General Notices. 293 



to restore leading shoots ; for this mode of budding never can be employed in 

 a general way, for want of a sufficient number of terminal buds. The practice 

 will be easily understood from the figure {fig. 59.), in which a represents the 

 stock, in which an incision is made in the form of the letter T ; b the bud 

 prepared by paring down the wood on one side, which side is that here ex- 

 posed to view ; c, the bud put in its place ; d, the bud tied to the stock by a 

 coarse woollen thread, or a strand of bast matting. {Annates d'Hort. de Paris, 

 vol. xxi. p. 122.) 



Grafting Pinks and Carnations is said to have been practised in France in 

 the sixteenth century. Some doubt this ; but, at all events, it is practised at 

 present by M. Loisel, head gardener to the Marquis de Clermont Tonnere, at 

 Glisolles, in the valley of L'lton, near Evreux ; and, in his garden, six, seven, 

 or eight pinks of different colours are found flowering on the same stalk. The 

 operation is performed when the flower buds are about a fourth part of their 

 size; and these buds are inserted in the axils of the leaves of the flower stem 

 of the stock. They are inserted in the slit manner, and merely tied on with 

 a bit of woollen thread. At the end of eight or ten days, the scion will com- 

 monly be found united to the stock, when the ligature may be removed. In 

 two or three days afterwards the flowers expand ; and, if the varieties have 

 been properly chosen, all those grafted on the same flower stem, will expand 

 at once. In general, the effect of grafting a flower bud, is to retard its ex- 

 pansion from six to eight days. {Annates d'Hort. de Paris, vol. xix. p. 68.) 



Grafting the Sweet Chestnut on the Oak. — This has been performed with 

 perfect success by a gardener at Metz, and the cultivators there anticipate 

 great advantages from being able to give so hardy a stock, and vigorous 

 roots, to a tree which is considered there about as tender as it is in the climate 

 of Edinburgh. (L'E'cho, March 7. 1838.) 



Striking Camellias from single Eyes. — M. l'Abbe Berlese laid before the 

 Horticultural Society of Paris (July 20th, 1836) a cutting of a camellia with 

 a single eye which had formed roots, taken at random from 1,400 similar 

 cuttings, planted with a view to produce stocks for grafting on, by one of the 

 Parisian nurserymen. {Annates d'Hort., vol. xix. p. 124.) 



An improved Method of training Raspberries. — Cut out all the weakest 

 shoots, so as to leave only about six on a stool ; then twist the point of one 

 shoot from one stool with one shoot from the stool adjoining, so as to form 

 an arch. Do the same with two other shoots of each plant, so as to form 

 a triple arch between plant and plant, in the direction of the rows, all through 

 the plantations ; the space between the rows being left open as usual. The 

 plants should be 6 ft. apart every way. The fruit produced by the trained 

 canes will be fully exposed to the direct influence of the sun, and to the air, 

 and there will be more room for the suckers. {Flor. Cab., vol. ii. p. 11.) 



Uses of the common Hollyhock. — A good strong cloth may be made from the 

 fibrous bark of the flower-stalks of the hollyhock. In 1821, about 280 acres 

 of land, near Flint, in Wales, were planted with the common hollyhock, 

 in order to convert the fibres into thread similar to that of hemp or flax. In 

 the process of manufacture it was discovered that the plant yields a blue dye, 

 equal in beauty and permanence to the finest indigo. The seed cases should 

 be collected when ripe, in dry weather, and kept dry, sown in April in beds of 

 light earth, and the young plants removed, when they have six or eight leaves 

 each, into nursery beds, about 12 in. from each other, and watered, if the 

 season be dry, until they have taken root ; then kept free from weeds, and 

 planted out where they are to remain until October. Seeds sown as soon 

 as ripe in autumn, and planted out early in spring, will sometimes flower a year 

 sooner than could have been obtained from spring sowing. When not wanted 

 for seed, the choice varieties should have the flower-stalks cut down to the 

 ground when the flowers are decayed, for, if suffered to ripen the seed, it 

 frequently weakens the plant so much, that they decay during the winter. A 

 single flower-stalk will furnish enough seed for a large garden. {Dumfries 

 Courier.') 



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