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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  December  12,  1901. 
Victoria,  on  Vancouver  Island. 
Japanese  Dwarf  Trees. 
The  Jewel  of  the  West,  to  we,  who  are  of  British  birth,  is 
V  ancouver’s  Isle,  included  in  school  geographies  with  British 
Columbia.  Few  regions  on  the  whole  face  of  the  earth  are  so 
tempting  to  the  English  temperament,  and  in  letters  sent  home 
by  the  Press  Correspondents,  the  advocacy  of  these  splendid 
regions  as  a  new  home  for  the  immigrants  from  the  Motherland 
has  been  enthusiastic  and  extended.  We  give  an  extract  of  a 
descriptive  letter  sent  to  the  “  Morning  Post  ”  by  Mr.  E.  F. 
Knight,  in  which  he  enumerates  some  of  the  flowers  and  the 
general  grandeur  of  the  country  surrounding  Victoria..  He 
wri.es  of  it  as  being  “singularly  beautiful,  the  undulating  pro¬ 
montory  being  covered  with  woods  of  Pine  and  Fir  and  a  lovely 
wild  jungle  of  Arbutus,  Roses,  flowering  bushes  of  many  varieties, 
and  English  Broom,  which,  since  it  was  imported  here,  has  spread 
all  over  the  more  open  country,  so  that  it  is  ablaze  with  golden 
blossom  for  a  great  portion  of  the  year.  In  the  spring  and 
summer  there  is  an  extraordinary  abundance  of  beautiful  wild 
flowers,  and  in  the  autumn  all  the  vegetation  is  aglow  with  tints 
vivid  or  mellow,  and  amid  this  pleasant  bocage,  skirting  the  little 
bays  and  headlands  of  the  promontory,  are  scattered  the  delight¬ 
ful  homes  of  the  fortunate  citizens  of  Victoria — the  professional 
men,  the  merchants,  the  retired  soldiers  of  the  Empire. 
“  These  country  houses  are  all  built  of  wood,  most  picturesque 
and  comfortable  in  appearance,  and  of  harmonious  colouring — 
shades  of  red,  terra-cotta,  and  dark  oak  predominating.  Each 
house  stands  within  extensive  grounds.  Landscape  gardening  is 
made  easy  for  one  here.  One  has  but  to  leave  a  portion  of  one’s 
plot  of  land  uncleared  to  have  a  sweet  wilderness  of  Roses  and 
evergreen  bush  and  fern-grown  rocky  dells,  with  here  and  there, 
perhaps,  clumps  of  Pine  or  Cedar;  but  the  carefully  laid  out 
gardens  that  immediately  surround  most  of  these  mansions  and 
cottages  astonish  one  by  their  profusion  of  bright  flowers.  Here 
one  sees  the  Geraniums,  the  Sunflowers,  the  old-fashioned 
Columbines,  Sweetwilliams,  and  others  with  which  we  are  so 
familiar,  but  far  more  luxuriant  and  fuller  of  blossom  than  they 
are  at  home.  Never  in  the  environs  of  any  other  city,”  says  Mr. 
Knight,  “  have  I  seen  such  a  glory  of  flowers  as  surrounded  each 
of  these  lovely  homes.  Many  a  one  of  these  cosy  wooden  houses 
haxl  quite  an  old  English  air,  and  the  garden  that  surrounded  it 
might  have  belonged  to  some  old  Elizabethan  mansion.  The 
wild  vegetation,  too,  in  which  these  little  estates  were  set  had 
the  luxuriance  not  of  the  tropics — whose  cloying  sweetness  often 
makes  the  exile  sick  for  home — but  of  the  tender  North.  It  is 
this  combination  of  rich  wild  country  and  old-fashioned  English 
homes  that  makes  the  surroundings  of  Victoria  so  wholly 
delightful. 
“  They  tell  one,  and  I  can  quite  believe  it,  that  he  who  has 
stayed  here  awhile  is  so  conquered  by  the  charm  of  the  country 
that  if  he  leaves  it  he  is  compelled  to  return  to  it.  Then  how 
magnificent  are  the  landscapes  on  which  the  possessors  of  these 
pleasantest  of  homes  look  out,  embracing  broad  waters,  sinuous 
straits,  timbered  islands  and  capes,  and  behind  all  the  mighty 
mountain  ranges  of  the  mainland,  with  their  summits  of  eternal 
snow,  the  most  conspicuous  peak  being  Mount  Baker,  which, 
though  a  hundred  miles  away,  is  generally  clearly  visible  from 
here.  When  I  saw  this  fine  mountain  it  looked  like  a  huge  bell 
of  delicate  white  suspended  in  mid  air,  for  only  its  snowy  dome 
gleaming  in  the  sunlight  was  distinguishable,  its  lower  slopes, 
where  the  snow  was  not  lying,  being  invisible  for  distance,  and 
blending  with  the  blue  of  the  sky.  These  waters  form  a  splendid 
cruising  ground  for  the  yachtsman,  and  nearly  everyone  here 
keeps  his  little  yacht  or  sailing  boat,  which  in  many  cases  lies  at 
anchor  at  the  bottom  of  his  garden,  and  often  in  his  own  little 
sheltered  inlet,  \achting  can  here  be  combined  with  grand  sport, 
the  best  of  shooting  and  fishing,  and  even  with  exploration ;  for 
there  are  vast  tracts  unknown  to  the  white  man  which  can  be 
approached  from  the  lonely  gulfs  on  the  mainland.” 
Surely,  a  land  rich  and  tempting  to  the  horticulturist,  especi¬ 
ally  he  with  some  money  with  which  to  develop  the  natural 
resources  of  so  fine  a  region. 
,  Cold  Storage  Dangers. 
Referring  to  the  recent  explosion  on  one  of  the  Royal  Mail 
Company’s  boats,  Messrs.  Elder,  Dempster  and  Co.  state :  — “  The 
process  of  cooling  the  air  on  board  the  steamers  of  our  line,  the 
Imperial  Direct  West  India  Mail  Service,  does  not  entail  the 
employment  of  any  ammonia,  nor  is  it  in  any  way  liable  to  an 
accident  of  the  kind.  Mr.  Lawton,  who  has  so  regrettably  lost 
his  life  in  the  accident,  submitted  his  invention  to  us,  and  we 
gave  it  a  prolonged  trial,  extending  over  four  months,  but  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  dangerous,  in  addition  to  being 
defective  in  other  respects.  We  would  also  like  to  point  out  that 
the  makers  of  the  machinery  used  on  board  our  steamers,  J.  and 
E.  Hall,  Limited,  have  more  than  once  pointed  out  the  possible 
danger  to  life  attendant  upon  the  use  of  ammonia  in 
refrigeration.” 
Landscape  gardening  is  really  seen  in  its  utmost  glory 
when  the  artists  are  philosophical,  when  the  spectators 
regard  their  work  with  serious  reverence,  and  when  art 
ceases  to  be,  as  it  so  often  is,  a  mere  idle  recreation.  It  is 
said  these  dwarf  trees  are  “  decidedly  curious,”  “  half- 
crippled,”  “  distorted,”  or  “  cruelly  tortured,”  &c.  Those 
who  thus  criticise  our  trees  in  bitter  language  walk  into  their 
gardens,  pick  the  first  flowers  that  come  to  hand,  and  arrange 
them  anyhow  in  a  manner  which  (to  excuse  themselves)  they 
call  “  studied  negligence.”  This  is  ignoble.  It  is  evident 
that  every  one  of  these  Liliput  specimens  of  horticulture  can 
hardly  be  called  artistic.  Imitation  is  often  practised  by 
way  of  flattery.  Many  of  the  eclectics  are  studied  and  copied, 
and  not  always  with  success. 
Again  it  is  alleged  a  great  deal  of  timber  could  have  been 
obtained  in  all  these  years  from  such  a  multitude  of  potted, 
shrivelled-up  trees  to  decorate  rooms  and  make  cabins  more 
elegant.  Such  an  argument  proves  that  the  rigid  principles, 
which  are  wrongly  termed  utilitarianism,  are  truly  ridiculous, 
since  they  would  abolish  the  cultivation  of  the  aesthetic 
sentiment  that  forms  such  an  important  element  in  realising 
and  promoting  the  Utopian  ideals  of  mankind. 
In  Japan,  a  jmnkisha  man  will  bring  home  a  Pine  tree 
about  6in  tall,  with  uplifted,  exposed  roots,  intertwined  and 
twisted  in  a  most  irregular  fashion.  He  buys  it  with  part  of 
a  day’s  hard-earned  wages.  He  might  indeed  have  bought 
something  that  would  yield  more  substantial  comfort ;  but 
he  preferred  this — a  pride  to  him.  He  looks  at  it,  smiles  at 
it.  He  is  happier  in  the  society  of  his  favourite  friend  than 
the  British  working  man  when  he  hears  that  “  The  Father’s 
Beer”  Bill  has  been  rejected  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 
The  lecturer  threw  on.  the  screen  a  photograph  of  an 
Araucaria,  which,  with  its  pot,  was  no  more  than  2^ft  high. 
The  picture  was  taken  by  a  camera  at  the  Japanese  Garden, 
exhibited  at  the  Glasgow  Exhibition  last  summer  by  Messrs. 
Yamanaka  and  Co.  A  Cupressus  (Chamaecyparis)  was  also 
exhibited.  It  measured  3ft,  and  stood,  as  the  lecturer  stated, 
rather  tall  to  be  called  a  “  dwarf  ”  tree.  He  pointed  out 
graceful  bowers  of  a  tree  named  the  “  Hiyoker  Hiba,”  amid 
clusters  of  massive  leaves  of  Chabo  Hiba,  another  species 
met  with  very  frequently  in  Japan.  This  whole  arrangement 
was  effected  by  grafting.  The  former  was  the  stock,  and  the 
latter  the  scion.  The  two  together  formed  a  much  different 
tree  to  either  of  the  two  vietved  separately,  and  one  would 
be  inclined  to  think  it  imitated  a  Weeping  Willow. 
Having  given  an  illustration  of  the  front  and  back  of  the 
Chabo  Hiba  tree,  showing  how  the  branches  were  unspar¬ 
ingly  bent  and  twisted  in  order  to  keep  the  tree  to  a  limited 
height  of,  say,  2ft  or  so,  and  which  reminded  one  of  smashed 
and  mingled  coils  of  the  spring  of  a  broken  watch,  he  went 
on  to  state :  Trees  grow  in  their  own  way,  and  gardeners 
must  bring  them  round  to  their  own  ideas,  accordingly  to 
contrive  that  such  a  mass  of  foliage  in  compact  forms  shall 
be  artistic,  it  is  evidently  necessary  to  adopt  and  add  fresh 
shoots  where  required. 
The  general  practice  of  side  grafting  is  carried  out  about 
March  and  April,  when  the  new  buds  are  soft.  First  you 
must  cut  the  scion  in  an  oblique  manner,  about  one-eighth  of 
an  inch,  and  then  sharply  cut  again  just  a  little  of  the  outer 
bark ;  cut  the  stock  also  at  the  same  angle  about  a  quarter 
of  an  inch,  and  take  out  the  free  portion  of  bark  ;  then  place 
the  scion  in  the  appointed  situation.  Just  tie  it  once  with 
a  soft  straw,  and  then  apply  a  bandage.  The  intended 
scion  is  to  be  no  more  than  l^in.  When  the  whole 
operation  is  finished,  take  it  into  a  dark  room  for  some 
thirty-five  to  forty  days,  and  then  put  it  under  a  straw  cover 
in  open  air  for  thirty  days  or  so.  After  that  it  may  be  ex¬ 
posed  without  covering  to  the  open  air  and  sunlight.  The 
reason  for  avoiding  the  sunlight  is  at  first  so  evident.  The 
sap  should  not  circulate  too  violently  when  the  joint  is  just 
made,  until  it  can  be  distributed  with  equal  force  in  the 
other  part  of  the  tree. 
Dwarf  trees  should  be  watered  from  January  to  about 
June  at  midday,  when  a  little  water  may  be  sprinkled  on  the 
leaves  ;  from  June  to  August  at  about  two  to  three  o’clock  in 
the  afternoon ;  after  August  at  the  same  time  as  in  the 
spring.  However,  the  quantity  of  water  depends  upon 
*  K&ume  oi  a  lecture  recently  given  by  Mr.  Toichi  Tsumura 
before  the  Japan  Society,  London. 
