Knight's remark as to the constant effort 

 required to impose on any tree a form different from its natural one. (Note 

 of a Friend.) 



Trees, Hedges. — The trite remark, that a people generally attain some- 

 thing like perfection in those matters to which they have long directed 

 their attention, is exemplified in the very different management of trees in 



Eublic walks, and of quickwood hedges, in the Netherlands. The hornbeam 

 edges are well trained, though often clipped so thin as not to form a very 

 substantial fence ; but quickwood hedges, which have only recently been 

 adopted here and there, are very injudiciously managed. Small weak 

 plants are originally planted, and afterwards trained to trellis-work at a great 

 expense ; the necessity of cutting them down after a year or two's growth, 

 in order to have strong and vigorous shoots, seeming unknown ; so that 

 the fence, after many years, is still weak and straggling. On the other 

 hand, the Belgians, like the Dutch, manage their plantations of trees 

 for public walks, whether elms or limes, admirably. They always plant 

 them of a considerable size, from eight to ten feet high, and two to three 

 inches in diameter, having been so ordered, by previous transplanting or 

 digging round them in the nursery, as to have an abundant mass of roots. 

 When planted out, they cut off the head, leaving them bare poles, or with 

 only a few twigs, thus at once ensuring the future vigorous growth of the 

 tree, and dispensing with all need of stakes. After suffering them to grow 

 untouched one or two years, all the branches are cut off below the strongest 

 leading shoot, left to form the head of the future tree, which in a few years 

 becomes as straight and handsome as one not headed, and far more vigorous. 

 In cases where it is impracticable to plant trees in their intended site at 

 the proper season, they are transplanted in autumn in hampers of earth (as 

 is sometimes practised in England with fruit-trees,) and these hampers are 

 then sunk in trenches in the nursery, the tops of the trees being cut off as in 

 ordinary planting. When it is wished in the ensuing summer to transfer 

 the trees thus treated, to the place where they are to remain, each is 

 transplanted along with its hamper into its destined hole, and can thus be 

 safely removed, however hot the weather, without experiencing any check. 

 In this way I saw about one hundred lime-trees, six to eight feet high, and 

 about two inches in diameter, planted on some ground adjoining the new 



