ILES 
GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
[DECEMBER 25, 1875. 
THE 
Gardeners Chronicle, 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1875. 
Liu escalas 
N abundance of Roots IN A HEALTHY 
COND 
n the successful cultiva- 
tion of plants, no matter what is the purpose 
for which they are grown. The existence of 
these food-absorbing organs in plenty is as 
t 
is to the monarch a the forest that has 
weathered the storms T a dozen generations, 
Suitability of climate, we know, has much to do 
with the development of vegetable life, but, no 
matter how favourable this may be, if roots do 
not exist in sufficient quantities, the powers of 
the plant are restricted. Although favoured by 
climate there is not a doubt that the gigantic 
Wellingtonias of the Yosemite Valley owe much 
more of their stupendous proportions to the 
immensity of their root-power, than they do to 
climatic influences. However healthy the root- 
lets may be, their individual feeding powers are 
limited. Thus we see that in soils which are of 
such a nature as induce the сака 
32 amount of root. devel MEGA in any 3 
dements of food in — gen the 
progress of the plant will be proportionate to 
the quantity of roots it has ; this is more appa- 
rent in quick-growing subjects, especially such 
as are deciduous, where a great amount of leaf 
is produced in a short space of time, as in the 
case of the Vine. 
In the cultivation of this fruit there is evi- 
dently at the present day, even amongst those 
who may be set down as highly successful in 
one thing all appear to be agreed—that is, the 
advantage to be derived from an unlimited 
quantity c of healthy feeding roots, To produce 
many and 
varied are themeansresorted to. Somefour y years 
ago we happened to see a device employed for 
increasing the roots of Vines as novel as it was 
-; the means resorted to was simply 
гоол at both ends by layering the extremities 
of the canes. This experiment was tried by 
Mr. ROCHFORD, market gardener, Page Green, 
Tottenham ; his is one of the large number of 
comparatively small places, consisting almost 
—— of glass erections devoted to the 
cultivati fruit plants to supply 
the ever increasing demands e Covent Garden 
market. Mr. ROCHFORD has been long known 
as a producer of very early Grapes, and also as 
a Pine grower—his name, as a successful exhi- 
bitor of the latter fruit at the principal London 
shows having often, as our readers are doubtless 
aware, appeared in the pages 
Chronicle. The houses wherein are grown the 
. Vines in question are three in number, span- 
. roofed, about 14 feet wide, and standing side by 
= о сны there are. а рар of 
her is no flier division between the hou 
linally except movable shutters ; ; the 
paths, which are not wider than are necessary 
to afford walking room, run down the centre of 
each house, and have a brick wall on either side 
to support the borders, which are about 23 feet 
above the level of the paths. 
planted on both sides of all three houses, suffi- 
ciently far apart to admit of their extending 
right across to the opposite eave, which in the 
case of all the houses is about 2 feet above the 
surface of the border. 
It will thus be seen that the roots of the 
Vines planted on one side of each house can 
extend without interruption to the centre path 
of the adjoining one, through the absence of 
side walls. They were planted in the spring of 
1858, two houses with Black Hamburghs, and 
one with Muscats. In the autumn the whole were 
cut back to the ridge, forced, and bore a heavy 
crop, averaging 18 Ib. per Vine, the first of the 
Hamburghs being cut on May І. From this it 
will be seen that the Vines must have made 
good growths the first summer, otherwise they 
would not have had sufficient strength to 
such a prematurely forced heavy crop. The 
following year they were allowed to occupy the 
full width of the houses, and were cropped the 
whole length ; but before growth commenced 
the points of the shoots were taken down to the 
border on the opposite sides to which they were 
planted and layered, leaving a couple of eyes to 
each beyond the portion of the shoots covered 
with soil. These were allowed to grow through 
the season, and at pruning time were cut away 
altogether. By the end of the second season, 
after layering, they were as firmly rooted at the 
tops as at the base, and in a very short time 
were equal in thickness at both ends. To see 
what effect would be produced by the Vine 
being made dependent alone upon support from 
the roots formed at the extremity of the cane, 
one M them was severed above the collar 
eL end, virtually standing "a 
This was done at 
its was 
time t “put the experiment to the м 
severe test just when the crop was about half- 
grown—when, as all experienced Grape growers 
are aware, the swelling fruit requires a maximum 
of support. The result was that the fruit esc 
off perfectly, adding one more to the in 
merable evidences of the wonderful powers in 
vegetable life of adaptation to circumstances, 
and of the fact too. much overlooked by gar- 
deners, that the direction taken by the sap and. 
the nourishing fluid is not limited n to 
ascent or descent, as the case may be, but that 
the current may be in any SET, natos 
to circumstances—now in one now her— 
perhaps in different directions at us same time 
in different parts of the same plant 
Each season after the first year of planting 
the three houses were started at the beginning | 
of November, and cutting commenced with the 
Hamburghs about the second week in April, and 
Muscats before the middle of May. Four years 
ago last March we saw these Vines; the Ham- 
burghs were then fast colouring, a goodeven crop 
of moderate sized bunches—the Muscats equally 
promising, the foliage ample, clean, and healthy. 
As might be supposed from the early and con- 
tinuous forcing they had been subject to—com- 
menced whilst the Vines were so young—the 
canes had not attained nearly the thickness they 
would have done had they been worked more 
leisurely and allowed to get older before they 
ра been cropped. But one thing we remarked 
Pt more than usual strength | of the young 
wick A ompared with the principal canes. 
Evidently the double set of roots had enabled 
th, to 
The Vines are. 
two years ago, when they were taken out. The 
glass with which these houses are glazed is very 
small, only 6 inches square ; consequently they 
were dark, and better adapted for the growth of 
high prices — Grapes command, are found 
by many mar growers to pay better. 
New light houses, much more fitted for Grape 
growing, have been built; these were planted 
t summer, and so convinced 
double sets of roots, that, as soon 
have attained the necessary length, they will be 
layered in the same way as those we have 
noticed. 
— A CORRESPONDENT has bere us from m 
Isle of Man with some CURIOUS FLOWERS OF RHOD 
DENDRON ARBOREUM, The shoots are TAFA with 
a bloom-bud for next season's flowering period ; below 
it, in the axils of the leaves, are more or "^ mal- 
formed flowers, which occupy the place of the small 
leaf-buds usually found in that situation, It is diffi- 
cult to say what has induced a leaf-bud thus to assume 
the characters of a flower, but that it is probably due 
to season is shown by the fact that several instances of 
a like character have come ач our notice this year. 
Of quite an opposite is a leaf shoot before 
us, and which has pus жр pg in, and is prolonged 
beyond, the centre of the flower truss, The ‘‘ definite” 
mode of growth usual to the inflorescence of Rhodo- 
dendron is here replaced by the indefinite mode of 
growth. 
had the opportunity on a former occasion 
(see Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1872, p. 1102) of laying 
before our readers some illustrations of the GARDEN 
ormed by the late Mr. AuGus 
SciLLY ISLANDS 
published lists of the plants in bloom in those favoured — 
isles, At the present time we are enabled togivetwo - 
= 
views in the same gardens, the one (fig. 163) repre- ` 
generally, thrive marvellously. ‘The mansion of Tresco 
Abbey is modern, the only remains of the former 
Abbey consisting of a pointed arch. Close by isa 
fresh-water lake of 50 acres in extent, separated from 
the sea by a bar of white sand, the subjoined list 
are enumerated a few of the more striking plants in 
bloom in the open air in November :— 
List of Plants in Bloom in Tresco Abbey Gardens 
(А ai. 
e open 
Olearia stellulata Acacia lophantha 
assia corymbosa ewmanni 
сеа virens Berberis Doniini 
Statice p 
Deiichos s аро асаа odoratissimum 
tetrandra | Medicago arbore 
dati d canariensis Pyrethrum 
Yucca florida 
Hakea sauveolens » E. 
» prostrata » filam 
Myrsine undulat HU Баео: 
strum aruntiacum Psoralea pinna! 
Escallonia macrantha Colletia horrida 
» montevidensis Aralia papyrife 
»» Organensis Teucrium fruticans 
»» floribunda alba Pittosporum Tobira 
Pernettya mucronata Hydrangea japonica 
Polygala Dalmaisiana hortensis 
Malvastrum capensis Veronicas in variety 
Sparmannia africana 
—— Dr. DENNY has kindly sent us the following — 
о tained 
p of PELARGONIUM HISTORY, in a 
recent letter from JEAN SISLEY, of Lyons: 
auté de Sur was raised by CASSIER, of 
ur Paris. In 1856 he obtained a pi 
this, in. 1862, Beauté de S 
the severe and continued ordeal of early forcing 
they had been subjected to. The whole experi- 
D 687, wh 
ing to what he wrote in February, 1874, has super- — 
seded the other, and he thinks that the real Beauté de E 
Suresnes is lost. Pas MD PM en T it bore 
seeds, 
— In reference to the note on Сита Савран, { 
i2 fa ge, 
