ON GROWING CLIMBERS AND OTHER TALL PLANTS AS BUSHES. 4 [ 
ever, be carried to a very great extent, and will be of only little use unless 
accompanied by the employment of a poor soil. Witli this auxiliary, it may be 
adopted in a few instances with success. 
For realizing, however, the true and best advantages which this practice is 
calculated to impart, it should be combined with that of pruning ; for, by itself, 
it will certainly effect the object to a greater or less degree, but it will do so at 
the expense of the inflorescence. Not that it will diminish the quantity of the latter ; 
it will only lessen its size. When united with pruning, and not pursued to an 
extreme, it will be highly beneficial. 
Nevertheless, when we speak of confining the roots of plants, we are not to 
be understood according to the common sense of the phrase. As generally 
employed, it means that the diameter of the pots in which they are usually 
grown should be small ; whereas, we intend that those pots should be peculiarly 
shallow. By this means, additional fertility will be gained, while a check will 
be given to the plant's growth at the same time. 
The last method we shall notice for inducing dwarfness, refers almost exclu- 
sively to Climbers. It is by layering their shoots all around the parent stem, 
and rearing thus a thicket of small independent plants, which, though they will 
have roots of their own, will also, by retaining their connexion with the old 
stock, remain dwarf and flower beautifully. By selecting appropriate subjects 
for this treatment, and giving the benefit of pruning in addition, very noble 
bushes might be obtained for the shrubbery borders or flower-beds. 
This plan is, moreover, adapted for some kinds of tall shrubs, or for usually 
dwarf objects, that have from any cause become straggling. We have seen 
evergreens, such as Hhododendrons and Laurels, immensely improved by it. 
Were we, in closing this article, to supply a list of those plants to which we 
think our remarks most fitly apply, we should have to fill two or three pages with 
a catalogue, which, after all, would be necessarily incomplete ; and which any 
one may make out for themselves from the general characteristics we intend 
furnishing. 
Climbers, of nearly every class, hardy, greenhouse, and stove, might be most 
aptly treated in the manner we have sketched ; and either or all of the three 
modes of operation pointed out applied to them, as their character may warrant. 
Of hardy ones, we may name, as illustrations, several species of Clematis, 
Honeysuckle, Jasmine, and Wistaria sinensis ; while Thunbergias, Poivrea coccinea^ 
Tecoma grandiflora^ various Jasmines, and probably Stephanotis florihunda^ and 
Allamanda cathartica^ may be ranked among the more tender kinds. 
Of shrubs that are straggling, or apt to become so, and may be rendered 
closer by either of the methods proposed, besides Rhododendrons and Laurels, we 
may single out Cydonia japonica^ Roses, Spericus, Lilacs, Guelder Roses, Syringas, 
&c., which may be kept almost as small as desired ; with Hovea Celsii, Euphorbia 
VOL. XI. NO. CXXII. G 
