QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
187 
and the second that the stimulus exerted by the vital energy of the tree tends 
not only to heal the wound, thus giving enlarged bulk to the trunk, but at the 
same time to distribute those elaborated juices which ultimately constitute the 
cellular structure of the new concentric layers. The office of every bud is to 
send down fibrous processes; and then fibres constitute the major part of the 
hard and woody parts of the stem.* It will then be evident that if constriction 
prevent the progress of their fibres, the buds cannot make a healthy advance, 
nor can any stem increase duly in size. As to giving a vent to the exuberance 
of the sap, the assertion is indeed puerile, and unworthy any man pretending 
the slightest knowledge of the vegetable structure. G. I. T. 
Rhubarb Plants. —The reply solicited by “ Rhea” page 813, Vol. 1, may I 
conceive be given without much difficulty. “ Rhea” may be assured that the 
change in the quality of her Rhubarb was occasioned solely by the unseasonable 
as well as too liberal and protracted abstraction of the leaves. These organs are 
the vitals of the plant, they laborate and convey all those perfected juices which 
are deposited in the roots, and become the paberlum, life-blood, as well as source 
of the next year’s dev elopements. Rhubarb, as Dr. Bevan has observed, should 
not be cut during the first year; but if it be so cut, or rather pulled, the prac¬ 
tice should be continued in onlo for a very limited time in the spring. If the 
leaves be removed, not only throughout the summer, but even till the close of 
October, the roots must be impoverished; and having received little, or no new 
proper juice from the summer leaves, cannot be expected to produce fine full 
buds, and large foliage in the succeeding spring. This fact is taught by philoso¬ 
phical science, and confirmed by positive experience. To do Rhubarb justice, 
the first developed leaves only should be employed; and all that arc protruded 
after June ought to be left till they decay naturally. In the winter a good coat¬ 
ing of suitable manure, should be laid all over the bed, and the plants I thiuk 
should rest untouched for one year. If 24 plants of the scarlet Goliah were ar¬ 
ranged in four rows, the plants four or five feet apart, the rows might be cut in 
alternate succession : that is, twelve plants might be cut as one year, and the 
other twelve in the year following, with a certainty of ample supply. 
List of Plants. — I think you might prepare two very good articles contain¬ 
ing a list of flowers and flowering shrubs for the whole year. There are two 
books, the Flora Historica, and the Sylva Florifera, which would furnish nearly 
all the materials if properly abridged. People in the country who like gardens, 
would feel much obliged by it; you have a list of new and beautiful plants. I 
want a list of old and beautiful ones as well, the new are dear, the old are cheap 
and quite as good. The Horticultural Register would do much good by giving 
lists from time to time of the plants and trees sold at the different nurseries, to¬ 
gether with their prices; every great nurseryman publishes his list anually, and 
several of them might be formed into one list, or three or four columns might be 
made, shewing the difference of prices, in various parts of the kingdom. A list 
of the chief Nurserymen, and Florists, a list of the second-rate Nurserymeu, of 
* See Dr. Aikin’s remarks on the descending fibres of the buds, in his calen¬ 
dar of the year, for April. Professor Lindley’s observations on leaf-buds at 
at page 26, numbers 99, 100, and 101, of his recent valuable “ Outline of the 
first Principles of Horticulture,” and also his very interesting paper on the 
anomalous structure of the trunk of an exogenous tree, at page 476, No 3, of 
the Journal of the Royal Institution, May 1831. 
