174 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 18. 
from the establishment of M. Van Houtte, of Ghent. It 
flowered in the exotic nursery of the above firm, in 
I November 1850, and again last summer. Like all the 
plants in the same order, this has an acrid milky juice, 
I which, if not altogether dangerous, is somewhat sus- 
! picious. Presl, a German botanist, described this genus 
as a Lobelia, to which it is nearly related. Siphocam- 
\ pylus was named by Pohl, another of the travelling 
j botanists of Germany, this name being derived from 
siphon, a tube, and hampulos, curved; in reference to 
the curvature of the tube of the flower. The specific 
name “charming” (AmcenusJ, is appropriate. In the 
natural arrangement it belongs to the Lobeliads (Lo- 
beliaceae), and to the first order of the fifth class in 
the system of Linnseus, Pentandria Monogynia. 
Propagation and Culture. —No difficulty is experienced in 
propagating any of the species of Siphocampylus with which 
we are acquainted, from cuttings of the young tops of the 
shoots in the spring. The cuttings should be put in a 
cucumber-frame, or some hot place at once, and be guarded 
with a bell-glass in the usual way, and notwithstanding the 
great range of country the plants are known to inhabit in 
South America, the whole of them, while in a young state, 
either from seeds or cuttings, prefer to grow in peat, with a 
little leaf-mould and sand added. When they grow on to be 
strong healthy plants, they do better with about one-half 
loam in the compost. If such plants get out of health, 
however, they refuse to thrive in loam directly, and they can 
only be brought round again by the sole use of peat and 
sand, unless, indeed, they happen to be under the hands of 
a good gardener. 
With the exception of Siphocampylus bicolor, the whole of 
this species delight in a mild, moist heat in the spring, but, 
truly speaking, none of them are real stove plants. As soon 
as they are near their full season’s growth, say by the end 
of May, a frame or pit kept hot by the sun, without arti¬ 
ficial heat, is far better for them, and numbers of other 
plants called stove plants, than all the stoves in the country, 
and when they come into flower, the greenhouse or conser¬ 
vatory is the right place for them. I make an exception of 
S. bicolor, as I believe it to be all but hardy. I had it out 
against a wall for eight years, and it proved a troublesome 
customer at last, the roots running a great way under¬ 
ground, and spawning up like couch-grass. The frost was 
kept from it, but I am quite sure a few inches of coal-ashes 
would be protection enough for the roots in winter, and if 
they were forked out in April, and put into a swampy bog- 
bed, it would flower that way the whole season, and make 
dense thickets. D. Beaton. 
THE EBUIT-GARDE N. 
the plum. — rest-pruning, &c. — ( Continued from 
page 146). 
Although the majority of our plums, under ordinary 
circumstances, may be pruned any time during the 
winter, yet there are both kinds and conditions of these 
trees which require some caution in this respect. Those 
which sometimes bear on the young or last year’s shoots, 
are slower to exhibit their fruitful character on the 
annual wood than on the old spurs; and the oldest 
practitioner can scarcely distinguish the blossom buds 
on such wood until the swelling of the bud. Of such a 
character is the Precoce de Tours, which, although very 
old, is a very useful, early plum, and a safe bearer. 
River’s Favourite, which is, we believe, a seedling from 
it, will probably prove of similar habit; and if we 
remember rightly, those ol the old Imperatrice class are 
sometimes ot this habit. Where any doubts exist, the 
amateur, or the inexperienced, may wait until March, 
j when all doubts will be speedily set at rest. 
And now a glance at the espalier rail, or the strained 
i _ 
wire trellis, very well adapted for many of the plums; 
indeed, it may as well be observed at once, that there is, 
in reality, scarcely any kind of fruit but may be made 
to answer well on these trellises; for if they fail, it will 
be more traceable to mismanagement than to the condi- j 
tions under which they are placed. We have two strong, 
and, as we consider them, fundamental reasons for so 
strongly urging the general adoption of wire trellises; 
the one that they, or something like them, must, in all 
probability, be identified with future progress in kitchen 
gardens, or dressy grounds contiguous to them; and the 
other, that we do hope and expect to see the general 
adoption of coverings of some kind, whether as blossom 
retarders and protectors, or as subservient to a long suc¬ 
cession of fruit. 
In due time we shall have to recommend the use of 
copings to these simple structures, in combination with 
the retarding system; of this more in due course. 
Surely, now double glass walls for training fruit-trees on 
are about to be adopted at Bodorgan Castle, in Anglesey, 
and to be tested at the Horticultural Society’s Gardens 
at Chiswick, as a feasible proposal, surely our readers 
will not take fright at the modest proposition of a few 
strained-wire-rods and a little canvass. The advantages, 
and supposed disadvantages, of the adoption of wire 
espalier rails, will form the subject of a separate notice 
before long. And now to the “ rest pruning ” of the 
plum. 
It must be known to most of our readers, that plums, 
like many other fruit-trees, vary much in habit; some, 
as the Washington, the Magnum bonum, &c., if planted 
in a very liberal soil, producing young wood almost 
adapted lor fishing rods. Others again, as the Impera¬ 
trice section, being ol a very delicate habit, is in age apt 
to become too weak. Of course there will be an interme¬ 
diate class, and such may be represented by the ordinary 
Orleans, although the latter sometimes produces very 
gross wood when young. Now, there is no fruit-tree 
in which gross wood is more inimical to the proper 
development of the fruitful parts than the plum. In 
trained trees, when young, and the soil unfortunately 
rich, the trees but too frequently have a tendency to 
produce these “ robbers ” in several places between the 
bole and the extremity of the branches; the sure ten¬ 
dency of such is to interrupt and appropriate the ascend¬ 
ing sap, and thus to starve the fruit on the portions 
beyond them. Nor is this all; they, by reciprocation, 
call suddenly such an unnecessary amount of new roots 
into action, that, unless the root-pruning is resorted to, 
the pruning knife, or the finger and thumb, must be 
kept continually employed. Such is not the condition 
best suited to the permanent production of good crops 
of well-matured fruit; a uniform course of action is best 
adapted to that end, not feverish impulses. 
All this is simply meant as a hint as to the soil used 
in planting them; proceed we now to the more imme¬ 
diate business of this paper. The tying-down method is 
what we practice with this tree, the pear and the apricot, 
and this is applied to nearly all the kinds. Such being 
the case, the main leaders are laid in about six or seven 
inches apart, in the smaller-wooded kinds, and at nearly 
nine in the grosser sorts. This will startle some 
persons, no doubt; those who have been accustomed to 
nail their shoots in very close, will marvel. Let it be 
understood, therefore, that on these leaders of ours, the 
young shoots of moderate growth are tied down in 
summer, one on the heels of another, without inter¬ 
mission. So that we have as many shoots, if that be a 
merit, as the close trainer, the difference is that ours 
are grouped. Now, long experience has shown, that 
to build an expensive wall, in order to accumulate more 
heat, and then to shade it all over, to intercept the solar 
rays, is to undergo a great expense for a very ill-defined 
object. There is about the same difference between our i 
