Deoember S, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE! GARDENER, 



445 







WEEKLY 



CALENDAR. 















Day 

 of 



Month 



Day 



of 



Week. 



DECEMBER 8-14, 70. 



Average Tempera- 

 ture near London. 



Rain in 



last 

 43 years. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 after 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 



8 

 9 

 10 

 11 

 12 

 13 

 14 



Th 

 P 



S 



Son 



M 



Tu 



W 



S Sunday in Advent. 



[of Gardeners. 

 Royal Horticultural Seciety's examination 

 Meeting of Royal Microscopical Society, 



[8 P.M. 



Day. 

 46.9 

 40,7 

 47.0 

 46.5 

 48.0 

 47.5 

 46.9 



Nicht. 

 83.6 

 S4.9 

 32.8 

 32.6 

 87.0 

 86.5 

 84.3 



Mean. 

 40.3 

 40.8 

 89.9 

 39.5 

 42.5 

 42.0 

 40.6 



Days. 

 19 

 17 

 26 

 17 

 18 

 23 

 21 



m. h. 

 54af7 



56 7 



57 7 

 53 7 

 59 7 



8 

 8 



in. h. 

 50 af 3 

 50 3 

 49 S 

 49 3 

 49 3 

 49 3 

 49 3 



m. h. 



24 at 4 



4 5 



54 6 



55 6 

 1 8 



12 9 

 27 10 



m. li. 

 55 af 7 

 6G 8 

 50 9 

 S5 10 

 15 11 

 after. 

 12 



Days. 

 O 



16 

 17 

 18 

 19 

 20 

 21 



m. s. 

 7 54 

 7 27 

 7 

 6 32 

 6 4 

 5 35 

 5 8 



S42 

 843 

 344 

 345 

 346 

 847 

 843 



From observations taken near London during the last forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week 

 temperature 34.5°. The greatest heat was 63°, on the Uth, 1844; and the lowest cold 13°, on the 8th and 9th, 1867. 

 rain was 1.02 inch. 



is 47.1°, and its night 

 The greatest fall of 



PRUNING ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS. 



No. 6. 



RUNING being subsequent to planting, I 

 purpose at this stage to offer to the notice of 

 intending planters some suggestions on the 

 distribution of trees and shrubs in parks and 

 pleasure grounds. 



The best and the true mode of arranging 

 trees, shrubs, and other plants so as to pro- 

 duce effect is, without dispute, massing them 

 Art may dispose them in lines and a variety 

 of ways that will result in a good effect, but 

 though art is essential it will ever prove abortive if not 

 founded on those broad, well-defined principles that give 

 art its life. The ideal of the painter is Nature. If his 

 picture has not Nature it will never immortalise kirn, and 

 the planter disposing plants in a confused manner will 

 have a very confused, undefined landscape. Some have 

 an idea that the best effect is attained by a promiscuous 

 assemblage of the different species and varieties of trees, 

 shrubs, and other plants. Probably acting on what they 

 consider Nature's disposition, at irregular distances and in 

 an irregular style, a great diversity of plants are placed in 

 a manner which is in no way superior to a confused dis- 

 tribution that in the end must produce a bad effect. This 

 is termed imitating Nature. As a mixture the planting 

 may be all very well; it may serve every purpose of 

 shelter, and afford the gratification trees and shrubs with 

 their allies always give, but it has nothing of Nature, for in 

 this the trees, &c, form objects in the'landscape ; there 

 are masses of evergreens in one spot, and masses of de- 

 ciduous subjects in another, the whole haviug varied 

 gradations of height, depth, and size; uniformity is no- 

 where apparent, and yet the whole is blended into one 

 scene or picture, though composed of several parts or 

 objects individually well marked and distinct, yet bearing 

 a correlation to each other, producing in effect that har- 

 mony and contrast most pleasing to the eye. 



Nature's principle of planting is in masses. In no case 

 is Oak intermixed with Ash, much less do we find a 

 clump of Pines mingled with Elms. The soil, situation, 

 and climate give a degree of fitness for a certain class 

 of plants in one place, and for a very different kind in 

 another: hence we have that distinctness of view with 

 diversity of features always pleasing to the eye, and a 

 completeness that characterises Nature's works, showing 

 them different from art or the work of man. Though in 

 the best examples of natural scenery there is seldom the 

 solitary tree, yet there is a very great difference in the 

 subjects forming the landscape. A mass of Oak prevails 

 in one place, there is Ash or Elm in another, Pines sur- 

 mount the eminences, Gorse will show itself here and 

 there, the Willow will be where there is water, the Dog- 

 wood and Guelder Rose in moist situations, and in all 

 there are masses of some particular tree ; not that there 

 are no detached specimens and small groups, but they 

 seem rather as having escaped from the main groups, 

 forming connecting links between the latter and what they 



No. 500.— Vol. XIX., New Series. 



adjoin, than as being characteristic of Nature's disposition 

 of plants. 



I will not further note Nature's distribution of plants. 

 It has been pooh-poohed in our gardens, but what would 

 be said if we were to mix our flowering plants in beds and 

 borders in a style like that we adopt in ninety-nine out of 

 every hundred plantations of trees that are formed in this 

 country ? Supposing we arrange our plants in a bed or 

 border one or more of each kind, having due regard to 

 height and colour both of bloom and foliage, striving to 

 make a bed as much mixed or diversified as possible, what 

 will be the result ? A flue bed it may be as regards 

 foliage and flowers, but the effect is poor. What a dif- 

 ferent effect would have been produced had all the plants 

 of one hue of flower or foliage been disposed in a mass ! 

 The parts then become distinct— a feature in itself, though 

 it comprises but a part of the bed or border, yet combining 

 with the other parts to form a whole. It is the same with 

 trees, though on a larger scale ; the mixed system must 

 give place to the massing or natural system. 



In planting trees and shrubs on the massing principle 

 groups may be formed of one species or variety of tree, or 

 very effective groups may be formed of a species and its 

 varieties, and finer still when the most distinct species of 

 a genus are collected into a group ; in no case mixing 

 them promiscuously, but disposing each in a mass, so as 

 to show its character, and by dotting a few on the margin 

 of the group, yet near enough to form or appear a part of 

 the group at a distance, though on close inspection they 

 have the characteristics of the isolated tree. In this 

 way we secure the beauty of the specimen as well as that 

 of the mass. The dotting will also serve to break the 

 not unfrequently monotonous smoothness of artificial out- 

 lines. 



The groups may comprise any number of parts— in en- 

 tensive arrangements be largo enough to contain examples 

 of every species and variety of a genus ; but very effective 

 groups may be formed of a few of the most distinct kinds. 



Let us suppose a to be a group intended for three species 

 or kinds. Oaks are desired. In this case— a, Turkey Oak 

 (Quercus Oerris) ; h, English Oak (Quercus pedunculata) ; 



c, Scarlet Oak (Quercus' coccinea) ; whilst for dotting on 

 the margin the same kinds may be employed as those in 

 the mass adjoining ; or e may be the variegated Lucombe 

 Oak (Quercus Cerris Lucombeana varisgata argentea) ; 



d, Lucombe Oak (Quercus Cerris Lucombeana) ; /, Fern- 

 leaved variety of the English Oak (Quercus pedunculata 

 aspleniifolia) ; rj, Variegated English Oak (Quercus pedun- 

 culata variegata) ; h, Cork Oak (Quercus Suber) ; i, Ever- 

 green Oak (Quercus Ilex). 



In a similar way with Chestnuts, a, may be the common 

 Horse Chestnut (iEsculus Hippocastanum) ; b, Pink Horse 

 Chestnut (iEsculus H. carneum) ; e, Scarlet Horse Chest- 

 nut (iEsculus H. coccineum) ; whilst d could be the Varie- 

 gated (iEsculus H. variegatum argenteum) ; e, Double 

 White Horse Chestnut (iEsculus H. flore-pleno albo) ; 

 /, Double Red (iEsculus H. flore-pleno rnbro) ; g, iEsculus 

 H. precox ; h, iEsculus H crispum ; i, iEsculus rubicunda. 



In a similar way it might be planted with Elms, Limes, 

 No. 1158— Vol,. XLIV., Old Series. 



