PTEROSTIGMA GRANDIFLORUM. 
171 
twigs, preserved from prunings, can be applied 
in a similar way. Attend to disblossoming 
and disbudding : this is the time to perform 
the art of pruning aright ; leave no more 
wood than is requisite for a perfect tree the 
following season ; stop the leaders when wood 
is wanted. 
Plums. — Treat these the same as the Peach, 
but they do not require so much protection, 
and are generally more spurred ; if the trees 
are very dirty they may be headed down. 
Strawberries.— -They will require water- 
ings if very dry when in flower, and scatter 
between the rows short grass or such like ; 
add liquid manure after the fruit is set. 
Vines. — Thin and nail in the shoots, and 
protect carefully. 
(Half-size.) 
PTEROSTIGMA GRANDIFLORUM. 
(Bentham.) 
LARGE-FLOWERED WINOPOINT. 
A tretty full account of this plant having 
been given at page 128, it will be unnecessary 
here to describe the plant further than to say, 
that it is a cool stove, or probably a green- 
house plant, with ovate hairy leaves, and two- 
lipped, large, showy blue flowers, which are 
produced from the axils of the leaves — in a 
wild state in racemes, but under cultivation as 
yet only solitary. 
It is one of the new plants sent to the Hor- 
ticultural Society from China, by Mr. Fortune, 
who speaks of it as a gay plant, growing on 
hill sides and near streams of water. It ap- 
pears that in its wild condition it does not 
grow more than from a foot to eighteen inches 
high, and has a close spike of flowers from the 
axil of every leaf. As far as it has been grown 
in this country, it has reached three feet, or 
even more, in height, and the leaves, instead 
of the flowers, have predominated ; we may 
therefore devote the remainder of this notice 
to a brief consideration of this subject, since 
it will be unnecessary to dwell more at length 
on a mere description of the plant. 
The difference between the plant in its wild 
state, and as hitherto cultivated, is entirely the 
consequence of the treatment it has received. 
It is well known to those who are familiar with 
the habits and culture of plants — though 
perhaps such a thing is never even suspected 
by those who do not look deeper than the sur- 
face of things — that while a certain mode of 
treatment will cause particular plants to de- 
velope what are called their organs of nutri- 
tion — that is leaves, &c. — a different course 
of treatment will check the production of these 
organs, and induce the development of the 
organs of reproduction — in other words, the 
flowers, &c. We shall not in this place inquire 
why and how this takes place, since that would 
lead us on to disputed ground ; and we shall 
therefore only mention the fact, leaving it to 
those of our intelligent readers who have 
leisure and inclination to do so, to prosecute 
this inquiry for themselves. It will be more 
to our purpose to notice briefly the kind of 
treatment which respectively produces such 
apparently opposite results. 
And first, as regards the mere extension of 
the plant. It may be presumed that the three 
principal agents which affect the growth of 
plants, are heat, moisture, and light. "When 
moisture becomes freely absorbed by the tis- 
sues of the plant, they are expanded in a pro- 
portionate degree ; and when this is accom- 
panied by heat in a degree too powerful for 
the plant, an elongation of the mass of tissue 
takes place, the plant becomes apparently- 
larger, but without containing within its 
structure any materially greater amount of 
assimilated matter : when they are therefore 
acted on in this way, a mere growtli of leaves 
and stems, with but little, if any flower, will 
be the result ; and this will be more particu- 
larly the case if the amount of light is dispro- 
portionately small. If the heat is not excessive, 
a more powerful degree of light will make 
some amends. On the other hand, the flower- 
ing of plants depends on the amount of matter 
they assimilate from the food presented to 
them, and light is the agent which promotes 
assimilation. When, therefore, plants are sub- 
jected to powerful light, they produce flowers 
in the proportion that light bears to the heat 
and moist ore acting on the plant, and as they 
each bear to what is adapted for the particular 
habit and structure of the plant. 
