PRUNING AND TRAINING HEATHS. 
117 
PRUNING AND TRAINING HEATHS. 
Being an ardent admirer of that lovely tribe of plants the 
Heaths, which I am much pleased to see occupying the promi¬ 
nent position they deserve in general estimation, I have been 
led to look closely into their natural habits, and to compare 
with them the usual modes of pruning and training; that the 
prevailing taste for densely-filled circular plants, is a correct one, 
perhaps no good reason can be adduced to disprove, providing 
the proper proportions are not outraged, and the general charac¬ 
ter of the plants sacrificed to the production of a formal lumpish 
object. * 
By this it will be understood that I follow the fashion in 
admiring a round bushy plant, whenever it can be had without 
the appearance of distortion, and will as earnestly insist on having 
them thoroughly branched from the base as the most determined 
advocate of circular training ; yet I think a little error is creeping 
into our methods of attaining to this desired form, inasmuch as 
relates to natural character. The usual mode of training these 
plants is to frequently remove the points of the growing shoots 
to induce bushiness, and because this succeeds to perfection with 
some varieties, it has been rather blindly adopted for all; what I 
desire to point out is, that this is a mistake, the adoption of any 
particular system of training with a family so extensive must be 
as erroneous, as it would be to treat them in other respects 
exactly alike. 
My idea of the matter is, that those which produce their flowers 
on or near the points of their branches, may be safely stopped in 
the usual way till they have become sufficiently furnished with 
branches ; but to follow the same course with varieties that are 
distinguished by bearing their flowers in spikes or on a con¬ 
tinued length of the stem, is to virtually disfigure the plants by 
preventing the formation of such branches as would yield the 
greatest number of blossoms ; thus for instance all the varieties 
of tricolor , of ampullacea , and of ventricosa , possess a character 
that will certainly be improved by stopping, as the production of 
more points must result from the practice, and consequently more 
flowers will be borne, but those which grow and bloom in the 
