366 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
i by their compound leaves, but of the near relationship of 
the two orders there can be no doubt; since we find Decan- 
! hole, in his great Prodroxnus, arranging them so closely as 
two sections of the same order; but Decaisne’s views of 
their affinity are now allowed, by the common consent of 
botanists, to be more correct. Dr. Wallich named the genus 
to commemorate the name and services of Frederick Hol- 
boll, Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden at Copen¬ 
hagen. They are Monoecious plants, or, like the Cucumber, 
I having the male organs in one dower, and the female iu a 
separate flower, but both on the same plant. Sucli plants 
; are referred in the system of Linnseus to his twenty-first 
; class, Moncecia. 
Holbollia acuminata has leathery, narrow, spear-head, 
pointed leaflets, three or five on a common footstalk; the 
flowers are white streaked with purple, and orange-scented. 
: It is probably hardy, and its foliage nearly evergreen. 
B. J. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
Renovating Weak or Wearing-out Trees. —In the 
course of our duties, we must not only attend to fruit- 
trees in the very hey-day of prosperity, but those of a 
less fortunate character. The gardener’s vocation some¬ 
what resembles the physician’s in this respect; he is 
called upon to control the exuberant, to assist the weak, 
and to renew, as far as possible, tbe shattered consti¬ 
tution ; and to carry the parallel still farther, to perform 
surgical operations where necessary. 
Very many fruit-trees, especially in the ordinary 
orchard, perish, or fall into a state of premature vege¬ 
table decrepitude for want of a little assistance rendered 
in time. Tbe renewal of the vigour of trees thus situated 
has been pointed to in former papers, but such have 
been principally confined to branch-pruning. We will 
now proceed to show that much may be done at the 
root; and, in our opinion, the end of September is the 
most eligible time for the operation. Matters of this 
kind constitute a sort of extra in gardening affairs; no 
man of any standing in our profession will leave any 
of these extras until spring if he can possibly avoid it. 
Spring, in these days, comes laden with a burden pecu¬ 
liarly its own; a burden which it is scarcely capable of 
sustaining. Spring will do well, then, to borrow a 
few hours from sober-faced and lightly-laden autumn. 
Borrow, did we say ? it must be stolen—shame to say so ; 
it will never be repaid. 
Not only is this good with regard to the case in hand, 
as an expedient, but, in our opinion, the practice is right 
i in principle. If early ciwtamn-planting is right in the ma- 
j jority of cases; if the putting out cuttings of many de- 
j ciduous trees is right; why then this is right, and for 
| the very same reasons. The process is thus ably set 
forth in that clever work— The Theory of Horticulture. 
“ As soon as a plant has shed its leaves, it is as much 
at rest for the season as it will be at any subsequent 
, period; indeed, it is greater at that time, because its ex- 
j citability is completely exhausted by tbe season of 
growth; and it has had no time to recover it. If at that 
time a root is wounded, a process of granulation or 
cicatrisation will commence, just as it does in cuttings, 
; and from that granulation, which is a mere development 
of the horizontal cellular system, roots will eventually 
I proceed.” Here, then, are arguments of a scientific 
character, backed by the phenomena of every-day occur¬ 
rence. So then, it will be seen, that a granular process 
takes place in cuttings, technically termed a callus, and 
this callus is the producer of fibres. This will serve to 
! throw light on the process which occurs when roots are 
i cut, as in the act of transplanting or root-pruning. 
| Such injuries, then, if they must be inflicted, had best 
be perpetuated early in the autumn, inasmuch as the 
trees have a longer period to recruit in; and if the pro¬ 
cess take place in the end of September, granulations, 
[September 11. | 
if not actual fibres, will be produced by the coming 
spring: nature is latently making efforts, slowly, but 
surely, to repair these damages. 
We have before observed, in these pages, and we beg 
to repeat the observation, that injuries arising from late , 
spring-planting, as to fruit-trees, are very frequently pro- | 
ductive of serious aggressions on the part of the insect i 
tribes. Amongst these, the red spider and the aphides 
hold a conspicuous, and, in the practical s eyes, a most , 
unenvied position. The scale family, too, or those ! 
bearing the generic title, Coccus, frequently “ rush to 
the rapine.” Having thus paved the way to a recom- j 
mendation of an early procedure in these matters, we 
will proceed to examine cases. 
Many trees are to be met with, in all quarters, failing 
betimes, and evidently not through age alone, neither 
through what is termed Canker, ior although the 
extreme points of many fruit-trees are apt to shrivel and 
die away, especially ordinary orchard trees, yet, on ex¬ 
amination, it will be found that such is not, in general, 
the disease termed canker. Since ordinary orchard 
trees, then, are more liable to be thus conditioned than 
those on prepared soils in our kitchen-gardens, how 
is it ? Why, because the majority of our orchard trees 
have free liberty to range in ungenial subsoils. Irom 
the subsoil, in the main—whether as being too retentive 
of chilling moisture, or from the presence of deleterious 
matter—proceeds most of the evils we have pointed to ; 
and such suggested to us, some years since, the general 
adoption of artificial substrata, and the planting on 
higher levels. 
The wearing-out, or weak trees alluded to, after their 
lower roots become paralysed or lost, are driven to 
seek sustenance by means of the surface fibres alone ; and 
as all that portion next the tree has been long robbed of 
its fertility, the very exterior points alone are the only 
active agents; and it is principally to these that we 
apply renovating materials. Where it is intended to 
carry out this renovating process, a heap of compost 
must, of course, be provided. A good sound loamy turt 
is the principal thing to obtain ; and those who cannot 
obtain it should get some turfy material of some kind, 
as part of the compost. One portion of this, one of old 
manure, and a third of half-rotten litter of any kind, 
leaves, &c., well-chopped and mixed, will make a good 
compost. If plenty of a good, sound garden soil of a 
rich character be at hand, the mass may receive nearly 
a half of it. 
In commencing operations with a tree thus situated— 
say an orchard apple-tree, with a trunk six or eight 
inches diameter, and a head corresponding—let the 
operator draw a circle around it, with a trammel, 
about seven feet from the bole ; this constitutes, in the 
main, the boundary dine inwards of his operations, and 
serves to keep the spade from unwarrantable liberties. 
The operator may now proceed to dig a trench tvvo spades 
in width all round the tree; and in the course of his work 
he must take especial notice where the principal hori¬ 
zontal roots are, and where there is a comparative 
absence of them ; in the former case politely giving way, 
notwithstanding his circle, and in the latter, advancing 
towards the bole of the tree. 
After excavating this one spit deep all round, he must 
proceed to take a second spit, or enough to gain quite 
halfia-yard in depth; and if this second spit is an inferior 
material, it must be wheeled on one side by itself. This 
done, as before, the operator will now know on which 
side of the tree the least roots are, and at that position 
he must bore for the tap-roots, that is to say, ho must 
dig under tbe tree, and endeavour, without disturbing it 
too much, to cut all deep -descending and ill-looking roots 
away, filling the hole beneath full of weeds, or any refuse 
stuff from the rubbish yard. This will induco some 
I fresh fibres in due time, for there need be no further 
