THE GARDENING WORLD 
February 24, i900. 
410 
"thus to be able to direct men in after years if they 
hare the supervision of them. We hold that when 
a youth is under training as " apprentice ” or 
“ improver ” he should have tuition in every kind of 
work which is manipulated in the garden. Certainly 
the proper use of tools, planting, swing, watering 
and so on. Free training and pruning should be 
taught (the former seems to have departed from gar- 
; dens) and the reason why in everything. Under 
glass one may put a plant on crutches, make a model 
Camellia, Azalea, or any other plant, and yet be 
totally unfit to be trusted with the work in the stoke¬ 
hole, watering, airing, and choice of soils suitable for 
fhe wants of plants. The first of these is very im¬ 
portant and many fail to be masters of such work ; 
watering is not learned in one season. Each plant 
(according to its species) requires knowledge as to 
its requirements of moisture and cannot be treated 
in haphazard fashion. The watering of a Heath or 
hard-wooded plant growing in peat, requires water¬ 
ing on very different lines to that of a Balsam, 
Fuchsia, or such like plants; and those potboundor 
well rooted in any form must be treated differently 
to those in which the roots have not permeated the 
soil to any extent. How much mischief one some¬ 
times sees by deluging the roots of large, newly- 
potted plants with water, rendering the soil un¬ 
healthy before the roots enter it. We have seen 
putrid and offensive manure water applied to plants 
in pots when there were few roots in the soil to con¬ 
sume nourishment. 
Much information youths may receive on these 
points from gardening papers and books. Proprietors, 
generally, at the head gardeners suggestion, are 
ready to supply the young employees in their gar¬ 
dens with the means of improving their minds. 
This is what it should be. If not considered a 
privilege by proprietors, such reading material as 
catered for all conditions of gardeners (in The Gar¬ 
dening World) is easily procured. There is often, 
by writers, so much of the details of work left out 
of their articles that youths should have submitted 
to them, which would render tuition simple and 
come-at-able. 
We have always found that work which required 
neatness, cleanliness and order should be made 
specialities in gardens ; and if young beginners do 
not attend strictly to orders they should be compelled 
to do their work over again. Such training will not 
depart readily from them. They will become of 
much greater value as workmen, giving good returns 
for the pains taken to impart knowledge. It was our 
intention to go into some details of work to meet the 
intelligence of young beginners, such as Grape 
thinning (we often have had youths from schcol who 
have been trained to the work of Grape thinning at 
their first start in the garden, and in a short time 
out-distanced their older compeers), tree training, 
plant staking, potting, &c , but must reserve this 
for another paper.— M. Temple, Carron, N.B. 
-- 
THORN HEDGES. 
It is rarely that we have the pleasure of seeing well 
kept, properly trained Thorn hedges in Britain. In 
Germany, according to a well read and skilful gar¬ 
dener from that country, the case is different. His 
method of treatment was given to me, and for those 
who may care to adopt the same pains in training 
hedges in our Isles, I give his explanations. 
Rooted plants two or three years old are employed 
for planting. The ground along the intended line 
for the hedge is worked to a depth of 2\ ft., being 
well enriched. A trench is then taken out and the 
plants carefully laid in at only ji few inches apart. 
They are made very firm and the surface soil is left 
rough, not smooth. A season's growth is allowed 
them. After the first summer they are cut straight 
across almost level with the soil. A heavy mulch is 
then given. Perhaps half a dozen shoots will grow 
up. These are selected and thinned to a couple per 
plant. They run obliquely, each one parallel to that 
from the neighbouring plant. The right-hand shoots 
are trained toward the right, the left go out obliquely 
from their own side. Thus, the finished appearance 
after the pruning and training (for they are 
rigorously kept at parallels right and left) is exactly 
like What a cross-sparred wooden fence is—a series of 
stems crossing each other diagonally with diamond¬ 
shaped spaces between, but close together. The 
desired height is then taken, and 3 ft. or 2\ it. is gener¬ 
ally the altitude fixed on, at which a dead level top 
is secured. The points of the branches are then 
fastened at the parts at which they cross each other. 
Here, then, the foundation of an impenetrable 
Thorn hedge is laid. The common White Thorn 
(Crataegus Oxyacantha) must alone be used. Annual 
breadth and height is gaiued but slowly, for the 
year’s growth is kept closely cut in. Even very old 
hedges are little more than 8 in. or g in. in diameter 
at the base, and taper upward almost to a point. 
Both the sides and the top are as level and as 
straight as a well-built brick wall. Not even a cat 
could get through the bottom of the hedge so close 
is it. It is also strong enough .0 resist a deal of 
violence. It should have been stated that after the 
training of the thinned-out shoots, a wire line is 
run along on either side of the young hedge being 
fastened here and there for its support. My infor¬ 
mant was surprised when I remarked that we, in 
this land, could not generally afford to train our 
hedges so elaborately. " It costs but little,” he 
said ; but the German labour is somewhat cheaper 
than in England— A. Scot. 
- —g, - — 
SAP FLOW. 
It is a fact that we have much to learn before a de¬ 
finite and reasonable exposition on the flow of sap in 
trees is formulated. The sciences of hydrostatics 
and pneumatics as bearing on botany would seem to 
need the attention of another Pascal or Galileo. 
The questions raised by " A. D.” in reference to a 
curt paragraph on p. 382 are well worth considera¬ 
tion. He has, of course, for the deadlier effect of 
his own propositions, attenuated the statements em¬ 
bodied in the paragraph, which refers to sap flow in 
timber trees. In doing so he has made the task a 
more responsible one to explain away. The refer¬ 
ence to the duramen or heart wood being hard and 
dry, was purely relative. Compared with the sappy 
region, the zone in and about the bark, certainly the 
heartwood is hard and dry. Were it true that 
heart wood contained an appreciable amount of 
sap, then should we remark considerable shrinkage 
when trees were felled and “ winnowed.” Neither 
would the fibres be so densely knit, so utterly solid, 
with a sap-containing heart wood. True it is, the 
wood is not destitute of moisture, neither are they 
shavings in a carpenter’s shop. And along the 
medullary rays it is granted that moisture in minute 
percentage is found. In dicotyledonous trees such 
as the Plane, Elm, Lime, and Cbesnut, up to twenty 
years of age, there is in all probability a service of 
sap rising ia the medullary rays, from their junction 
with the cambium, inwards almost to the core. We 
have not so far successfully employed “ *-rays ” in 
penetrating tree anatomy, and as their power does 
not penetrate bones, it is not likely they will illumi¬ 
nate solid wood. 
The only explanation to meet " A. D.’s ” question 
as to why "certain” trees long after felling are 
found to be sappy and discoloured is this. The 
centre of trees primarily consists of loose tissue 
pith. For a period this is permanent in its 
character, and acts as a sap and air conductor. By 
and bye wood and bast bundles originate; they in¬ 
crease, they ultimately form a complete circle, grow¬ 
ing continually to form wood, centremost, and 
expansive tissue outermost. By receiving more and 
yet more tissue-buildiog matter, the innermost 
region —the wood—becomes hardened to the con¬ 
sistency we ultimately find it. Yet the central 
cord, once the pith, is not so extremely woven and 
consolidated as the wood, which started to knit 
outside the pith strand. Thus it happens that in 
such trees as Willows, some of which grow rapidly, 
and whose body structure is larger, moisture from 
without becomes absorbed more rapidly, of course, 
by the susceptible region, primarily the pith. And 
just as one tiny trickle of water has-caused breaches 
in the Dykes of Holland, so in like manner an action 
of decay may set in among matured tissue such as 
compose solid wood, from the fact of their having 
absorbed moisture. This would be possible ; cause 
and effect here are logical, yet in the duramen of the 
living tree the action of osmosis or sap flow has been 
long stopped on account of the solidity, and 
density of the wcod, and the deposit and waste 
material iu the cell walls. 
Then upon the point asking where the sap flow 
really is, the answer comes up the sapwood (albur¬ 
num) and down the inner phloem or bast. Note that 
the cambium layer lies between the alburnum (inner 
side) and the bast (outer side), and consists of 
meristem, or active growing cells constantly dividing 
to add thickness to the wood, and in like mannei 
pushing outwards on the outside next the bast, so as 
to supply the needs of an ever expanding circum¬ 
ference. 
From the fact of the cambium Deing active it also 
participates in the regulating of the currents, its 
principal office being to employ the descending, 
elaborated sap—a comptroller of supplies. It is 
through the younger region of wood (the rings most 
recently deposited) that the sap ascends. In descend¬ 
ing the building matter (to refrain from scientific 
parlance) is drafted to those tissues and localities 
mostly demanding it. Thus it comes that owing to 
the regular increase of outward growing tissues, 
those being left behind are in need of strengthening. 
Close, woody tissue is developed, and wiry, spiral 
vessels in mosf cases are prominent; and so by con¬ 
stant and increasing pressure and other relative 
changes, what was a year or two ago the sap con¬ 
ducting alburnum, has developed to strong and ever 
firming wood. 
It is repeated that in the utterly woody condition 
no sap flow (as the term is understood) is found 
The cambium never becomes sapless, while in four 
to six years the “ wood ” may lose its conducting 
function. Upon this hypothesis one may very truly 
see sap oozing from spring-pruned branches. The 
writer has seen long icicles hanging pendant from 
such limbs, the result of sap freezing as it exuded 
out and trickled down. 
The concluding question put by 11 A. D.” is one 
which I certainly can only reply to in conjecture. 
One thing is obvious, currents or motions during 
winter must be incomparably slow. The fluids very 
probably do solidify to an extent during severe 
frost. Protected in most cases by bark impenetra¬ 
ble to wet or wind, the inner fluids would suffer no 
loss or change from many weeks and months of 
almost absolute inaction. From more congenial 
external conditions in spring, and also from an 
inherent power generated from long custom, motions 
and expansions occur with the rise of temperature.— 
H. 
THE HORTICULTURAL CLUB. 
The 25th Anniversary Dinner of this successful 
institution was held at the Hotel Windsor, Victoria 
Street, Westminster, on Tuesday, 13th inst. About 
forty sat down under the genial chairmanship of Sir 
John T. D. Llewellyn, Bart., M.P., president, and 
did justice to the good catering. 
The toast list was short, and the speeches were 
crisp and terse. 
Mr. George Paul, in proposing, and Mr. Alfred 
Pearson, in responding to the “ R.H.S.,” spoke in 
terms of great commendation of that society, and 
referred to details of the new scheme for acquiring a 
freehold garden, and starting a School of Horti¬ 
culture. 
“ The Horticultural Press " was in the able hands 
of Messrs. George Monro and George Gordon. 
“ Prosperity to the club ” elicited a most appropri¬ 
ate speech from the chairman, followed by a pathetic 
scene, when the aged and revered hon. secretary; 
the Rev. H. H. D’Ombrain, had to be assisted to 
rise for the reply. 
Mr. Charles Pearson was well selected to propose 
V The Visitors,” and Mr. Morgan Veiich ably res¬ 
ponded on behalf of the ladies and gentlemen. 
The president’s thoughtfulness was well exhibited 
when he proposed an extra toast to Mr. George 
Bunyard, who had so considerately taken upon him¬ 
self the. various duties connected with the manage¬ 
ment of the dinner, thereby relieving the hon. secre¬ 
tary of all trouble in the matter. Mr. Bunyard 
suitably replied, referring in most affectionate terms 
to Mr D’OmbraiD, and the great interest he had 
for a quarter of a century taken in the club. 
The last toast of the evening was by Mr. James 
H. Veitch to " The Chairman,” called on at almost 
a minute's notice. Mr. Veitch performed his duty 
in a manner which brought forth encomiums from 
his hearers. Sir John Llewellyn’s reply was simple 
and good. He made special mention of a grand 
stand of Rhododendrons which had been placed in 
front of him at dinner, and cordially complimented 
and thanked he Messrs. Veitch for so good a display 
of their favourite flower, so thoughtfully and beauti¬ 
fully arranged, - 
