46 
THE FLORIST. 
should not he watered,—the autumnal rains will be all-sufficient. But 
with trees planted late in spring the case is widely different. In this 
case, when the roots are covered with soil, a good watering will settle 
the earth about the roots, and fill up any vacuities that may remain. 
When the water has sunk away, then fill up the hole, pressing the earth 
moderately around the trees with the foot. The moist earth being 
covered by the loose surface soil, will retain its humidity for a long time; 
indeed, it is rarely that it is necessary to water again after planting in 
this way, and a little muck or litter placed around the trees upon the 
newly moved soil will render it quite unnecessary. Frequent surface 
watering is highly injurious, as it causes the top of the soil to bake so 
hard as to prevent the access of air and light, both of which, in a certain 
degree, are absolutely necessary. The soil, as far as the roots extend, 
should be kept clear of vegetables, neither should weeds or Grass be 
allowed to grow around the trees, and the surface should be occasionally 
hoed deeply. Trees will by this means advance more rapidly in five 
years than they will in ten, when the ground around them is either 
cropped with vegetables or Grass is allowed to grow on it. 
Newly planted trees require care and attention, and it should always 
be borne in mind that they can be drowned, starved, surfeited, bruised, 
and in numberless other ways, brought to an “ untimely end,” or, what 
is worse, rendered “ cumberers of the ground.” 
M. S. 
LUCULIA GRATISSIMA. 
One day last autumn, whilst visiting the gardens of our worthy city 
member, Sir John Duckworth, Bart, I was so much delighted with a 
splendidly grown specimen of my old favourite, Luculia gratissima, that 
I entreated the young and very intelligent gardener there (Mr. Euston) 
to sketch the plant and write a description of his mode of treatment; 
for it was, I assure you, done in such a style as would have gladdened 
the hearts of any of those celebrated cultivators who bring to the various 
metropolitan exhibitions such glorious specimens as are not frequently 
to be seen elsewhere ; and those who know how rarely this truly fine 
old plant is met with grown in this manner will, I am sure, agree with 
me that Mr. Euston has done his work well, and it affords me con¬ 
siderable pleasure to bear testimony to the faithfulness of the sketch 
and description which he has given me to send you. 
He possesses three excellent qualities not every day found combined 
in the same person. He can grow a good plant in good style; he can 
clearly describe, for the information of others, how he did this, and he 
can give a faithful and spiritedly artistic sketch of his performance— 
need I say more ? R. T. Pince. 
Exeter Nursery, Exeter. 
The following is the description and sketch above alluded to:— 
The public taste has, in recent times, so much inclined to novelties, 
more especially in plants, that those of earlier introduction, notwith¬ 
standing the high excellence of many of them, and the varied beauties 
