152 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ October, 
single petal, for instance, the imbricated form, 
so called from its resemblance to a drain-tile, 
takes off from the stiff formality of the 
Camellia ; and the quilled petal gives liveliness 
and grace to the Chrysanthemum. The same 
form detracts from the appearance of the Aster, 
because its petals are so narrow, that they can¬ 
not afford the shrinking of size it occasions. 
“ Observations of this kind may and ought 
to be extended to considerable minuteness of 
detail, but as they are only applications of 
what has gone before, they will not require me 
to draw at greater length upon the kind pati¬ 
ence of your readers. 
“ The other origin of beauty is Colour , the 
most obvious source of our varied, pleasurable 
impressions from the flower-garden, and on 
which therefore the reader may not unreason¬ 
ably fear a discussion as long as that which 
has gone before. Happily, however, in this he 
will be mistaken, for the philosophic or constant 
elements of its effectiveness, to which I am 
here confined, are few; nor is it intended fully 
to discuss these, for a reason that will be after¬ 
wards adverted to. The observations I have to 
offer will class themselves under colours in 
general as such, and on the juxtaposition of two 
or more on the same grounds. 
“ 1. With regard to colours in general, the 
preference of one before another arises, for the 
most part, from causes of which I do not treat, 
for each has, intrinsically, an equal right to 
admiration. Much belongs to individual taste, 
much to accidental circumstance, such as rarity, 
and these, as not reducible to rule, are beside 
the present pui-pose. A blue Dahlia, or a 
scarlet Pelargonium, may be worth a hundred 
guineas ; but the value is accidental, not essen¬ 
tial, and belongs to the philosophy, not of 
the flower, but of man. There are, however, 
a few intrinsic qualities, according to which 
colour seems necessarily effective, or the con¬ 
trary. I shall mention but two, applicable 
equally whether the flower in which they are 
found is self or party-coloured. 
“ The first is Brightness, by which I mean 
neither a higher nor a deeper tint, the value of 
which is purely conventional and a matter of 
taste, but the opposite to the flat and washy 
appearance often seen in petals of thin sub¬ 
stance, as if it were fading, and somewhat 
similar to what in art would arise from a too 
thin coat of paint. Possibly it may sometimes 
be connected with the epidermis alone being 
the seat of colour, because, if you look closely 
into the bell of a good light-blue Hyacinth, 
the colour, however light, will appear to pene¬ 
trate the entire fleshy substance of the petal, 
and will be as bright and lively as the deepest 
tint could be. All the rays of its colour are 
reflected back to the eye, and not absorbed and 
lost, as many of them are, in the dull, thin, 
and watery colour of some of the old (not 
Chinese) Hollyhocks, of twenty years ago. 
Bybloemen Tulips, when narrowly examined, 
are seldom entirely free from this fault. 
“ The other quality is Distinctness, by which 
term I mean, not the impossibility of mistaking 
at first sight whether the colour in question be 
a blue or a violet, a rose or a pink (for, on the 
contrary, I think such indescribable shades of 
colour as are best to be found in the Bose form 
one of the highest charms of that peerless 
monarch of the garden), but such an individual 
(may I use the word idiosyncratic ?*) distinct¬ 
ness, as when once well seen and felt will en¬ 
sure its being distinguished from others. With¬ 
out this, it would be equally impossible to dis¬ 
criminate between 2,000 varieties, and useless 
to cultivate them, for a colour that excites no 
corresponding and pleasurable idea is worth¬ 
less. Yet colours of this objectionable and 
meaningless kind are not uncommon, and often 
partially intrude into some ol our best varieties, 
as in the Catafalque Tulip, and others—as if 
for a stimulus to the raiser still to press on for 
something nearer his idea of perfection. Seed¬ 
ling or breeder Tulips often are of a hue that 
seems hardly to be classed as a colour, but 
rather as a negation of colour. 1 Foxy ’ 
Auriculas and Polyanthuses are of this class.— 
Iota.” 
PEACH PRUNING. 
OME years ago—perhaps eighteen—a 
nobleman’s gardener, who had spent many 
years in France, Belgium, and Italy, gave 
me a very clear outline of the practice adopted by 
horticulturists in those countries. One thing of 
which I made a special note was the description 
of pruning Peach-trees, given on the system 
practised to a large extent in France. Straight 
rods were trained fan-shape as true as the rays 
of the sun, and the small growths of the current 
year, which were saved to supply the bearing- 
wood of the following season, were pruned, not 
as generally seen in this country, but cut short 
to within two or three inches of the tree. This 
is not the “spur” system—I do not object to 
that when properly carried out in the case of 
trees under glass—but simply short-pruning. 
By this mode, bearing-wood as firm as oak is 
secured, there is no waste of time laying-in 
young wood for no purpose, and the trees are 
always neat and free from confusion. I have 
practised this (perhaps in a modified form) for 
a number of years, and by it always secured 
abundance of fruit, and saved much labour.—T. 
* Peculiar to its own composition. 
