352 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 
subtle in its progress that it does not bend or break. 
What of the tender point that has to battle with the 
hard soil and encounter flinty rocks ? Surely these 
would soon be worn off and disabled. Nature takes 
care of this. These points all wear thimbles. The 
Lord made thimbles before man did and the trees 
wore them before woman did. She wears them to 
protect her fingers, the tree to protect its toes. These 
protective thimbles, or caps, are composed of "older 
and less delicate cells, which slough off and become 
slimy as they are pushed ahead of the elongating tip." 
They are not set on loosely like my lady's thimble. 
but are attached firmly to the point of the root they 
protect. The new growth — the multiplication of cells 
— takes place at the junction of root and thimble, and 
not only extends the root, but forms new cells on the 
under side of the thimble. As the outer cells are worn 
off the next layer takes their place. 
We all know that the sap ascends the tree mainly in 
the spring and early summer and is distributed among 
the leaves which are the tireless cookers that prepare 
it for the tree's assimilation. This sap is composed 
mainly of the mineral elements obtained in the earth, 
held chiefly in mechanical solution in water. It is 
unfit for plant food until acted upon by sun and air. 
The numerous leaves of deciduous trees are flat so as 
to give a greater "cooking" surface. Here most of 
the water evaporates and the food prepared in the 
leaves passes downwards, depositing new layers of 
growth to trunk, branch and root, and furnishing food 
for the increase of cellular tissue that extends branch 
and root. Some shrubs are so constructed by nature 
that they will grow in shade and assume the normal 
form of their kind, but those that do best in the sun, 
and also will grow in open shade, assume, in shade, a 
different form than when in the sun. The witch-hazel, 
for instance, when in shade assumes a spreading, 
umbrella-like shape. It must have some light to act 
upon its sap so it spreads out its branches laterally so 
that every leaf has an upper surface fully exposed. 
Did instinct cause this? 
You know that when we cut back the branches of a 
tree or shrub it breaks out with new branches further 
back and thus becomes bushy. You also know that 
when a tree is slowly dying it becomes thin at the top, 
often sprouts at the base and sometimes makes new 
growth on the trunk near the lower branches. The 
reason is that it is too weak to pump the sap up to 
the top and as a consequence the tree "breaks out" 
lower down. 
Now, all leaves, flowers and branches start from a 
bud. We did not see any buds where these branches 
came from, still they were there, dormant but hidden. 
Nature insures against accidents and these obscure 
buds are the paid premiums that force out a renewed 
verdure. 
Where the descending sap is building up all parts 
of the tree it also forms what are sometimes called 
"adventitious buds." They are not fully formed buds 
but "points" of active life which will perform the 
functions of true buds if called upon to act. They are 
distributed along the trunk and branches. These em- 
bryonic points of life may remain dormant many years 
and not act unless required. 
A tree often prunes itself and sets us a good ex- 
ample of how neatly the job may be done. Sometimes 
the quantity of sap taken up into a tree is greater than 
the foliage can take care of. It then calls upon its 
adventitious buds for relief and new shoots are soon 
formed. These are called sap shoots or water shoots. 
Sometimes they remain, but more often the tree casts 
them off — prunes them — when the proper balance be- 
tween the flow of sap and leaf surface is obtained. I 
said casts off, shoves off would be better, for they are 
really shoved off. The tree rids itself of them in the 
same manner it casts off its foliage in the fall when it 
has no more use for it. It forms a corky substance or 
growth between the stem of the leaf, or base of the 
sap shoot, and the branches or trunk, that as it thick- 
ens in growth it shoves off the leaf, or sap shoot, leav- 
ing no perceptible scar. As soon as a branch dies it 
receives no more of the prepared food. At its base a 
ring of new growth takes place, which tightens in on 
the dead branch as the growth proceeds until it finally 
chokes it off and in time covers up the opening. 
Vines are set in their ways. Some twine from right 
to left and seldom can be made to go the other way. 
Others reverse the proceedings and twine from left to 
right. The tendrils of the grape, the gourds and many 
others are provided with a spiral spring that relieves 
the tension when the winds sway the vine thus reduc- 
ing chances of breakage. 
Many plants possess odd and interesting features. 
One would hardly look for a perennial that would pro- 
duce a volatile gas that may be ignited and have it 
flame up its flower spike and do no damage to the 
flowers — a flame two to three inches long running up- 
wards with a hissing sound. Still we have it in the 
Dictamnus alba, the Fraxinella or Gas Plant. 
Many have seen the showy vines of the Bougain- 
villea glabra that does so well in Florida and southern 
California, but how many can tell the colors of the 
flowers ? I had a plant of the variety Sanderiana in a 
tub and had lots of fun in asking visitors to name the 
color of its flowers. Nearly all called it some shade of 
red and were surprised when I showed them the small 
yellow flowers that were surrounded by the brilliantly 
colored cordate-ovate bracts which are the attractions 
of the bloom. These bracts bear the same relation to 
the true flower that the yellow rayflorets of the sun- 
flower do to it. 
A HARDY ENGLISH WALNUT 
■pOR many years the English walnut has been culti- 
vated with more than ordinary success in Califor- 
nia, but only very recently has a sufficiently hardy va- 
riety been found to withstand the severe winters of the 
northern, eastern, and southeastern states. So profit- 
able has the culture of the English walnut in the east- 
ern and northern states become, that owners of farms 
and suburban tracts are beginning to set out large 
orchards, in preparation for the immense demand that 
is already being shown for this most edible of all nuts. 
As to planting and cultivating, English walnut trees 
seem to require no particular soil, but should not be 
set out where it is low and wet. In planting on the 
lawn the ground about the base of the trees should be 
kept spaded for three feet in circumference, and after 
the first year some well-rotted manure should be 
worked into the soil around the tree. No cultivating 
should be done after the first of August, as it would 
encourage further growth, and from then until winter 
the annual growth of wood is ripening and hardening. 
No more beautiful shade tree is known than the 
English walnut. It makes comparatively no litter, has 
a pure white bark, very closely resembling that of the 
white birch, and bears a heavy foliage with a rich, 
glossy leaf. The trees are almost immune from insect 
pests, a certain alkali sap which they possess serving 
to drive away the parasites which are so ruinous to 
other trees. — Tree Talk. 
