378 
THE GARDENING WORLD. February -9, Mi. 
by L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, W.C., at a very 
modest figure. Mr. Druery’s fine collection was 
reviewed recently in the pages of The Gardening 
World.—C. B G., Alton. 
ROOT PRUNING. 
The subject of root pruning has been a matter of 
interest since my earliest recollection, and very 
varied opinions have been adduced in the gardening 
press, and by lecturing at gardening associations. 
The reasons for root pruning are to remove roots 
from feeding in unwholesome, subsoil, to prevent 
trees from producing wood minus fruit, and very 
often to maintain a dwarf habit of trees in gardens, 
where tall spreading ones are always objectionable. 
In orchards, roots are generally left to run outward 
and downward without interference, and in the 
majority of cases it is by the active feeders descend¬ 
ing into inert or unwholesome soil of some sort 
which in course of time brings them to ruin. 
Having lived in seven counties in England in 
districts hundreds of miles apart, I have had many 
opportunities of witnessing the cause of decay of 
many English orchards, the majority of which are 
discreditable to their owners. I am supported in 
these assertions by reports which have been made 
of late years by skilful and painstaking men well 
qualified to give correct statements as to the cause 
of failure and decaying state of so many orchards: 
If means were taken to keep the roots in the upper 
strata of soil and from growing down into unwhole¬ 
some or inert subsoil, a very different state of things 
would exist. 
I would (by Mr. Editor’s permission) be pleased to 
make a few remarks on root manipulation, and while 
doing this I freely admit that root pruning in any 
form always appeared to me as a necessary evil, and 
should be avoided if possible. My first lesson on 
fruit tree planting was about the best I ever had. 
When a schoolboy I was sent a message by my father 
(a gardener) to one of the best known gardens in 
Scotland. I was struck by the work which was 
being performed by several men who were making 
wide holes along borders by the walks. They had 
what appeared to be a quantity of ashes, lime rubbish 
and other material mixed and formed into plaster. 
They put a quantity over the bottom of each hole 
made it thoroughly firm and smooth. O'er this they 
put a quantity of good loam on which Apple and 
Pear trees were placed, the roots being carefully 
laid out and the soil made firm about them. The 
position being low and damp it appeared to be 
necessary to keep the roots above the general level 
of the ground, and special care to keep them from 
rooting downwards was taken. I looked upon these 
precautions as the best means to prevent the 
necessity of root pruning to any extent at least, and I 
have always considered that preventive measures 
were the best means to guard against failures. 
A number of years after the tree planting indi¬ 
cated, I had to take action in a Wiltshire garden 
where fine walls were covered with beautifully 
trained Pear and other trees, but they grew 
immensely and bore little fruit which was cracked 
and of poor quality. I was an underliDg then and 
had to obey commands. I started to lift the Pears 
but the labour was great. A better method to save 
labour was to allow the surface roots to remain un¬ 
touched and those under the trunk of the trees 
removed from the cold wet clay in which they were 
deeply imbedded, filling the space with good surface 
soil making it as firm as ramming could pound it in. 
This was what I considered economical, and in 
every way proved to be a most successful method in 
inducing fruitfulness and rendering trees (which 
were suffering from what the roots endured in the 
cold clay far from the surface) perfectly healthy. 
That is many years ago, but I have done the same 
kind of operation to many hundreds of fruit trees 
since then; but when I had the opportunity I im¬ 
proved my method by adding a quantity of lime 
rubbish to the soil, and making the ground imper¬ 
vious to down growing feeders by placing a firm floor 
of this material over the bottom soil before the 
tunnel was filled in, which keeps the roots to the 
surface where they can be manured and otherwise 
fed as circumstances may render necessary. Some¬ 
time after the performance with the Pears on the 
walls, I acted on my own responsibility with a fine 
lot of espalier Apples. They grew with such great 
vigour that the gardener who bad charge of them for 
many years used the prunings as stakes, but they 
were gradually getting out of bearing. They were 
tunnelled and the down growing roots removed. 
Fine’y coloured fruit in great abundance was the 
reward from the labour indicated. Growth became 
short, in fact only spurs, and the foliage was large 
and remarkably healthy. I took another course of 
root pruning, which I considered a better one. 
When any trees showed indication of gross unfruit¬ 
ful growth which was manifest in June, if there 
was no fruit worth remaining I worked under the 
trees, clearing awaythe downward growing roots, and, 
like Mr. Nisbet, got the full benefit of the operation 
without loss of time. The roots (when carefully 
managed) sent out a mass of fibres, and the growths 
of wood by the end of the season were studded with 
fruit buds. This was the practice of a market 
grower who was noted for the excellence of fruits 
(chiefly Apples and Pears), which he took to Covent 
Garden. His practice was commented on by the 
editor, at that time, of a leading gardening paper. 
I have practised this method of inducing fruit¬ 
fulness of trees with Plums and Morello Cherries, 
as well as with Apples and Pears, with all the 
success which I could desire. Peaches and Apricots 
I have lifted during the growing season, and gained 
much advantage by the practice. One half may be 
lifted, say, early in July. They will have made fine 
new roots by the end of August. Then the other 
half of roots can be lifted and replanted, which will 
have got a good hold of the soil before they 
have shed their foliage. I could now refer to scores 
of cases which have given good results from summer 
lifting and root pruning in the manner which I have 
submitted ; but would prefer to give a brief state¬ 
ment how Apples, dow under my charge, have been 
treated. These trees have fruited finely every 
season during the last seventeen or eighteen years. 
Nearly nineteen years ago I had to make a complete 
renovation of an old place which had been left 
almost untouched, so far as gardening was concerned, 
for nearly sixty years. Large decaying trees had to 
be grubbed out (including an old orchard in its last 
state of decay), but all fruit-bearing trees good for 
anything were retained. The most of the latter had 
roots plentiful near the surface but the main 
feeders had gone deep into what seemed to be some¬ 
thing like mud and sand—inert and useless for 
supplying life to trees of any kind. These roots 
were cut clean away. Most of them were in a state 
of decay and none appeared to be worth the 
trouble of saving. A good bottom of lime and brick 
rubbish was firmly placed under each trunk, and 
good surface soil was firmly rammed to keep the 
trees from sinking. Then the surface soil was 
removed and over the roots to a good width was 
spread a coating of decayed farmyard manure, This 
was made firm, and over which was placed a few 
inches of soil to prevent waste of the manure. 
Good results appeared the first season after these 
operations were performed, and ever since then we 
have each season gathered abundant crops. Young 
standard tjcees were planted in rows across the gar¬ 
den, and if any of them show indications of gross 
unfruitful growth action is taken to prevent it from 
being harmful by an examination under the trunks of 
the trees. Generally there has been little the 
matter. One or two strong shoots going straight 
down has been all. Roots are always persistent in 
finding their way into damp soil. Some of the trees 
to which we refer were hollow in their trunks, and 
have been filled with cement. It is fair to state that 
fruit trees suitable to the locality and district only 
are allowed. This should always be a matter im¬ 
perative when planting is performed.— M, Temple, 
Canon, N.B. 
--- 
POLYGONUM BALDSCHUANICUM. 
So beautiful is a well developed plant of this recently 
introduced climber that even after the many notices 
it has received in all the gardening papers, one 
wishes lo briog its qualities to the minds of present 
planters. The position in which I have seen it 
succeed most fully was on the east side of a bushy 
Cryptomeria tree where its roots were maintained 
cool by the lower branches and by the shade and 
shelter of a south wall, and belts of shrubs, &c , 
near by. The long, climbing, reddish stems of the 
Polygonum stretched up and up from tip to tip of the 
branches of the Cryptomeria till it finally attained 
a height of 12 ft. or thereabouts. It now flowered 
with the utmost profusion and principally at the top. 
The flowers are whitish to begin with but they soon 
become tinted ,a beautiful pink colour, and as they 
are small and in wreaths, or clusters, they are 
distinctly, ornamental and conspicuous from a distant 
and very pleasant at a near hard view. This descrip¬ 
tion applies to an eminently fine plant—-a specimen ; 
and all do not equal such. Yet even where it 
succeeds even moderately it is one of the finest of the 
newer hardy deciduous climbers. 
FLORAL DEMONSTRATION. 
At the Royal Horticultural Society’s meeting, on 
Tuesday, January 29th, Rev. Prof. Geo. Henslow, 
M.A., gave a floral demonstration. Thirteen new 
fellows were elected. J. T. Bennet-Poe, Esq., 
occupied the chair. Mr. Henslow first alluded to 
Messrs. Veitch’s Javanico-jasminiflorum Rhododen¬ 
drons to show how from a couple of distinct species 
to start with, the present varieties in their sections 
have originated. Rhododendron jasminifloriim, with 
long white tubular flowers, was first crossed with 
«R. javanicum, a crimson species with a short corolla. 
The first hybrid was Princess Royal, whose charac¬ 
ters were almost strictly intermediate. Sometimes 
one of the parents of a hybrid seedling exhibits 
marked prepotency. This was the case when another 
attempt was made by Mr. John Heal, V.M.H , 
Messrs. Veitch’s hybridiser of these greenhouse 
Rhododendrons. He had got to the limit of his 
tether in hybridising and crossing from the two first 
species that are named above, and he found it neces¬ 
sary to introduce an entirely distinct species with 
new " blood,” so to speak. Hybridists always find 
it necessary to do this after a continued course of 
cross-breeding, for there is a point beyond which it 
would seem the cross-breeding efforts are futile. 
Nature seems to say you have played with me long 
enough, now go and try something else. But to 
refer again to the Rhododendrons, and to show how 
prepotency asserts itself, it was attempted to hybri¬ 
dise a " composite ” hybrid, that is, a hybrid derived 
from a trio or more of species and hybrids by re¬ 
peated breeding, with afresh and distinct species, to 
wit, R. malayanum. The first seedlings resulted in 
giving members identical with the seed bearer, which 
was the species. The latter had crimson flowers, 
the “composite ” hybrid had golden coloured flowers, 
yet the seedlings in the first generation had not the 
least trace of gold colouring in their flowers. These 
seedlings, however, crossed another time with R. 
malayanum, did show the effect by a number of 
variations. 
The Winter Aconite was next described, and the 
Professor had chosen it, he said, because it took us 
to the very beginning of the classification cf flower¬ 
ing plants on the grounds of evolution. Systematists 
classify plants according to a theoretical plan of 
evolution. The members of Ranunculaceae, or the 
Buttercup order, are placed (in classified order) next 
tc the Gymnosperms, that is, the Conifers, &c. The 
first flowers we know of in the chain of evolution 
had no pistil. The ovaries were naked, and the 
Gymnosperms afford us these examples. When the 
first pistils came into existence we do not know ; 
this is a great gap in botanical knowledge. The 
theory of the development of the little scale bracts 
of the Gymnosperms becoming calyx leaves was 
announced by Prof. Henslow, and he showed That 
the Winter Aconite has no petals (botanically) but 
has in place these beautiful golden sepals that we 
all know so well. The carpels are very conspicuous. 
Hellebores, which are also members of the Ranun¬ 
culaceae, point out to us how petals were derived. 
In all cases petals are merely metamorphosed 
stamens; a fact which can be traced very well in many 
of the Christmas Roses. But the "petals” in the 
latter are more correctly described as “ honey-bags,” 
and from these ” honey-bags ” to the real petals of 
the Buttercups there is a perfect transition. In the 
latter case the honey or nectar is confined to a little 
bag which may be observed at the “ claw ” or base 
portion of the petals. The petals of Ranunculaceae 
are, strictly speaking, expansions of the anthers of 
the stamen; whereas, in the Water Lily order 
(Nymphaeaceae) it is the filaments that become the 
true petals. 
To go just one step further into this question of 
the evolution theory, the Christmas Rose, as a rule, 
shows a primary type of flowers in so much that in 
their early stages the petals do the assimilative 
