HOUSE, ABE A, AND WINDOW GARDENING-. 



259 



Rhododendrons are readily raised in any quan- 

 tity from seeds, but the numerous beautiful hybrids 

 and garden forms can only be perpetuated with a 

 reasonable degree of success by grafting or layering. 

 The former is most extensively practised in com- 

 mercial establishments, because it is by far the most 

 expeditious means of increasing any given variety. 

 Whip-grafting, or side-grafting, and cleft-grafting, 

 are the methods employed, either in spring or in 

 autumn, during the months of August and September. 

 They should then be put under the protection of 

 some glass structure to preserve a uniformly moist 

 atmosphere till union has been effected. In- 

 arching and budding are resorted to under con- 

 venient or necessary circumstances. All of these 

 methods are applied to numerous rare and orna- 

 mental, as well as variegated plants. Pendulous, and 

 other garden varieties, require to be perpetuated and 

 increased by grafting and budding. 



Pendulous varieties of Willow, such as Salix caprea 

 pendula, the Kilmarnock Willow, may be trained to 

 a stake, or other support, until they have acquired 

 the requisite height of stem, but it is more expe- 

 ditious and satisfactory to graft such subjects 

 standard - high on straight and clean stems of the 

 normal upright form. Numerous instances of a 

 precisely similar nature present themselves in the 

 pendulous, or popularly so-called weeping garden 

 forms of Fag us Sylvatica, Sophora Japonica, Laburnum 

 vulgare, Fopulus nigra, Fyrus aucuparia, Fraxinus 

 excelsior, Ulmus montana, and Ilex aquifolium, besides 

 woody species of a prostrate, procumbent, or dwarf 

 nature, which it might be desirable to graft standard- 

 high, and introduce for the sake of novelty, curiosity, 

 their ornamental value, or characteristic aspect, in 

 landscape scenery. The variegated and other gar- 

 den forms of these things, such as the purple and 

 copper-leaved Beeches, the upright variety of the 

 Oak, and others possessing peculiarities of babit, 

 general outline, or otherwise, may thus be perpe- 

 tuated and increased. This is effected by grafting 

 on the commoner sorts, that can readily be raised 

 from seeds, cuttings, or layers. The numerous 

 varieties of the English Elm, from the slender and 

 twiggy nature of their annual shoots, do not take 

 readily by the ordinary method of whip-grafting, 

 but an eminent authority used to succeed admirably 

 by the process termed saddle-grafting. Stocks are 

 obtained by layering the common or typical sort. 

 The Elm, however, is more successfully budded, as 

 a rule, and others exhibit a similar liking, such as 

 the Ash, Lime, Willow, Thorn, Almond, Peach, 

 Laburnum, Maple. Oak, Birch, Alder, Holly, Beech, 

 and many conifers, are grafted, although some of 

 these, and numerous others, will succeed tolerably 

 well by either method. 



A very common practice is to raise ornamental 

 conifers by cuttings, but it is sometimes desirable to 

 propagate scarce varieties by grafting on the seed- 

 lings or rooted cuttings of more plentiful sorts. 

 This refers to Chavicecyparis, Thuia, Retinospora, and 

 several highly ornamental species of Abies. Golden 

 varieties of the Yew are sometimes grafted at some 

 height on green sorts out of curiosity, or for the 

 sake of contrast. It is usual to house these things 

 when convenient, and keep them close after the 

 operation till properly united, and then gradually 

 inure to a lower temperature. This may be carried 

 out in autumn, in which case no growth will be 

 made, nor is desirable, till the following spring. 



Besides the numerous results and modifications 

 produced by the combined and conjoint actions of 

 stock and scion, we have a few remarkable instances, 

 such as Cytisus Adami, now generally considered to 

 be a graft hybrid between Laburnum vulgare and 

 Cytisus purpureas. This tree frequently produces 

 by reversion both prototypes, on different branches 

 of the same or another plant, together with the 

 hybrid. An analogous instance is recorded of two 

 supposed hybrid Oranges, which, when grafted on a 

 third variety, reverted to either one or other pure 

 parent, or produced a variable and inconstant tree, 

 consisting of all three forms. 



HOUSE, AREA, AND WINDOW 

 GARDENING. 



By William Thomson. 



VERANDAHS. 



BY a verandah, we understand a covered walk 

 round the outside of the walls of a house, upon 

 the ground. 



If the roof be glazed so much the better ; for, since 

 the great majority of climbing plants produce their 

 flowers at or near the extremities of the branches, 

 the presence of a glass roof makes all the difference 

 between plenty of well- shaped flowers and no flowers 

 at all, or else imperfectly developed flowers, pale in 

 colour, and often deformed from having been pro- 

 duced under a dark roof. 



As verandahs are usually paved, the plants against 

 the walls of the house must be grown in pots, and 

 these are generally arranged upon shelves or sloping 

 stages between the windows. On the outer side of 

 this covered walk is commonly the lawn, and in 

 this are often made semi-circular beds in the turf in 

 front of the upright supports of the roof, for the 

 accommodation of the plants, or shrubs, which are 

 to be trained up these supports. 



One of the great drawbacks to good cultivation 



