EXTRACTS — ARBOUICULTURE. 615 
the seeds need not be sown so early by a fortnight or upwards as is necessary in 
the usual way. The young plants are less exposed to injury from cold or late 
spring frost, and the soil is not washed off the seeds by heavy rains ; also, where 
the garden is surrounded by trees, this practice prevents their being destroyed 
by birds. If pots are not convenient, hollow tiles will answer the same end. — 
J. H. Hor. Trans. 
On the Hibi'scus Fugie — This is a herbaceous plant from Brazil. The 
stems die down during the winter, when the roots, being tuberous, must be kept 
rather dry. It grows well in leaf mould and sand, and is easily propagated by 
cuttings and layers of its angular stems. — M. Seitz. — Prnss. Gard. Soc. 
Hints on Floriculture. — By the first of June, the night frosts of spring may 
be fairly considered as past, and consequently preparation may be made to fill 
up the different compartments of the flower garden, with such superfluous orna- 
mental plants the greenhouse, &c. may contain : as eligible plants for out door 
summer decoration, large plants of the Fuchsias may be named, not forgetting 
the new species F. bacillaris. Salvia splendens, fulgens, involucrata, Grahami, 
and even form6sa,are particularly splendid: and S. fulgens, planted in rich light 
soil, at the base of a warm aspected wall, and trained over the face of that wall, 
forms, in autumn, an especially splendid object. Peti^nia nyctaginifloVa, whose 
large white flowers are very fragrant by night, treated in the same way, is surpri • 
singly improved, and rendered a very ornamental object. Pelargoniums may be 
copiously planted out : and the trailing-stemmed ivy leaved kinds, trained over 
the surface of little beds set apart for them, and pegged into the soil at their 
joints, cover the earth with their glossy leaves charmingly, and flower beautifully 
and abundantly in the autumn, Maurundia Barclayana and M. semperfloVens 
are well known summer climbers of great elegance and beauty ; and although 
there is a coarseness of aspect in the Lophosjjermum erubescens, it is a climber 
whose copious wreaths of rosy blossoms excel, in beauty, many other plants of a 
more delicate habit. Ficus elasticus is a beautiful object in its leaves during 
summer and autumn, when plunged over the rim of its pot in the soil of a sunny 
border; also the New Holland Acacias and numerous other plants. — J. D. 
Gard. Mag. 
ARBORICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE. 
On Shortening the Tap Roots of Trees. — Dr. Schlechtendal lays down 
the following principles. J. An injury to anyone part of a plant occasions a 
change in the natural developement of the other parts. 2. Roots and stems are 
always in a certain degree reciprocally proportionate to each other. 3. The 
tap root does not form a part of every plant : but when it is so, it is an essential 
part of that plant. 4. By shortening the tap root, one or other of the follow- 
ing consequences will result : — tender plants will be more easily destroyed by 
severe weather ; all sorts of plants by diy weather, from their roots not being so 
deep in the soil : the wood of the timber trees will be less durable, their trunks 
shorter, and their heads broader and less high : and fruit trees will blossom 
earlier and more abundantly, and their fruit will be larger and better flavoured- 
.5. To transplant trees, without injuring their roote, is diflicult in proportion to 
the age of the tree, and the extent of the roots. 6. All transplanting ought to 
