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is often lost for 
THE PALMYRA PALM. 
want of attention to this ; and it has been found by experiment that where a tree has 
itself been deficient in the supply of these, the cutting them 
from other trees, and suspending them over the females, has 
resulted in producing a good crop. The primer must therefore 
ensure an annual supply of these small productive twigs. 
In the third year the last year's shoots left to form the 
head of the tree, will make lateral shoots, which must be 
suffered to grow during the season, and cut back to short 
spurs, from which the future bearing- wood is destined to spring. 
The leading shoot must also be shortened two-thirds of its 
length to ensure its breaking regularly, and keep it full of 
spurs. The subsequent management consists in shortening the 
young leading shoot, and cutting out old and barren wood, so 
as always to have a succession of young, healthy, and fruitful 
twigs. When the trees become too large every other one may 
be cut back to within six inches of the stem from which they 
spring ; young shoots will again put forth, which must be treated 
in the same manner as the young tree. Fig. 8 B represents a 
bearing branch from a Filbert bush which has been pruned. 
It is the practice to plant Apple-trees and Hops in Kent 
with the Filberts, but in our opinion light and air ai'e of as 
much consequence to Nuts or Filberts as to other plants. We 
are accustomed to see the Hazel grown under a direct canopy 
of umbrageous timber trees ; but should we not get larger 
returns if underwood wei*e grown in one plantation and trees 
in another, and would not single rows of Filberts, minus large 
Apple-trees, be more productive, and yield fruit of a larger 
size and better quality under the influence of light and air, than 
they do when overwhelmed by a dense canopy of foliage ? 
Fig. 8. 
§ 
mw^ 
THE PALMYRA PALM. 
We have lying before us an octavo brochure, of 92 pages, 
by W. Ferguson, Esq., entitled " Description of the Palmyra 
Palm of Ceylon," printed at Ceylon, and illustrated by several 
woodcuts, the drawing and engraving of which have been 
executed by native artists. It is remarkable as the first illus- 
trated work published in Ceylon, and is indeed very creditable 
to those who have produced it. The author gives a most inte- 
resting account of the Palm, and its uses and products, cor- 
recting many popular errors, and embodying a great mass of 
valuable miscellaneous information, collected from original 
sources during a ten years' residence in the island. We venture 
to call it the best account of the Palmyra which has been published. It is, we understand, Mr. Fer- 
guson's intention, on his return to Ceylon, to publish similar descriptions of the other familiar plants 
of that island ; and we hope he may meet with sufficient encouragement to induce him to do so. We 
have little space for extract, but must quote the following brief notice of a many-headed Palmyra : — 
" The Dragon tree of Teneriffe divides into several branches, and the Doum Palm of Upper Egypt {Byphccne 
coriacea) is dichotomous, or divided into regular pairs of branches, but the departure of our Indian species from 
their normal state is very rare, indeed ; however, the phenomenon of a several-headed Palmyra is sometimes 
met with. The first one the writer saw was some years ago, on Mr. Hardy's estate at Jaffna. It was a male 
tree, having four heads then upon it, with marks where three or four others had been. These divisions began 
about twenty-five or thirty feet from the ground. Other specimens are found in the Peninsula, on the Island of 
Delft, and on the smaller islands near Jaffua, and the writer saw one near Oodoville with six heads on it. One of 
these grew nearly in a line with the body of the tree, while the other five grew out from the side of this one, all 
from the same centre, hut bending somewhat outwards before they could attain their upright position. There are 
marks where three others had been. The tree mentioned by Mr. Forbes in his Oriental Memoirs as having forty a 
heads was probably a Palmyra." (A- 
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