132 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 29, 1860. 
forgotten to bo bad by the time it is wanted and where it is 
wanted for. These notes will save a deal of trouble; and if the 
temperature is taken and booked, it will show the effects of tem¬ 
perature on them in different seasons, and the young beginner 
will obtain much information that way which will assist him in 
his future calculations ; and the more notes lie makes the more 
interest he will take in his occupation. 
Having trespassed on your space to a greater extent than the 
subject justifies me in doing, I will merely say that I hope some 
of your readers will tell us of some of the best and most manage¬ 
able flowers they have kept up a good display with from the end 
of February to the beginning of May—I mean plants that can be 
removed when done blooming, to make room for others without 
injury to the future, annuals excepted.—T he Doctor's Bov. 
[We are quite sure that many of our readers will join us in 
welcoming the reappearance of our correspondent, in sympathising 
with him under his vicissitudes, and in rejoicing that he is again 
pursuing cheerily his useful course.— Eos. C. G.j 
MRS. VERNON GERANIUM. 
Wile you please say where the Mrs. Vernon. Geranium, so 
strongly recommended by Mr. Beaton, can be bought P I have 
applied to several of the largest nurserymen in London for it, 
and they say it is worthless, and was thrown out years ago. 
However, I am anxious to try it, if in existence.—W. G. 
[When Mr. Beaton occupied the responsible position of 
registrar-general to the society for diffusing a right knowledge on 
bedding Geraniums, Mrs. Vernon herself, the lady after whom 
that Nosegay is named, called at the office and registered that 
bedder in terms similar to those you have beard. That was 
fifteen or sixteen years back, and at that period of our progress, 
the exact position of the Nosegays was known only to a few. 
They were worthless to the great body of the people, for not 
one in ten thousand bad then heard of the Fothergillii itself. 
Now, however, no garden of any pretension in the three king¬ 
doms is without this ancient strain, if only Fothergillii itself; 
and if you were to sec tho ledgers in which prices ranging from 
£10 to £50 are yearly entered for new kinds of Nosegays, you 
could perceive one of the results of the workings of our registries. 
You could also see by The Cottage Gardener, that Mrs. 
Vernon took the highest position at Kew Gardens—that is, up 
in the highest vases; also, that the preliminary of the stud 
book was neglected at Kew—no true scarlet having been placed 
before Mrs. Vernon there But now it is our bounden duty to 
assert that Mrs. Vernon is tlie most valuable Geranium in England 
for the centres of very large scarlet beds, but not for small cottage 
beds. For large vases, where a row of the Crystal Palace j 
Scarlet could find room round them, Mrs. Vernon Nosegay, and 
Model Nosegay will be at tlie top of the register, as keen rivals | 
for the next two or three years. As you are the first who has 1 
made direct inquiry for the first of the new move in Nosegays, i 
Mr. Beaton will lend you a young Mrs. Vernon from his own I 
stud for this season, tho only one that is yet out of training, if 
you will send for it by rail to the Kingston Station on the South 
Western Railw'ay.] 
THE PICTORIAL MANAGEMENT OE 
PLANTATIONS. 
Almost every one who calls himself a forester professes to 
excel in this branch of our rural economy ; and yet it is strange 
in passing through the country to witness in the culture of plan¬ 
tations the great amount of disregard of first principles. 
It is usual, and perfectly correct, to introduce coniferous trees 
amongst our hard-wooded forest trees, as what are called nurses, 
which certainly they are for a lime, affording much shelter, and 
causing the hard-wooded trees to elongate. But never ought it 
to be forgotten, that if permitted to do this too long, they become 
the destroyers rather than tlie nurses of the nurslings. And it is 
owing to their influence that we bo often see poor, wind-waived 
skeletons of miserable trees, where, if they bad been removed in 
time, we might have had sturdy, robust ones, with good “pro¬ 
tecting properties.” 
I will here state that my object in these remarks is to give a 
few hints upon the management of plantations for forming future 
woods, or groups in parks, so that they shall ultimately be 
effective in a pictorial sense. In this the rule must be different 
from that where the object is to grow timber only. Trees for 
ornament will not require to be pruned up to such a height as 
those of the timber grower, nor must they be left to stand so 
thickly as those where the object is to get long straight sten s 
only. The grower of trees for picturesque effect will requiic little 
aid from the priming-knife. He may prune for a clean stem up 
a little above the browsing-line, and then leave his tree to 
Nature. _ . 
It always has seemed to me to be a difficulty 7 in the education 
of wood managers, that they are very rarely endowed w ith any 
knowledge of tlie art upon which sylvan beauty so much depends, 
and most rarely do they appreciate those happily picturesque 
combinations which result from grouping together different 
objects. Equidistance and regularity are their fixed principles 
of action, and these arc very appropriate in tlie interior of ex¬ 
tensive woods, but quite inapplicable in its margins. 
We will suppose a large quantity of mixed wood planted in an 
extensive place, but a very few years will have elapsed ere the 
coniferous plants will begin an intrusion upon the hard- 
wooded trees, and will require a removal. We would urge the 
importance of this before the said liard-wooded trees become 
drawn up and weakened, progressively affording the remaining 
trees every opportunity for their full development; but taking 
care at the same time to leave many picturesque groups among 
them. The Firs may disappear progressively, retaining to tho 
last such of them as afford a beneficial shelter. 
One great principle in forming beautiful trees is to avoid the 
mutilation so frequently inflicted by barbaric pruning, or the 
wounds caused by sawing off large branches, which I affirm can 
only be justified in cases of accident. A small pruning-knife, 
the finger and thumb, with tho exercise of common foresight, are 
all tlie implements that the man of good taste needs to form 
beautifully picturesque trees. 
With regard to the pruning of forest trees. It is, in general, dono 
in an imperfect manner by 7 the mere hewer and backer of wood 
with a bill-hook, cutting in a ragged and careless manner, and 
leaving a stump behind him, which decays, and tlie live wood 
overgrowing it, forms, ultimately, a blemish in the tree in (lie 
shape of a knob. Too much care cannot be taken to prevent the 
occurrence of tiiis damage, and I would recommend the adoption 
of tlie nurseryman’s practice with his fruit stocks, spurring in 
the shoots to one or two inches in length, and leaving them for a 
year or two to assist in swelling the stems, after which they may 
be progressively cut out with a sharp knife, leaving a wound so 
small as to be soon cicatriced. By this practice a beautifully 
clean bole is obtained, on which Nature, ever bountilul, will place 
a picturesque and well-balanced head. 
It is astonishing how much variety may be produced by the 
artistic disposition of trees, even upon a flat surface, whilst upon 
a billy surface the most striking effects are much enhanced. 
Where a place has been thickly 7 planted the most mighty effects 
are capable of being produced "by judicious removal. The often- 
practised expedient of Brown, of removing the fence from tho 
outside of a wood to sixty or seventy yards within it, and 
thinning and giouping the Oaks and Thoms on its outside, has, 
in many places, a charming effect, giving ample variety and 
intricacy to its outline, while the sombre shade within most fully 
conceals from view the fence. The great Repton always rejoiced 
when he had to deal with grounds thickly clad with fine trees, 
and I could have no more fervent aspirations than to have to 
deal with a place thus furnished. 
In all planting, the proper preparation of the soil by efficient 
drainage is most important, and it is also important that this be 
effected by open drains. Most of my readers, I dare say, are 
familiar with the predilection which roots of trees have for drains, 
and have noticed the masses of fibrous roots which fill the tiles 
in shrubbery walks. 
Having completed the operation of planting, it may next be 
asked, At what time should pruning and thinning be commenced ? 
This does not admit of a very definite answer ; but it may be said 
that after two years tlie eye of the pruncr should be exercised 
over his trees, and with regard to thinning regard must be paid 
to the progress of tlie trees, the soil and climate. In good soils 
and climates it may commence about the eighth year, and in 
colder ones about the tenth. 
In the various routines of business with which I have been 
familiar, I have always observed the importance of arrangement 
and plan, and I think that it is of the Highest importance to 
plant systematically. For this purpose I know of no better plan 
than one given by Mr. Brown, forester, of Aniiston. He plants 
