826 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 25, 1888. 
The Amateurs’ Garden. 
Pruning Shrubs. 
After the season’s growth has been made it will he 
necessary to go over the shrubbery and prune or thin 
out, as the ease may be, such things that have become 
overcrowded to their own detriment—overstepped their 
allotted bounds or have become too large or tall. In 
some gardens there are banks of Laurels that it is 
desired to keep low and bushy. The old custom of 
doing it with the garden shears is altogether deprecable, 
and ought not to be tolerated on any account, as it 
gives the bushes a formal, stiff and lumpy appearance. 
A good pruning knife is all that is required, unless the 
plants have been neglected till they have formed tall, 
stout stems. The saw would then be necessary to 
accomplish the operation nicely without splitting the 
wood. The object of pruning in this case would be to 
get a low covering of evergreen bushes. In using the 
knife, cut the taller shoots right back to the base, 
which will cause them to send up, perhaps, a number 
of shoots next year. The shorter ones are left full 
length, and they furnish the desired effect of a mass of 
green foliage without the formal and stumpy appearance 
produced by the use of the shears. 
In the shrubbery proper the object should be to 
prune back those overhanging paths and footways, and 
also those overlapping their neighbours to their dis¬ 
advantage. In well-regulated shrubberies every plant 
should be tolerably clear of its neighbour, so as to 
preserve as much as possible the characteristic and 
natural habit of each. 
Herbaceous Plants. 
As the earlier-flowering ones finish blooming and ripen 
off their stems, it will be necessary in order to maintain 
a tidy appearance to cut down and remove them. In 
doing so be particularly careful not to remove the mass 
or tuft of young leaves which most herbaceous plants 
develop during the latter part of summer. The more 
green foliage that can be left upon them the better, 
both for appearance sake and for the plants themselves. 
Stake all such things as Phloxes, perennial Asters, 
Golden Rods, and such others as still require it. 
Dahlias and Hollyhocks it is to be presumed have 
already received that attention, but in the case of the 
former, they should be gone over regularly at intervals, 
pruning away such shoots as would render the plants 
top-heavy, or otherwise prevent them from running up 
freely and developing their flower heads to most 
advantage. After this pruning and tying operation 
has been completed, remove the prunings, and hoe 
and rake the border, making all neat and trim. 
Pentstemons in late districts must not be overlooked 
in the matter of staking if they are at all exposed. 
Seed Collecting. 
There are many of the choicer things of which it is 
desirable to save seed, and no opportunity must be lost 
in doing so whenever they are ripe. Pinks, Carnations, 
Pansies, and Yiolas, which have been crossed with the 
object of obtaining new varieties, should be carefully 
labelled by the prudent amateur, so that the results 
may be accurately measured for his guidance on future 
occasions. Such as are ripe should be gathered imme¬ 
diately, and the Pansies may be sown at once in a box, 
wintered in a frame, and planted out in spring. Pinks 
and Carnations should be kept in the seed-room until 
that time. Primula seed should, as a rule, be sown 
when gathered, although there are many kinds that 
keep well enough. Primula japonica and its beautiful 
varieties, including P. j. alba', should be sown imme¬ 
diately in a box or pan, and stood in a cold frame, 
never allowing the soil to become dry. The seeds of 
this beautiful Primula germinate badly, or not at all, 
if allowed to become dry before sowing. A good plan 
would be to sow them in a cold frame, or even in the 
open border in a naturally moist but not wet place. 
They will germinate freely in spring. Where it is 
intended to save Hollyhock seed, either of single or 
double varieties, an effort should be made to get it from 
healthy plants—that is, those entirely free from the 
Hollyhock disease, which prevails to a greater or less 
extent this year. In the ease of double varieties, the 
mass of petals being joined together, do not readily 
fall away, especially in wet weather, and should be 
assisted in this respect. In doing so, maggoty fruits 
may be detected and destroyed. Other things calling 
for attention are Lychnis of various kinds, Sweet 
Williams, Canterbury Bells and other Campanulas, 
and many choice Alpine or border plants of which the 
amateur may be possessed. Poppies—including the 
Iceland Poppy (Papaver nudicaule) and its numerous 
beautiful varieties—require collecting from time to 
time. 
Propagating Aucubas, Euontmus and Laurels. 
Cuttings of these may now be put into a north border 
or other cool place, where sunshine will have little 
access to them while they form roots. In the case of 
Aucub.is and Laurels, cuttings of this season’s wood 
taken off with a heel should be employed. They need 
not be of any particular length, although it is highly 
desirable that they should not exceed 1 ft. in length, 
as the more there is of them above ground the more 
liable are they to be dried up, especially by cold cutting 
winds in winter, should they live till then. A portion 
of the stem, however, usually dies, but the remainder 
pushes out shoots from the surface of the ground, or 
near it, the following spring, provided they have rooted. 
Remove the lower leaves for a distance of 5 ins. or 6 
ins., so that they may be firmly inserted in the soil. 
While the work of inserting them is going on, the 
ground may be dug up to them, treading firm, and 
cutting out a straight-sided trench for the next row, 
using a line so that the trenches may be straight. The 
trenches should be 1 ft. apart, and the cuttings may 
only be a few inches, as they may be transplanted after 
the first summer’s growth. Cuttings of Euonymus are 
much shorter, and the choicer kinds may be thickly 
inserted in pots or pans, and stood under hand-glasses 
or frames. They root readily, and may then be planted 
out in soring. 
-- 
[ARDENING fflSCELLANY. 
3 J&n 
Ferns from. Spores. 
If a Fern, which has never been known to produce 
itself true from spores, which by many is considered 
barren, and as Mr. Baker at Ivew says in the case 
of Adiantum Farleyense, he does not consider it a 
distinct species, should, as with me in the case of 
A. Farleyense, afterwards produce itself true from 
spores, does this constitute it and make it a distinct 
species, or may it only be considered a freak of nature 
not likely to occur again ?— Nimrod. [Although a 
Fern that has sported naturally (and this is the con¬ 
clusion which we should arrive at concerning Adiantum 
Farleyense, seeing that it was introduced in its present 
state from the Barbadoes Islands) is usually barren, 
there seems no valid reason why it should always 
remain so, whether in a wild state or under cultivation. 
We have several times seen fructification partly de¬ 
veloped on A. Farleyense, even to the production of 
spoTe cases ; but the said fructification has always been 
so far imperfect, inasmuch as no spores were developed 
in the capsules. Under favourable conditions, how¬ 
ever, there seems to be no reason why fructification 
may not be perfected. Even should this be the case, 
and seedlings true to the parent plant are raised from 
the spores, we could not say that this act raised the 
plant doing so to the rank of a species. Man}’’ years 
ago, the late Mr. T. Moore, of Chelsea, said that 
numbers of the varieties and some of the curious sports 
among British Ferns could be perpetuated true from 
spores, yet he did not consider them entitled to specific 
rank. Neither he nor any other connoisseur or culti¬ 
vator could guarantee that all the seedlings would come 
true to their parent, but that rogues were frequently 
produced. At the present day, cultivators who grow 
largely for market depend upon spores as a rapid and 
ready means of reproducing their stock. Species, of 
course, are most extensively grown : but many well- 
marked varieties are regularly raised in this way, and 
some are more constant than others, just as we find 
amongst flowering plants. Some varieties can be 
raised true to the parent with an almost absolute 
certainty, while others are much less certain, and some 
kinds cannot be depended upon at all to come true ; 
yet in none of these eases would any of the varieties be 
reckoned as species.—E d.] 
Bouvardia Rumboldtii corymbiflora. 
Many growers get captivated with this fine plant, but 
subjecting it to tin same kind of treatment as they 
give other species and their garden varieties, the pro¬ 
duction of bloom in a great many cases is meagre or 
none at all. Young plants well furnished with shoots 
early in the season should be grown on without stopping, 
or old plants that have been cut back, re-started, 
re-potted, and cultivated in the same way will flower 
in the autumn, according to the season they have 
made their growth and matured their wood. The 
flowers are amongst the finest of those in cultivation— 
large, white, and produced in trusses at the ends of the 
primary shoots, which explains the reason why thev 
should not be subjected to stopping in the same way 
as Bouvardias generally. A further recommendation 
that this plant offers is the delicious odour of the 
flowers, and which may be said to resemble that of the 
Gardenia in no small measure. Both plants, it may 
be remarked, belong to the same family. This Bou¬ 
vardia has been flowering for some time in a cool house 
at High Elms, Orpington, Kent. 
Tomatos, Diseased. 
Indications are showing themselves that the out-door 
crop of Tomatos is this season in great danger from the 
Potato disease. A correspondent in Worcestershire 
has just forwarded some branches of Tomato plants 
badly affected, with the request that I would name 
the cause of the disease. He evidently does not 
recognise the fact that the Tomato is very liable to be 
affected with the Peronospora infestans in the same 
way as the Potato. My correspondent states that the 
Tomatos are grown in a “rather heavy soil, no manure, 
and no watering for weeks, except the rain.” But no 
precautions appear capable for the purpose of arresting 
the disease when it takes hold of the Tomato, and 
growers can only witness the loss of their crops, while 
powerless to save them.— E. IF. 
Linaria triornithophora. 
It is surprising how slowly really useful and ornamental 
hardy border plauts like the present become dissemi¬ 
nated over the country, and equally surprising that 
they should be permitted to sink into oblivion and die, 
while their places are usurped by subjects, in many 
cases, with far less pretentions to beauty, and even 
devoid of interest sometimes. The present weather, 
after the abundant wet of the summer that is now 
almost past, seems particularly congenial to the well¬ 
being of Linarias in general, including the subject of 
this note, and at the present time it is flowering with 
great freedom in the herbaceous ground at Kew. It is 
a native of Spain and Portugal, from which it was 
originally introduced in 1710 ; but at the present time 
it is comparatively a rare plant in this country, although 
why it should be so is not very obvious. The flowers 
are of a beautiful rosy purple, with a conspicuous 
golden yellow palate, are nearly the size of an unim¬ 
proved Antirrhinum, and produced in threes or fours 
from the nodes of the inflorescence ; hence the origin 
of the specific name, which means three-birds-bearing. 
It is perennial and hardy. 
Tunica saxifraga. 
In structure the flowers of this plant are very closely 
related to those of a Dianthus ; but they are smaller, 
pale rose or pink in colour, and produced in the greatest 
profusion on slender branching inflorescences that are 
more suggestive of a Gypsophila or Stitch wort than a 
near ally to the Pink. The leaves are small and grass¬ 
like, while the lower part of the stems are decumbent 
and completely carpet the ground, making the plant a 
suitable subject for the rock garden, where its beauty 
would be displayed to the best advantage. A dry 
well-exposed position is the best that could be given it, 
although it flowers with great profusion in ordinary 
garden soil on a flat bed, as we noted it at Pendell 
Court, Bletchingley. 
Acanthus mollis latifolius. 
The variety here meutioned is a vigorous-growing form 
of the Bear’s Breech, and one that should receive more 
attention at the hands of cultivators of hardy flowers. 
Large vigorous grown specimens are capable of pro¬ 
ducing a sub-tropical effect in the garden or pleasure 
ground. But, as in the case of most tall-growing 
plants, the finest effects are produced when they are 
grown in beds, clumps, or as single specimens, so that 
the whole plant is seen to advantage by being indi¬ 
vidualised. Being a deep-rooting subject, the natural 
soil, if good, should be dug up and loosened to the 
depth of 2 ft. or more, and further ameliorated by 
manuring ; or if unsuitable, the soil should be taken 
out to that depth, and its place occupied with some 
suitable compost, after seeing that the drainage is good, 
or provision made for it. For general purposes this :s 
not necessary, as the plant will grow in any good 
garden soil; but for isolated beds the object should be 
to obtain the greatest amount of vigour possible, as the 
