308 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 17, 1858. 
to the summit of the mount, to six spokes. Well, that 
is just tlie thing; but the spokes come not at ecpial 
distances into the rim, and some of them are curved 
more than others, on account of the nature of the rise. 
Therefore, one angular bed can only be had to one 
spoke, or walk ; on the other side of the walk the beds 
must be circular. But the other end of the spokes is 
at equal distances all round the centre. Now, just 
think of a wheel lying flat on the ground, with six 
spokes only, and they taking a curve to the rim; the 
axletree, bolt upright in the centre, will represent the 
flagstaff on the Rose mount. There are two flights of 
steps to get up from the ends of the spokes to the level 
top, where the axletree is. Between the first set of 
flights, all round, are the Rose's,—all dwarfs, and all 
in rows of one kind of Rose in each of the six divisions. 
All round, between the second flight, is in flowers, in 
three match pairs, very well done,- 1 - first, a row of 
blush Verbena, then three rows of yellow Calceolaria, 
as many of Tom Thumb, and a single top row of purple 
Petunia. The next division is ot purple Y r erbena the 
first row; then Calceolaria and Tom Thumb, as before ; 
and the top row a white Petunia. Here you see the 
colours of the edging plants, top and bottom, arc done 
cross-cornerwise, without a change of plants. The Ver¬ 
bena gives a light edge to one, and a dark edge to the 
other on the lower side ; the purple Petunia and the 
white one do the same at top,—all lawfully done, and 
executed in the same style right round. The top is 
wider than I can tell, but the axletree of the wheel 
represents the Maypole, or flagpole, in the centre. 
Round the edge of this flat top runs a walk, and the 
six walks up the flights cross it, aDd go on right to the 
Maypole; therefore, the flat itself is divided by these 
six walks into six divisions, each division being in 
grass ; and the grass is sunk parallel with a long oval 
flower-bed at the bottom of each. 
These, again, are capitally done in opposite pairs. 
One pair is four or five rows of Tom Thumb, along the 
middle of the long oval; four rows of dark purple 
Verbena next; and a single line of Cerastium tomento - 
sum running round the whole. The right opposite bed 
the same, making the pair. Next pair thus,—four or 
five rows of purple Petunia along the middle, three 
rows of Tom Thumb on each side, and a broad band of 
variegated Alyssum for an edge. And the third pair, 
five rows of Calceolaria, three rows of Tom Thumb, 
and one single row of edging with Mangles' Variegated 
Cteranium. All these are downright good beds, and all 
tlie circles which I have named the same, except the 
plan of small meaningless dots in the centre. 
The flagstaff is supported by four guy-ropes; the 
lower ends of the ropes are fixed at twenty feet from 
the pole, and a scarlet circle, or circular bed of Tom 
Thumb, eight or nine feet across, with an edging of 
purple Verbena, stands round each end, as does a 
similar bed round the flagstaff itself; all being on 
gravel, and these beds having verges of grass two 
feet wide. 
Oyer the circular walk, round the upper rim, are the 
trellises for climbers, and the iron arches in arabesque, 
to be covered with plain green Ivy. There are twelve 
of these arabesque arches, two in each division. Their 
meaning has never been described, that I know of, 
nor their arrangement either; but now that the 
creepers and climbers have grown so far as to bid fair 
to tell the story in two, or, at most, in three, more 
years, one begins to understand the whole thing. It 
is an Italian dodge, and every man in Italy, from the 
I)oge of Venice to the Arcadian shepherd, who has 
got a Vine to train about his palace or cottage, adopts 
some part of the plan which is compounded on the top 
of the Rose mount. I was never in Italy, but Lady 
Middleton, who studied there for a length of time, 
told me of these plans fifty times over, long before 
the Crystal Palace was ever thought of, and I shall tell 
in my turn next week. H. Beaton. 
SUMMER AND AUTUMN PRUNING 
TRAINED ERUIT TREES, 
IN CONNECTION WITH ROOT ACTION. 
Some time has elapsed since this matter was al¬ 
luded to, in June, in reply to a “ Constant Reader.” 
It has come to our recollection now from an inquiry 
the other week, respecting the proper treatment of 
trained trees from the nursery, and also from several 
reminders of an implied promise. 
Promises of this kind, from mere press of matter, 
often meet the fate of work that should be done in a 
garden. Gardening work has so increased of late 
years, without, in many cases, an adequate increase of 
labour power, that the gardener has often to consider, 
not what ought to he done, but to make his choice, out 
of many things demanding immediate attention. The 
tastes, and likes and dislikes of the proprietor have 
also to be consulted; so that it is no uncommon thing 
to And, under the management of some of our best 
gardeners, some points of culture comparatively ne¬ 
glected, or attended to too late, to give the respective 
subjects justice. Hence, some of the best, because 
the most timely, gardening will very frequently be 
found in small places, where the labour power is suffi¬ 
cient to overtake every thing in time. 
The hints given at page 151, and the copious di¬ 
rections of our esteemed coadjutor, iu whose province 
this matter is more directly placed, will have prevented 
more concise instructions coming too late ; while the 
very copiousness of these directions would have pre¬ 
vented me, except on solicitation, from saying a word 
on the subject. What ensues will bear reference 
chilly to trees nearly or fully established. 
Let it be clearly understood, then, that the chief 
value of summer priming is twofold,—admitting light 
and air for the perfecting of fruit-buds, and regu¬ 
lating the strength of root action, by the amount of 
perspiring mediums in the shape of leaves and shoots. 
No mere cutting of roots at one time, or an indis¬ 
criminate removal of bundles of summer shoots at 
another, will effect this regulation, so as to ensure 
continued fruitfulness, as there will ever be a tendency 
in roots and tops to act relatively and co-relatively to 
each other. Thus, great masses of strong, vigorous 
shoots on a young tree nearly established, are not 
j merely a consequence, but also a cause of vigorous 
! root action. Remove these all at once, say in the 
month of August, and you let more light into your 
spurs and buds, and, no doubt, you give a temporary 
check to the vigour of the roots,—hut not a lasting 
one; as you will fiud that the vigour stored up in the 
stem and roots will next season give you quite as 
great a display of wand-like shoots again. You merely, 
as it were, repeat the process which the Osier grower 
pursues with his Willow stool every year. If these 
Willows are not cut too soon, some years elapse before 
the stools become exhausted. 
This comparative exhaustion would not so soon take 
place in a fruit tree, because, when you merely remove 
these summer shoots, you still leave a large perspiring 
surface of foliage, which keeps up and sustains con¬ 
tinued root action. Were there a continued pinching, 
stopping, and removing of Willow shoots, so as to pre¬ 
vent anything like vigorous growth, you would so 
curtail root action, that in a few years there would 
not be strength in the roots to produce Willows at all. 
Did we keep continually stopping and removing all 
summer growth on fruit trees, and also removing 
