25i 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Septam'JK 21, 137 



I have seen young Vines placed outside in September when 

 the wood was a dappled green and brown colour, and the 

 leaves quite fresh and green ; but these were soon tattered and 

 discoloured with the wind, and when the canes came to be 

 planted they were no riper than when they were first placed 

 outside. The very best of treatment will not ensure success 

 with Vines like these, in fact I believe many failures with young 

 Vines might be traced to this very cause. 

 4 No young Vine should ever be placed outside in autumn as 

 long as there is an inch of nnripened wood about it, and every 

 leaf has fallen through maturity. They will then withstand 

 a great amount of cold and exposure without injury so long as 

 the roots are proteoted from excessive wet. There is another 

 operation often practised on young Vines, which I question 

 very much the advantage of, and that is pulling the prin- 

 cipal leaves off with the hand before the foliage shows any 

 signs of dropping. This must severely check the development 

 of the buds, and cause the wood to shrivel and go to rest 

 prematurely. — Viti s . 



THE AUTUMN PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES. 



A neighbour who has read my notes on this subject in your 

 laBt issue of the Journal (page 230) reminds me that I have 

 made what in his opinion is an important omission. The 

 point which is left unnoticed is the second growth, which he 

 considers would result should a long mild autumn succeed the 

 pruning in September which I advocated. As it has occurred 

 to me that others may be of the same opinion as my neighbour, 

 and may consequently hesitate to thin-out their overcrowded 

 trees until they are divested of their foliage, I will not wait for 

 public interrogation, but will anticipate inquiries by further 

 recording my experience on the after-growth resulting from 

 pruning, not in autumn only but also in summer and winter. 



My friend is quite right that if along moist autumn succeeds 

 the September pruning a second growth might issue from the 

 terminal buds, although in practice I have not found it to 

 be so. It is as well to remember that the pruning which is 

 especially beneficial in September is the total thinning-out of 

 superfluous branches and shoots rather than the extensive 

 shortening of growing parts. When the leaves are on the trees 

 the requisite amount of thinning has not to be done by guess- 

 work, but the operator can tell exactly which branches to re- 

 move, so that the foliage of those remaining may have light 

 and air. 



Now in the case of the branches thus removed they are 

 generally cut where the wood is two or more years old and 

 which contains few if any prominent buds, and the arrested 

 sap is generally appropriated by the foliage remaining on the 

 other branches ; and the latent buds near the points from 

 which the branches have been severed remain in a dormant 

 Etate, at any rate until the succeeding spring, when they will 

 frequently push into growth. Occasionally they commence 

 growing in the autumn, and, if they do, all that is required is 

 to rub them, not cut them off. This second growth is, how- 

 ever, precisely what follows after winter pruning. Fresh growth 

 issues on the moving of the sap in spring, and is soon hidden 

 in a great measure by the surrounding foliage then quickly 

 expanding, and thus has pruning not unfrequently resulted in 

 making the trees thicker than before. Unless fruit trees are 

 looked over in the spring and summer following their winter's 

 pruning, and the young clusters of shoots are rubbed off the 

 snags and branches where such growth is not* required , the 

 results of the pruning are in a few y£ars rendered nugatory if 

 ■not indeed in some cases pernicious. 



In respect also to early summer pruning, the second growth 

 istuing is too often left untouched until the winter pruning; 

 and probably at the present moment — in fact I am sure that 

 it is so — there are many trees which cannot sufficiently mature 

 the fruit-bearing wood in consequence of the shade and active 

 fap-movement caused by a mass of sappy "second growth." 

 This second growth should be removed at once in order that 

 the leaves at the base of the shoots and surrounding the spurs 

 can have the light which is so necessary in rendering the trees 

 fruitful. 



I have never hesitated towards the end of the summer to 

 remove what I considered superfluous shoots and branches 

 from Peach and Nectarine trees both on walls and in houses, 

 and I have freely and beneficially adopted the practice with 

 tiees of Apples, Pears, Plums, and Cherries, which are growing 

 as pyramids and standards. I have always found tho wounds 

 heal better when made at that time than at any other, and it is 



certain that the trees have been greatly benefited by the full 

 exposure of their foliage to light and air. 



Let pruning be done whenever it may — in summer, winter, 

 or autumn, it is very necessary that the trees be examined a 

 few months afterwards in order that the succeeding growths 

 which issue from near the parts which have been cut be rubbed 

 off where not required, or thinned-out and pinched where it is 

 desirable to form spurs and retain foliage. Pruning is only 

 half done when the knife is put in one's pocket — that is, the 

 benefits which are expected from it are only half provided for, 

 and to complete the work careful attention must be given, and 

 given in time, in removing or assisting the growths succeed- 

 ing. I have thus endeavoured to supply the omissions pointed 

 out to me by my critical neighbour, and anyone having a 

 knowledge of trees will see that the matter now alluded to is 

 important and worthy of attention. 



An intelligent use of the knife at the present time in re- 

 moving superfluous branches cannot fail to be beneficial to 

 the trees, following the practice by subsequently rubbing-ofi 

 or pinching the after-growths, or the trees will in a very short 

 time become thicker than before and less fruitful in charaoter. 

 — A Noetheen Gardener. 



OUR NATIONAL EMBLEMATIC PLANTS. 

 SoitE notes on these were in this Journal a few weeks since, 

 and I hoped to see others, but as they have not appeared I 

 copy the following from a MS volume. Many centuries before 

 the wars which 



" Sent, between the red Eose and tha white, 

 A thousand souls to death and deadly night," 



the flower had been famous in cur island, and its emblem was 

 and is the Rosa anglia alba, the white English Rose. Some 

 writers have thought that the name Albion was applied to our 

 island on account of the white Roses it produced. 



The Thistle is the emblem plant of Scotland, and if the 

 tradition was founded en fact it is the Stemless Thistle, Ciiicus 

 acaulis. According to that tradition the Norsemen would 

 have, surprised the Scotch clans in a night attack if one of 

 their spies had not uttered a loud imprecation upon treading 

 barefooted upon one of these Thistles. The clans dubbed the 

 plant " The Seotch Thistle," and it was accepted as a repre- 

 sentative plant, and the appropriate complimentary motto 

 attached, Nemo me impune lacesset — No one injures me with 

 impunity. 



It is doubtful what plant was first adopted for Ireland's 

 national plant. Shamrock is a corruption of the Irish " Searn- 

 rog," which is applied to many plants, as the Wood Sorrel, 

 purple Clover, Speedwell, and Pimpernel. 



The Irish are said to have adopted the Shamrcck as a badge 

 when conveited to Christianity in tha year 433 by St. Patrick. 

 Tbey adopted it b;cause he used the three-leafleted plant as 

 an illustration of the Trinity. 



St. Patrick probably held up Oxalis aeetosella. Clover was 

 not introduced into Ireland until centuries after him, and the 

 plant he held up was eaten by the Irish, which points to the 

 Oxalis. 



Why or when the Welsh adopted the Leek as their national 

 emblem is not known. Nona of their early bards mention it. 



The Tudor colours were green and white, and these were 

 well represented by the Welshmen of Henry VH.'b body guard 

 wearing a Leek in their caps at the battle of Bosworth. There 

 is in Wales a tradition that the Saxons attacked the Britons on 

 St. David'e-day and put Leeks in their caps as a distinguishing 

 badge, but the Britons proving victorious transferred the Leeks 

 into their own caps from the caps of those they had slain or 

 taken prisoners. Among the Harleian MSS. is a poem re- 

 ferring to this event, and adding — 



" Nest to Ihe lion and the nnicorn 

 The Leek's the fairest emblem that is worn." 



Some authorities state that the Ltek has become the national 

 plant of Wales because its farmers from time immemorial, 

 when they aid each other in ploughing, according to a custom 

 termed Cymbortha, bring nothing but Leeks for their sus- 

 tenance, all other requirements being supplied by the farmer 

 they are helping. — G. 



MUSA ENSETE. 

 To grow this monetrous-leavea plant to perfection it must 

 be planted out. I saw a couple of it the other day at the 

 Duke of St. Alban's place, Bestwcod Park, Nottingham. Twelve 



