24 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Apbil 10, 1860. 
The temperature of my house for the three weeks in March 
just passed has been quite perfect, in sunny days going up to 
65° and 70°; the air dry, calm, pure, and sweet, for I have not 
had anything added to the top dressing given in October; and 
as the earth in the pots, from being so excessively dry all winter, 
rapidly absorbs the small quantity of water the trees at present 
require, I have not felt any moisture in the air, so as to make it, 
like the air of a conservatory, unwholesome to breathe. 
My Peach trees to-day (March 24), are now fast bursting 
into bloom. They are all bushes and perfect beauties, having 
been under the three-leaf system of pinching all last summer. 
How doubtful I felt about this pinching towards the end of 
June! for the rapid growth of the young shoots seemed magical, 
and every day my finger and thumb had full employment. I 
thought I should get bundles of unripe shoots, and that my trees 
would be a mass of green leaves and green shoots without 
blossom-buds. July made me more hopeful, and I had faith in 
my teacher, which, by the way, I felt while I was pinching in 
June; but the firmest faith will occasionally waver, as we all 
know. 
August came, and I was still pinching. My fruit, from not 
being shaded by long luxuriant shoots, began to ripen of a fine 
deep crimson; and by the end of the month I saw that my 
pinched shoots would also ripen well to my great comfort. 
April 1st. —My Peach and Nectarine trees are now in full 
bloom. One would scarcely imagine that so much variety could 
be found in their flowers : Some with small petals nearly crimson; 
some with them very large of the true Peach-blossom colour; 
others with petals so small as scarcely to be distinguished, the 
flowers being a mass of stamens crowned with their anthers 
covered with “gold dust.” In the orchard-house these variations 
in the blossoms of the Peach and Nectarine are of the highest 
interest; and they seem so novel, for against walls they are 
scarcely seen if the weather be even warm enough to allow of a 
close inspection. 
My house is span-roofed, with glass on each side, and fourteen 
feet in width. Two rows of trees are on each side of the central 
path, forming an avenue to me full of interest, and which will 
continue till the last Peach is gathered in October. 
I have only seen one bee in my house this season, and have 
seen scarcely any on my Crocuses and Scillas, owing, I suppose, 
to the unusually cold stormy weather. They are so useful and 
interesting in the orchard-house at this season, that I have sent 
to a neighbour to borrow a hive for a few weeks to be placed 
near mine. 
Perhaps it is worth while to add, that in the spring of 1858 I 
planted in my house two pyramidal Peach trees one on each side 
of the doorway. I pinched in their shoots during that summer, 
took them up in October, and replanted them with a shovelful of 
compost in the same places, and had some fine fruit from them 
in 1859; although I must add that nearly all the young fruit on 
them was killed by that severe frost of the 1st of April. I 
pinched them in as directed, and took them up, and replanted 
them in October last. They are now two fine trees, full of 
blossoms, and stand like two beautiful sentinels at the entrance 
of my orchard-house.—A. 
GISHURST COMPOUND. 
I wish your correspondent “ W. W. C. G.,” who doubts 
whether Gishurst Compound may not have injured his Apricot- 
buds, could see my dwarf trees as they now are—Peaches and 
Nectariues covered with strong blossom, Plums and Pears 
covered with buds, and Apricots with the fruit setting. The white 
appearance on many of the stems shows how strong an applica¬ 
tion of Gishurst they had when at rest. I do not know whether 
your correspondent is, like myself, unlearned in fruit growing. 
I have more than once found both small and large branches of 
Apricot trees die, quite irrespectively of any washings with Gis¬ 
hurst. I always laid the blame to incorrect potting or pruning, 
or other consequence of my ignorance. 
The notably healthy, clean, and vigorous appearance of my 
trees this season makes me believe, that, for trees under glass 
(and, therefore, not exposed to washing from rain), a thorough 
washing of the stems and branches when at rest with a solution 
of Gishurst, much stronger than proper when leaves or flower’s are 
out—say j lb. to the gallon of water—will (without any making 
into a composition of lime, sulphur, or other ingredients) effectu¬ 
ally destroy insect life and eggs. To one little Vine, which last 
year seemed hopelessly mildewed, I applied a composition made 
according to that high authority, Mr. Errington’s recipe, only 
substituting Gishurst Compound for soft soap ; and a relation’s 
gardener, at my suggestion, coated all his Vines with this com¬ 
position ; his buds look perfectly healthy. 
The most active ingredient in Gishurst is sulphur in a much 
more penetrating state than it can be applied in either powder or 
mixed with soap, or other ingredients. I do not think lime 
mixed with it could have any tendency to develope any injurious 
property.— George Wilson'. 
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 
(Continued from page 400, Vol. XXIII.) 
Whatever promotes an over-luxuriant production of leaf- 
buds proportionately diminishes the production of llower-buds, 
and the reason is obvious. A luxuriant foliage is ever attendant 
upon an over-abundant supply of moist nourishment to the 
roots, the consequent amount of sap generated is large, requiring 
a proportionately increased surface of leaf for its elaboration, and 
for the transpiration of the superfluous moisture; and as the bud 
becomes a branch or a root accordingly as circumstances require, 
so does it produce, as may be necessary for the plant’s health, 
either leaves or flowers. This is ascertained by the universal fact 
that a tree or shrub, if headed down, throws out leaf-producing 
buds only, but never flower-buds; the former are required for 
the plant’s existence, but the latter are only needful for the 
propagation of its species. A cloud of other testimonies might 
be produced, showing the alteration of vegetable form to accom¬ 
modate the individual to altered circumstances. Place some 
aquatic plants in a running stream, the Water Cress, for instance, 
and its submerged leaves will be very small, thus giving the 
stream less power to force them from their rooted hold; but plant 
them in still water, and the leaves are uniform in size. Mountain 
plants have, for a similar reason, the smallest foliage near their 
summits, thus giving less hold to tho boisterous winds which 
sweep over them. Nor is this contrary to reason, as some persons 
would have us believe; for the petals, and even the minutest 
parts of every flower, are only different forms of the same al¬ 
burnum, parenchyma, and bark, which take another shape in 
the leaf. And it is only one other instance of that power of 
adaptation to circumstances so wisely given by God to all or- 
j ganised beings, which makes the wool of the sheep become 
scanty hair in tropical temperatures, and the brown fur of our 
hare become white amid the snows of the arctic regions. In the 
case of plants, it is familiar to every gardener; and he knows, 
that by differing modes of treatment, he can make, according to his 
pleasure, his plants produce an exuberance of leaves or of flowers, 
and a well-known instance is the Solandra grandiflora. This 
native of Jamaica had" for many years been cultivated in our hot¬ 
houses, had been propagated by cuttings, and each plant put 
forth annually shoots of surpassing luxuriance ; but no flower 
had ever been produced. Accidentally one plant was left for a 
i season in the dry stove at Kew, and this plant had only a mo- 
| derately luxuriant foliage, but a flower was produced at the 
extremity of every shoot. It now blooms every season in our 
stoves, a drier and less fertilising course of treatment being 
1 adopted. 
The circumstances of soil and climate and cultivation effect 
changes in plants sufficiently permanent to render it very diffi¬ 
cult to define the difference between a variety and a species. 
These changes are not produced in one member of a plant, but in 
all. A root not remarkably fibrous,when growing in the earth, 
becomes in water so multitudinously fibrous as to be called “ a 
Fox-tail Root.” In the water nourishment is more diffused than 
in soil, and the root-surface for its absorption requires to be pro¬ 
portionately enlarged. 
The Phleum pratense, or Meadow Cat’s-tail, and Alopecurus 
geniculatus, or Kneed Fox-tail Grasses, delight in moist-soiled 
localities, and in these their roots are always fibrous ; but when 
grown in a dry soil they as uniformly become bulbous-rooted. 
Bulbous-roots are adapted to endure excessive droughts, being 
reservoirs of moisture. 
In the alpine plants, Burnet, Saxifrage, Coriander, and Anise, 
the lower leaves are entire, whilst the upper leaves are divided, 
thus offering a less hold for the winds which sweep over them. 
In some aquatic plants, especially Ranunculus aquatilis, the lower 
immersed leaves are capillary, offering little surface to the stream, 
whilst the upper leaves are flat and circular, being the form best 
suited for floating on its surface. What is still more remarkable, 
as is observed by MM. De Candolle and Sprengel, the blossoms 
