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CULTURE OF A FEW ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 
just mentioned, as well as of C. puhescens, etruscum, and others. The natural 
habit of honeysuckles being to climb up the stems of trees, this mode of 
treatment is far more congenial than training them to walls and trellises ; and the 
flowers are much more abundant, as well as additionally interesting, when protruded 
all round a central stem or support, than when standing out from a flat surface. 
Nevertheless, it might be objected that as they have a tendency to barrenness of 
stem, at least in the lower part, this would greatly detract from their beauty. 
In a state of wildness, it is true that many Honeysuckles rise to the height of 
ten or more feet without producing a solitary branch, but this habit is entirely due 
to the circumstances of shade and seclusion from light in which they are necessarily 
placed, and the disposition consequently induced to rise beyond such conditions. 
Besides, all climbers naturally assume a rambling mode of growth, and it is only 
through the aid of art that they are rendered compact and restricted. If, however, 
a Honeysuckle be planted in an exposed position, where it can receive the full 
influence of sun and air, and be relieved of the prejudicial shade of trees, its prone- 
ness to attain a great elevation will be considerably checked, because it will not 
thus have to follow an imperative law of nature, which impels it to seek light and 
air, nor will that undue elongation of parts which is well known to accompany 
partial darkness be imposed upon it. If, in addition to these reliefs, it be assisted 
by slight pruning, by twisting the stems round the pole, or occasionally arranging 
them in a wider circle than that formed by immediate contact with their support, 
they will speedily protrude lateral shoots from within a few inches of the base to 
the summit, and, by shortening these, may be made to flower in prodigious 
quantities. The principal management requisite is to keep them pruned, and the 
tendency of the stems to become bare repressed, from the period of their trans- 
plantation to the time when they arrive at full perfection. No desire for them to 
gain a certain altitude must be permitted to interfere with those objects ; as, if 
once suffered to straggle, they can never afterwards be properly reclaimed. 
With C. sempervirens and its varieties, there is less difficulty than with any 
other in adopting the course of treatment now propounded. One or two of the 
leading stems or shoots should be fastened to the pole, and, as they advance, care 
should be taken that all the lower portion be duly furnished with lateral branches. 
As in the training of fruit-trees on walls, the main shoots must not be allowed to 
ascend till a sufficient proportion of side-shoots is supplied, and pruning ought to 
be repeatedly resorted to until that end is attained. The laterals, again, of all the 
kinds, can be reduced in winter, so that each will bear a greater number of young 
shoots in the following summer, and for every bunch of flowers produced in one 
season, there will thus be several in the ensuing year. We may add, that for 
planting on a lawn, for placing in the centre of a flower-plot, for mingling with 
shrubs and tall herbaceous plants in a low shrubbery, or for forming pillars or 
avenues of pillars in front of a conservatory or other garden building, we know 
nothing that has such an enchanting aspect as some species of Caprifolium attached 
to isolated poles. 
