SECOND FLOWERING OF SHRUBS. 
103 
roof; and in other instances some of the finest of them are neces¬ 
sarily but woefully mangled by lopping, to keep their dimensions 
within the scanty room which the parsimony of those who provide 
the funds has allotted to these grandees of the tropical forest. 
Now, as the grand value of Kew consists in its tropical plants, or 
plants requiring the shelter of houses, the parsimony which has 
kept the houses in their present condition is the grand evil, and 
the one which ought first to be remedied. Another is the circum¬ 
scribing of the garden by unseemly brick walls, which encroach 
upon the one side of it with salient angles like the bastions of a 
fortification, and on the other break its continuity with the plea¬ 
sure grounds. These want correction.—But our limits in the 
mean time are reached, and we must postpone, though not aban¬ 
don, this national subject. 
ON THE PRACTICABILITY OF CAUSING SHRUBS TO 
FLOWER TWICE IN THE GROWING SEASON. 
All plants, of whatever climate they are natives, have a season 
of rest and a season of growth. In the former, they are almost dor¬ 
mant ; in the latter they increase in bulk, and exhibit their flowers 
and fruit, after which they return again to a state of repose. Inter- 
tropical plants are seasonal, not from the alternations of cold 
and heat, but from the alternating dry and rainy seasons. By 
the latter they are excited into renewed growth, develope their 
flowers, and set their fruit to be matured in the dry season. 
Extra-tropical plants are chiefly affected by summer and winter. 
Annuals, biennials, and perennials, are all excited into a floriferous 
habit by the gradually returning warmth of spring, and the solar 
light of summer ; and when the seed or fruit is ripe the energy of 
the plant declines, and it again, in the case of annuals and bien¬ 
nials, ceases to live ; or, if perennial, sinks to its winter’s rest. 
Bulbous-stemmed plants, which are generally inert during sum¬ 
mer, and at that season usually in the drawers or boxes of the 
florist, may be replanted at any time in the autumn, winter, or 
spring, as best suits the purposes of the florist as to the time of 
their blooming ; but plants which are constantly in the ground, 
and which are affected only by the seasons, present their leaves 
