56 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



determination, patience, and tenacity of purpose are required to meet 

 the circumstances of each case. 



It would not be accurate to compare dwarf plants obtained by 

 European cultivation with those miniature trees in the treatment of 

 which the Japanese excel. Whilst the " dwarfing " of plants is carried 

 on by us principally in the direction of " hybridisation " and selection, to 

 which certain cultural operations are added, notably "pinching," in order 

 to render the plants useful for certain purposes, in Japan it is the result 

 of a special and consistent treatment, and we may add that more than one 

 of these dwarfed trees put into the open ground did not take long to break 

 away from the narrow limits in which they had been forced to grow. 



We consider, on the other hand, that there is no comparison between 

 the plants treated by the Chinese, and the Japanese dwarf trees, so 

 different are the objects aimed at, and the methods employed. Monsieur 

 Albert Tissandier, who has s£en these trees at home, has explained in 

 "Nature" (1891, p. 360, and 1902, p. 86) the manner in which the 

 Chinese prepare them. Their system is to use a framework of iron wire 

 representing various persons, an animal, or other object, being placed on 

 the vase, on which were trained the branches of the plant, when it was 

 wished to represent people, the head, hands, and feet being painted on 

 earthenware. In other cases, yews are cut and twisted in the form of 

 mandarins or other persons. One can thus see that the Japanese plants 

 have no more than a distant resemblance to those of China, as they are 

 treated in an entirely different manner. 



Physiological Causes of Dwarfing and of Deformity in Vegeta- 

 tion. — Dwarfing, or, to be more exact, the atrophy of these plants, is due to 

 physiological causes, which are themselves the result either of the methods 

 of cultivation employed, or of the conditions amidst which they grow. 

 We can even see both in the formation of the lilliputian Japanese trees, 

 as the climate of that country predisposes the plants to remain dwarf. 



Altitude, dry heat, constant chills, lack of nourishment, confined space 

 for the roots, want of nourishment during the youth of the plants, and 

 strong winds, are among the elements which contribute to stunting the 

 plants. Anyone making an excursion among the mountains on their 

 sunny slopes and in dry places, the details of which cannot be now given, 

 * may notice how a conifer which has lost its head is checked for a time, 

 and if, after the tree has begun to grow again, this injury is repeated 

 from time to time, the check will be felt more and more at each re- 

 petition, and the tree will remain stunted, knotted, and deformed. All 

 the cultural operations bear on these points — want of nourishment, 

 frequent pruning, twisting and bending the branches, the use of small 

 pots, root pruning ; and anything which can paralyse the vitality of 

 the plant, by impeding the circulation of the sap and diminishing the 

 nourishment, tends to check the growth and leads to a very noticeable 

 change in the aspect of the plant so treated, and renders it capable of 

 being dwarfed, which is then only a matter of time and perseverance. 



That is why the same subjects, but less exaggerated in their growth, 

 may be met with in every pass on the mountain side, in fissures in the 

 rocks, and in all places where the plants have to struggle for their 

 existence, against the natural surroundings. The methods adopted by the 



