62 
November 1. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
wooded shrub, which caused a good deal of heart¬ 
burning in this country a few years since, having not 
proved what it was at first reported to be, and is al¬ 
ready almost neglected. It is also one of the “ ne’er- 
do-wells,” if allowed its own way of growth, but ele¬ 
vate its handsome foliage, and its pendant clusters of 
flowers and fruit on a clean stem six feet high, and, 
my word for it, you will create a sensation in your 
neighbourhood. It has no English name, but com¬ 
memorates that of William Leycester, formerly chief 
judge at the Bengal Presidency. 
But enough; a book might be written on the sub¬ 
ject, and not exhaust it. These examples are taken 
from the most common shrubbery plants—the most 
difficult subjects to deal with in any other way, and 
the least elegant in their modes of growth, when 
allowed to take their natural turn. Although I 
would strongly recommend this way of managing 
such plants, it is more for the purpose of getting rid 
of their propensity for throwing up a wilderness of 
suckers than for torturing their heads into globular 
forms, like those of standard roses. Indeed, I would 
rather let them take their natural way of growth, 
merely preventing any large limbs or shoots being 
formed to derange the balance of their growth; and 
this is easily effected by stopping over-luxuriant 
growths occasionally, and by pruning the shoots in 
winter according to their size and strength-—that is, 
the very short branches to be only a little shortened 
—the middle-sized ones to have one-half or tvvo- 
tbirds of their length cut off, and the small spray 
either cut out entirely, or cut in to a few eyes, accord¬ 
ing to their position, and not allowing any to cross each 
other. This, of course, would be modified according 
to the way they produced their flowers after their head 
was properly set off. What would our gooseberry 
and currant bushes be if they were allowed their na¬ 
tural way of growth ? Their suckers would spring up 
as profusely as those of the lilac, and their fruit -would 
be comparatively useless. It is much the same with 
many of our ornamental shrubs; their flowers are in 
many cases only an apology for what they might be 
under a better system. We find no difficulty in form¬ 
ing our fruit bushes without suckers, and with clean 
straight stems, and we prune their heads in different 
ways accordingly as they best flower and fruit, and that 
is all that I claim for our ordinary shrubs, which, as 
at present seen, are living examples of our negligence 
and bad gardening. Standard bushes were made 
with great industry by our ancestors, and the thing 
is as old as the hills, but in those days they pruned 
and clipped them into all kinds of fantastic shapes, 
which is altogether foreign to our present taste. All 
that is original in this plan is the certain way of get¬ 
ting rid ol their contending suckers and side branches 
at once and for ever from the collar of the plant up¬ 
ward to the head. Let the bole be of any length 
whatever, if it is prepared after the manner I de¬ 
scribed in my last letter. You may cut off the head 
ten years hence, and I shall engage for it that the 
whole stem will die back inch by inch, without the 
power of forming a single adventitious bud. Plants 
like the lilac, which are naturally stoloniferous, that 
is, having the power of growing shoots from the main 
roots, would, no doubt, produce suckers from these 
roots under such a severe trial, but certainly not one 
from any part of the stem itself. The thing is a na¬ 
tural impossibility, and yet, to this moment, it has 
escaped the observations of vegetable physiologists. 
1 ndeed, a ticklish question, which hinges on this very 
point, lias been in agitation in all parts of Europe 
these fourteen years back, and notwithstanding all 
the natural philosophy that could be borne down on 
the subject, the solution is as much in the dark now 
as it was at the commencement. I allude to the ori¬ 
gin of the, so called, purple laburnum, which is now, 
by common assent, referred to cross impregnation, but 
I am as satisfied as I am of my own existence that 
this tree has not been brought into existence by that 
means, but that the key to unravel the mystery is to 
be found in the true origin of buds, or rather in man’s 
power to facilitate, or totally to prevent, the produc¬ 
tion of latent or adventitious buds. 
D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. . 
Calceolarias. —As I mentioned last week, the best 
place for growing all the tender large flowering her¬ 
baceous kinds during the winter is a dry pit, supplied 
with a hot-water pipe or fire-flue, or any other means 
by which a dry heat can be communicated at plea¬ 
sure. As the calceolaria, however, dearly loves a 
moist atmosphere, this can be easily communicated, 
when much artificial heat is wanted in very cold 
weather, by setting pans of zinc bedded upon the 
pipes or flue, to be supplied with water, so that the 
more heat you use the greater will be the quantity of 
moisture evaporated. I have said “ bedded,” because 
without this a body of air will intervene between the 
bottom of the pan and the heating medium, and thus 
the water in the pan will be less heated, and conse¬ 
quently less evaporation will take place from it. In 
the case of the flue, this bedding may be done with 
mortar. In the case of the pipe, the bottom of the 
pan should be made concave, in a semicircular form, 
to clasji the pipe, and then let it be fixed on with red 
lead. We have many of such two feet in length. 
They answer the same purpose as having troughs 
cast upon the pipes, and can be procured at a tithe 
of the cost. When no moisture is wanted, they are 
allowed to get dry. Galvanised iron would, very 
likely, be better than zinc. 
The next best place for calceolarias is the warm 
end of a greenhouse, where less air may be given 
them than is communicated to the general residents; 
and here in bright weather, or when fires are wanted 
during dull and frosty days, a few pans of water 
placed along with them on the shelves, and sprinkling 
the shelves now and then with the syringe, will keep 
the air moist, and suit them better than much root 
watering. 
The worst place of all for them is a cold pit or 
frame without any means of artificial heat, more 
especially if sunk below the ground level, as in con¬ 
tinued foggy weather, or when so frosty that you 
cannot uncover for several days, there is great risk 
of your plants rotting off by the surface of the pots. 
Tn such a winter as we had last year there would be 
little difficulty in the matter. In preserving old 
plants in such places, the best plan is to pick off' as 
much of the old soil as possible, especially near the 
collar of the plant; place there a small cone round 
it of peat-earth, charcoal-dust, and silver sand; ele¬ 
vate the plant upon boards near the glass; give little 
or no water until spring, unless the winter should be 
sunny and warm; admit ah- freely when the external 
temperature is from 35° to 40°, but more sparingly 
in frosty weather, even when the sun shines, taking 
the precaution to shut iu a fair portion of sun-acquired 
heat in preference to using thick coverings, and then, 
when potting in the spring, advantage may be taken 
