April 21, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICBLTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



295 



GEOMETEY APPLICABLE TO GARDENING. 



Nearly a century and a half since — namely, in 1718 — one of 

 the best practical gardeners of his period, Stephen Switzer, ob- 

 served, that amongst the Beveral businesses to which mathematics 

 is applied, no where and in no case ie it more useful than in 

 lajing-out of gardens and large estates. Extensively as the word 

 Geometry is now applied, it was at first no more than the measur- 

 ing-out, distributing, and fixing the boundaries or enclosures of 

 the large demesnes, and the lesser or more immediate decorations 

 of the noble villas and granges of the most ancient and most 

 polite part of the world. 



No change in our style of gardening has occurred since Switzer 

 penned that passage rendering geometry less useful to the gar- 

 deuer. On the contrary, the bedding-out system requiring forms 

 of geometrical figures and proportions ; the discoveries relative 

 to light rendering desirable accuracy of angle in the roof of a 

 glazed plant-house ; the easy determination of geometric curves 

 in the designing and plotting of walks, roads, and the outlines 

 of plantations ; the designing of terraces, levelling, and other 

 work, all falling occasionally up m the gardener as a part of his 

 duty, and which he can only execute with certainty aided by a 

 knowledge of geometry, we adopt this resolution of Switzer. 



" I shall then apply what I have here to set down as necessary 

 to be learned by all" young surveyors and layers-out of ground, 

 not mixing or confounding it with those many rules and pro- 

 blems that are contained in other books of mathematics, out of 

 which it is not easy for a beginner, nor, indeed, for many gar- 

 deners of some standing, to collect what is useful and necessary 

 to be known." 



We shall partly republish what Switzer placed before his 

 brethren, but we shall have the whole revised by a superior 

 authority of our own time. 



THE DEFINITION OF A LINE. 



The line is a length without breadth, made by the motion of a 

 point, and is of Beveral kinds, as it receives difference of motion. 



The right or Btaight line is that which is equally comprised 

 within its extremities, as A B. 



A B 



The curved line, is as plainly made from the round motion of 

 a pair of compasses, as c s. 



C \D 



The crooked line is that which turns or wanders from its ex- 

 tremities by one or more turnings-aside, as E F. 



The composite or mixed line, is partly crooked, and partly 

 straight, as is the line as. 



G 



The spiral line, called otherwise the volute, is described M N o. 



( To he continued.) 

 VULCANISED INDIARUBBEE TUBING. 



I HATE a Bplendid lot of young trees in my garden, as Plane, 

 Sycamore, Mountain Ash, and such like, for the purpose of 

 forming a shrubbery, and yesterday they were all I coidd have 

 wished, being very forward and full of leaf; but to-day they are 

 quite changed. 



The foliage seems completely ruined and as if burnt by fire. 

 The leaves on the upper surface have turned quite brown, and 

 hang drooping from the bough. iaL-iiUiyj 



The only way in which I can account for it is this : Last 

 night I had out my indiaruhber tubing for the first time this 

 season, and gave all the trees a good watering excepting two, 

 which I remember escaped, as it was nearly duBk when I did it ; 

 and now all but those two are in the condition above described. 



I should be glad to know that I am mistaken in supposing 

 that the injury was caused by the tubing, as I have gone to great 

 expense in providing sufficient for my garden, and, therefore, I 

 beg to ask you if you can enlighten me on the subject. 



I remember noticing the same appearance upon the foliage last 

 year, which I attributed to blight, and grieved I was to lose so 

 many fine young trees. I am now disposed to think that it may 

 have been the tubing and not the blight. The water is supplied 

 from the cistern through a gutta-percha tube. — Mountain Ash. 



ORCHARD-HOUSES— POT-CULTUEE of FRUITS. 



Eveey one who happens to be in favour of the culture of 

 fruit under glass will hail with pleasure such emanations as 

 those from the pen of " T. B.," written as they are in a strain 

 of good humour, and with a thorough appreciation of rural 

 sights and sounds mingled with the skill of the horticulturist. 

 The delightful picture he has drawn not only savours of the 

 highest enjoyment, but is highly complimentary to the gardening 

 profession. People of the most strictly Sabbatarian views could 

 hardly find fault with it, for there is no need to connect the 

 Sunday contemplation of the contents of an orchard-house or 

 a greenhouse with the necessary work of the week. Although 

 such houses are to me the scene of weekday toil, still I can as 

 agreeably pass the leisure moment in contemplation of the plants 

 and flowers as though they were entirely fresh to me. In this 

 respect I think the gardener possesses an advantage over men 

 of other callings ; and such notes as those of " T. K." are likely 

 to confirm this view of the case. 



I see no reason to doubt that Mr. Bobson is both attached 

 to his profession and a warm advocate of the garden in its 

 utilitarian and decorative aspects, and I think he will not turn 

 a deaf ear to the exhortation of "T. B." if he really see any 

 eauae for repentance. But it does not appear to me that Mr. 

 Kobson bears any animosity towards orchard-houses, or that he 

 would discourage the practice of having fruit trees under glass. 

 What he seems to imply is, that orchard-houses have as yet 

 failed to realise all that has beeu promised concerning them ; 

 and that, although success is possible, yet failures have been 

 very numerous. But then so they have been in other depart- 

 ments ; and in the generality of cases where failureB have been 

 traced to their causes, they are found to result rather from the 

 misapplication than the application of the principles on which 

 the system is founded. 



It is not a natural condition for any plant or tree to have its 

 roots cramped in a pot, and yet most of the plants in cultivation 

 are brought under that condition ; and no one can doubt that 

 however removed from nature that condition may be, there are 

 few plants so treated but what seem to thrive, or, at least, are 

 made to thrive under it; and there are plants which seem better 

 adapted for cultivation in pots than in the ground, or in any bed 

 of earth that could be made for them — as, for instance, many 

 of the Cape Heaths, and other hardwooded hair-rooted plants. 

 We see them grown to a state of the highest perfection it is possible 

 to conceive in pots ; but I never yet saw them grown well in a 

 bed of earth — in fact, they appear to me to be so expressly 

 adapted to pot-culture, that no other condition seems to be 

 applicable to them. At any rate, I am not likely to try them by 

 turning them out of pots. 



To talk of any particular class of subjects being totally unfitted 

 for pot-culture, is, I believe, contrary to all acknowledged rules, for 

 what plant or tree is there worth cultivating at all that will not 

 submit to have its roots brought within the compass of a pot or 

 tub ? Nor are we influenced in any way on this point by the 

 natural habitat of the plant itself, whether it be from the 

 mountain Bide where it is exposed to bleak winds, or from the 

 low marsh, from the burning plain, or the rocky dell, from the 

 running stream of water, or suspended in the air ; we have plants 

 under cultivation in pots which represent all these conditions of 

 humidity and temperature, and all seem to adapt themselves 

 kindly to the circumstance, provided their natural conditions of 

 air, light, heat, moisture, and soil, are afforded. Still, as 

 before mentioned, there are some plants which seem better 

 adapted to pot-culture than others ; and while I for one would 



