AUSTRALIAN PLANTS. 
27 
shale in their wild state. Like the soft-wooded plants, such as several 
kinds of Hibiscus, Veronica, Prostanthera, Hibbertia, Olearia, Vimin- 
aria, Callicoma, &c., they will thrive in any ordinary garden soil. 
Shrubs averaging, when full grown, from one to four feet, may be 
planted fairly close together if masses are required to cover a bank or 
fill a bed or a border, but they should not be allowed to draw up singly 
and become lanky and unsightly. They should be kept trim and neat 
by judicious pruning after their flowering season is over. 
The method of pruning is simple enough. A few branches short¬ 
ened back here and there, or superfluous shoots thinned out, will keep 
the plants evenly balanced and shapely, while at the same time the root 
growth will be strengthened. When shrubs are grown in masses, a 
fork lightly used over the surface of the soil, between the plants, can 
do no harm, but, as before stated in regard to the spade, it should not 
interfere with the fibrous roots. 
When the pruning of hard-wooded Australian shrubs has been long 
neglected, the severe cutting back of the old wood will seldom restore 
them to vigorous growth; it would be more satisfactory, perhaps, to 
dig out overgrown specimens, and replace them with young plants. 
When seeds or seedlings are not obtainable, cuttings of the half- 
ripened wood of old plants may be struck in the usual way—namely, 
in pots placed in a glass-house or a frame. Any cuttings to be trans¬ 
ported a long distance should be rolled up in damp moss, grass, or rag, 
covered with paper, and placed in a box. 
