480 
HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
the old root with it. I dibble them out on 
well manured ground, about twice as thick 
as I propose them to stand, lest there should 
be any failure ; and as I can transplant the 
spare ones afterwards, I put them in pretty 
deep, so as to have the entire of the stem-slice 
below the surface, and give them plenty of 
water. Of those I so treated about five days 
ago, not one has failed as yet, but all look 
fresh and well, even those which had no 
portion of the old root with them. — Irnh 
Farmers' Journal. 
Advantages op Budding. — Budding, 
when done properly, is not without its advan- 
tages to the propagator. For instance, there 
are some trees that propagate more readily by 
budding than by grafting, although budded trees 
may be later in producing fruit than those that 
are grafted. But when a tree is rare, every eye 
may produce a plant, which cannot be done by 
means of grafts ; or, when a graft may fail in 
the spring, a bud can be applied in summer. 
Fruits may be improved by working one kind 
upon another; and it is a well-known fact, that 
the double yellow rose, which is a difficult 
fiower to grow in many places, does well 
when budded upon the common China rose. 
Seedling fruit trees are often a long time in 
hearing, but by means of budding they will 
bear fruit much sooner than by any other 
method. Many varieties of roses may be 
grown upon one stem, and different kinds of 
fruit from one root. Both flowers and fruit 
may be improved by it ; and if it was more 
practised than it is, the flower garden might 
he more gay, and the fruit garden more pro- 
ductive. — Scottish Farmer. 
Large Araucaria imbricata at Drop- 
more.- — The following is the height and 
dimensions of the finest specimen we have of 
this noble tree, which is supposed to be the 
largest in Europe : — height, 22 feet 6 inches ; 
diameter of branches near the ground, 10 feet 
6 inches ; 4 feet from the ground, 1 2 feet ; 
10 feet from ditto, 10 feet; 14 feet from ditto, 
8 feet 3 inches ; girth of stem near the ground, 
2 feet 101 inches ; 5 feet from ditto, 2 feet. 
September 1840, height, 14 feet— April 1844, 
20 feet. The tree has made a rapid growth 
this season, and promises to get a foot higher 
or more before autumn ; it is about 16 years 
old, and has never had the least protection ; 
it stands in rather an exposed situation, on a 
raised mound, in which the tree delights. The 
soil is loam, with a small portion of very infe- 
rior peat, and the plant has never been watered 
even in the hottest seasons we have had. A 
wet subsoil is certain death to the Araucaria 
in very wet seasons. A plant here from a 
cutting, made a leading shoot in the year 1833, 
and is now 19 feet 6 inches in height, and 
has every appearance of making a splendid 
tree.— G. C. 
The Sweetwilliam. — As the main features 
in the improvement of the Sweetwilliam, 
exclusive of smoothness of outline, are the *. 
increase of the size of the individual flowers, 
and the decrease of the number produced in 
a truss, it is probable that these improvements 
might be soonest effected by calling in the 
aid of some of those species of Dianthus 
which are nearest related to the Sweetwilliam. 
There is such a minute family resemblance to 
be observed among the different kinds of 
Dianthus, that it is by no means probable 
such an intermixture would so far alter the 
progeny as to cause them to be no longer 
Sweetwilliams ; at any rate, this is not at all 
likely to result from intermixture with some 
of the kinds which are most likely to be useful 
in other respects. Miller states, that the 
Mule Pink is a hybrid between the Sweet- 
william and Carnation, and if such is indeed 
the case, (and the authority is good,) this fact 
may be taken as a very strong inducement to 
test the experiment recommended. There is 
one kind in particular which I would recom- 
mend a trial of, the Sweetwilliam being the 
seed-bearing parent: this iswhatisoftenknown 
in gardens as the Dianthus splendens ; it forms 
a slender, hardy, herbaceous plant, with more 
of the appearance of a Sweetwilliam than of 
a Pink, and has large flowers of a deep vivid 
crimson, in much smaller bunches than those 
of the Sweetwilliam. Here, therefore, seems 
to be just the materials — flowers large and 
few in number. The colour would look 
beautiful in a Sweetwilliam ; but this is, of 
course, a point that would admit of much 
variation after the requisite size of the flowers 
and form of the truss was secured. The 
Indian ipink(Dianthvs chinensis), a very beau- 
tiful thing, but chiefly of light colours, would 
also be a likely one for the object ; and there 
are others which might be used. There is 
one thing which should be borne in mind by 
any person who would try the experiments: 
hybridists should never feel discouraged ; for 
the most part, their successes are but the 
just reward of perseverance. If the re- 
quired size and habit are not produced in the 
first generation, these — not the originals — 
should be again operated on, and the next 
generation again, and so on. In this way 
alone it is that any measure of success, in 
objects of this nature, will be realized. — 31. 
Spinach. — Many persons confine them- 
selves in the autumn sowing to the winter 
or prickly spinach alone ; but we have seen 
the summer or round-leaved kind cultivated 
the whole year round, and in the same 
way. When the plants acquire a considerable 
size, the outer leaves are constantly picked 
off, and the inner ones left to grow. The 
plants are not so inclined to run to seed as in 
summer time, and they bear a moderate frost. 
