REVIEW. 
85 
tree is considered as a vast assemblage of vital entities, requires to be 
treated as if only an individual. 
After the author has treated largely on the vital envelope, the 
origin of buds and appendages of the stem of plants, be next pro¬ 
ceeds to explain the cause of barrenness in trees; and the application 
of Physiological knowledge, in the operations of sowing, transplant¬ 
ing, propagation, pruning and training ; then cross-impregnation, 
vegetable food, diseases of vegetation, insects destructive to plants, 
felling timber, grubbing, and longevity of trees, are each separately 
treated on ; and a few remarks with an index conclude the Volume. 
Under the head “ pruning ” we have made another short extract, 
which we hope will serve to show the character of the work. 
Ash timber is produced of superior quality by being grown in close order; its 
toughness and clearness of grain makes it enviable material for the coach-maker. 
Straight smooth sticks of ash, fifty feet in length, and from eight to twelve inches 
diameter, are highly prized by all machine makers. Oak aud elm are best tim¬ 
ber for hedge-rows. It is incredible how much elm timber can be raised in hedge 
order. And as the superiors are cut down, a constant succession of young stems 
are rising from the old roots. * * * The defective state of oak timber was attri¬ 
buted to want of pruning. The rotten stumps of branches which had been torn 
oft’ by the wind, and which in their decay admitted water into the trunk, were 
said to be the cause of their disaster. Pruning was therefore had recourse to ; 
but a bad style was introduced, viz. cutting off the lower branches at the distance 
of two or three feet from the hole. This plan was soon given up ; not only be¬ 
cause it disfigured the tree, but also because many of the stumps dying, the same 
defects followed this practice as were complained of before it was had recourse 
to. Close pruning was next recommended, but with no good result. A middle 
course is now adopted, namely what is called foreshortening. This method pre¬ 
serves all the branches, but the lower ones are kept back, by having their leading 
shoots repeatedly taken off. This is particularly suitable for hedge row timber, 
as it prevents the trees from overshadowing the land. It must be observed, 
however, that though this method gives soundness, it does not produce clearness 
of grain, which is the grand object of pruning. 
Flowering Shrub Pruning .—All sorts of trees and shrubs having terminal 
flowers, as Magnolia, Camellia, Rhododendron, &c. are made floriferous, by 
checking luxuriance of growth, which^is accomplished by the means practised 
for dwarfing fruit trees, viz. by grafting, budding, confining in small pots, limit¬ 
ing the supplies of water, or lowering the quality of the soil in which they are 
grown. Such as bear their flowers laterally, as the Almond, Myrtle, &c. should 
by pruning, be made to introduce numerous shoots in order to have a full 
bloom. In general, however, our flowering shrubs, as well as trees, are left to 
nature; little pruning being necessary except to keep them in form. 
Thus much for the contents of a work, from the perusal of which we have 
derived both pleasure and profit, and which we think calculated to be very use¬ 
ful. Being illustrated with more than sixty wood-cuts, the whole is rendered 
perfectly intelligible. 
