78 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 4. 
' 
N. pertusus (Bored).—An East Indian dwarf Fern, 
creeping very fast on rockvvork. Fronds simple, six 
inches long, very thick and leathery. Fertile fronds; 
1 narrow seed-vessels, thickly placed on the upper half of 
1 the frond, giving it the appearance of a piece of new 
leather. The rest of the species are N. nummularifolius, 
(Nummularia-leaved), a very small Fern. N. lingua 
| (Tongue), N. rupcstris (Rock), and W. varius (Variable). 
T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.) 
WATERING NEWLY-PLANTED TREES, &c. 
The long continued verdure which clothes our land¬ 
scape, as contrasted with that of the Continent, is> no 
, doubt, owing, iu a great measure, to the humidity by 
: which the foliage as well as the roots are fed. This 
: genial moisture, by prolonging the growth, and checking 
the maturity of the various productions in the vegetable 
! kingdom, enables us to command many of those articles 
j of “ green food ” which hotter and more suitable climes 
for ripening crops cannot at all times produce. Now, 
it is not difficult to trace the cause of this to the 
absence of that dryness which hastens the growth, and, 
consequently, the ripening (whether properly matured 
or not) of all vegetation growing in such climes. This 
state of things, differing much from the generality of 
seasons with us in England, is, nevertheless, partially 
imitated when we are visited by one of those hot, old- 
fashioned summers, as our elders are pleased to describe 
them. And as in such seasons many of the ordinary 
duties of a garden have an altered character, the ex¬ 
cessive drought, which to the fruit crop on trees has so 
beneficial an influence, is attended with a corresponding 
baneful effect on such crops as are of a more transient 
nature, and derive their sustenance from a more limited 
source, their root not running so deep, while some that 
it is necessary to sow frequently have to be, in a manner, 
fed by hand. Now, this latter mode is always an ex¬ 
pensive one, and every means that can be taken to avoid it, 
| ought to be takeu, consistent with the production (in due 
| time) of the article wanted, besides which, it does not 
always happen that the hand-feeding I allude to can be 
effected in every case, for the materials for so doing 
cannot always be had, neither is it always attended with 
j the desired effect, although it, doubtless, is of great use 
in many instances ; but if the like effect can be produced 
without having recourse to such extraordinary means, 
and at a less cost iu labour, and other et ceteras, it is 
certainly advisable to do so. 
In the above remarks, it will bo seen that the allusion 
is made to the watering-pot, which in dry weather is 
used so unsparingly. This useful beverage, like liquid of 
another kind, may be used too freely, and serious results 
follow; but I believe there are few who handle the 
watering-pot but would be glad to relinquish it if they 
knew how it could be dispensed with, and although it 
would be wrong to say it can be so in all cases, there 
are many where its uses might be much diminished, 
while in others it might, perhaps, be withheld entirely ; 
but to enter more particularly into the individual cases, 
it will be necessary to cite examples explaining both. 
Where fruit or other trees or shrubs have been un¬ 
avoidably planted late, and their roots injured more or 
less by the operation, and if the ground on which they 
are planted be of a very dry nature, the effects of a hot 
summer will be severely felt by them, unless some mode 
of securing their moisture be adopted; thisdesideratum is, 
then, to be considered—whether it is advisable to furnish 
it frequently with this refreshing fluid, or to supply it 
only occasionally, but to take care that uoue which is 
given to it bo wasted. This latter object, by lessening 
labour, has a strong recommendation in its favour, 
which is further enhanced by its being the more bene¬ 
ficial mode. Cold spring water, which is very often used, 
when poured on indiscriminately over the roots of a 
a tree, carries with it a chilliness, which is but in¬ 
differently compensated by the good it does, and this 
process to bo so many times repeated increases the evil, 
so as to keep the temperature of the ground in which 
the roots of the tree is placed considerably below what 
it ought to he, and, consequently, tend to prevent that 
harmonious design of nature which keeps up an agree¬ 
ment of temperatures between the bottom and top 
heat, or between the root and branch ; and if wo reckon 
on our chilly draughts of cold water diminishing the 
ground-heat only two or three degrees, so exceedingly 
delicate are the roots of most trees and plants, and so 
easily affected by such changes, that we have no doubt 
but a serious evil is incurred thereby, independent of 
which the tree is made to drink copiously of a liquid it 
has a repugnance to, cold well-water being always 
more or less charged with some mineral substance or 
other, not wanted for the purposes of vegetation, however 
agreeable such may be to the palate of the human 
species; however, to the majority of plants this is 
obnoxious, while the absence of that necessary ingre¬ 
dient which rain-water contains, makes it still more 
objectionable. Rain-water, we all know, is much lighter, 
bulk for bulk, than well-water, owing to the one 
being charged with air, and tho other with mineral 
substances, in some shape or other, and it is in the dif¬ 
ference of these substances, as well as in their respective 
quantities, that the quality of the water for cultural 
purposes depends. In a usual way, all water, after being 
exposed some time to the action of tho atmosphere, 
becomes modified, many of its most noxious qualities 
being dissipated, and its other lessened, while it derives 
other properties from tho atmosphere which impart a 
beneficial influence to vegetation, only it seldom hap¬ 
pens that the exposure is sufficiently prolonged to 
ensure of all these processes' being accomplished, and 
not unfrequontly some counter agent is at work to 
prevent its being so. A pond of standing water would 
speedily become fit for watering purposes did it stand on 
ground not likely to keep feeding it with objectionable 
qualities; or, it may be, some stream running into it 
conveys the deleterious ingredient, and, consequently, 
keeps up that state of impurity which the action of the 
atmosphere is unable to neutralise. Now, as the less of 
this description of water that is used the better, pro¬ 
vided that the wants of the plants can bo supplied in 
an'other way, or, in fact, if they can be made so as to 
want but little or none of it, for it is not practicable, in 
many instances, to obtain any other, and as it is 
possible, in many instances, to prevent what moisture 
is given being wasted, it follows that this ought, more 
especially, to be the case when such is of a deloterious 
kind. And tho best way to accomplish that is to give 
the article watered a good soaking, and then to cover it 
up for a time with some material that will allow the 
action of the sun to play on it, without allowing much 
evaporation to take place; short littery straw that 
has been in dung is the best material for trees and 
shrubs; for while it does not entirely seal up the 
ground against the beneficial effects of the atmo¬ 
sphere, it prevents undue evaporation, and enables the 
roots to derive tho full profit which the moisture im¬ 
parted was intended to produce; and as the wants of 
newly-plautcd trees and shrubs are notso great as that of 
crops, where the whole ground is intersected in all 
directions with roots greedily searching for food to 
supply a heavy and increasing top, it is not necessary to 
repeat tho watering process any further than just to 
prevent the object operated on being injured by the 
absence of moisture; but this is not likely to be the 
