124 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



of rubble at the bottom for drainage, and then, 

 with a layer of turfy sods on the top of this, 

 put in the soil ; after a week's interval so as to 

 allow the latter to settle, plant your Pasony. 

 The best time for planting is in the autumn, 

 during September or October. Nursery plants 

 are kept in pots, and at planting time the 

 roots should be disentangled and spread out. 

 Being of slow growth, Tree Pasonies require 

 no pruning, except removing dead shoots. 

 The finest specimens in this country at the 

 present time are from 6 to 8 feet high and as 

 much in diameter, but these plants are very 

 old, some of them having been planted thirty 

 or forty years ago. Specimens such as these 

 have been known to bear as many as 300 

 flowers in one season. 



The usual and best mode of increasing 

 Tree Paeonies is by grafting them on the fleshy 

 roots of the herbaceous kinds, but they may 

 be also raised from seed or multiplied by divi- 

 sion of the root, by layers, by cuttings, and 

 by budding. In grafting scions on roots, P. 

 albiflora and hybrids from it are preferred, 



because they do not throw up suckers in the 

 way in which the common P. officinalis and 

 others do. Layering is another simple way of 

 propagating Moutans. If the previous year's 

 shoots are tongued and pegged down firmly 

 in autumn they will throw out roots the first 

 year from each bud, and during the second 

 year after layering may be safely removed from 

 the stool. Propagation by budding and cut- 

 tings is also carried out, but it is found that 

 plants raised from cuttings remain in a weak 

 state for several years. Dividing the roots for 

 increase of stock may be done any time during 

 autumn, care being taken that each division 

 carries a few fibrous roots. Seedling raising is 

 not much practised in this country, because it 

 is seldom that seeds are ripened, but in France, 

 where the climate is more suitable for seed- 

 ripening, seedlings are raised with the view of 

 obtaining new varieties. It is an interesting, 

 though slow, process ; the seeds take twelve or 

 eighteen months to germinate, and the seed- 

 lings flower when from five to seven years of 

 age. 



REVIEWS. 



The Great Deserts and Forests of North America. By Paul Fountain. (Longmans.) 

 The Great Mountains and Forests of South America. By the same. 



The title of the first volume is unfortunate 

 from the point of view of one who knows and 

 cares about trees. The author, however, is de- 

 serving of respect, as he is a true Nature lover, 

 although his knowledge and observation are 

 more in the direction of reptiles, insects, and 

 the smaller animals than the flora and sylva 

 of the great northern continent. The absence 

 of an index, too, is an omission, though this, of 

 course, is the fault of the publishers, who in- 

 stead insert thirty-two pages of their catalogue. 



The chapter headed " A Day in a Cypress 

 Swamp " is a good illustration of Mr. Foun- 

 tain's method and limitations. American 

 swamps abound with animal and reptile life, 

 and very little of it is too minute to escape the 

 eye of this traveller. Slugs, for instance, are 

 exceedingly fond of cheese, and salt is a deadly 

 poison to frogs. 



" Here, also, there is a convolvulus-like 

 plant, which grows in magnificent profusion, 



hanging in vast shrouds, which are a mass or 

 beautiful white blossoms. Other splendid 

 flowers are so numerous that a description of 

 them alone would fill a volume ; but, unfor- 

 tunately, I cannot give their botanical names 

 or the orders to which they belong. I was 

 much struck by a well-shaped flower which 

 grew in clusters like the primrose, generally 

 at the roots of trees : it was the size of a dollar, 

 and of so brilliant an orange colour that from 

 a short distance it looked like sparks of fire 

 shining in the gloom of the swamp. Nor are 

 orchids wanting in these swamps, especially on 

 dead or decaying trees, many of which were 

 covered with them, of forms and colours most 

 beautiful. The Okefinoke (name of swamp) 

 has not, I think, been often penetrated (the 

 author was writing of the years 1871 and 

 1876), and I can assure the lover of Nature, 

 if he is prepared to run the risk of fever, that 

 the farther he forces his way into its gloomy 



