ON GROWING CLIMBERS AND OTHER TALL PLANTS AS BUSHES. 
39 
they demand trellises or stakes to support them, and a good deal of training. By- 
keeping them in a dwarf and bushy condition, however, these circumstances would 
be avoided. 
In an ornamental point of view, again, the subject assumes further interest. 
And it is in this light that we would particularly seek to place it, because, what- 
ever arguments may be urged for or against any system, we conceive that, if they 
compromise the appearance of the object, they at once become questionable; 
whereas, convenience, economy, and nearly everything else, may be in some 
degree sacrificed to gain a superior ornamental aspect. 
There is probably much of difficulty connected with the inquiry whether such 
plants as Climbers — in themselves among the most elegant of the vegetable tribes 
— can have their attractions at all increased by any treatment that takes away 
their natural character. The native gracefulness of this tribe, wild and irregular 
though it be, is perhaps incapable of enhancement by being reduced within any of 
the rules of art. Still, as hardly any cultivated Climbers are treated naturally, 
but are all to some extent pruned and trained, there will be the less objection to a 
decided interference with their habits ; while, as the method we are propounding 
will secure a large measure of symmetry, which is in itself one of the most genuine 
elements of true beauty, any such objection will be yet more diminished in its force. 
The most cogent reason, however, in favour of our plan, regarded as a question 
of ornament, is deduced from a law wliich, we think, will be universally subscribed 
to concerning blooming plants. It is that, if two specimens be alike healthy, well- 
proportioned, and of the same size, the one which produces the greatest number of 
flowers is the most emphatically ornamental. The largest proportion of flowers, 
then, in the same space, other conditions being correspondingly favourable, is our 
criterion of genuine showiness ; and keeping this test before us, we may observe 
that, by restricting the extension of climbers or other tall plants, and transforming 
them into low bushes, their blooming propensities will be augmented, and an 
increased amount of flowers being thus compressed into a much smaller compass, 
the effect of the whole will be more splendid and commanding. 
We have gone thus minutely into the details of our proof that the system 
under notice is entitled to adoption, because, w^ithout such explicit and specific 
evidence, it might be denounced as an unnecessary and useless innovation. And 
we have taken up each point separately, and on its own distinct merits, that, by 
accumulating the proof derivable from each, we may construct altogether a more 
stable and convincing argument. 
It is proper that we now speak of the manner in which the plan we are dis~ 
cussing is to be efi'ected, and the plants on which it can most suitably be practised . 
We shall not employ much of our space for this purpose ; our aim being rather to 
evince the propriety and usefulness of the system, and give some hints for its 
general effectuation, than to descend into those practical minutiae with which the 
most ordinary cultivator must be familiar. 
