128 On Ringing the Bark of Trees and Plants. 



made, be very narrow, to admit of speedy closing, it not 

 being necessary for the production of the blossom (which is 

 formed on the young wood), to keep it so long open as is 

 required in other fruit trees. 



The preceding are all instances of the effects of ringing in 

 the production of fruit ; but as these incisions in the bark 

 cause the formation of flower buds when none, or only a few, 

 would otherwise have appeared, the practice may be exten- 

 sively and usefully applied to ornamental shrubs and plants, 

 which do not readily blossom. I believe this use of ringing 

 has not before occurred to the advocates of the practice, and 

 as I am acquainted with some cases of perfect success, it 

 will be worth while to enumerate them, in order to induce to 

 further trials. 



Mr. William Baxter, gardener to the Comte de 

 Vandes, at Bayswater, has given me the particulars of three 

 experiments, made in the spring of 1818, which fully an- 

 swered his expectations. The first was with a VVaratah 

 Camellia, which he had never been able to make flower ; he 

 cut a ring round the stem, so close to the root that he was 

 able to cover the incision with the mould of the pot in which 

 the plant grew ; the ring closed at the end of the year, and 

 the plant remained in good health, but made rather short 

 shoots, on which an abundance of flower buds were formed, 

 and these blossomed perfectly in the following spring. The 

 second experiment was on a plant of Aubletia Tibourbou, 

 in the stove ; the ringed branch speedily broke into flower ; 

 it was the first blossom which the plant had yielded, but its 

 other branches did not blow ; the ringed branch is still alive, 

 and its bark nearly reunited. The third experiment was on 



