156 
CLIMBING PLANTS ON WALLS OR TRELLISES. 
Sir T. Mitchell states that its girth was thirty 
feet at its greatest diameter, and only sixteen 
at the ground. In this situation there was 
only one companion of the same kind, a very 
young tree. " Of its quality, much, I am 
sure, remains to be said, when it becomes 
better known ; the wood being so light, moist, 
and full of gum, that a man having a knife, 
or tomahawk, might live by the side of one 
without other food or water ; as if nature, in 
pity for the most distressed of mortals, hiding 
in solitary places, had planted even there this 
tree of abundance. The wood must contain 
a great portion of mucilage, for, on chewing 
it, it seems to contain as much nutritious 
matter as fibre." When boiling water is 
poured over shavings of this wood, a clear 
jelly, resembling tragaeanth, is formed, and 
becomes a thick viscid mass ; iodine stains it 
brown, but not a trace of starch is indicated 
in it. No doubt the nutritious quality of the 
tree is owing to the mucilage, which is ap- 
parently of the same nature as that of the 
nearly allied Sterculia tragacantha, the Tra- 
gacanth tree of Sierra Leone. — Lindley. 
" The pods contain a great number of 
seeds, which are eaten by the natives, and also 
by many birds ; and from the circumstance 
of having found one pod half eaten by a 
bird on a rock, the very apex of a lofty summit, 
the solitary locality of this tree may perhaps 
be considered at least partly owing to its seeds 
being the favourite food of some birds in- 
habiting such places, each seed probably re- 
quiring to be picked out of the thick shell, in 
order that it may grow." * 
The barrel-like form of the trunk of this 
tx'ee is not quite peculiar to it. Other trees of 
the same natural order Sterculiacese, as the 
Chorisia ventricosa of Nees, and C. insignis 
of Humboldt, have trunks of a similar ventri- 
cose character ; in the former case covered 
with spine- like processes. Indeed it would 
seem that a tendency towards a short lumpish 
growth of the trunk is somewhat common in 
the order. This is indicated in the Baobab 
of Senegal, which is almost as broad as it is 
long; several trees measured by Adanson being 
from sixty-five to seventy-eight feet in cir- 
cumference, but low in proportion, the height 
not exceeding twenty or thirty feet ; as w r ell 
as in the great buttress trees, or silk cottons of 
tropical America. 
CLIMBING PLANTS ON WALLS OR 
TRELLISES. 
Many of these very beautiful objects lose all 
their best effects by ill training and neglected 
pruning. The varieties of the Clematis are 
very delicate in their stems, and if not watched 
* Journal, p. 181. 
as they grow, and made last, they fall over, 
and frequently break in the attempt to get 
them up again. C. Siebuldii and C. azurea 
grandijldra sustain an enormous plant on a 
stem not larger than a small packthread ; and 
if the heads be once allowed to hang over to any 
extent, it becomes almost impossible to set 
them to rights again. From the instant a 
young plant begins to grow, it needs support, 
and every attention must be paid to the 
mode in which it is to be trained ; for if the 
plant is to cover a broad space, it should be 
topped or cut down, so that two lateral shoots 
may be produced; and these should be trained 
horizontally, as far as the space is to be covered, 
and then the ends pinched off. The plant will 
most likely branch at every joint ; but if some 
of the joints fail to send out shoots, pinch the 
top out of one that comes next the vacancy, 
that it may send out lateral shoots to supply 
the deficiency, and eventually train all these 
upwards from the whole length of the stems. 
By this means a trellis or wall is soon covered. 
Again, while the plants are young it will in- 
crease the rapidity of their growth to pick out 
the bloom buds a*s fast as they appear, that all 
the strength may be thrown into the branches. 
The Glycine, or Wistaria sinenses, is a 
curious plant to manage. We- have seen it 
remain a stunted, shrub-like plant for several 
seasons ; this is chiefly owing to being pot- 
bound when put out, and the ball being too 
hard to receive the benefit of moisture. It 
then depends entirely on the outer fibres, and 
the roots, perhaps, being coiled round and 
round the collar of the plant, fairly choke it, 
because the roots will swell and bind the stem 
as firmly as if it were bound with a cord. 
When they are put out they should be loosened, 
the roots spread out, and the plant well wa- 
tered. The soil should be good loam from 
rotted turves. When the plant begins to start, 
you must treat it according to what it has to 
do : if you want it to run a single stem a 
long way, cut the plant down to the strongest 
shoot, pick off all the blooms, and rub off the 
buds that are below the strongest, so that 
only that one shoot shall grow. If you want 
it to spread directly on both sides, pinch the 
top off this strong shoot, at the third joint; this 
will cause lateral shoots to come, when the best 
two, one on each side, may be allowed to grow, 
and may be trained horizontally, till they fill 
up their allotted space in width; they may then 
have their ends turned upwards till the end of 
the season ; but before they start fur the next 
year's growth, prune the upright part off, and 
let the eyes break all the way along, to grow 
upwards, and fill the wall or trellis. On the 
other hand, if one stem is to be carried as far 
as it will go, or to any considerable length, 
without side branches, cut the top down to the 
