DWARFING. 



89 



DWARFING, 



rebinthacece. — Chilian shrubs, which 

 prove nearly hardy in the climate of 

 London. They were called Amyris 

 by Cavanilles, and Schlnus by Or- 

 tega, both professors of botany at 

 Madrid ; and they are occasionally 

 found under these names in gardens 

 and nurseries. The commonest kind, 

 D. dependens, Dec, (Amyris poly- 

 gama, Cav.,) withstood the winter 

 of 1837-8, in the Horticultural So- 

 ciety's Garden, with very little pro- 

 tection. The leaves of plants of this 

 genus, if thrown upon water, will 

 start and jump about in a very extra- 

 ordinary manner ; and they smell 

 strongly of turpentine. The plants 

 should be grown in a light dry soil, 

 aud trained against a south wall, 

 where they can be protected by a 

 thatched coping during winter. The 

 flowers, which are white, are produced 

 in small spikes, and they are suc- 

 ceeded by dark- purple berries. 



Dwarf Fan-palm. — Chamcerops 

 Mmilis. — This plant is the hardiest 

 of the palm tribe, and it will succeed 

 if planted out on a lawn, and slightly 

 protected during severe frosts. It 

 should be grown in rich mould, well 

 drained, and occasionally watered. 

 When planted out on a lawn, a pit 

 should be dug for it about two feet 

 deep ; at the bottom of which should 

 be two or three layers of pebbles, to 

 ensure* drainage, and then the pit 

 filled up with rich sandy loam. Thus 

 treated, and protected during severe 

 winters by a moveable frame of can- 

 vas, stretched on hoops, or of basket- 

 work, it will grow vigorously, and 

 live many years. — (See Protecting.) 



Dwarfing. — In some cases, where 

 there is very little room, it may be 

 desirable to know how to obtain 

 dwarf trees ; though generally speak- 

 ing they are, like all unnatural ob- 

 jects, in bad taste, and rather disagree- 

 able than pleasing. Wherever Chinese 

 buildings are introduced, however, a 



few dwarf stunted elms in China 

 vases should be placed near them ; as 

 in China it is said that no garden is 

 considered complete without several 

 of these little monsters. The mode of 

 making them is to take a ring of bark 

 off . one of the branches of a full- 

 grown elm- tree, and to surround it 

 with earth wrapped in moss, which 

 should be kept constantly moist, by 

 water being thrown on it several times 

 a day, or by a vessel being suspended 

 over it, so contrived that the water 

 may ooze out a drop at a time, and 

 thus be continually and regularly fall- 

 ing on the moss. In the course of a 

 few weeks, the branch will have 

 thrown out roots ; and when this is 

 supposed to be the case, it should be 

 detached from the parent tree, and 

 planted with the moss still round it 

 in a small pot in very poor soil ; as 

 soon as it begins to grow, it should be 

 shifted into another pot a little 

 larger ; and this shifting should be 

 repeated several times, into larger 

 and larger pots, always using poor 

 stony or gravelly soil, and giving the 

 plant very little water. Thus treated, 

 the plant will soon become a little 

 stunted tree, bearing all the marks of 

 old age ; and looking like a poor de- 

 crepit old man, bent double with age. 

 It is obvious that other forest-trees 

 might be dwarfed in the same man- 

 ner ; so that a miniature forest might 

 easily be formed, the oaks asuming 

 a gnarled and rugged character, and 

 bearing acorns, and the pines and firs 

 with rough furrowed bark, and co- 

 vered with cones, and yet the whole 

 not above two feet high. 



Another mode of dwarfing ligneous 

 plants is employed to throw them 

 into flowers or fruit. It is found that 

 many stove-plants only bear fruit at 

 the extremity of their branches, and 

 that our hothouses are not large 

 enough to permit them to attain the 

 requisite size. Cuttings are thereforo 



