PRO 
gefmen with an erect, briflly ftyk , crowned by an obtufe 
fligrnq. ’The germen afterward turns a roundtfh naked 
feed , fitting in a diftinbt cell of the cone. 
This genus of plants is ranged in the Mft'fediori of 
Linnaeus's fourth clafs, which includes thofe plants 
whole flowers have four ftamina and one ftyle. 
■ The Species are, 
1. Protea ( Conifer a ) folds lineari-lanceolatis integer- 
rimis acutis glabris obliquatis. Lin. Sp. 138. Protea 
with linear fpsar-fhaped leaves , which are entire , Jharp- 
pcinted , fmcoth and oblique. 
2. Protea ( Argentea ) folds lanceolatis obliquis acutis 
fparfis villofo-fericeis pianis, floralibus verticillatis. 
Lin. 5 p. 1 37 - Protea with jpear-fh aped oblique-pointed 
leaves , which are plain , Jilvery haired , and the flowers 
growing in. whorls round the ftalks. Conocarpodendron 
foliis argenteis fericeis latiffirriis. Boerh. Ind. 2. p. 195. 
Silver-tree. 
3. Protea ( Nitida ) foliis oblongo-ovatis hirfutis niti- 
dis integerrimis. Protea with oblongs oval, hairy, Jhining 
leaves , • which are entire. ' Lepidocarpodendron folio 
faiigno lato, catile purpurafcente. Boerh. Ind. alt. 2. 
138. Lepidocarpodendron , with a broad Willow leaf and 
ctpurpliflj folk , otherwjfe called Wageboom. 
Thefe plants are natives of the country near the Cape 
of Good Hope in Africa, where there is a great num- 
ber of fpecies. In the catalogue of the Leyden Gar- 
den, there are upwards of twenty forts enumerated ; 
not that they have them growing there, but they have 
good drawings of them, which were made in the 
country where they, are natives. The three forts 
here mentioned are what I had lately growing in the 
Chelfea Garden, but the third is now -left there. 
Thefe plants are many of them well figured in the 
index of the plants of- the Leyden Garden, which 
was publifhed by Dr. Boerhaave in 1719, by the ti- 
tles of Lepidocarpodendron, Conocarpodendron, and 
Hypophyllocarpodendron ; and, by fome former wri- 
ters oh botany, this genus was intitled Scolymo-ce- 
phalus, from the refemblance which the cones of thefe 
trees have to the head of an Artichoke. 
As thefe plants are natives of the Cape of Good 
Hope, they are too tender to live abroad through the 
winter in England, but the firft fort is hardy enough 
to live in a good green-houfe. This fort will grow 
to the height of ten or twelve feet, and may be trained 
up with a regular ftrait ftern, and the branches will 
naturally form a regular large head. The leaves are 
long and narrow, of a fhining filver colour-, and as 
they remain the whole year, the plants make a fine 
appearance, when they are intermixed with others 
in the green-houfe. In the fu turner thefe may be 
placed in the open air in a fheitered lituation for, if 
they are expofed to winds, the plants will be torn, 
and rendered unfightly, nor will they make any pro- 
grefs in their growth. In warm weather they mult be 
frequently but fparingly watered, and in cold weather 
this mUft not be too often repeated, left it fhould rot 
their fibres. 
The fecond fort hath a ftrong upright ftalk covered 
with a purplifh bark, dividing into feveral branches, 
which grow erect, garnifhed with broad, fhining, fil- 
very, ipeaf-ftsaped leaves placed on every fide, fo the 
plants make a fine appearance, when intermixed with 
other exotics. This fhould be placed in an airy dry 
glafs-cafe, where it may be proteded from cold, and 
have as much light as pofllble, and in winter fhould 
have little water ; this fifes eafily from feeds, which 
rftaft.be procured from the Cape of Good Hope, 
where it grows naturally. The feeds will fonie times 
remain in the ground fix or eight months, and at 
other- times the plants will appear in fix weeks ; 
therefore .the heft way- is to fow the feeds in imall 
pots filled with foft iandy loam, and plunge them 
into a moderate hot-bed ; and, if the plants fhould 
not come' up fo foot! as expeded, the pots fhould re- 
main im flicker till the following fpring, when, if 
the feeds remain found, the plants will come up. 
The pots in which the feeds are Town, fhould have 
buyikde wet, for moifture frequently caules them to 
P R U 
rot. When the plants appear, they fhould' not be 
too tenderly treated, for they muft not be kept 'too 
warm, nor fhould they have much wet; but in warm 
weather tlpy muft be expofed to the open air in a 
fheitered fituatioii, and in winter protected from froft. 
I he third fort I rafted from feeds, which, came 
from the Cape of Good Hope ; thefe feeds were long 
and bender, very different in fhape from thofe of 
the fecond lort, but the plants have fonie refemblance 
to thofe. The leaves are very fllky and white ; the 
ftalks are purple, and grow ered, but have not- as 
yet put out any branches. 
The firft fort may be propagated by cuttings, 
which fhould be cut off in April, juft before the 
plants begin to fliootp thefe fhould be planted in 
imall pots filled with light earth, and plunged into a 
moderate hot-bed, {hading them from the fun, and 
now and then gently refrefhing them with water, but 
it muft be fparingly given, for much wet will rot 
them. Thefe cuttings will put out roots by Mid- 
fummer, when they may be gently fhaken out of the 
pots and parted, planting each in a feparate final! 
pot filled with, light earth, and placed in a frame, 
where they may be fhaded til they have taken new 
root then they fhould be gradually inured to the 
open air, into which they fftould be removed, and 
treated in the fame way as the old plants. 
PRUNING OF TREES. ' 
There is not any part of gardening which is of 
more general ufe than that of Pruning, and yet 
it is very rare to. fee fruit-trees fkilfully managed. 
Almoft every gardener will pretend to be a fn after 
of this bufinefs, though there are but few who 
rightly underftand it; nor is it to be learned by- 
rote, but requires a ftnet obfervation of the dif- 
ferent manners of growth of the feveral forts of 
fruit-trees, fome requiring to be managed one way, 
and others muft be treated in a- quite different 
method, which is only to be known from carefully 
obferving how each kind is naturally difpofed to pro- 
duce its fruit; for fome forts produce their fruit on 
the fame year’s wood, as Vines ; others produce their 
fruit, for the moft part, upon the former year’s 
wood, as Peaches, Nedarines, &c. and others upon 
curfons or fpurs, which are produced upon wood of 
three, four, or five, to fifteen or twenty years old, 
as Pears, Plums, Cherries, &c. therefore, in .order to 
the right management of fruit-trees, there fhould 
always be provifion made to have a fufficient quan- 
tity of bearing wood in every part of the trees, and 
at the fame time there fhould not be a fuperfluitv of * 
ufelefs branches, which would exhauft the ftrength 
of the trees, and caufe them to decay in a few years. 
The reafons which have been laid down for Pruning 
of fruit-trees are as follows : Firft, To preferve trees 
longer in a vigorous bearing ftate ; the fecond is, To 
render the trees more beautiful to the eye; and 
thirdl y. To caufe the fruit to be larger and better tailed. 
1. It preferves a tree longer in a healthy bearing 
ftate ; for by pruning off all fuperfluous branches, 
fo that there are no more left upon the tree than are 
neceffary, or that can be properly nourifhed, the root 
is not exhaufted in fupplying ufelefs branches, which 
muft afterwards be cut out, whereby much of the 
fap will be ufelefly expended. 
2. By fkilful Priming of a tree it is rendered much 
more pleafing to the eye ; but here I would not be 
underftood to be an advocate for a fort of Pruning, 
which I have feen too much pradifed of late, viz. 
the drawing a regular line againft the wall, according 
to the fhape or figure they would reduce the tree to, 
and cutting all the branches, ftrong or weak, exadly 
to the chalked line ; the abiurdity of which pradice 
will foon appear to every one, who v/ill be at the pains 
of obferving the difference of thofe branches fhooting 
the fucceeding fpring. All therefore that I mean by 
rendering a tree beautiful is, that the branches are 
all pruned according to their feveral ftrengths, and 
are nailed at equal diftances, in proportion to the 
different fizes of their leaves and fruit, and that no 
part 
