THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— June 24,1856. 225 
fully read and compared with the specimen, a number of 
technical terms will be mastered with little trouble. 
The last particular I shall notice is the facility a garden 
affords for cultivating a correct taste in regard to the har¬ 
mony and contrast of colours. Following my favourite 
method, I resort to illustration. A youth volunteered to 
gather a bouquet for a lady at whose house he was staying. 
The garden being extensive, ample choice was afforded; he 
selected whatever he thought proper, and having arranged 
the group to his liking, he brought it to his hostess. A 
glance sufficed to discover that both selection and arrange¬ 
ment were extremely faulty, so the lady skilfully introduced 
a conversation on the laws of colour, showing from the 
flowers in question the different effects producible by ar¬ 
rangement. The boy was interested, and proved that, he 
was instructed too by the very superior bouquet he produced 
on the next occasion. 
I now lay down my pen, not because my subject is ex¬ 
hausted, but because I am unwilling to trespass further on 
the patience of my readers. Should I be styled an enthu¬ 
siast, I accept the title and glory in it; but if my hints are 
regarded as mere theoretical notions, I beg emphatically to 
affirm that every one of them has been put in practice suc¬ 
cessfully, either by myself or by others under my own obser¬ 
vation.—E. 
NEW BOOKS. 
Transactions of the Scottish Arboricultural Society. 
—The first part of the first volume of the proceedings of this 
very praiseworthy Society is just published. Besides the 
Opening Addresses, it contains some excellent essays on 
Wood Drainage; on the preparation of Oak Bark for sale; 
on local Arboricultural Societies; and on Pruning Forest- 
trees. The following is extracted from the last-named :— 
“ Pruning hardwood trees is an operation which I con¬ 
sider indispensable, if we would have sound clean timber. 
It too frequently happens that we have to deal with neg¬ 
lected trees ; and there is a stage at which trees may have 
arrived, when pruning to any extent would be useless. The 
time which I consider trees ought to have their first pruning, 
after being planted where they are to remain, is, when they 
show proof that they have established themselves in the 
soil, and not till then, for I have never found any benefit to 
the plant arise from pruning before this time. Trees pruned 
when they have not established themselves are apt to push 
out young wood; but it rarely happens, in this quarter at 
least, that the young wood ripens properly; and the frost 
and cutting winds in winter kill back a great portion of it, 
and when young wood is killed back, it is, in my opinion, a 
means of rendering the plant unhealthy for a time, which 
retards rather than facilitates its growth. 1 never cut any 
of the branches close for a considerable time, and never cut 
any close but those next the bottom of the tree. 1 have 
ample proof of the bad effects of thinning out branches on 
a tree; for those left just grow the faster, from having more 
light, air, and nourishment. I shorten all contending 
branches, or those that appear to be appropriating too much 
of the substance which ought to be deposited on the main 
stem, but keep all those which keep within proper bounds, 
and by this method the strong branches are checked ; for 
shortening, if not carried too far, will check the strong 
branches, as I have ample proof. If I find a strong branch 
with lateral shoots or spray upon it, I cut back the branch 
to some of the smaller branches, and endeavour to leave as 
little appearance of pruning as possible. When the trees 
are large and neglected, it is impossible to do this ; but I 
prune very little off trees after they arrive at this stage; all 
I consider necessary to be done to them is to balance their 
tops, and preserve one loading shoot if the tree is not at the 
height required; and this is done on the foreshortening 
principle, but by cutting the branches at a greater distance 
from the bole, and only such of them as are straggling, and 
liable to be broken by storms. Many fine trees are destroyed 
for want of a few of these straggling branches being shortened. 
I make no difference in my mode of operations when pruning 
for timber, my aim being to produce as much sound clean 
timber in each tree as the nature of the soil, situation, and 
climate, will permit; and this applies equally to all kinds of 
hardwood. I do not find it necessary to prune oftener than 
once in two years, except the young trees—that is, till they 
are beyond reach of the pocket-knife,—these I endeavour to 
have pruned every year; but pruning, if too frequently or 
too severely applied, will prove hurtful to the tree. It is not 
uncommon for healthy trees, the first year after pruning, to 
push up three to five feet of a leading shoot, and when so 
much growth is produced in one year, the tree makes little 
or no progress to height the following season, but furnishes 
the previous year’s shoots with side branches. Some 
pruners evidently believe that a tree will produce timber as 
fast with few branches as with many, from the way they 
treat their trees, some thinning out the branches, others 
cutting away a large number of them close to the stem at 
one operation; but I always endeavour, by shortening, to 
keep the branches as small in circumference as I can, and 
have plenty of them ; and if I thin any, it is for the purpose 
of checking the strong branches, and may cut them further 
back than the ordinary outline of the tree, and by this 
means the wounds are in a great measure hid. By this 
system of pruning I have Oaks thirty feet and upwards in 
height, and no branches on them more than two-and a-half 
inches in diameter at their base, and few of them so thick. 
These trees have not been so regularly pruned as I could 
have wished, but they show what a little assistance will do 
for them.” 
British Butterflies and Moths.* —This is a very cheap 
and very useful book of reference, excellently illustrated 
with a woodcut of each species, with ample descriptions and 
particulars relative to the habits of the insects. The 
following relative to one family of Butterflies, the Papilionidee, 
is a fair specimen of the contents:— 
“ All the Papilionid.e, if we except Lmcophasia Sinapis, 
are tolerably brisk fliers, and a good chase is frequently 
necessary in order to secure one when in view. Pieris Brassicce 
is a strong flier; but Colias Edusa is far more swift on the 
wing. Papilio Machaon is not only a rapid but a high flier, 
capable of soaring, whereas the other species rarely ascend 
to any height from the ground. 
“ Of this family the first that greets us in the spring is 
Gonepteryx Riiamni , which in February or March, if we have 
hot sunny days, delights to sport in country lanes; with the 
warm spring weather of April it becomes a more frequent 
visitor, and is then joined by Pieris Rapa and Napi, and a 
week later by P. Brassiest. These last are especially to be 
found in gardens aud fields, and may be seen not unfre- 
quently in the heart of London. May, if it be but warm 
(as the month of May once used to be), brings out Antho- 
charts Cardamines, and many an eager chase is made to 
catch this (one of our prettiest species) by the young and 
ardent entomologist. May is also the time to look for 
Pieris Daplidice, but I cannot give a receipt for finding it. 
Papilio Machaon emerges from the pupa the middle of May; 
but it is so local an insect with us, that, except in its own 
piivate haunts, the fens of Huntingdonshire and Cambridge¬ 
shire, it is useless to expect to meet with it. In June Aporia 
Cratagi and Lcucophasia Sinapis appear, but both are local 
species, and not of general distribution like the common 
white butterflies. Towards the end of July the second 
brood of Pieris Rapa, Napi, and Brassiere, may be observed, 
and they continue throughout August. Daplidice is also 
again to be looked for. In August Gonepteryx Rhatnni again 
gladdens our eyes ; and Colias Hyale in some years may be 
found in lucerne-fields in the South of England. Towards 
the end of the month Colias Edusa, more beautiful but. less 
valued, because commoner than its congener, appears, fre¬ 
quenting clover-fields and the sunny sloping banks of rail¬ 
ways in the South; and throughout September and till late 
in October stragglers both of this and G. Rhatnni continue 
to cross our path, whilst we are perhaps in search of that 
one covey of partridges, or a solitary pheasant reputed to 
be somewhere within our reach. 
“ Any collector may with certainty obtain Rhamni, Brassiere, 
Raptc, Napi, and Cardamines, the first year that he looks 
after them. Machaon, Craticyi, and Sinapis, he will only 
find by visiting their localities. If he visit the South coast 
in autumn he will hardly fail to see Edusa, when, of course, 
it will be his own fault if he don’t catch it. It may be years 
before he meets either with Hyale or Daplidice 
* A Manual of British Butterflies and Moths. By H. T. Stainton. 
London: J. Van Voorst. 
