ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY

New York State Colleges

OF

Agriculture and Home Economics

Cornell University

Cornell University Library

SB 453.L89 1860 The horticulturist; or, An attempt to tea

3 1924 002 832 552

Cornell University Library

The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002832552

THE HORTICULTURIST

OB,

AN ATTEMPT TO TEACH THE SCIENCE AND PEACTICE OP

^tK €ttltttt^ antf Msinaqtrntnt

THE KITCHEN, ERUIT, AND EORCING GARDEN

THOSE WHO HAVE HAD NO PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE OR PRACTICE IN THESE DEPARTMENTS OP GARDENING.

J^cftoUDON, P.L.S., F.H.S., fee,

AUTHOB OF "THE VILLA aABDENEE," "THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OP COTTAGE, FARM, ANn TILLA ABCHITBCTIJEE/ . " ENOTCLOPiEDIA 01' GABDEKDfO," ETC. ETC.

NEW EDITION. ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD.

LONDON :

HENET a. BOHN, TOEK STEEET. COVE]N"T GAEDEN.

MDCCCLI.

PREFACE.

The present work is the same as that published by Mr. Loudon, shortly before his death, under the name of The Suburban Horticulturist; the title having been changed under the impression that it was too limited for the scope of the work. He considered it, as he states in his original Preface, " as by far the best Treatise on the culture of the Fruit and Kitchen Garden" which had ever "been produced by his pen." He adds that he had "bestowed more than common care in compiling it;" and that in so doing he had "had the inestimable advantage of being assisted by Mr. Thompson, the superintendent of the fruit and culinary departments in the Horticultural Society^s Garden," by whom the fruits and culinary vegetables have either been selected, or approved of.

Mr. Loudon also had the assistance of Mr. Ogle, gardener to the Earl of Abergavenny, at Bridge Castle, who prepared the Calendarial and General Indices; of the late Mr. Lymburn; and of several other practical gardeners. The important note at p. 706, on the subject of charcoal, and the use of rough, turfy, rooty soil, and on small stones in potting plants, was furnished by Mr. Barnes, gardener to Lady RoUe, at Bicton Gardens, for the Gardener's Magazine.

IV PREFACE.

The companion volume, formerly published by Messrs. Longman and Co. as " The Suburban Gardener," has since been reprinted, uniform with the present work, and much improved, under the title of " The Villa Gardener." This work embraces the whole subject of Villa and Suburban Gardens and pleasure grounds ; garden structures (particularly of orna- mental greenhouses, a number of designs for which have been made expressly for this edition) ; laying out flower gardens, and floriculture in general ; and the two volumes will be found to contain together a complete system of garden culture and arrangement.

In the present edition only such corrections and additions have been made as were absolutely necessary to bring the work up to the state of gardening knowledge at the present day.

J. W. L.

CONTENTS.

Names op the Fruits and Culinary Vegetables cultivaxed in

British Gardens, in different lansuages, &c. . . xxiv

List op Engravings . ... xxviii

Introduction . . . . . . .1

PART I.

Facts relative to Plants, the Soil, Manures, the Atmosphere,

&c., ON which Horticulture is founded . . .2

CHAPTER I.

Plants ooksidered with ilefbrence to their Culture in Gardens 2

Sect. I. — The Analogy between Plants and Animals, considered with

reference to Horticulture . . . . .2

Sect. II. — Classification of Plants, with a View to Horticulture

22. E'xogens. 23. E'ndogens. 24. A'crogens. 28. Thalamiflora. 29. Ranunculaoeae. iiO. Cruciferse. 31. Malvaceae 32. Geraniaceee 33. Magnolikceaj, bcc. 34. Calyciflorae. 35. Leguminosee. 36. RosaceEB. 37. Umbellaceae. 38. Compdsitae. 39. Ericaceae. 40. Rhamniceae. &c. 40. CoroUiflbrEe. 41. Scrophulariacese. 42. Labiaoese. i3 Epacridacese, &c. 44. MGQOchlamydeae. 45. Amentkcese. 48. Coot ferae. 47. Plantaginese, &c. 48. E'ndogens. 49. OrchidKceie. SO. Scitamiaacese. 51. IridacesD. 52. AmaryllidkcesB. 53. Liliacese. 54, Palmacese. 55. Gramin^ceaa. 56. Alismacese, &c. 57. A'crogens 58. FiUces. 59. Miisci. 60. Lichenes. 61. A'lgae. 62. Fuugi. 63. EquisetaceEc. 66. Evergreens. 67. Subevergreens. 68. Persistent- leaved plants. 69. Deciduous-leaved plants. 70. Ligneous plants. 71. Suf&uticose plants. 72. Trees. 73. Shrubs.

Sect. III. — Nomenclature of Plaids with a view to Horticulture . 19

Sect. IV. — Structure of Plants with a view to Horticulture . . 20

80. Elementary organs. 81. Compound organs. 82. The root. 83.

The stfim. 85. The barjj. 86. The medullary rays or plates. 89.

Nodi. 90. Buds. 91. Leaves. 92. Hairs. 93. Flower-buds. 94.

Inflorescence. 95. The floral envelope. 96. The sexes of plants.

97. The ovulum. 98. The fruit. 100. The seed.

Sect. V. — Functions of Plants with reference to Horticulture . 24

102. Germination. 103. Growth. 105. The stem. 109. Wood. 111. The bark. 113. Leaves. 115. Buds. 126. The Flowers. 129. The sexes. 130. The fruit.

Sect. VI. — The Geographical Distribution of Plants, and their sta- tions and habitations, with reference to their Culture in Gardens S7 135. Temperature. 140. Physical circumstances. 142, Stations. 143. Light. 144. Water. 145. Soil. 146. Soils formed by particular rocks. 147. Atmosphere. 148. Stations. 150. The habitations of plants.

TX CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II.

PAOB

Soils considered with reference to HoRTicuXiTURE . . .45 Sect. I. — Origin and Kinds of Soils . . . .46

153. Sandy soil. 15S. Clayey soil. 156. Lime. 157. Magnesia. 158. Iron. 159. Alluvial soils. 160. Peat. 161. Organic matter. 162, Loose naked sands or gravels. 163. Calcareous soils or gravels. 164. Loams. 165. Loams are the best soils. 166. Texture. 167. Subsoils. 168. The surface of soils. 169. The plants which grow on a soil.

Skot. II. — The Impi-ovement of Soils, with a view to Horticulture . 61 171. Draining. 172. Altering the texture and composition of soil. 173. Changing the inclination of the surface of soils. 174. Burning of soils. 175. Pulverising soils. 177. Rotation of crops.

CHAPTER III.

Manitres considered with reference to Horticulture . . 56

Sect. I. — Organic Manures . . . . .56

181. Fresh and tender vegetables. 182. Spent tanner's bark. 183. Peat soil. 184. Principal vegetable manures. 185. Animal manures. 186. Excrementitious manures. 189. Bones. 190. Yegeto-animal manures.

Sect. II. — Inorganic Manures . . , .60

194. Lime. 195. Mild-lime. 197. Carbonate of lime, or chahc. 198. Marl. 199. Gypsum. 200. Sea shells. 201. The rationale of the action of lime. 202. The most important uses of lime. 203. Lime compost, 204. Saltpetre. 205. Common salt.

Sect. III. — Mixed Manures . • . . .64

207. Coal ashes. 208. Vegetable ashes. 209. Soot. 210. Street manure. 211. Composts. 212. Mixed manure in a liquid state, 213. Application of manures.

CHAPTER IV.

The Atmosphere considered with reference to Horticulture . 67

Sect. I. — Seat, considered with reference to Horticulture . . 67

219. Conduction of heat. 220. Radiation. 223. Dew, or hoar-frost.

224. Dew is never formed upon metals. 225. The formation of dew.

226. The effects of radiation. 227. Refrigeration. 228. Protecting

plants. 229. The secondary effect which radiation has upon the climate.

230. The influence of hills upon the nightly {emperature of the valleys.

231. Exalting the powers of the climate. 232. Houses for growing the plants of warm climates. 234. Increasing the heat of the atmosphere and the soil. 235. Frost. 236. Straw mats, bast mats, cloth, wool, or wood. 237. Wall trees. 238. Tender shrubs and trees. 239. A stream or river. 240. Watering. 241. Conclusions.

Sect. II. — Atmospheric Moisture, considered with reference to Horti- culture •..;..... 76 242. Existence of water in air. 243. Hygrometers. 244. Their utility. 245. Evaporation. 249. Vapour. 250. Rain. 251. Moisture of the free atmosphere. 252. Artificial climates unnaturally dry. 253. Drain of moisture. 255. Dryness of the atmosphere of hothouses. 256. Coolers of wet porous earthenware. 257. Plants in living rooms,

CONTENTS. Vll

Sect. II. — Atmospliefic Muutare, considered with refeiance to Horti- culture— continued. p^uk

258. Absorbent function. 2.59. A strict attention to the atmosphere. 260. Tropical plants. 261. The heat of the glass of a hothouse at night. 262. The skilful balancing of the temperature and moisture.

Sect. III. — The Agitation of the Atmosphere considered with refer- ence to Horticulture ....... 83

2G3. Motion. 264. Perspiration. 265. Shelter. 266. Agitation of the air in plant structures. 267. To heat the air before it is admitted among the plants. 268. Effect on the human feelings, 269. The im- pression of an atmosphere saturated with moisture. 270. Mr. Penn's method of warming and ventilating. 271. Heating by pipes in the ordinary manner. 272. Greenhouses. 273. Pits and cucumber-frames, 274. Change of air and ventilation. 275. The climate, during the growing season. 276. Ventilators. 277. General principle.

Sect. IV. — Light, considered with reference to Horticulture . . BS

279. Light follows the same laws as heat. 280. Radiation of light. 281. Transmitted. 282. Refracted. 283. Disperses. 284. Perpen- dicular light. 285. The efficiency of light. 286. A due proportion between light and heat. 287. Absence of light.

CHAPTER V.

WcitMS, Snails, Slugs, Reptiles, Birds, &c., consiueked with

REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE . . . . .93

Sect. I. — The Earth-worm, considered with reference to Horticulture 94

290. Lumbricus terrdstris. 293. Natural uses. 294. Injury Sect. II. — Snails and Slugs, considered with reference to Hortiaulture 98 297. Helix asp^rsa, and H. nemoralis. 298. Slugs. 299. Snails and slugs. 300. Snails and slugs are hermaphrodite and oviparous. 301. Natural uses of the snail. 302. Retires. 303. To destroy snails. 304. To destroy slugs.

Sect. III. — Insects, considered with reference to Horticulture . . 99

SuBSECT. I Of the Nature of Insects^ and their Classification . . 99

306. Insects. 307. Winged insects. 308. Insects without wings. 309. Crabs and spiders. 310. Arrangement here given.

SuBSECT. II. — Transformation of Insects ..... . 101

311. Eggs, 312. Larvse. 313. Nymphae or pupse. 314. Perfect insect.

Subsect. III. — Food of Insects , 102

315, Nourishment. 316. Roots, stem, and branches. 317. Fo- liage. 318. Flowers. 319. Number. 320. Food. 322. Transforma- tion. 323. Gluttonous. 324. No nourishment. 325. Eat Subsect. IV. — Distribution and Habits of Insects . . . .104

326. Distribution. 327. Water. 328. Land insects. 329, Other animals,

Subsect, V. — Uses nf Insects 105

332, Uses, 333. Medicine. 334. Insects destroyed by other in- sects. 335. Consume dead animal substances.

Subsect. VI Means contrived by Nature to limit the Multiplication

of insects ,.......« . , , 105

336. Continued rain. 337. Late frosts. 338. Inundations. 339. Enemies. 340. Insectivorous Mammalia. 341. Birds. 342. Wood-

lU CONTENTS.

Sect. III. — Insects, considered with reference to Horticulture —

continued. 'â– 'â– '>'

pecker race. 343. Sparrow tribe. 344. Cuckoo. 345. Crows. 346. Insectivorous birds, sometitoes granivorous. 347. Amphibious ani- mals. 348. Equilibrium. 349. Beetles. 350. Ichneumdnida;. 351. Ants, and field or tree bugs. SuBSECT. VII. — Means devised hy Art for arresting the Progress o} Insects in Gardens^ or of destroying them there .... 1^°

352. Insects may be destroyed in all their different stages. 353. De- terring the perfect insect. 354. Preventing the perfect insect from laying its eggs. 356. Catching the perfect insect. 356. Destroy- ing the perfect insect. 357. Luring away the perfect insect. 358. Col- lecting the eggs of insects. 359. Preventing eggs from being hatched. 360. Collecting or destroying larvae. 361. Collecting the pupa, or chrysalids. Sect. IV. — Amphibious Animals, considered with reference to Hor- ticulture ........•• 11"*

Sect. V. — Birds, considered with reference to Horticulture . .115 364. Raptores (seizers). Insessores (perchers). 367. Rasores (scratchers). 368. Grallatores (waders). 369.Natat6res (swimmers). 370. ThedifFerentmodesof deterring birds. 371. Thedestructionof birds.

Sect. VI. — The smaller Quadrupeds, considered with reference to Horticulture . . . . . .. . . ■ 120

.372. FeriE (wild beasts). 373. Glires (dormice). 374. Ungulata (hoofed animals).

CHAPTER VI.

Diseases and Accidents op Plants, considered with refek-

ENCE to Horticulture ... .... 123

375. Canker. 376. To prevent canker. 377. Cure. 378. Gum. 379. Mildew. 380. Honey-dew. 381. Blight. 382. Flux of juices, 383. Accidents. 384. Otlier plant diseases.

PART II.

Implements, Structures, and Operations op Horticulture . 127

CHAPTER I.

Implements op Horticulture . . . . . . . 127

385. Tools, instruments, utensils, machines, and other articles. Sect. I. — General Observations on the construction and uies of the

Implements used in Horticulture ...... 128

387. The mechanical principles on which they act. 388. Construc- tion of implements. 389. Repairs.

Sect. II. — Tools used in Horticulture . . . . . , 129

390. The common lever. 391. Perforators. 392. The dibber. 393. Picks. 394. Draw-hoes. 396. Scrapers. 396. Thrust-hoes. 397. Spades. 398, Turf-spades. 399. Turf-racers, 400. The trowel and the spud. 401. Transplanters. 402. Forks. 403. Rakes. 404. Besoms, 405, Beetles and rammers, 406. The mallet. 407. The garden hammer. 408. The garden pincers.

CONTENTS. IX

PAGfc

Sect. HI. — Instruments usedin Horticulture . . , 137

409. Garden knives. 410. Bill-knives, or hedge-bills. 411. Prun- ing-saws. 412. Piuning-chisels. 413. Shears. 414. The axe. 415. Verge shears. 416. Grass shears. 417. The short grass scythe. 418. Other instruments. 419. Chests of tools, and instruments.

Sect. IV. — Utensils used in Horticulture . . . . . 142

420. Earthenware pots for plants. 421. Porosity. 422. Earthen- ware saucers for pots. 423. Rectangular boxes. 424. Wooden tubs. 425. Watering-pots. 426. Money's inverted rose watei'ing-pot. 427. Sieves and screens. 428. Carrying utensils. 429. Baskets. 430. Basket-making. 431. Carrying-baskets. 432. Measuring-baskets. 433. Baskets for growing plants. 434. Portable glass utensils. 435. Sub- stitute for bell glasses. 436. Powdering boxes. 437. Other utensils.

Sect. V. — Machines used in Horticulture . . , . 15'J

438. Wheelbarrows for gardens. 43i). Rollers. 440. The watering engines. 441. Garden bellows. 442. The mowing-machine. 443. Other machines.

Sect. VI. — Miscellaneous articles used in Horticulture . . . 158

444. Articles for protection. 445. Mats of straw or reeds. 446. Wooden shutters. 447. Asphalte covers. 448. Oiled paper frames. 449. Oiled paper caps. 450. Wicker-work hurdles. 451. Props for plants. 452. The durability of wooden props. 453. Garden tallies and labels. 454. Nails, lists, and ties. 455. The garden line. 456. Ladders. 457. A levelling instrument. 458. Thermometers. 459. A hydrometer. 460. Other articles.

CHAPTER II.

Structubes and Edifices of Horticulture .... I7l

Sect. I. — Portable, Temporary, and Movable Structures . . . 171

461. Wicker-work structures. 462. Portable substitutes for hand- glasses. 463. Canvas coverings. 464. Canvas shades to hothouses. 465. The common hotbed frame.

Sect. II. — Fixed Structures used in Horticulture . . . 176

SuBSECT. I. — Walls, Espalier rails, and Trellis work . . . . 176 466. Walls. 467. Direction and material. 468. The materials of walls. 469. The height of garden walls. 470. The foundations. 471. The copings of walls. 472. On the construction of walls. 473. Trel- lised walls. 474. Colouring the surface of walls black. 475. Flued walls. 476. Conservatory walls. 477. A substitute for a wall of brick. 478. Espalier rails. 479. Trellises and lattice-work.

SuBSECT, II. — Fixed Structures for growing Plants with Glass roofs 187

480. Plant houses. 481. Situation. 482. The form. 483. Cur- vilineal roofs. 484. Ridge and furrow roofs. 485. Materials. 486. The law of the reflection of light from glass. 487. Iron roofs. 488. Heat. 489. Fermenting substances. 490. Fermenting materials and fire heat combined. 491. Heating from vaults, or from stacks of flues. 492. Flues. 493. The best materials for building flues. 494. The furnace. 495. On substitutps for smoke flues. 496. Steam. 497. Hot water. 498. The modes of heating by hot water. 499. A reser- voir of heat. 500. The pipes. 501. The situation in which the pipes are placed. 502. The boiler. 503. The furnace. 504. Rogers's co- nical boiler and hot-water apparatus. 505. Rain-water. 506. To pre- vent the water in the apparatus from freezing. 507. Open gutters. 508. Retaining heat by coverings. 509. Atmospheric moisture. 510. Steaming. 511. Ventilation. 512. The agitation. 513. Light. 513. Water. 514. The difi'erent kinds of fixed structures for plants. 515.

X CONTENTS.

Sect. II. — Fixed structures used in Horticulture — continued. fjoe

Pits. 516. The greenhouse. 517. The orangery. 518. The conser- vatory. 519. Botanic stoves. 520. The pine stove. 521. Forcing- houses. 522. A plant structure for all or any of the above purposes.

SuBSECT. III. — Edifices used in Horticulture ..... 224 523. Gardener's house. 524, Journeyman gardener's lodge. 525. The fruit-room. 526. Seed-room. 527. Root-cellar, and other con- veniences. 528. Tool-house. 529. Open sheds.

CHAPTER III.

Operations of Horticulture ....... 227

Sect. I. — Horticultural Labours ....... 227

SuBSECT. I. — Horticultural Labours on the Soil .... 227

631. Object of labours on the soil. 532. Marlcing with the garden line. 533. Digging. 534. Trenching. 535. Trenching ground that is to be cropped with culinary vegetables. 536. Operation of trenching. 537. Forking soil. 538. Hoeing. 539. Raking. 540. Rolling. 541. Screening or lifting. 542. Other labours on the soil.

SuBSECT. II. — Garden Labours with Plants ..... 235

544. Sawing. 545. Cutting. 546. Clipping. 547. Clipping hedges. 548. Mowing. 549. Weeding. 550. Other labours with plants.

Sect. II. — Operations of Culture ...... 239

SuBSECT. I. — Propagation ....,,., 239

§ 1. On Propagation by Seed . . ..... 240

552. The seed. 553. Process of germination. 554. The period neces- sary to complete the process of germination. 555. The quantity of moisture most favourable to germination. 556. The water requi- site to cause old seeds to germinate. 557. The depth to which a seed is buried in the soil. 558. The degree of heat most favourable for the germination of seeds. 559. The degree of heat which the seeds of plants will endure. 560. The degree of cold which seeds will endure. 561. Atmospheric air. 562. The influence of light. 563. Accelerating the germination of seeds. 564. Various experiments have been made to accelerate germination. 565. Electricity and alkalies as stimu- lants to vegetation. 566. The length of time during which seeds retain their vitality. 567. The length of time that seeds wiU lie in the ground without growing. 568. The season for sowing seeds. 669. The mechanical process of sowing. 570. Sowing seeds in pow- dered charcoal. 571. Sowing seeds in snow. 572. The discoveries daily making in chemical science.

§ 2. — On Propagation by Cuttings 249

573. A cutting. 574. Selecting plants from which the cuttings are to be taken. 675. Selecting the shoot. 576. Shoots which have formed blossom-buds. 577. As general rules. 578. The time of taking off cuttings. 579. Preparation of the cutting. 580. The number of leaves which are left on the cutting. 581. Taking off a cutting. 582. Treatment of cuttings from the time they are made till they are planted. 583 Cuttings of succulent or fleshy plants 584. The soil in which cuttings are planted. 585. The depth. 686. Planting cuttings. 587. The distance at which cuttings are planted. 588. After-treatment of cuttings. 589. The most proper form of bell-glass for covering cuttings. 590. Watering cuttings. 691. The temperature most suitable for cuttings. 592. Cuttings of hardy deciduous trees and shrubs. 593. Cuttings of hardy evergreens. 594. Cuttings of all the Coniferse and Taxacese. 595. Cuttings of hardy or half-hardy herbaceous plants. 596. Piping. 597. Cuttings of soft-wooded green- house plants. 598. Cuttings of hard-wooded greenhouse plants. 599.

CONTENTS. XI

Sect. II. — Operations of Culture — continued. page

Cuttings of heath-like plants. 600. Cuttings of succulent plants. 601. Cuttings of the underground stems and roots. fi02. Striking cut- tings in water or moist moss. 603. Striking plants in powdered char- coal. 604. Propagation by joints and nodules. 605. A nodule. 606. Propagating by joints of the vine. 607. Propagation by bulbs and entire tubers and tubercles. 608. Propagating by bulb-bearing leaves.

§ 3. — Propagation hy Leaves 266

609. The principle on which the propagation of plants by leaves is founded. 610. The conditions generally required for rooting leaves. 611. Rooting portions of leaves. 612. The plants usually raised by leaves in British gardens. 613. Propagation by the leaves of bulbs. 614, Rooting leaves and parts of leaves in powdered charcoal. 615, Leaves with the buds in the axils root freely. 616. Immature fruits have even been made to produce plants. 617. The essence of all the differ- ent modes of forming plants from cuttings. 618. To induce stems or shoots to produce leaves or growths from which cuttings may be formed.

§ i.-^Propagation by Layers ........ 272

619, The theory of layering. 620. The operation of layering. 621. The state of the plant most favourable for layering, 622. Hardy trees and shrubs, 623. Shrubs with very long shoots. 624. Layering by insertion of the growing point. 625. Plum and paradise stocks. 626. Roses. 627. Hardy herbaceous plants. 628. Shrubby plants in pots kept under glass. 629. The soil in which plants are layered. 630. Hooked pegs. 631. The time which layers require to produce roots.

§ 5. — Propagation by Suckers, Slips, Offsets, Runners, and Simple

Division 277

632. A sucker. 633. Stem suckers or slips. 634. Offsets. 635. Runners or stolones. 636. Simple division.

§ 6. — Propagation by grafting, inarching, and budding . . . 280

637. The term graft. 638. The origin of grafting, 639. The phenomena of grafting. 640. The condition. 641. Anatomical analogy. 642. Physiological analogy. 643. The modifications effected by the graft. 644. The influence of the scion on the stock. 645. The uses of grafting. 646. The different kinds of grafting. 647. The ma- terials used in grafting. 648. Grafting-clay. 649. Grafting-wax.

§ 7 Grafting by detached Scions ....... 287

651, Splice-grafting. 652. Splice-grafting the peach. 653. Cleft- grafting. 654, Cleft-grafting the vine. 655. Saddle-grafting. 656. Side-grafting. 657. Wedge-grafting. 658. Grafting the mistletoe. 659. Root-grafting. 660. Herbaceous grafting. 661. Grafting the pine and fir tribe. 662. Grafting the tree-peony. 663. Grafting on fleshy roots. 664. Herbaceous wedge-grafting. 665. Herbaceous grafting for shoots with opposite leaves. 666. Herbaceous grafting annual or perennial plants. 667. Grafting herbaceous shoots of succu- lents. 668. Grafting the melon, 669. The greffe etouffee.

I 8. — Grafting by approach or inarching 297

671. Side inarching. 672. Terminal inarching. 673. Inarching with partially-nourished scions.

§ 9. — Budding or grafting by detached buds 300

675. The uses of budding. 676. Performing the operation. 677. Prepared wax for budding. 678. Plastic wax. 679. Shield-budding in the end of summer. 680. Shield-budding in June, 681. Shield- budding in spring. 682. Shield-budding without a bud or eye. 683, Eudding with a circular shield. 684. Budding with a shield stamped out by a punch. 685. Budding with the shield reversed, 686, Bud- ding with the eye turned downwards. 687. Shield-budding for resinous trees. 688. Budding with the shield covered. 689. Budding with a

U CONTENTS.

Sect. II. — Operations of Culture — continued. page

square shield. 690. Shield-budding with a terminal bud. 691. Flute- budding, or tube-budding. 692. Flute-budding in spring. 693. Ter- minal flute-budding. 694. Flute-budding with strips of bark. 69S, Annular budding. 696. The after-care of grafts by budding.

SUBSBCT. II. — Rearing 308

§ 1. — Transplanting and Planting . ..... 309

698. To transplant. 699. The uses of transplanting. 700. The theory of transplanting. 701. Seedlings. 702. Deciduous trees and shrubs, and perennial hei'baceous plants. 703. Whether deciduous trees and shrubs ought to be transplanted in autumn or spring. 704. Different modes of transplanting large trees and shrubs. 705. Transplanting with large balls of earth. 706. Transplanting by shortening the roots, so as to induce them to throw out fibres. 707. Sir Henry Steuart's prac- tice in transplanting large trees. 708. Fulling down the tree and rais- ing it out of the pit. 709. Transporting and replanting the tree. 710. Transplanting by shortening the roots, without permitting them to throw out fibres at their extremities. 711. Transplanting by thin- ning and pruning the roots and branches. 712. The removal of large trees and shrubs. 713. Transplanting by heading-in, that Is, cutting in the branches. 714. The staking or supporting of newly-trans- planted trees, and the protection of their stems from cattle. 715. The machinery for moving large trees. 716. Transplanting evergreens. 717. The best season for transplanting evergreens. 718. The drying of the roots of evergreens. 719. Planting evergreens. 720. Trans- planting evergreens with balls. 721, The machines and implements for transplanting large shrubs with balls. 722. Packing evergreens. 723. Methods of planting small plants. 724. Planting with the dibber. 725. Planting with the trowel. 726. Planting in drills. 727. Laying in by the heels. 728. Trench-planting. 729. Slit-planting. 730. Hole- planting. 731. Planting in pits. 732. Hole-planting, and fixing with water. 733. Planting in puddle. 734. Planting out plants which have been grown in pots. 735. Watering, mulching, and staking newly- planted plants. 736. Taking up previously to planting. 737. As a summary of general rules for planting.

§ 2. — Potting and Repotting or Sliifting .... 329

738. To pot a plant. 739. The main object of growing plants in pots. 740. The disadvantages of growing plants in pots. 741. Potting. 742. The same soil which is suitable for the open garden is not always suitable for using in pots. 743. Bottom drainage. 744. The mode of sowing or planting in a pot. 745. Transplanting from the free soil into a pot or box. 746. Care of newly potted or shifted plants. 747. Shifting or re- potting. 748. Seasons and times for potting and shifting- 749. The most difficult plants to manage in pots. 750. Growing hardy plants in pots.

§ 3. — Pruning ....... 335

752. The specific principles on which pruning is founded, and its general effects. 753. Forest-trees. 754. Ornamental trees. 755. Ornamental shrubs. 756. Fruit-trees and shrubs. 757. Herbaceous plants. 758. Close pruning. 759. Shortening-in. 760. Fore-shortening. 761. Spurring-in. 762. Heading-in. 763. Lopping. 764. Close lopping. 765. Snag-lopping. 766. Lopping-in. 767. Cutting down. 708. Stopping and pinching out. 769. Disbarking. 770. Ringing. 771. Disbudding. 772. Disleafing. 773. Slitting and splitting. 774. Bruising and tearing. 775. Clipping. 776. Root- pruning. 777. Girdling and felling. 778. The girdling machine. 779. The seasons for pruning.

§ i.— Thinning . . . . . . 349

781. Seedling crops in gardens. 782. Thinning plantations. 783.

Thinning ornamental plantations.

5. — Training . , . , , , .351

CONTENTS. xiii

Sect. II. — Operations of Culture — Training — continued. „„;,

784. To train. 785. The principles. 788. Manual operations of training. 787. Training herbaceous plants. 788. Herbaceous and shrubby plants in pots. 789. Training hardy flowering shrubs in the open ground. 790. Evergffeen shrubs. 791. Training fruit-trees. 792. The different modes of training bushes and trees in the open garden. 793. The different modes of training fruit-trees against walls or espaliers. 794. Dwarfs in the open garden. 795. Spiral cylinders. 796. Standards in the open garden. 797. The spurring-in system. 798. Conical standards. 799. Hayward's quenouille- training. 800. Fan-training. 801. Fan-training in the common English manner. 802. Fan-training according to Seymour's mode. 803. Fan-training in the wavy or curvilinear manner. 804. Wavy fan-trainiug with two stems. 805. Wavy fan-training with a single stem. 806. Horizontal training. 807. Fan-training and horizontal training combined. 808. Perpendicular training. 809. Instruments and materials. 810. Com- parative view of the different modes of training. 811. A standard tree. § 6 Weeding . ...... 378

81.^. A weed. 814. Annual vfeeds. 815. Perennial weeds. 816. Weeds in gravel-wallis. 817. Weeds in lawns or on grass-walks. 818. Weeds in shrubberies and plantations. 819. Weeds in woods and park scenery. 820. Weeding ponds, rivers, and artificial waters. § 7 — Watering ....... 382

821. Water. 822. The specific purposes for which water is used in horticulture. 823. The ordinary sources from which water is obtained in gardens. 824. The distribution of water. 825. The ordinary mode of giving water to plants. 826. When it is proper to water, and how much water to give. 837. Whether plants siiould be watered over the leaves, or only over the soil in which they grow. 828. Watering plants in pots. 829. Aquatic aad marsh plants. 830. Watering with liquid manure. 831. To economise the water given to plants. § 8. — Stirring the soil and manuring . ... 388

§ 9.— Blanching . ...... 389

§ 10. — Protection, from atmospherical injuries . . . 389

8,35. The object of shading. 836. Sheltering from wind. 837. The principles of protecting from cold. 838. Protecting from rain. § 11. — Accelerating vegetation ..... 391

839. Acceleration. 840. Artificial heat. 841. Hotbeds. 842. Pre- paration of materials for hotbeds. 843. M'Phail's hotbed or pit. 844. The formation of common hotbeds. 845. Ashes, tan, and leaves. 846. The nightly covering to hotbeds and pits, 847. Management of hotbeds and pits heated by dung. § 12. — Retarding vegetation ........ 395

§ 13. — Resting vegetation. ......... 396

849. In the natural state of vegetation. 850. Nightly temperature.

851. What the night temperature of a hotbed or hothouse ought to be.

852. Double glass roofs. 853. The annual resting of plants. 854. The natural period of rest in hardy plants. 855. The advantages of putting trees that are to be forced into a state of rest.

§ 14. — Operations of gathering, preserving, keeping, and packing . 401 856. Gathering. 857. Preserving. 858. Keeping fruits. 859. Packing

and transporting plants and seeds. 860. Packing fruits and flowers.

§ 15. — Selecting and improving plants in culture . . . 403

862. Cultivation. 863. Selection. 864. Selecting from accidental

variations. 865. Cross-breeding. 866. Precautions again&t promiscuous

fecundation. 867. Fixing and rendering permanent the variety produced.

868. The production of double flowers. 8f)9. Duration of varieties.

§ 16 Operations of order and keeping ...... 409

871. Order. 872. Keeping. 873. Rule^•

XIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

Operations of Horticultubal Design and Taste . . •411

875. Taking plans. 876. Carrying plans into execution. 877. Re- ducing a surface to a level, or to a uniform slope.

CHAPTER V. Operations of Genebal Management ... . . . 412

879. General management of a garden. 880. On undertaking the charge of a garden. 881. The books to be kept by a gardener. 882. The ordering of seeds and plants. 883. The management of men and the distribution of work. 884. The wages of a gardener.

PART III.

The Culture op the Kitchen, Fruit, and Forcing Garden . 416

CHAPTER I. Laying out .ind Planting the Kitchen and Fruit Garden . 416

Sect. I. — Laying out the Kitchen Garden . . . . . 416

885. The situation and general management of the kitchen garden. 886. Trenching and levelling.

Sect. II. — The Distribution of Fruit-trees in a Kitchen Garden . 420 SuBSECT. I. — Wall-fruit Trees ........ 4^

888. Select list of fruit-trees adapted for walls of different aspects. 890. The distance. 891. For low walls. 892. Training. 893. Planting. SuBSECT. II. — Fruit-trees for Espaliers and Dwarfs .... 424

894. Espaliers. 895. Dwarfs or standards trained in the conical manner. 896. Espalier-rails. 897. A. wooden espalier rail. 898. Es- palier rails of cast iron. 899. Espalier rails of wrought iron. 900. Dwarfs. 901. Select list. 902. The plants. 903. Standard fruit-trees.

SnBSECT. III. — Fruit Shrubs 429

904. Gooseberries and currants. 905. Select list. 906. Plants. SvBSBCT. \V.— Selection of Fruit-lrees adapted for an Orchard . . 430 907. A plantation or orchard. 90S. The plants. 909. Select list. 910. Training. 911. Culture of the soil.

CHAPTER II. Cropping and General Management of a Kitchen Garden . 434 Sect. I. — Cropping ......... 434

913. The herbaceous vegetables grown in kitchen gardens. 914. Gene- ral proportions of crops. 916. The quantity of seed.

Sect. II. — Rotation of Crops ....... 435

918. Successional cropping. 919. The object to be obtained by a system of cropping. 920. Successional cropping. 921. The simulta- neous mode of cropping. 922. Modes of cropping. 923. Successional and simultaneous cropping combined. 924. Order of rotation. 925. Secondary crops. 926. Times of sowing and planting.

Sect. III. — Planting, Sowing, Cultivating, and Managing . . 439

928. Management of the fruit-tree borders. 929. Management of the culinary crops. 930. Gathering, storing, and keeping of fruit. 931. Management of the fruit-room.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

PAGE

The Forcing Depabtment ....... 442

Sect. I. — Culture of the Pine-apple, and Management of the Pinery 443

SuBSECT. I. — Natural data on which the Culture of the Pine-apple is

founded 443

932. The conclusions to be drawn from these data. 933. Soil. 934. Water.

ScBSECT. II. — Culture of the Pine-apple in British Gardens . . 444 935. Construction of the pit. 936. Kinds grown. 937. Water- ing and sprinkling. 938. Worms. 939. Heat, air, and moisture. 941. Jamaica pines. 942. Starting pine plants into fruit. 943. Air. 944. Propagation. 945. Bottom-heat. 946. As the season declines, the temperature is lowered. 947. Culture of the queen pine, so as to have the fruit ripe in February and March. 948. Sizes of the pots in which the plants are grown. 949. Culture of queen pines for early fruit. 950. Growing the pine-apple in beds of soil. 951. Fruiting suckers on the stools. 952. To grow the pine-apple to an extraordinary size. 953. Insects.

Sect. II. — Culture of the Grape Vine under Glass and on Walls . 462

SaBSECT. I. — Natural data on which the Culture of the Grape Vine is founded ............ 452

954. The grape vine. 955. With respect to atmospheric moisture. 956. Soil. 957. Form of house.

Sttbsect. II. — Propagation^ Pruning, and Training the Vine . . 454 958. Propagation. 959. Pruning. 960. Training. 961. Essential points. 962. The long, or the renewal system of pruning. 963. The spurriog-in method of pruning. 964. The fan-system of vine-training. 965. The Thomery system.

SuBSECT. Ill Culture of the Grape Vine under Glass . ,. . . 457

966. Vine border. 967. Planting. 968. To raise the plants. 969. When planted in the vinery. 970. The sorts. 971. A diary of the course of culture applied to the grape vines at Oakhill. 972. Growing two or three crops of grapes in one house. 973. Growing three crops of grapes in one house together with pines. 974. Another mode of growing three crops of grapes in one house. 975, Keeping grapes.

SuBSECT. tV. — Growing the Grape on open walls, and on cottages . 464 976. Frait-bearing powers of the vine. 977. Aspect. 978. Soil. 979. Manure. 980. Walls. 931. Propagation. 982. Pruning. 983. Training. 984. Mr. Hoare's mode of training. 985. Training the vine on the walls of cottages. 986. The appearance of a portion of the front of a house covered with vines in Mr, Hoare's manner. 987. The walls and roof of a cottage of the most irregular architecture. 988. Kinds of grapes most suitable for the open wall or for cottages.

SuBSEOT. v. — Insects, Diseases, ^c, of the Grape Vine .... 472

Sect. III. — Culture of the Peach and Nectarine under Glass . . 472

SuBSECT. I. — Natural data on which the CuUvre of the Peach is founded. 472

989. The peach. 990. Natural and experimental data. SuEoECT. II. — Culture of the Peach under Glass in British Gardens . 474 991. Construction of the peach-house. 992. Peaches and nectarines best adapted for forcing. 993. Plants and mode of training. 994. Pruning. 995. The summer pruning, 996. The fruit is thinned before and after the stoning season. 997. The peach border. 998. Gene-al treatment. 999. Insects and diseases. lOUO. Peaches may be forced in pots.

svl CONTENTS.

Sect. TIT. — Culture of the Peach and Nectarine under Glass—

ccntinued. paoz

SuBSECT. Ill — The details of a routine course of forcing the Peach

for two years .... 47/

1001. Soil. 1002. Border. 1003. Planting. 1004. Forcing in the first season. 1005. Watering and fumigating. 1006. Summer pruning. 1007. Routine treatment during tlie first season. 1008. Winter treatment. 1009. Forcing in the second season. 1010. Applying a preventive composition. 1011. Forcing in February. 10 â–  March. 1013. Thinning the shoots and fruit. 1014. Stoning. 1015. Watering. 1016. Ripening. 1017. Duration of the crop.

Sect. IV. — Culture of the Cherry under Glass . . ■ • 480

SnBSECi. I. — Natural Data for the Culture of the Cherry . • ■ 480

SuBSECT. II. — The practice of Cherry Forcing in British Gardens . .480 1019. The cherry-house. 1020. Kinds of cherries for forcing, pot- ting the plants, &c. 1021. Time of commencing to force. 1022. Progress. 1023. Insects. 1024. Thinning and stoning, &c. 1025. Treatment of the plants in pots after they are taken out of the house. 1026. To have a constant succession of cherries. 1027. Forcing cher- ries by a temporary structure. 1028. German practice.

Sect. V. — Culture of the Fig under Glass . . . . . 486

SuBSECT. I Natural data on which the Culture of tlie Fig is founded , 485

SuBSECT. II. — The forcing of the Fig as practised in British Gardens , 485 1031. The construction of the fig-house. 1032. The varieties best adapted for forcing. 1033. The time of beginning to force. 1034. The forcing of fig-trees in pots. 1035. Winter treatment.

Sect. VI. — On forcing the Plum, Apricot, Gooseberry, and other

Fruit-trees, and Fruit-shrubs ...... 487

Srct. VII. — Culture of the Melon 487

SuBSECT. I — Natural and experimental data on which the Culture of the

Melon is founded ....... . . 487

SuBSECT. II. — Culture of the Melon as practised in British Gardens . 490 1038. The sorts. 1039. A''ery early melons. 1040. Seedlings. 1041. Cuttings. 1042. Planting out. i043. General treatment, 1044. Persian melons. 1045. Culture of the melon in the open air. 1046. Insects and diseases. 1047. The red spider and the damp.

Ekct. VIII. — Culture of the Cucumber ..... 494 SuBSECT. I. — Da'a rm. which the Culture nf the Cucumber is founded . . 494 SuBSECT. II. — Culture of the Cucumber in a Dung-bed . . . 49G

1051. The formation of a dung-bed. 1052. The seed-bed. 1053. Soil. 1054. Seeds and treatment of the young plants. 1055. Raising plants from cuttings. 1056. Fruiting-bed. 1057. Ridging out the plants. 1058. A temporary lining. 1059. Air. lOSO. Earthing-up. 1061. Linings of cucumber beds and their management. lOBs" Water. 1063. Stopping. 1064. Moulding up. 1065. The covering at night. 1066. Setting or impregnating the fruit. 1067. To procure seed. 1068. Inlaying, or earthing in, the vines of the cucumber. 1069. When extraordinary fine fruit is desired.

SuBSECT. III.— Cute'/e of the Cucumber in pits heated by dung linings

flues, or hot water .•,.... , _ ^' cao

1070. Of pits heated wholly or in part by dung linings. 1071. Pits to be heated by flues or hot water. 1072. A pit to be heated by a flue.

CONTENTS. XVll

^ SrcT. VIII. — Ctilture of the Cucumber — continued. """

1073. A pit to be heated by hot water, and by a flue from the fire wtiich heats the boiler. 1074. Corbett's cucumber pit. 1075. Green's cucumber pit. 1076. The advantages gained by this pit. 1078. The culture of the encumber in pots. 1079. Construction of the cucumber house. 1080. Treatment of the plants.

SuBSECT. IV. — Culture and treatment of the Cucumber for Prize Ex- hibitions . . . 510

SuBSECT. V. — Cultivation of t7w Cucumber in the open air . . . 510

10S2. Cucumbers grown in the open air are commonly protected by hand or bell glasses. 1083. Increasing the atmospheric heat of the soil. 1084. Cucumbers against a south wall. 1085. Growing cucumbers on balconies, or in court-yards. 1086. Watering cucumbers in the open garden. 1087. Cucumber and melon culture compared.

Sect. IX. — Culture of the Banana ...... S12

Sect. X. — Forcing the Strawberry . ..... 514

1090. Data on which the forcing of the strawberry is founded. 1091. Koutine practice in forcing Keen's seedling, and the old scarlet or Virginian strawberries. 1092. How grown and protected before forcing. 1093. After forcing. 1094. The Alpine strawberry.

Sect. XI. — Forcing the Asparagus, Sea Kale, Rhubarb, Chicory,

and other fleshy roots . . . , . . .516

Sect. XII. — Forcing the common Potato, the sweet Potato, and

other tubers . . . . . . . . .519

1100. The common potato. 1101. A substitute for new potatoes. 1102. The sweet potato. 1103. O'xalis Deppei.

Sect. XIII. — Forcing Kidney Seans and Peas . . . . 620

Sbot. XIV. — Forcing Salads, Pot-herbs, Sweet-herbs, and other

culinary Plants ........ 521

1106. Lettuce, chicory, radish, cress, mustard, rape, parsley, chervil, carrot, turnip, onion, and similar plants. 1107. Small salading. 1108. Radish. 1109. To produce full-grown cabbage-lettuces through- out the winter. 1110. Perennial pot and sweet herbs.

Seht. XV. — Forcing the Mushroom . . . . . . 523

ScBSECT. I. — Data on which the Culture and Forcing of the Mushroem

isfownded 523

ScBSECT. II. — Forcing the Mushroom in British Gardens . . . 524 1112. The ordinary form of a mushroom-house. 1113. The spawn. 1114. To grow the mushroom. 1115. Growing the mushroom in a cellar. 1116. Management of the bed. 1117. Mushroom spawn. 1118. Gathering mushrooms. 1119. The duration of a crop of mushrooms.

CHAPTER IV.

Catalooue op Fkuits ........ 52G

1120. The fruits usually cultivated in British gardens. 1121. Ar- ranged botanically. 1122. Geographically and horticulturally. 1123. Suitable for climates analogous to that of Britain. 1 1 24. For climates analogous to that of the South of France. 1125. For climates sub- tropical, or tropical.

Sect. I. — Hardy or Orchard Fruits 628

SuBSECT. I. — The Apple 528

1128. The uses of the apple. 1129. Properties of a good apple,

5

XVUl CONTENTS.

Sect. I. — Hardy or Orchard Fruits — TheAppk — continued, '" '

1130. Varieties. 1131. Early dessert apples. 1132. Dessert apples to succeed early kinds. 1133. Early kitchen apples. 1134. Kitchen apples for winter and spring use. 1135. Cider apples. 1136. Dessert apples which may be used as kitchen apples. 1137. Kitchen apples which may be used as dessert apples. 1 138. Apples for cottage gardens, where the soil and situation are favourable, and which may be used either for the table or the kitchen. 1139. Apples for training against the walls or on the roofa of cottages, or on the walls of cottage gardens.

1 140. Apples for cottage gardens in situations liable to spring frosts.

1141. Apples for a cottage garden in an unfavourable climate. ^^*"' Apples adapted for walls of different aspects. 1 143. Apples adapted for espaliers, dwarfs, or conical standards. 1144. Apples suitable for an orchard. 1145. Apples remarkable for the form of the tree, or the beauty of the blossoms or fruit. 1146. General principles of selecting varieties of the apple. 1147. Propagation. 1148. Soil and situation. 1149. Mode of bearing, pruning, and training. 1150. Spurring-in pruning. 1151. Pruning with reference to the entire tree. 1152. Ga- thering and keeping. 1153. Diseases, insects, casualties, &c.

SUBSECT. II.— The Pear 545

1155. Uses. 1156. Properties of a good pear. 1157. The varieties. 1 158. Dessert pears arranged in the order of their ripening and keep- ing. 1159. Kitchen pears arranged in the order of their ripening and keeping. 1160. Perry pears arranged in the order of their merits. 1161. A list of pears adapted for walls of different aspects. 1162. A list of pears for espaliers, dwarfs, or standards, trained conically or spurred-in. 1 163. A list of pears adapted for an orchard, or being grown as standards. 1164. A selection of Pears where the space is very limited, or for cottage gardens. 1 165. Pear-trees of forms adapted for landscape scenery. 1166. The propagation, nursery, culture, and choice of plants. 11G7. Soil, situation, and final planting. 1168. The mode of bearing, pruning, and training. 1 169. Gathering and keeping. 1170. The diseases, insects, and casualties.

StresECT. 111. — The Quince ■"•Jl

1172. Varieties. 1173. Propagation, soil, and other points of cul- ture and management.

SuBSECT. IV The Medlar 552

1175. Varieties. 1176. Propagation, soil, and other points of cul- ture and management.

Sdb.'sect. V. — The True Service 6'j2

1177. The true service. 1178. Pyrnst6rminMis. 1 1 79. Pyrus A ria var. erotica.

SuBSEcr. Yl.~The Cherry 553

1181. Use. 1183. Varieties. 1183. Dessert cherries, arranged in the order of their ripening. 11'84. Cherries for preserving. 1185. Cherries adapted for being trained against walls of different aspects. 1186. Cherries adapted for espaliers or dwarfs. 1187. Cherries adapted for being grown as standards. 1188. Cherries for a cottage garden. 1189. Cherries for the north of Scotland. 1190. Propagation, nursery culture, and choice of plants. 1191. Soil, situation, and final planting. 1192. Mode of bearing, pruning, and training. 1193. Gathering and keeping. 1194. Diseases, insects, casualties, &c. 1195. A Dutch cherry garden.

SuBSEd. \I1.— The Plum .559

1197. Use. 1198. Varieties. 1199. Dessert plums arranged in the order of their ripening. 1200. Kitchen plums arranged in the order of their ripening. 1201. A selection of plums for walls of different aspects, espaliers and dwarfs, and for an orchard. 1202. Dessert and kitchen plums for a garden of limited extent. 1203. A selection of dessert

CONTENTS. xix

Sect. I. — Hardy or Orchard Fruits — I'he Plurfi — continued. '■'>«"

plums for a very small garden. 1204. Dessert and kitchen plums for a cottage garden. 1205. Propagation, nursery culture, and choice oi plants. 1206. Soil, situation, and final planting. 1207. Mode of bearing, pruning, and training. 1208. Gathering, keeping, packing, &c. 1209. Insects, diseases, casualties, &c. 1210. The plum may be forced.

ScBSECT. VIII.-^Tfte Gooseberry B60

1212. Use. 1213. Varieties. 1214. A selection of gooseberries for a suburban garden. 1215. The largest prize gooseberries. 1216. Gooseberries for a cottage garden. 1217. Large Lancashire goose- berries adapted for a cottage garden. 1218. Propagation, nursery cul- ture, and choice of plants. 1219. Soil, situation, and final planting. 1220. Mode of bearing, pruning, and training. 1221. The growers of gooseberries for prizes. 1 222. Gathering and keeping. 1223. Insects, diseases, and casualties. 1224. Forcing.

SuBSECT. IX. — The Red and White Currant 566

1226. Use. 1227. Varielies. 1228. The propagation and future treatment.

SuBSECT. X. — The Black Currant 567

SuBSECT. XI. — The Raspberry 567

1231. Varieties. 1232. Propagation, soil, and other points of cul- ture. 1233. Gathering. 1234. Forcing. 1235. The cloudberry. 1236. The Nootka raspberry.

SoBSECr. XII. — The Strawberry 570

1238. Use. 1239. Varieties. 1240. Selection of strawberries from the above classes in the order of their ripening. 1241. A selection for H small garden. 1242. A selection for a cottage garden. 1243. A selection for a confined, shady situation. 1244. Propagation, soil,&c. 1245. Culture. 1246. Culture in rows. 1247. Culture in beds. 1248. Mulching and watering. 1249. Culture of particular kinds. 1250. Retarding a crop. 1251. Accelerating a crop in the open garden. 1252. Xiathering. 1253. Forcing.

ScBSEcr. XIII The Cranberry S76

SuBSECT. XIV.— TAe Mulberry 577

SdB!:ect. XV.— The Walnut 678

1257. The Walnut. 1253. Pacane-nut hickory, and the shell-bark hickory.

SuBSECT. XVI The Sweet Chestnut 578

Sdbsect. XVII.— rAe Filbert 579

SuBSECT. XVIII. — The. Berberry. Elderberry, Cornelian Cherry, Buf- falo-berry, and Winter Cherry 580

1261. The berberry. 1262. The Magellan sweet berberry. 1263. The Nepal berberry. 1264. The alder-tree. 1265. The cornelian cherry; 1266. The buffalo berry. 1267. The winter cherry

Seot. M.— Half-hardy or Wall-fruits 682

SuBSECT. I The Grape S82

1270. A selection of grapes for early forcing. 1271. The selection of grapes grown at Hungerton Hall. 1272. A selection of grapes of va- rious flavours and colours. 1273. Grapes for a late crop in a vinery. 1274. Grapes for a house in which pines are grown. 127£. Grapes •with small leaves, and hardy ; adapted for the rafters of a greenhouse. 1276. Grapes with small leaves, less hardy than the preceding selec- tion, and fit for the rafters of a plant or stove. 1277. Grapes with small bunches and berries, adapted for being grown in pots or boxes. 1278. Grapes for a cottage garden where the climate is not very favour-

J2

SX CONTENTS.

Sect. II. — Half-hardy or WaU-fruiU — The Grape — continued. able. 1279. Grapes suitable for the open wall, or for cottages. 1280. Propagation. 1281. Culture, pruning, training, &c. 1282. Pruning. 1283. Tiiinning. 1284. Setting the blossom. 1285. Growing grapes in pots. 1286. General treatment of the Tine. 1287. Growing grapes for wine-making. ScBSECT. II. — The Peach and Nectarine ;..••' 1289. Use. 1290. Properties of a good peach ornectarine. 1291. Varieties. 1 292. Select peaches arranged in the order of their ripening. 1293. Select nectarines arranged in the order of their ripening. 129^. Peaches and nectarines for a wall to come in, in succession. 1295. Peaches for a cold late situation. 1296. A selection of peaches for forcing. 1297. Propagation and nursery culture. 1298. Soil, situa- tion, &c. 1299. Mode of bearing, pruning, &c. 1300. Mr. Callow s mode of training. 1301. Shortening the young wood of the peach. 1302. In summer-pruning the peach. 1303. Thinning the fruit. 1304. Treatment of the peach border. 1305. Over-luxuriant peach trees. 1306. Old decaying peach trees. 1307. Protecting peach trees dunng winter and spring. 1308. Growing the peach on a flued wall. 1 309. The acceleration of the ripening of a crop of peaches. 1310. Gathering. 1311. Diseases, insects, &c. 1312. The essential points of peach cul- ture. 1313. Forcing the peach and nectarine.

SuBSECX. \l\.— The Almond 596

Sdbsect. IV. — The Apricot ^9^

1316. Varieties. 1317. Apricots for walls of different aspects. 1318. Apricots for the walls of a cottage. 1319. Propagation, nursery culture, iSc. 1320. Final planting, pruning, &o.

SuBSECT. \.—The Fig ... 598

1322. Selections of the best figs for forcing, and for walls of different aspects. 1323. Propagation, culture, &c.

SuBSECT. VI. — The Pomegranate ....... 599

SnBSECT. VII. — The Peruvian Cherry . . ■ . . . 601'

Sect. III. — Tropical or Sub-tropical Fruits .... 600

StjBSECT. I. — The Pine-Apple ....... 600

1328. Pines cultivated chiefly for their high flavour. 1329. Pines cultivated chiefly for their large size. 1330. Culture.

SunsECT. II. — The Banana 601

Sdbsect^ III. — The Melon 602

1334. Melons with red flesh. 1335. Melons with green flesh. 1336. Persian melons. 1337. Winter melons. 1338. Water melons.

Stibsect. IV. — The Cucumber 603

SuBSECT. V. — The Pumpkin and Gourd 604

Subsect. VI. — The Tomato, the Egg-plant, and the Capsicum . . 606

Sdbsect. VII. — The Orange Family 608

1347. The common orange. 1348. Bigarade, Seville, or bitter orange.

1349. Thebergamot orange. 1350. The lime. 13S1. The shaddock.

1352; The sweet lembn. 1353. The true lemon. 1354. The citron.

1355. Propagation and culture.

SuBSECT. VIII — The Guana, Lo-quat, Granadilla, and other fruits

little known in British Gardens . . . , , .611

1356. The guava. 1857. The lo-quat. 1358. The granadilla. 1359. The Indian fig. 1360. The pawpaw. 1361. The olive. 1362. Other exotic fruits.

Subsect. IX. — Remarks applicable to Fruit-trees, and Fruit bearing

Plants generally '. , " . ^ gjg

CONTENTS.

CHAPTKR V.

PAGH

Catalogue of Cuhnaby Vegetables ..... 616

1364. The culinary vegetables usually cultivated in British gardens. 1>^65. Classed Horticulturaliy and Economically. 1366. Propagation " and seed-sowing. 1367. The selection of varieties. 1368. Whether acrop which is raised from seed ought to be sown where it is finally to remain, or sown in a seed-bed and transplanted. 1369. Soils. 1370. Proportion of each crop,

Sect. I. — Brassicaceous Esculents, or the Cabbage Tribe . . 622

1372. The white cabbage. 1373. The couve tronchuda. 1374. ' Cabbage coleworts. 1375. The red cabbage. 1376. The savoy. 1377. Brussels sprouts. 1378. Borecole. 1379. Cauliflower. 1380. Broc- coli. 1381. The turnip cabbage. 1382. The Chinese cabbage. 1383. General culture and management of the cabbage tribe. 1384. Substi- tutes for the cabbage tribe.

Sect. II. — Leguminaeeous Esculents ..... 630

SuBSECT. I.— The Pea 630

1386. Varieties, 13i37. Culture. 1388. The earliest crops. 1389. Portable walls for early crops of peas, &c. 1390. The summer and autumn crops. 1391. Diseases, vermin, &c.

SuBSECt. II.— The Bean b'34

SoBSECT. HI. — The Kidney-bean 635

1396. Varieties. 1397. Culture of the dwarf sorts. 1398. Culture

of the twining sorts. 1399. Gathering. 1400. The lima bean. 1401.

The common lentil. 1402. The white lupin. 1403. Substitutes.

Sect. III. — Radicaceous Esculents 638

SoBSECT. I. — The Potato 638

1406. Varieties. 1407. Culture. 1408. For an early crop. 140!). The Lanc^shir^ praptice. . 1410. Gathering. 1411. Messrs. Chap-, man's new spring potatoes. 1412. For a main or late crop. 1413. Young potatoes during widter. 1414. Selecting and preparing the sets. 1415. Greening potatoes for sets. 1416. Taking up and pre- serving a crop. 1417. Diseases, insects, &c.

Sdbsect. II. — The Jerusalem Artichoke 646

SuBSECT. III. — The Turnip 647

1420. Varieties. 1421. Culture. 1422. In gathering. 1423. Pre- serving turnips through the winter. 1424. To save seed. 1425. Dis- eases, insects, &c. 1426. Forcing the turnip.

SuBSECT. lY.—The Carrot 649

' 1428. Varieties. 1429. Culture. 1430. Gathering and keeping. 1431. Diseases and insects. 1432. Seed saving.

SaBSECT. V. — The Parsnep 6S1

SuBSECT. VJ. — The Red Beet 651

SCBSECT. VII. — The Skirret, Scorzonera, Salsify, and CEnoth^ra . 6S2 1436. The skirret. 1437. The scorzonera. 1438. The salsify. 1439. The Spanish salsify. 1440. The tree-primrose.

SuBSBCT. VIII. — The Hamburgh Parsley 653

SuBSECT. IX. — The Radish 653

1443. Varieties. 1444. Soil. SuB.SECT. X. — Ojialis Deppei, O. crenala, and Tropceolum tuberosum , 65 1

XXU CONTENTS.

PAGtt

Sect. IV. — Spinaceous Esculents ... . • *

. 656 Sdbsect. I. — The common Sptnach ■ _

SuBSECT. II. — Orach or French Spinach

SnBSECT. III. — New Zealand Spinach

SnBSECT. IV. — Perennial Spinach • "

SvBsucT.y.— The Spinach Beet, and the Chard Beet . • ' .„

SUBSEOT. VI. — Patience Spinach •

SCBSECT. VII. — The Sorrel

Sect. V. — Alliaceous Esculents ^^^

SuBSECT. l.—The Onion ^*^

1462. Varieties and species. 1463. Propagation and culture. 1464. An autumn and winter crop of onions. 1465. A transplanted crop 1466. The potato onion. 1467. Tlie bulb-bearing onion. 1468. Treat- ment common to allthe kinds. 1469. Diseases, insects, &c. 1470. The onion fly. 1471. Gathering the crop. 1472. To save seed.

SVBSE.CT.U.— The Leek 663

SuBSECT. III.— TAe Shallot . . 664

SrBSECT. W.— Tlie Garlic 664

SvBSKCT. v. — The Chive 664

SuBSECT. VI. — The Rocambole 664

VI. — Asparagaceous Esculents ..... 665

SuBsECT. I. — The Asparagus ........ 665

1481. Soil, and sowing or planting the asparagus. 1482. Routine culture. 1483. Gathering. 1484. Culture after gathering. 1483. The duration of an asparagus plantation. 1486. To save seed.

ScBSECT. U.—Tlie Sea-Kale 668

1488. Propagation and culture. 1489. Gathering. 1490. The cul- ture after gathering. 1491. Diseases and insects. 1492. The dura- tion of a plantation of sea-kale. 1493. To save seed. 1494. Forcing.

SnBSECT. III. — The Artichoke 670

SuBSECT. IV.— TAe Cardoon 671

1498. Cookery of the cardoon. 1499. Varieties, propagation, &c.

SuBSECT. V The Rampion 672

SoBSECT. VI. — Substitutes for Asparagaceous Esculents . . . 672

Sect. VII. — Aeetariaceous Esculents ..... 673

SuBSECT. I. — The Lettuce 673

1504. Varieties. 1505. Propagation and culture. 150C. Lettuces as small salad. 1507. To save seed.

SuBSECT. II. — The Endive , 675

SuBSECT. Ill The Succory 676

1512. An excellent substitute for the succory.

SoBSECT. IV. — The Celery 677

1514. Varieties. 1515. Propagation and culture. 1516. Trans- planting into trenches. 1517. Blanching. 1518. Late spring celery. 1519. Taking the crop. 1520. Celeriac. 1521. Diseases, insects, &c. 1522. To save seed. 1523. The alisanders. 1524. The Naples parsley.

SuBSECT. V. The Lamb*s Lettuce, Burnet^ the Garden CresSf fVinter

Cress, American Cress, and Water Cress . . .681

SrBSECT. VI. — Small Salads . . ..... 682

Sdbsect. VII. — Substitutes for Aeetariaceous Esculents . , . 593

CONTENTS. XXIll

Sect. VIII. — Adornaeeous Esculents ..... 084

SuBSBCT. I. — The Parsley 68J

SuBSBCT. II. — The Chervil, the Coriander, the Anise, Dill, Fennel,

Tarragon, and Purslane ........ (Jfi4

SuBSECT. III. — The Indian Cress, Borage, and Marigold . . . 686

SvBSECT.IV.— The Horse Radish and Substitutes .... 686

Sect. IX. — Condimentaceous Esculents ..... 687

SuBSECT. I The Rhubarb 687

1551. Propagation and culture. 1552. Substitutes. SuBSECT. II. — The Angelica, Elecampane, Samphire, Caper, c|-c. . 688 1559. Excellent substitutes. 1560. The ginger. 1561. Theflowera of Magnolia grandifl6ra.

Sect. X.—Aromaceotis Esculents ...... 690

1563. The common thyme. 1564. The lemon thyme. 1565. The sage. 1566. The clary. 1667. The common mint. 1568. The pen- nyroyal mint. 1569. The pot marjoram. 1570. The sweet marjoram. 1571. The winter marjoram. 1572. The winter savory. 1573. The summer savory. 1574. The sweet basil. 1575. The bush basil. 1576. The tansy.

Sect. XI. — Fungaceous Esculents ..... 691

1577. The garden mushroom. 1578. The truffle. 1579. The morel. 1580. Substitutes.

Sect. XII. — Odoraceous Herbs ...... C93

1582. The lavender. 1S83. The rosemary. 1584. The peppermint.

Sect. XIII. — Medicaceous Herbs G93

1586. The medicinal rhubarb. 1587. The chamomile. 1588. The wormwood. 1589. The rue. 1590. The horehound. 1591. The hyssop. 1592. The balm. 1593. The blessed thistle. 1594. The liquorice. 1595. The blue melilot.

Sect. XIV. — Toxicaceous Herbs 694

1597. The tobacco. 1598. Propagation and culture. 1599. After management. 1600. Curing. 1601. The white hellebore. 1602. The foxglove. 1603. The henbane. 1604. Walnut leaves.

Supplementary Notes ....... 697

A Monthly Calenbab op Operations . . . . .715

January, 715. February, 715. March, 716. April, 716. May, 717. June, 717. July, 718. August, 718. September, 719. Octo- ber, 719. November, 719. December, 720.

Gp:nehal Index ......•• 721

Addenda ...»•••••• W'

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LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

Tools.

FIG.

PAGE

no.

PAGR

236.

Godsall's budding-knife im-

12. The common lever

130

proved . . . ,

302

13. Kneed lever and crow-bar

130

203.

Splitting-knift and opening pick,

14. 15. Perforators

. 30

for using in cleft-grafting

290

16. Dibbers

. 31

41.

Asparagus knife. . . .

138

17. Potato-dibber .

. 31

42.

The scimitar bill-knife .

138

18. Caat-iron sheaths for dibbers

. 31

43.

Dress bill-knife

138

19. Picks ....

131

48.

Garden-axe

140

20. Draw-hoes .

131

50.

Garden-scythes . . .

140

162. The Leicestershire, or shifting

44.

Garden-saws

139

blade, draw-hbe

232

202.

Bow-saw for cutting off branches

21. Spanish hoes .

132

of trees . . . .

290

23. Thrust hoes

132

45.

Pruning chisels

139

381. Siclile hoe . . .

660

46.

Shears for clipping hedges and

382. Drill hoe .

660

box-edgings

139

22. Lawn scraper .

132

49.

Verge and grass shears

140

24. Spades

133

47.

Pruning shears

139

25. Turf spades

134

243.

Punch used for punching out

32. Transplanting spades

135

shield-buds

306

26. 27. Verge-cutters or -turf-racers

134

28. Garden spud

29. Trowels . . . .

134 135

Utensils.

30. Daisy weeder

135

6.

A fly glass ....

111

31. Saul's transplanter

135

10.

Inverted fiowcr-pot for catch-

33. Dung and tan forks

135

ing mice ....

121

34. Digging forks

. 135

5.

Cap for covering the holes in

36. Garden rakes .

136

the bottoms of pots

96

35 , Daisy and grass rakes

136

65.

Pot carrier . . . .

148

383. Drill-rake

660

SI.

Sizes of flowerpots

142

37. Beetles and rammers

136

52.

Propagating pot

143

38. Wooden mallet and garder

53,

54. Pots with raised bottoms to

hammer

l."7

prevent the entrance of worms

143

39. Garden pincers

137

55.

Pot with channelled bottom.

324. Weeding pincers

381

to facilitate the escape of water

143

335. Orchardist's crook

441

56.

Ornamental flowerpot, with the base serving as a receptacle

luSTHnMENTS.

259.

for drainage water A double pot . . . .

143 331

40. Garden Knives

137

57.

Pot with pierced rims and bands

95. Giafting-knife, reaiio to servf

for introducing wire-work .

143

also for a budding-knife

. 28R

333-342. Sectionsofpots for pines 448

,449

LIST OF ENQBAVINGS.

rxa.

PAGE

58.

Blanching pot

143

.59.

Isolating saucer . . .

144

()0.

Annular water saucer

144

61.

Plant box

145

62.

Sucker, kneed-spouted, and

over-head watering-pots

146

63.

Money's inverted-rose watering

P»t

147

64.

Wire screen for soil, old tan.

or gravel ....

147

66-

—74. Baskets, and illustrations of the mode of making

them . . .349

151

75.

Punnet baskets . . . .

152

323.

Trainer's basket .

37G

76.

Bell glasses . . . .

152

78.

Substitutes for bell glasses

152

77.

Cast-iron hand glass

152

79

Mode of preparing hand glasses

to serve as ily traps , 111

112

Machines.

79. Garden wheelbarrow , ,153

80. Read's garden syringe , , 154

81. Readme pneumatic hand-engine 154

82. Section of Read's pneumatic

hand-engiiie . . . 155

'83, Read's barrow-engine . . 155

84. Read's fumigating bellows . 156

85. Section, of the canister of Read's

fumigating bellows . . 156

87. Powdering bellows . , . 157

86. Iron fumigating pot , . 156 258. Shrub and tree transplanter . 323 261,262. Side, and perspective view

of the girdling machine 347, 348 325, 326. Water-barrow and distri- butor . , . .384

Miscellaneous Articles.

4, Eggs of , the earthworm , . 95

88. Wisps of straw used as pro-

tectors .... 158

89. Mode of making straw mats . 159 90 — ^93. Oiled paper cap for pro- tecting flowers . . . 162

94. Props for climbers . . 163

95. Cast and wrought iron props

for supporting climbers . 164

96—99. Labels and tallies . 165. 166

100. Nailing wallet . , . 167

101. Iron reel and pin for a garden

line . . . . .168

102. 103. Portable ladder open and

shut , . . .168

104, 105. Rule joint and orchard

ladder . . . . ' 169

106. Garden level . . .169

107. Bridge plank for wheeling

across box edgings . ... 1 70

FIG.

108. Leather bearing straps . 264. Wire frame -work for climbing

plants in pots 26€, 267. Wire standard and rings

for supporting climbing plants.

270. Umbrella trellis for climbing

plants ....

271. Trellis over a walk , . . 361. Netting for covering a cherry- garden ....

373. Hooked stick for training prize

gooseberry, bushes . , .

374. Forked stick fop training prize

gooseberry bushes

170

355

355

355 357

557

664

564

Diagrams.

1 . Part of the trunk of a disbarked

lime tree . , . . ' 31

11. Mode of forming a triple f^nce for excluding cattle, sheep, and hares . . . .123

66 — 74. Illustration of the mode

of making baskets . 149 — 151

130. Section of an iron sash-bar . 1.91

131. Section of a wooden sash-bar . 191

133. Vertical profile of part of a

ridge and furrow roof . . 192

134. Section of a dung bed, with a

tube for supplying hot air . 196 155. Lap of glass panes' puttied and

painted . . . . 219

161. Diagrams showing the angle which the blades of draw-hoes ought to make with the handle . . . .232

163. Section of the head of a garden

rake 233

253. Modes of protecting trees from

cattle .... 318

254, Mode of securing newly planted

trees from the effects of high

winds 319

255—257. View, profile, and section

of a tree guard , . . 320

328. Details of a mode of fafiteuing

coverings on frames . . 394

359. Outline of a Pearmaiu apple . 531 270. The term oblate exemplified . 554 372. Section through a cherry'garden

covered with netting , . 557 378, 379. Section and view of a prop

for climbing plants . . 637

380. Sections of ground prepared for

planting potatoes . . 642

Moveable and Portable Garden Structuhes.

109. Wickerwork protector for low

shrubs . . . . 171

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

110. Wickerwork protectors of va- rious kinds . . . 172

111 — 113. Details of a hand box, as

a substitute for a hand glass. 172

114. Iron bracket for supporting a

temporary wooden coping . 174

115. Apparatus for rolling up and

. letting down canvas shades . 1 75 322. Thatched hurdles for protect- ing plants in the open garden. 401 377. Cover for peas and other early

crops ..... 633

Fixed Garden Structures.

2, Sectionof a hothouse heated by

hot-water according to Mr. Fenn's manner ... 85

3. Section of a hothouse heated by

hot-water in the ordinary manner .... 86

116. A stone for fixing temporary

rafters , . . ,179

117. Mode offixing temporary rafters 179

118. Plan of a hollow brick wall . 180

1 19. 120. Plan and end view of a

brick wall 74 Inches thick . ISO 121. Longitudinal section of a liued

wall 182

122, 123. Plan and section of a reed

wall .... 183, 184 324. Trellised arcade for fruit-trees. 186

125. Trellis for climbers . . 186

126. Plan showing the intersection

of trellised walks . . 186

127. Steep-roofed house for winter

forcing of plants in pots , 189

128 Ciirvilineal glass roofs . . 189

129. Ground plan of curviUneal

plant house . . .190

132. Perspective view of the original

ridge and furrow house at

Chatsworth , . .191

135. Perspective elevation and section

of a pinery heated by dung linings .... 196

136. Section of a vinery heated by

dung. .... 196

137. Section of a furnace and double

flue 198

138. Section of a greenhouse, with

reserve flue and common flue 199

139. Section of a common brick flue,

with a zinc cistern over it . 200

156. Section of a span-roofed pit,

with the roof over the path opaque . . . .221

157. Ground plan of a pit to be heated

in Mr. Corbett's manner . 222 159. Section of a pit to be heated by Corbet's system, or by smoke flues 222

317. Section of a pit on MTIiail's principle . . ■ •

332. Stake espalier rail . « -

333. Cast-iron espalier rail .

334. Strained wire espalier rail . .

336. Section of a pine-pit at Oakhill

337. Section of a pit at Oakhill for

fruiting Queen pines .

356, Section of Corbet's cucumber

pit

357. Section of Green's cucumber

pit . 358. Section of Ayres' cucumber house ....

PAGE

393 4-25 426

427 445

448

504

506

508

Hot-water Apparatus.

140.

144.

145.

146. 147.

A hot-water apparatus for cir- culation on a level . . 202

141. Boiler and furnace for heating

by hot water in rising and falling pipes . . . 202

142. Apparatus for circulating hot

water below and above the level of the boiler . . 202

143. Syphon mode of circulating hot

water . . . .203

Hot- water pipe, and reserve

cistern for hot water . . 203 Section of a reserve cistern and

hot-water pipes . . . 204 Perkins's double boiler . . 206 Roger's conical boiler . . 208

148. Mode of setting Rogers's boiler 208

149. Rogers's boiler set with tlie

chimney added . - . 209

] 50. Rogers's boiler with the heat- ing pipe joined to it . . 210 151. Rogers's substitute for a stop- cock . . . .210 666. Rogers's hot- water reservoir , 210 154. Zinc cisterns for double and

single pipes . . . 216

Digging, Trenching, and Ridging.

1 59. A plot of ground properly marked

off for digging or trenching . 229

160. A plot of ground disadvantage-

ously marked off for digging

or trenching . . . 229

160*. A section showing the differ- ence between proper and im- proper trenching . .231

380, Section of ridges prepared for

planting potatoes . . 642

Propagation by Cuttings, Layeks, &c,

164. A slioot improperly, and one

properly cut . . . 236

166. Prepared cutting of a Shaddock 254

LIST OP ENGKAVINGS.

FTO.

167> A cutting of a Cape Heath pre- pared and planted

168. A cutting of an Epacris prepared

and planted

169. A cutting of Acacia alata pre.

pared and planted

1 70. Forsyth's mode of Btriking cut-

tings ....

171. A cutting of Rosa semperflorena

prepared and planted .

172. A piping of a pink prepared and

planted ....

173. A cutting of a pelargonium pre-

pared and planted

174. A cutting of a fuchsia prepared

and planted

175. A cutting ofa camellia prepared

and planted

176. 177. Eyes of vines prepared

and planted 178, 179. The lower and upper half of the leaf of theophrasta rooted and sending up a shoot

180. Wedges inserted above and be-

low buds to check the flow of the sap ....

181. A ringed shoot, to accumulate

sap at the base of the buds, &c.

182, A shoot bent to cause the buds

at the angles to break

183, 184. Layering with the tongue

made in the under and upper

aide of the shoot A stool with shoots layered A petunia layered A carnation layered . . . A cutting layered . A branch ringed, and prepared

for rooting in a case Branch layered in a tin case . Branches of a coniferous plant

pegged down, to force it to

throw up a leader . 193. Injured bulbs throwing up

offsets . . . . â–  Branch of a peach tree protected

by fern , « . .

GRAFTING ILLUSTRATED,

Scion and stock illustrative of the principles on which they are united . . * >

Splice-graftmg in its different

185. 186. 137. 188. 189.

190, 191.

192,

593.

194.

196.

197. The scion with its young shoots

on and the heel of the stock cut off ... '

198. Splice-grafting with a tongue ,

199. Splice-grafting with a shoulder

200. Splice-grafting the peach . .

201. Cleft-grafting

256

256 257 259 259 261 261

262

262

265

268

270 270

271

273 274 275 276 276

276 276

279 279

593

280

288

289 289 289 290 290

^^°- PAGR

204. Rind-grafting . . . . 290 205-207. Cleft-grafting the vine, rose,

and camellia . . , 291

208. Epiphyllum trunc^tum grafted

on Per^skia acule^ta , , 291

209, 210. Saddle,grafting . . 292

211. Grafting the lateral branches of

fruit-trees , . . , 292

212. Side-grafting the orange . . 293

213. Side-grafting the vine . . 293

214. Wedge-grafting , , . 293

215. Herbaceous grafting the pine

and iir tribe . . . . 294

216. Grafting the tree peony on the

tubers of the herbficeouspeony 295

217. Cleft- grafting the dahlia on its

own tubers . . . 295

218. Peg-grafting the dahlia on its

own tubers . . . , 295 219-223. Different modes of herba- ceous-grafting . . , 296

Bttdding Illustrated.

237. The different steps in the pro-

cess of shield-budding , 303

238. Shield-budding the roseinspring 306

239, Shield-budding the ciLmellia in

spring , , , . 305

240, Shield-grafting without a bud . 305

241, Budding with a circular shield 305

242. Budding by the aid of a punch 305

244. Budding with the shield re-

versed . . , . 305

245. Budding with a pointed shield

for resinous trees . . 306

246. Budding with a double shield 306

247. Budding with a square shield . 305

248. Budding with a terminal eye . 306

249. Fiute-budding the mulberry in

spring .... 307

250. Terminal flute-budding inspring

or summer . . . 307

25 1. Flute-budding with strips of bark 307

252. Annular budding . . 308

Inarching Illustrated.

224. A scion and stock prepared for

inarching . . , 298

225. The scion inarched to the stock

and bandaged . , . 298

226. Inarching with the scion and

stock tongued and united but

not bandaged . . . 298 227, 228. A stock and scion prepared

for saddle inarching . . 299 229. A scion and stock united by

saddle inarching . . 299

230—232, Stocks and scion prepared

for inarching . . . 299 233. A large stock and small scion

united by inarching . , 300

LIST OP ENORAVINOS.

V'Q. PACE

2..i4, Inarching with the scion nou- rished by water . . . 300

235. The camellia inarched with the

Bcion nourished by water . 300

Diagrams illustrative of Pruning and Training.

260. Mode of causiug a pear-tree to

produce blossom buds . 263. Mode of nailing a bent shoot

straight .... 265. Mode of training the grape-vine

in pots . . .' .

268. Mode of training climbers on a

wall ....

269. A rose trained in the balloon

manner ....

272. Spiral training, first stage ,

273. Plan of spiral training

274. Elevation of spiral training 275 — 277. Progressive stages of the

spurring-in system . 360, 278. Quenouille training . . 361

280. Conical training . . 361

281—284. Hayward^B quenouille

training .... 362 285 — 288. Progressive stages of fan- training , . . 363, 364 2S9— 295. Progressive stages of Sey- mour's fan-training . 365 — 368 296—298, Wavy-training . 368, 369

345

352

355

355

356 35y o59 360

,361

fig. 299-

307-

312,

314.

315-

319-

343-

348.

349-

360-

369.

375.

330. 331.

374 374

PAGB

-306. Progressive stages of wavy-training . • 369 — »>/2

-311. Progressive stages of hori- zontal-training . • 372, 37a

313. Horizontal and fan-train- ing combined . • • Horizontal and pei-pendicular training combined

—318. Progressive stages of half.

fan training . . 374,375

—322. Progressive stages of per- pendicular-training . 375, 376

-347. Progressive stages of prun- ing the vine . . 456, 457 The Thomery system of train- ing vines .... 453

-355. Hoare's system of train- ing the vine . . 469—472

-368. Spur-pruning the apple

exemplified . . 538—542

Method of training shy-bearing pears ' . . . t550

A trained prize gooseberry- bush 564

Plans of Kitchen Gardens.

A plan containing one acie within the walls, and half an acre in the surrounding slip . 419

A plan containing one aero within the walls, and three- quarters of an acre in the slips 421

THE HORTICULTURIST.

INTRODUCTION.

Hating in a twin volume* treated of Gardening as an Art of Design and Taste, as relates to the laying out of villa residences, the management of pleasure-grounds, and the culture of flowers, our object in the present work is to treat Gardening as a useful Art, as applied to the culture of fruits and vegetables. We shall consider ourselves as writing for grown-up pupils, who have previously known little of the subject; and we shall embrace all that we think will be useful to the possessors of small gardens, whether in town or country, at home or abroad, and whether they belong to the retired citizen, the clergyman, the farmer, the mechanic, the labourer, the colonist, or the emigrant.

The possessor of a garden may desire to know the science and the art of its cultivation for several reasons. He may wish to know whether it is properly cultivated by his gardener ; he may wish to direct its culture himself ; he may desire to know its capabilities of improvement or of change ; he may wish to understand the principles on which the diiFerent operations of culture are performed, as a source of mental interest ; or he may wish to be abl« to perform the opera- tions himself as a source of recreation and health. The last two are by far the most important purposes which this volume is intended to serve ; and hence we shall give, as far as we Qui practicable, the philosophy of every operation of culture, as well as practical directions for the manner in which it should be performed. Some topics we shall illustrate by Notes, in an Appendix at the end of the work ; and. all the technical terms will be foimd explained in the General Index.

We shall commence with some preliminary chapters on Plants, Soils, Manures, and the Operations common to all the departments of garden cultivation ; and we shall next treat, in succession, of the kitchen garden, the fruit garden, and the forcing grounds.

* The Vill» Gardener. 1849. 1 vol. 8to. B

PART I.

FACTS RELATIVE TO PLANTS, THE SOIL, MANURES, THE

ATMOSPHERE, &c., ON WHICH HORTICULTURE IS

FOUNDED.

CHAPTER I.

PLANTS CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR CULTURE IN GARDENS.

It is not our intention to enter into any scientific discussion on the nature of plants ; but it is necessary that we should strongly impress on the mind of the reader who has little idea of their culture, that they are living beings, and quite as sensible of good and bad treatment as animals. Because a part of the leaves and branches of a plant may be cut off, and the remainder which is attached to the root will continue to live and grow, it seems to be inferred that a plant will bear any kind of treatment with impunity. Many persons purchase a plant and plant it in their garden, a3 they would purchase a piece of furniture and place it in a room, thinking that the one act requires no more care than the other. Many labourers, and even not a few gardeners, when planting a plant, insert it in the soil with little more care than they would a stick or a post, crowding all the roots into a small hole and then pressing the earth on them with their feet, with apparently no other end than placing the plant upright and keeping it firm. A person that knows anything of the nature of a plant, and of the manner in which it draws its nourishment, by the means of the points of fibrils so tender as to be rendered useless by the slightest bruise, and furnished with mouths or pores so small as only to be seen by means of a powerful magnifier, will feel this treatment to be barbarous and injurious. Another person, on the contrary, who knows the grateful return that every plant makes to him who bestows on it the cares and labours of culture properly performed, wiU take a degree of interest in the operation of planting, and derive a degree of enjoyment from the future growth and development of the plant, of which a person ignorant of the subject can form no idea. As all men may be presumed to know something of the nature of animals, per- haps the easiest way of giving some knowledge of plants to those who have hitherto paid little attention to the vegetable kingdom, will be by first exhibiting the principal points of analogy between plants and animals, and next noticing the classification, nomenclature, structure, functions, geo- graphy, and habitations of plants.

Sect. I. — The Analogy between Plants and Animals, considered with reference to Horticulture.

1. Plants are organised beings, that, like animals, depend for their exist- ence on nourishment, warmth, air, and light. Their nourishment they derive from the soil, their warmth and air jointly from the soil and the atmosphere, and their light from the sun.

2. Plants resemble animals in having an organic structure endowed with life, and in requiring nourishment to enable them to continue to exist. They absorb this nourishment through the small tubular fibres of their roots in the

ANALOGY BETWEEN PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 3

Eame way as animals do theirs through the small tubes called lacteals, which convey it from their stomachs to their lungs. Plants differ from animals in. boing fixed to one spot, in having the principles of vitality and reproduc- tion diffused over every part of their structure, and in thus being propagated by division, as well as by ova or seeds ; in being without a brain or nervous system, and, consequently, incapable of feeling ; and in light being as neces- sary to their existence as air is to that of animals.

3. The soil in which a plant grows is, in general, as essential to it as the stomach is to an animal. Food, before it can be absorbed into the system, must be reduced into a pulpy mass, consisting partly of nutritious matter soluble in water, and partly of refuse. This process, in regard to animals, is performed in the stomach, and is called digestion; and when it is finished, the lacteals suck the chyle from the mass, and convey it to the lungs, where it is assimilated to the blood, and thence is distributed through the frame, while the refuse is passed off in the form of excrement.

4. The food of plants is rotted, or undergoes the putrescent fermentation or some other species of decomposition, (a process similar to digestion,) in the soil ; and is there brought, by the addition of water and gases, to a sufficient state of fluidity to enable the spongioles of the roots to absorb from it the part necessary for the nourishment of the plant. The matter absorbed is then carried up to the leaves, where it undergoes a process similar to that to which the chyle is subjected in the lungs of animals, and becomes the true sap of the plant, which contributes to its growtli as blood does to the growth of animals.

5. When a plant or an animal is in a state of disease, no application to the leaves and branches of the one, or to the external members of the other, will be of much use, if the soil or the stomach be neglected. The stem and branches of a plant, and the external members of an animal, may be injured, mutilated, and even diseased ; but if the soil of the plant and the stomach of the animal be invigorated, and placed in a healthy state, the whole plant or animal will soon recover from the injuries it had received, so' as to perform all the functions necessary to its existence. The first step, therefore, in cultivating or in improving plants, is to improve the soil in which they grow ; and in like manner the first step in improving animals is to improve the quality and increase the quantity of their food.

6. In all vertebrate animals there is a part at the back of the neck, between the spinal marrow and the brain, where a serious injury will occasion immediate death. There is a corresponding point in plants, between the root and the stem, which is called the neck, or collar ; and at this point plants may be more readily injured than anywhere else. Most plants, also, may be killed by covering this point too deeply with soil. In all seedling plants, this neck or vital part is immediately beneath the point where the seed-leaves originate ; and if the plant be cut over there when in a young state, the part which is left in the ground will infallibly die. In old plants, however, and particularly in herbaceous plants which have creeping stems, and also in various kinds of trees and shrubs, the roots, after the plant has attained a certain age, become furnished with adventitious buds ; and, when the plant or tree is cut over by the collar, these dormant buds are called into action, and throw up shoots, which are called suckers. No suckers, however, are ever thrown up by the roots of a plant cut through at the collar while in its seed-leaves. The branches of a tree may be all cut off

b2

4 ANALOGY BETWEEN PLANTS AND ANIMALS,

close to the trunk, and the roots also partially removed ; but, if the collar remain uninjured, the plant, in suitable soil, and under favourable cii-cum- Btances, will throw out new roots and shoots, and in time will completely recover itself. On the other hand, if the collar be cut ofiP, the stem or trunk is left without roots, and the roots without a stem, or the power (in general) to throw up one.

7. There are some plants of the herbaceous kind (such as the horse-radish, for example) that do not suffer, even if their collar should be buried two feet, or even three feet ; but by far the greater number of plants (such as the hepatica, the common daisy, the common grasses, &c.) are killed by having the collar covered two or three inches ; and nothing is more injurious to woody plants, whether large or small. It is easy to destroy a large tree by heaping up earth round the base of its trunk ; and easy to prevent a small one from growing, by lifting it and planting it six inches or a foot deeper than it was before. Hence the great importance of not planting any plant deeper in the soil than it was before taking it up ; and hence also the reason why trees planted in deeply trenched ground, and especially fruit trees, often disappoint the planter. In planting these trees the soil immediately under and about them is more consolidated by treading and watering than the soil in the other parts of the plantation ; and hence it soon sinks below the general level, to maintain which level the gardener fills up the depression every year, till the collar of the tree becomes buried several inches beneath the surface. It is said that all the peach plantations throughout the United States have been for some years in a state of disease, without any person being able to account for the circumstance, or point out a remedy, tUl one man discovered it to be too deep planting. He proposed to divulge the secret to Congress for a million of dollars; but, while Congress was deliberating on the subject, the secret was made public by Mr. Bridgeman, in a pamphlet published in 1838. The soil in America, Mr. Bridgeman observes, is light ; and the trees, when planted in it, if not staked, are apt to be blown aside, or even blown out of the soil, by high winds. Hence, to avoid the trouble and expense of staking, they are planted deeper in the soU, by which they are held firm, without the aid of stakes, and this is the grand cause of unfruitfulness and disease in all trees, more especially in the peach. This deep planting, Mr. Bridgeman continues, is practised not only with fruif trees in America, but with all other trees and plants whatever; and they are all injured more or less by it, ac- cording as the soil is more or less compact.

8. The cause why plants are so much injured by burying the collar has not, as far as we know, been physiologically and satisfactorily explained.

9. The next point of analogy between plants and animals which it may be useful to notice is that between the lungs and the leaves. An animal can no more live without its lungs than without its stomach. The stomach, as we have seen, is necessary for turning the food into chyle, and the lungs for turning that chyle into blood. Now, a plant can no more live and grow without leaves than an animal can without lungs. The use of the lungs is to expose the chyle to the action of the air, which they decompose, so that its oxygen may unite with the chyle, and thus change it into blood. The leaves of plants, which act to them as lungs, not only decompose air, but light, in the process of elaborating the sap ; and hence plants can no more live without light than without air or food, as light is necessary to turn their food into sap, or, m other words, to bring it into the proper state for

CONSIDERED WITH REPEBENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 5

affording them nourishment. Hence, in the culture of plants, the great im- portance of solar light. An important difference, however, between the cir- culation of the sap in vegetables and that of the blood in animals is, that the former have no heart.

10. Plants and animals agree in requiring a certain degree of temperature to keep them alive ; and the warmth of this temperature differs greatly in the different kinds both of plants and animals. Hence, the constitutional temperature of any plant to be cultivated being known, that temperature must be maintained by art ; either by a suitable situation in the open air, or by its culture within a structure which admits the light, and is capable of having its atmosphere heated to any required degree. The temperature which any plant requires is ascertained by its geographical position in a wild state, making allowance for the difference produced in the habits of the plant by cultivation.

11. Plants agree with animals in requiring periodical times of rest. In animals, these periods are, for the most part, of short intervals of not more than a day ; but, in plants they are commonly at long intervals, mostly of several months. In warm climates, the dormant period of plants commences with the dry season, and continues till the recurrence of the periodical rains, which are peculiar to the tropical regions. In temperate countries, the dor- mant season in plants commences with the cold of winter, and continues till the recurrence of spring. When plants are in a dormant state, they com- monly lose their leaves, and, consequently, at that season, they are unable to make use of the nourishment applied to their roots ; and hence the injury done to them when they arc stimulated with nourishment and warmth, so as to occasion their growth during the period at which they ought to be at rest. Hence, also, arises the injury which plants receive, and especially oulbs, if the soil about them be kept moist by water when they are in a dormant state. Plants, having no feeling in the common sense in which tho word is used, can neitlier experience pleasure nor pain ; but they resent injuries, either negative or positive, by slow growth, or by becoming diseased. By their being fixed to the spot where they grow, they necessarily depend for their food, heat, air, and light, on the cu'cumstances peculiar to that spot ; and, hence, to increase their growth beyond what it would be if left to nature, additional food must be brought to them, and the warmth, airiness, and lightness of the situation increased. Hence, what is called vegetable culture, which, with plants in general, consists in stirring the soil, adding manure to it, regulating the supply of water by draining or irrigation, shel- tering from the colder winds, and exposing to the direct influence of the sun's rays. If we imagine any one of these points attended to, and not the others, the plant will not thrive. Stirring the soU, and mixing it with manure, will be of little use, if that soU be liable to be continually saturated with mois- ture, either from its retentive nature, from springs from below, or from continued rains from above ; or if it be continually without, or with very little, moisture, from its porous nature, the want of moisture in the subsoil, and the want of rain and dews fi'om the atmosphere. Improving the soil, without improving the climate (that is, without communicating a propor- tionate degree of warmth and light), will increase the bulk of the plant, but without proportionately bringing its different parts to maturity. For ex- ample, we wiU suppose two plantations of trees planted at the same time, on similar soil, and in the same climate ; that in the case of the one plantation

6 ANALOGY BETWEEN PLANTS AND ANIMALS,

the soil was trenched and manured, and in the other not; and that the trees were planted in pqual numbers in both plantations, and at the same dis- tances : the trees in the prepared soil would grow rapidly ; and in the un- prepared soil, slowly. After a certain number of years (say twenty), we BhaU suppose both plantations cut down— when the timber produced by that which had grown slowly would be found hard, and of good q"3,lity ; whUe that produced by the plantation which had grown rapidly would be found soft, spongy, and, when employed in construction, comparatively of short duration. The reason is, that in this last case the rate of nourishment to the roots exceeded the natural proportion which nature requires m plants, between the supply of food to the roots, and of light and air to the leaves. Had the trees in the prepared soil been thinned out as they advanced, so as never to allow their branches to do more than barely touch each other, they would have produced more timber than the trees in the unprepared soil, and that timber would have been of equal firmness and duration with timber of slower gi-owth. It ought, therefore, to be strongly impressed on the minds of amateur cultivators, that though nourishment of the root will produce bulk of the top, or at least length of top, yet that it is only by abundance of light and air, that quality can be secured at the same time.

12. One very remarkable point of difference between animals and plants is that which has been before alluded to, viz., the much greater provision which nature has made for the propagation of the latter than of the former. Plants not only produce immense quantities of seeds, which are distributed by the winds and waters, by animals, and by various causes ; but they ex- tend themselves by shoots, which run on or under the surface of the ground, as in the case of the strawberrj', the raspberry, &c. ; and they produce buds, each of which, by human art, can be rendered equivalent to a seed, either by planting it (with a small portion of the plant from which it is taken) at once in the ground, or by inserting it in another plant of the same family. Hence, the great facility with which plants are multiplied both by natuie and art ; with the exception of a few, in which the process of propagation by artificial means is comparatively difficult.

13. Another remarkable difference, also before alluded to, between plants and animals, is, the absolute necessity of light to plants during the whole period of their existence. There are many animals of the lower description, such as worms, to which light, so far from being necessary, is injurious ; and there are instances of even the hiore perfect animals having lived for several years without the presence of light, either natural or artificial. Light is not necessary for either the functions of the stomach, brain, or lungs, in animals ; but in plants, though it is equally unnecessary for the functions of the ger- minating seed, the root, and the collar, it is essentially so for those of the leaves ; and the leaves are necessary to the elaboration of the sap, and, consequently to the nourishment of the plant . A plant, therefore, from wh ich the leaves are con- tinually stripped as soon as they are produced, soon ceases to live. Small and weak plants, from which the leaves are taken off as they are produced, will die in a single season ; and this practice, continued for two seasons, will kill, or nearly so, the largest tree. If, instead of stripping a plant of its leaves, the leaves are produced in the absence of light, and light never admitted to them, the effect will be precisely the same. Seeds germinated, or plants struck from cuttings, in the dark, will not exist a single season ; nor will trees, or tubers, Bucli as potatoes, placed in an apartment from which all light is excluded,

CONSIDERED WITH BEPERENCE TO HOBTICULTUBE, 7

live more than two seasons. Hence, the importance of light to plants can scarcely be overrated ; for, while it has been proved that plants, even of the most perfect kind, will live for many months, or even years, in glass cases in which very little change of air has taken place, there is no instance of plants, even of the lowest kind, such as ferns and mosses, living for any length of time without light. Without light there can be no green in leaves, no colour in flowers, and neither colour nor flavour in fruits.

14. Plants agree with animals in having a sexual system; but they differ from animals in having for the most part both sexes in the same individual. In the improvement of plants, as in the improvement of animals, the sexual system is a powerful agent ; and what is called cross-breeding is employed with as great advantage in the vegetable as in the animal kingdom. It is remai-kable, that the general laws and results by which the process of cross- breeding in both kingdoms is regulated, are the same ; the two parents must be two varieties of the same or nearly allied species, and their qualities may be different, but must not be opposite ; the preponderating influence, in point of character, is also with the male, and in point of bulk and hardiness with tho female, as it is in animals. Many of the finest varieties of fruits, culinary vegetables, cereal grains, and grasses, have been produced by cross -breeding. When cross-breeding is effected between what are considered different species, the offspring is a mule, or hybrid, which, in most cases, is incapable of maturing seeds, and generally, in the course of a few years, degenerates. or reverts to its original parentage. The purple laburnum, which was raised from a seed of the common laburnum, fertilised by Cj^tisus purpureus, is an example of a true hybrid. The flowers partake of the colours of those of both parents ; and the plant, for two or three years, produced only flowei-s of this kind, which were never succeeded by seeds ; but in the sixth year, in some plants, and seventh and eighth in others, branches of Cytisus pur- pureus were produced on some parts of the tree, and branches of the com- mon yellow laburnum on others, the latter bearing seed. (See Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 225 ; and Arb. Brit., vol i. p. 500.) There are, however, instances of mules, or true hybrids, producing fertUe seeds ; for example, Epiphyllum MastersttB, raised between Epiphyllum speciosum and Cereus speciosissi- mus, frequently produces perfect seeds, from which plants have been raised partaking of all the characters of the parent hybrid plant.

15. It would appear, from the case of the purple Laburnum, that a true hybrid or mule cannot always be propagated with certainty, even by por- tions of the plant, or by what is called extension ; since it never can be certain whether the portion taken off for propagation will produce the mule or one of the parents. As it is uncertain what are, and what are not, very distinct species, many of the plants originated by cross-breeduig, and con- sidered mules, may in reality not be so ; and may, consequently, prove per- manent and improved varieties. Some mules, also, such as that between the sweetwilliam and the common pink, are much less liable to degenerate than others. As some of the most beautiful and useful plants in cultivation are cross-bred varieties or mules, particularly among Geraniums, Heaths, Roses, Gloxinia, &c., the subject well deserves the attention of the amateur, who will find it a source of useful amusement and recreation.

16. Plants agree with animals in the ofi'spring, when it is raised from seed, bearing a general resemblance to the parent ; but as, in every family, tho children of the same parent differ individually in features, temper, disposition,

8 CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS,

&c., SO, among seedling plants, from the same seed-pod, no two plants will be found exactly alike ; and some wUl occasionally dififer considerably trom all the rest. Nevertheless, it is an undoubted fact, that aU seedhng plants not only possess the character of the species from which they have sprung, but even, in by far the greater number of cases, some of the peculiarities ot the individual. The seeds of any kind of cultivated apple, for example, will produce plants, the fmit of all of which will more or less resemble that of the parent ; though perhaps some one or two among a hundred may be considerably different. Hence, by selecting from beds of seedling plants those which are in any way remarkably different from the rest, new varieties are procured; and, till within the last half century, (when artificial cross- breedmg began to be practised by gardeners,) this was the only way m which an improved variety of any species of plant was procured. If the seeds of varieties did not produce plants closely resemblmg their parents, how could all the improved varieties of culmary, agricultural, and floricultural plants be pei-petuated ? That the same law which governs herbaceous plants holds good in trees and shrubs cannot be doubted ; and if the seeds of a variegated tulip are more likely to produce plants which shall have variegated flowers than those of a tulip of only one colour, so we should say the berries of a variegated holly are more likely to produce plants with variegated leaves than those of a gi-een-leaved holly. If this law did not hold good in ligneous as well as in herbaceous plants, how are we to account for the different varieties of fl'ibiscus syrtacus coming true from seed ?

17. Plants, like animals, are subject to various diseases, as well as to be preyed on by insects, most of which live on plants till they have completed their larva state. Plants are also injured by bemg crowded by other plants, either of the same or of different species. When these spring up naturally aromid the cultivated plants, they are called weeds, and the cultivated plant is cleared from them by weeding ; as it is in the case of being crowded by its own species, or by other cultivated plants, by thinning. Plants are also injured by epiphytes, which grow on the outer bark, such as mosses and lichens ; and by parasites, which root into their living stems and branches, such as the mistletoe, &c.

18. The life of plants, like that of animals, is limited, but varies in regard to duration. Some plants vegetate, flower, ripen seed, and die, in*the course of a few months, and these are called annuals ; while others, such as the oak and some other trees, are known to live upwards of a thousand years. In both plants and animals decay commences the moment life is extinct ; and in both they are ultimately resolved, first, into a pulpy or other homo- geneous mass, fit for manures, and ultimately into certain gases, salts, and earths. After death, the decay both of animals and plants may be retarded by the same means; viz., drying, exclusion from the air, or saturating with saline or antiseptic substances.

Sect. II. — Classification of Plants, with a View to Horticulture.

19. The number of plants is so immense, and the diversity of their ap- pearance so great, that without some kind of classification or arrangement it would scarcely be possible either to receive or retain any distinct notions respecting them. In communicating some positive knowledge of plants, therefore, the first step is to show the mode of simplifying this knowledge by throwing plants into clashes, and other divisions or groups.

WITH A VIEW TO HOETICULTURB. 9

20. Plants have been classed according to the Linnean or Artificial System, and according to the Jussieuan or Natural System ; but the latter alone is of any use in a work like the present. By the Natural System plants are thrown into easily recognised groups, bearing a general resemblance, both iu exterior appearance and in internal properties, and for the most part also requiring the same kind of culture. Hence we are enabled to speak of plants in masses, which greatly facilitates the discovery and recollection of their names, the acquu-ing of knowledge respecting them, and the communi- cation of what we know of them to others.

21. AU plants may be divided into three grand classes, founded on their structure. The first class is caUed Dicotyledoneae, from the seedlings having two or more seed-leaves, and also Ex6geniB, from the growth being produced from the outside of the stem. The second class is called Monocotyledonese, from the seeds producing only one seed-leaf, and also Endogense, from the growth being added from the inside of the stems. The third class is called Acotyleddnete, from the seedling plants being without proper seed-leaves ; Cel- lulares, from their structure consisting entirely of cellular tissue ; and Acro- gense, signifying increasing by additions to the extremity merely, and not by the formation of new matter internally or externally, throughout their v^hole length, as in endogens and exogens. We shall use only the terms Exogens, Endogens, and Acrogens.

22. Exogens are flowering plants, vascular in their structure, furnished with woody fibre and spiral vessels ; with stems mostly having distinct layers of wood and bark, and having pith ; the leaves being with branching lateral veins, and the seeds vfith two or more cotyledons. By far the greater num- ber of European plants belong to this class, which is readily known, even when a fragment of a leaf or a stem is obtained, by the reticulated venation of the former, and the concentric circles of the latter.

23. Endogens are flowering plants with a vascular structure, furnished with spiral vessels, and imperfectly formed woody fibre ; they have leaves with longitudinal or parallel veins, but never reticulated ; and seeds with one cotyledon only, or, if two, they are not placed opposite and even with each other, as in exogens, but one of them is placed at the side of the other in the disposition which botanists call alternate. This class includes all the immense order of grasses, and also hyacinths, tulips, narcissi, crocuses, irises, and most bulbs ; the well-known yucca or Adam's needle, and all palms. From a single fragment of the stem or leaf\pf an endogen, the class to which it belongs can be recognised with as great ease as in the case of exogens.

24. Acrogens are flowerless plants with a cellular structure, consisting either of cellular tissue alone, as in lichens and mosses, or with tissue and some few imperfect vessels, as in ferns. They grow by additions to the upper extremity only, as the name implies. Their seed is produced without apparent flowers ; it is not furnished with cotyledons, and it grows from any part of the surface of the plant ; on the under side of the leaf, as in most ferns, on the edges of the foliaceous thaUus of lichens, and from the extre- mities on the sides of mosses. This class of plants is easily recognised by the general observer ; lichens, mosses, and fungi being universal, and ferns frequent and readily recognised by the markings on the backs of their leaves.

25. Of these three classes of plants, the exogens are unquestionably the highest in the scale of organisation even to the general observer. The leaves

, of the endogens, at least of temperate climates, are almost all simple, and have little or no variety in their venation or margins. Those of the numc-

10 CLASSIFICATION OP PLANTS,

rous species which constitute our bulbous flowers have all ribbon-like leaves, differing in little except in length and breadth ; and their floral envelopes, though splendid in point of colour, are generally more simple than those of exogens, being often of one piece or of one series of pieces ; and there is also very little variety in their fruit. Compared with acrogens, however, , endogens are still high in the scale.

26. To be able to refer any plant that may be met with to the class to which it belongs, is already a grand and useful step in the progress of bota- nical knowledge ; and in the practice both of botanising and of vegetable culture, it is of more real use than a knowledge of the whole system of Linnseus. The moment one botanist or gardener tells another that a plant is an exogen, he forms a perfect idea of its structure, and even some idea of its culture; because the leaves of exogens are more numerous than those of endogens, and hence, with the exception of the grasses, they suffer less from transplanting and mutilation. The leaves of endogens, on the other hand, as of all the bulbous plants, are compara- tively few, and therefore all of them require to be preserved unin- jured. If they are cut off, either in their growing state or when fully formed, they are not renewed the same season ; and the bulb not being nourished by them, will not flower the following year. Exogens, on tho other hand, may have their leaves cut off without much injury, especially in the early part of the season, as they have an indefinite power of renewing them ; and, consequently, wliat would render an endogen flowerless the fol- lowing year, would have little or no effect on an exogen. Grasses, however, form an order of endogens which possess the same properties of renewing their foliage as exogens ; and hence a grassy surface may be cropped by cattle, or mown with the scythe, all the summer, and yet live and thrive. But sup- pose a lawn composed of plants of hyacinth, tulip, narcissus, or crocus, the leaves of which are not unlike those of the grasses, to be mown when the leaves were fully grown ; in that case the plants would not produce another leaf that season, and instead of a green lawn we should have the naked earth till the following spring.

27. These three grand classes of plants are divided into orders and tribes, genera, species, and varieties. The orders of plants indigenous or cultivated in Britain, amount to nearly 300, and the tribes to perhaps a third of that number. The genera amount to upwards of 4,000, and the species to upwards of 85,000. ( ffort. Brit., 1849.) The varieties of botanists are perhaps 2,000 ; and those of culinary vegetables, fruits, roses, and florists' flowers, may amount to perhaps 20,000. Now, though it is not to be expected that any individual can know, and bear in his mind the names of one-tenth of these plants, yet it is extremely desirable that he should be able to speak of any one of them, when he meets with it, whether it has been previously seen by him or not. For example, a very slight degree of attention to a plant seen for the first time, will enable any one to determine to which of tho three grand divisions it belongs. Next, in each grand division, there are two or three of what may be called popular ordei's, which orders any person may recognise almost at sight; and to these orders belong fully half the plants which are commonly met with in Britain, either in a cultivated or a wild state. A knowledge of the grand divisions of these popular orders, therefore, will be a grand step gained, and give the gardener or amateur a notion of a gi-eat number of plants. The grand divisions .of Exogens are Thalamiflor'aa, Calycifldras, CoroUifldrsa, and Monoohlamydese.

WITH A VIEW TO HORTICULTURE. ] 1

ThaLAMIPLOBjE.

28. This ia one of the subdivisions of Exogens, which is characterised hy the petals of the flowers heing distinct, and by the stamens being fixed to the receptacle. There are fifty-eight orders described under this subclass, in our Hortus Britannicus, of which those which will be most readily recognised by a general observer, or a beginner, are, — jRanunculaceae, Cru- ciferae, Malvaceae, and Geraniaceae.

29. RanunculdcetB. — Calyx with deciduous sepals ; petals 3-15 ; stamens numerous ; carpels numerous and generally distinct ; herbaceous plants, and a few of them suifruticose shrubs, natives of the temperate regions of both hemispheres ; leaves alternate or opposite, generally lobed or much divided ; flowers often large and showy ; properties, acridity and causticity. Familiar examples of this order are, the Clematis, Anemone, Hepatica, Ranunculus, Hellebore, Columbine, Larkspur, Monkshood, and Peony.

30. CrucifercB. — Sepals and petals 4 each ; the sepals deciduous, and the petals always arranged in the form of a cross. Stamens 4 long and 2 short; stigmas 2 ; fruit a pod with seeds in a double line. Herbaceous plants, mostly annuals and biennials, natives of most parts of the world. Leaves alternate, all simple, and not much cut. Flowers yellow or white, rarely purple. Properties antiscorbutic and stimulant, combined with acridity. Familiar examples are the Common Stock, the Wallflower, Honesty, Shep- herd's Purse, Rocket, Cress, Cabbage, Mustard, Sea Kale, and Radish.

31. MalvdcecB. — Sepals and petals five each ; the sepals generally with braots upon them ; the petals twisted before expansion, and unfolding^ snirally ; the stamens numerous and united together, forming a cylinder round the pistillum ; the fruit a ring of carpels, each single-seeded. Herba- ceous plants, trees, or shrubs, natives of every part of the world. Leaver alternate, stipulate, more or less divided. Flowers for the most part showy. Properties, mucilaginous and wholesome. Familiar examples are, the Mallow, the Hollyhock, the Lavatera, the Althaea frutex, and the Cotton plant.

32. Geranidcete. — Sepals 5 ; petals 5 ; stamens 5-10, united together ; car- pels 5, united to a long elastic style attached at the top to the beak of the receptacle. Herbaceous plants or shrubs with stems tumid and separable at the joints ; natives of various parts of the world ; and the more showy species almost everywhere cultivated. Leaves simple, either opposite or alternate, often lobed and divided ; frequently stipulate. Flowers showy and bright- coloured. Properties astringent and aromatic or resinous. Familiar ex- amples are. Geranium, Erodium, and Pelargonium.

33. Other orders belonging to this division, are, —

Magnolikcead, containing the Magnolia and other trees and shrubs, (of which, however, there are very few,) bearing a close resemblance to this well-known ornamental tree. BerberidScete — The Berberry, and similar shrubs. NymphadcecE — The Water-lily, and similar plants. Vapmieracea — Plants with their flowers and fruits of the general structure of the poppy. FumanaceiS— Plants resembling the common Fumitory. Re«erface«— Mig- nonette, and similar plants. Cisiace^B— Cistus-like plants ; easily recognised by their flowers, and for the most part by their rough leaves. , ViolaridceiB — Violet-like plants. Caryophylldcece. — Plants bearing a general resem- blance to the pink. Alsindcece — Chickweed-looking plants. IjindcKai— Plants resembling the common Flax. TiViacecB— The Lime trees. Camel-

12 CLASSIFICATION OP PLANTS,

.'iAceae — The Camellias, including the Tea plant. Aurantiaceai — The Oranp-e trees. HypericdcecE — Plants resembling and agreeing in characters with the St. John's Wort. Acerdcecs — Trees and shrubs resembling the Maple and Sycamore. HippocastandcecB—The Horse-chesnuts. Tropceoldceai — The Indian Cress species. "RalsamdcetB. — The Balsams.

There are a number of these orders, such as Tiliacese, CamelliaceiB, ,4cer- acesB, Hippocastanacese, &c., which include only one or two genera ; and hence, whUe acquiring a knowledge of the order, a knowledge of the genera is obtained at the same time. To recognise these orders, it is necessary for a beginner to see the flowers ; but, after a little experience, most of them may be discovered by the leaves.

CALYCIFLOR-ai.

31. This second subdivision of Exogens consists of plants having several petals with stamens attached to the calyx. It includes about sixty orders, of which the more remarkable are, Leguminosae, iiosacese, Cactaceae, Umbei- laceae, Compositae, and JSricaceae.

35. LeguminoscB. — Sepals and petals five each; the petals papilionaceous, or arranged somewhat like the wings of a butterfly ; stamens ten, mostly diadelphous, that is, in two bundles ; fruit superior, that is, formed above the calyx, and generally becoming a pod. This is one of the most ex- tensive orders of plants, consisting of herbs, shrubs, or trees ; natives of most parts of the world. Leaves generally compound, alternate, stipulate, with the petiole tumid at the base. Flowers in most species yellow, showy. Properties farinaceous, resinous, and furnishing various dyes. Almost all the trees are either useful or ornamental, and many of the herbs are valuable agiicultural and garden plants. Familiar examples are, the common Furze, Broom, Genista, Cytisus, Clover, Lucerne, Melilot, Indigo, LicLUorice, Locust Tree of America, Acacia, Mimosa, Bladder-Senna, Astragalus, Saint- foin, the Tare, Bean, Vetch, Pea. Kidney-bean, Lupine, and Judas Tree. There is scarcely any person who does not know one or other of these plants.

36. 'RosdcetB. — Sepals and petals four to five each ; stamens numerous ; carpels numerous, distinct as in the bramble, or enclosed in a fleshy calyx as in the rose. Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, natives of every part of the world ; many of them producing valuable fruits, and most of them having showy, and in many cases fragrant, flowers. Leaves alternate, stipu- late, simple, or compound. Flowers large, showy, often of bright colours. Properties, astringency, gum, and hydrocyanic acid. Familiar examples are, the Almond, Peach, Apricot, Plum, and Cherry, which form a sub-order called ^mygdalese, the fruit and leaves of all the species of which contain Hydrocyanic or Prussio Acid. The common iSpiraa'a frutex and the yellow- flowered Corchorus are examples of another tribe ; and the Raspberry, the Strawberry, the Potentilla, and the herb Agrimony, exemplify a third tribe. The Ladies' Mantle and the Burnet also represent a tribe ; the Rose forms a, tribe by itself ; and the Hawthorn, Quince, Medlar, Apple, and Pear, represent the tribe Pomacese.

37. UmbelldcecB. — Sepals, petals, and stamens, five each ; styles two ; fruit achenia or pendent seeds; flowers in umbels. Herbaceous plants with f stular furrowed stems, natives chiefly of the northern parts of the northern hemisphere. Leaves alternate or opposite, usually divided or com-

WITH A VIEW TO HORTICULTURE. 13

pound ; rarely simple, sheathing at the base. Flowers in umbels, white, pink, blue, or yellow, not in general very showy ; the umbel surrounded by an involucre. Properties of the leaves, stems, and roots, frequently poisonous, as in the Hemlock, Water Parsnep, &c. ; but sometimes wholesome, as in tho Parsley, Carrot, Parsnep, &c. ; the properties of the fruit are usually warm, aromatic, and wholesome ; gum is produced by some species. Familiar examples are, the Hemlock, Parsley, Caraway, Celery (the leaves of whicli are rendered wholesome by blanching), Angelica, Assafoetida, Fennel, Pars- nep, Cow Parsnep, Carrot, Chervil, and Coriander. Every one is familiar with some plant or other of this order, which may be known from all others by the umbels alone.

38. Composites. — Flowers compound, that is, numbers set closely together on a plate or disk ; anthers united ; seeds solitary, inferior, and mostly crowned with apappus or plume. Herbaceous plants, rarely shrubs; natives of most parts of the world. Leaves usually simple, though often much divided, alternate, or opposite, without stipules. Stamens frequently showy, for the most part yellow. Properties various ; in some astringent, in others resinous, mucilaginous, bitter, diuretic, emetic, &c. Familiar examples are, the Dandelion, the Lettuce, the Sow Thistle, the Endive, the Artichoke, the Burdock, the Thistle, the Everlasting, the Aster, the Golden Rod, the Daisy, the Groundsel, the Ragwort, the Marigold, the Chrysanthemum, (he Chamomile, Tansy, Southernwood, Milfoil, and the Dahlia. All who have seen the latter flower and the common Daisy, may distinguish the plants of this order at a glance, as readily as in the case of Legumin6sse or Umbel- lacese.

39. EncacecB. — Calyx and corolla four to five cleft ; stamens eight to ten ; the latter inserted under the ovai-y ; anthers opening by pores ; fruit four or five celled, a many-seeded capsule, or a berry. Shrubs or under shmbs, natives of Europe, North and South America, Asia, and very abundant in Africa, more especially in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope. Leaves simple, mostly evergreen, without stipules, rigid, entire, whorled or opposite, frequently small and linear. Flowers usually bright-coloured and very showy. Properties astringent and diuretic, and in some poisonous. Familiar examples are, the Arbutus, Andromeda, Heath, Kalmia, Rhodo- dendron, and Azalea. A beginner will more readily recognise this order by examining the flowers and fruit, than by the general aspect and habit of the plant.

40. Other orders belonging to this division, which are easily recognised by those who know the plant after which the order takes its name, are the fol- lowing : — iihamnScese, Calycanthacese, GranatScese, Onagraceae (including the (Enothera and Fuchsia), Philadelphacea, Jkfyrtacese, Cucurbitacese, Pas - sifloraceae, TuTnevdceee, Cactacese, Crassulaceae, Grossulacese, 5axifragacese, Araliaceae, Caprifoliacese, liohelidcea, Campanulaceae, GesneTidcece, and various others. To recognise these orders it is necessary, in most cases, to see the flowers ; but in the case of the UmbellJcese, as already observed, the order may be recognised by the appearance of the flower-stems ; and in Cac- taceae by the stems, and the entire plant. A number of the orders contain only one or two genera ; and though the list has a formidable appearance on paper, yet in the garden the plants of several of the orders occupy but comparatively a small space.

14 CLASSIFICATION OP PLANTS,

CoROLLIFLORjB.

The characteristic of this division is— petals united ; stamens fixed to the corolla. The most important orders are Scrophulariaccs and Labiacese : both very readily distinguished.

41. Scrophulariacea.—CaXyx and corolla irregularly four to five clett; stamens two to four; fruit, a two-celled, many-seeded capsule. Herbs, undershrubs, and occasionally shrubs; natives of, and found in abundance in, all parts of the world. Leaves simple, opposite, whorled, or alternate, with or without stipules. Flowers axillary or racemose, often showy. Pro- perties, acridity and bitterness ; sometimes purgative or emetic. Familiar examples are, Buddlea, Snapdragon, Scrophularia, Foxglove, Eyebright, (Calceolaria, Schizanthus, and Veronica.

42. iaftidcea;.— Calyx tubular, five to ten parted; corolla lipped; sta- mens two to four ; seeds four together, enclosed in a general seed-vessel, superior; flowers whorled. Herbaceous plants or undershrubs with four- cornered stems and opposite ramifications ; natives principally of the tempe- rate regions of both hemispheres. Leaves simple or compound, opposite without stipules; abounding in pores filled with aromatic oil. Flowers sessile, in axillary cymes. Properties tonic, cordial, and stomachic. Familiar examples are. Mint, Savory, Thyme, Pennyroyal, Hyssop, Germander, Rosemary, Day-nettle, Betony, Ground Ivy, Horehound, Lavender, Balm of Gilead, Balm, and Sage.

43. Other orders in this subdivision are :— EpacridaceEe, Cape and Aus- tralian shrubs resembling Epacris, and frequent in greenhouses, flowering in the winter, itfyrsinacese, Jasminaceae, AsdeT^'iaddcecB, Gentiandcece, Bigno- niilceae, Coboeacea;, PolemoniaceEE, Convolvulaceee, BoraginaceiB, Hydro- phyllaceae, Solanacese, Ferbenaceaj, ^cantliacea?, Primulacese, and various others.

Monochlamy'de^.

44. Calyx and corolla not distinct ; that is, the flowers have only a single envelope. The principal orders are Araentaceae and Conifers.

45. Amentdcecd. — Flowers monoecious ; that is, the male and female in separate catkins, but borne on the savne plant; or dioecious, that is, the male and female on different plants. The stameniferous flowers in drooping catkins ; fruit solitary, or aggregate ; in some one-celled, enclosed in a sheathed capsule, as in the Oak, Cliestnut, Beech, Hazel, and Hornbeam ; in others with the fruit small and tufted with fine hairs, as in the Willow and Poplar; and ia others two-celled, with small seeds not enclosed in the receptacle, and not clothed with hairs, as in the Birch and Alder. Trees, and some shrubs ; natives chiefly of the tempemte regions of both hemispheres. Leaves simple ; flowers not showy.

46. ConifercE. — Flowers in catkins generally erect ; fruit a cone, as in Pines and Firs ; sometimes with scales compressed so as to resemble a berry, as in the Juniper and Yew. Seeds naked. Trees, and some shrubs, natives of every part of the world ; often called resiniferous trees. Every one has seen a Pine, a Fir, or a Cedar, and their cones ; and the fruit of the Juniper and the Yew are not uncommon. The Conlferae are frequently spoken of as in two divisions ; the one the jibietinse, or Pine and Fir tribe ; and the other the CupressinsB, or the Cypress and Juniper tribe.

47. Other orders belonging to this division are : — PlantaginesB, plants

WITH A VIEW TO HORTICTJLTTIIIE. 15

more or less resembling the Plantago, or common Plantain, ^mavanth^cese, Chenopodiaceae, Begoniace^, Polygonaceas, iamiSceae, Proteaceffi, rhyme- liEacesB, Enj^hoihidcea, t/rticaceae, r/lmacese, »7uglandaceaB, Empetraceae. Of these tlie Comferaa may generally be known by their foliage; but tfte others, for the most part, require to be seen in ilower, at least by the begiimer.

Endogens.

48. Endogens have no general subdivisions like the exogens ; but their principal orders, with a view to the general observer, are Orchidaceae, Scita- minaceae, /ridaceas, Amaryllidaceis, ^sphodelaceae, TulipdcecB, Palmaoeaa, and Graminaceae.

49. OrchiddceeB. — Flowers of six sepals, irregular ; stamen and style jmited. Herbaceous plants, often with the stems and leaves perennial ; many of them epiphytes, that is, growing on the trunks and branches of trees. Leaves simple, quite entire, often articulated with the stem. The flowers of this order are so remarkable in their external appearance, that when once seen they are easily recognised, either in the indigenous Orchises of British marshes and chalky downs which grow in the soil ; or in the tropical species kept in stoves, which for the most part grow on the bark of the trunk and branches of trees.

.50. SeitamindcecE. — Stem formed of the cohering bases of the leaves ; never branching. Leaves simple, sheathing one another on the stem. Flowers in spikes, racemes, or panicles, with numei-ous bracts. Tropical herbaceous plants, of which the following are examples : the Ginger, the Indian Shot, Alpinia, Hedychium, Plantains, and Bananas.

51. \ridd,cecB. — Flowers superior ; stamens three, distinct, their anthers turned outwards. Herbaceous plants, chiefly bulbs, natives of the Cape of Uood Hope, but many of them also of Europe. Leaves ensiform, equitant, or alike on both sides. Flowers terminal, in spikes, corymbs, or panicles; bright-coloured, large, and showy. Familiar examples are, Iris, Ixia, the Tiger Flower, Gladiolus, and Crocus. The latter flower is familiar to all.

62. jlmarj/ffidaceae. — Flowers superior; stamens six, distinct; tiieir antliers turned inwards. Bulbous-rooted herbaceous plants, natives of most parts of the world, with ensiform leaves having parallel veins. Flowers with sheath-like bracts, large, bright-coloured, and showy. Familiar examples are, the Amaryllis, Crinum, Bloodflower, Hypoxis, Narcissus, Snowdrop, Summer Snowflake, and Alstroemeria.

63. hilideem. — Flowers inferior, of six divisions ; stamens six. Her- baceous plants with bulbous roots, natives of the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere. Familiar examples are, the Lily, the Seilla, the Hyacinth, Fritillary, Dog's-tooth Violet, Tulip, Star of Bethlehem, As- phodel, Butcher's Broom, Solomon's Seal, and Lily of the Valley. The Tulip and the Lily are familiar to every one.

64. Valmdcece. — Flowers enclosed by a sheath, six-parted ; stamens, six ; fruit fleshy or baccate. Trees, sometimes low plants ; always with simple stems, very seldom branched, and having the leaves in clusters at the top of the stem. Leaves large, pinnated or fan-shaped, folded before expansion. Natives of tropical climates, and in Britain only to be seen in hothouses. Familiar examples are, the Fan Palm, the Date, the Sago Palm, and the Xwaia..

66. Gramindce(E. — Plants with hollow round stems, and mostly ever-

16 CLASSIFICATION OP PLANTS,

gveen leaves. Sheaths of the leaves split on one side. Herbaceous pl^n**. and sometimes trees and shruhs, natives of every part of the world, and familiar to all.

66. Other orders belonging to Bndogens are : ^lismacea or Water-Plan- tain-like plants, natives of marshes or standing water. Sutomaceae, the Flowering Rush, the most ornamental of British water plants; Pistiaceae, the Duckweed ; Dioscorace«, the Yam; Tamacese, the Black Bryony, a twmmg plant occasionally found in hedges ; ifmilaceae, the Smilaxes ; Bromeljace«, the Pine Apple; Commelmace«, Spider Wort; Typhinaceae, Cat's Tail; vlroidaceae, the Arums ; Juncaceae, the Rushes; and Cyperace^, the Sedges, which are distinguished from the proper grasses by having solid stems.

AcROGENS.

67. Acrogens, or vegetables which grow from their upper extremities, •.•outain the following principal Orders : i^lliees, il/usci, iichenes, ^'Igse, and i'^ingi.

68. Filices. — Plants often consisting of a single leaf called a frond, mostly without stems ; the leaves are rolled up before expansion, and with equal- sized veins. Herbs, and sometimes trees, natives of every part of the world in moist shady situations. Familiar examples are, the common Polypody of the hedges, which is found also on pollards and large trees in moist situ- ations. Maidenhair, the Brake, the Hart's Tongue, the Osmunda, the Ad- der's Tongue, and the Moonwort.

59. Musci. — ^Leafy cellular plants, with fruit in covered capsules.

60. LicAene.9. — Frondose plants with seeds in receptacles of various kinds, of the same substance as the frond.

6.1. KlgoB. — Cellular water plants, chiefly found in the sea ; bearing fruit in bladders either attached to, or imbedded in, the surface of the frond or loaf-like plate. A common example of this order is the green hair-like Conferva, found in ditches and stagnant waters.

62. Fungi. — Succulent masses without leaves, veins, or fronds, and bearing their sporules, or substitutes for seed, in tubular cells. Familiar examples are, the common Mushroom and Toadstool.

63. Other orders of Acrogens are £quiset&ceEB, or plants resembling the common Equisetum or Horsetail, which to general observers is distinguished by its terminal catkin from the Mare's- tail, in which the flowers are axillary. Characeae or floating water-plants, consisting of a leaf and root ; and Lyco- podiaceae, which are moss-like plants, bearing a general resemblance to the common club moss. All these orders may be recognised without refer- ence to flowers or fruit, and they are chiefly of botanical interest.

C4. If the reader has profited from the preceding part of this section in the manner in which we have wished him, he will have learned, when endeavouring to describe a plant which he has seen to another person who has not seen it, not to begin with the leaves and flowers and similar details, but with the general appearance of the plant, and the resemblance which it has to known plants, either single species, or orders, tribes, or genera. It is in genera] of far more importance to be able to determine the order to which a plant belongs, than its mere generic and specific name ; unless, indeed, the knowledge of this serves as a key to books from which the natural order may be learned, and consequently something of the properties of the plant

WITH A VIEW TO HOHTlCULTt'RE. I J

ascertained. We therefore repeat our recommendation to grown-up pupils, to begin tlieir study of plants by looking at them in masses or groups ; antv wliich they may correct and render more definite the knowledge thus acquired, by a study of all the separate parts of plants. In like manner ii we were to recommend what we consider the best mode of getting a know- ledge of grammar, we should begin with sentences ; or of the exterior effect of buildings, we should recommend, first, attention to the outline and the general masses ; and next, an examination of the doors, windows, cornices and other details; and finally of the bricks or stones of the walls, and the slates or tiles of the roof. To a young person, on the other hand, we should recommend the contrary mode, in botany, in grammar, and in architecture.

65. Besides characterising plants according to the natural orders to which they belong ; when cultivators are speaking of plants with a view to their art, they employ a number of terms which, though not rigidly scientific, are all more or less useful, as enabling us to speak of plants in groups or masses. The principal of these are as follow :

66. Evergreens. — Plants which retain their leaves green throughout the winter. The principal British evergreen trees, are the Coniferae, the Ever- green Oak, and the Holly ; but there are many evergreen shrubs. Evergreen herbaceous plants are not very numerous ; but we have the Pink, Carnation, Sweetwilliam, many of the Saxifrages. Silenes, the Perennial Flax, some Campanulas, and all the perennial Grasses.

66. Subevergreens. — Plants which retain their leaves green through the winter, and drop them in spring, so that they are for two or three weeks without leaves. The principal trees are : the varieties of the Lucombe and Fulham Oaks, Turners Oak, Qu6rcus Psetjdo-jSuber, and one or two others. Of shrubs there are a number j such as Buddlea globosa, Aristotelia Mdcqui, Photinia serrulata, Cotoneaster frigida, some kinds of Genista, Piptanthus nepalensis, Ribes glutinosum, &c. Subevergrcen herbaceous plants are : OBno- thera biennis and several other species, Pentstemon, Chelone, Asters, &c.

67- Persistent-leaved plants are such as retain their leaves after they have withered and become brown, till the spring. Examples of trees are, the Beech, Hornbeam, and Turkey Oak when young, Quercus Tauzin, and some- times the common Oak ; and there are one or two shrabs, such as JZhus Cdtinus ; and some herbaceous plants, such as Pulsatilla.

68. Deciduous-leaved plants are those that drop their leaves in the autumn, which is the case with the great majority of plants, whether trees, shrubs, or herbs, in all extra-tropical countries.

Ct). Ligneous plants are such as have woody stems and branches.

70. Siiffruticose plants are such as have stems intermediate between woody and iierbaceous ; as, for example, the Tree Peony, the Sage, the Carnation, the Tree Lavatera, &c.

71. Trees, when young, are scarcely to be distinguished from shrubs, both coming up with a single stem ; but a tree, if left to itself, ultimately becomes a plant with a single erect stem, and a branchy head. Thus the common Mountain Ash, though it seldom grows above thirty feet high, is a perfect tree ; wliile the common Laurel, which will attain the height of forty or fifty feet much sooner than the Mountain Ash will thirty feet, never has an erect stem, and has generally several stems rising together, and is therefore considered a shrub Trees are comiiK.nlj divided into large, small, and

18 CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS.

middle-sized. Most fruit trees are considered low trees; trees between thirty and fifty feet are middle-sized; and those of greater height large.

V2. Shrubs are either large, as when tliey exceed twenty feet ;smaU, if under four feet ; or undershrubs if under two feet, such as the Thyme and Rosemary, and many Heaths. Shrubs climb by twining, as exempUfied in the Honeysuckle ; by claspmg with tendrils or leaves, as m the Vine, the Five-leaved Ivy, and the Clematis ; or by elongation, as in the Zycmm and .Solanum Dulcamara ; or by attachmentof the rootlets, as in the common Ivy. Shrubs are also distinguished as trailers, when the shoots lie along the ground without rooting into it; as stoloniferous, when the shoots ramble along the ground, and root into it at certain distances, as in the Bramble ; as creeping, when they root at every joint, as in some species of Rhus ; and as recum- bent, when the shoots recline without spreading or rooting, as in many species of Cytisus.

73. Herbaceous plants may also be similarly divided.

With reference to their habits, plants are called alpines, hill, or moun- tain plants, marsh, aquatic, bog, heath, wood, copse, hedge, meadow, and pasture plants. With respect to soil, a very common division is into peat- earth plants or American border plants (from the soil for American plants being generally peat), and common garden soil plants.

Herbaceous plants are also distinguished as florists' flowers, such as the Auricula, Tulip, Hyacinth, &c., which have been long cultivated by florists, who have laid down canons or rules, by which the merits of flowers are to be tested ; border flowers, or such as are adapted for growing in a miscellaneous ornamental border ; botanic plants, or such as are chiefly interesting to botanists ; shrubbery flowers, or such large coarse- growing species as are adapted for gi-owing among shnibs ; rockwork plants, or such as from their native habitation, and low compact habit of growth, are considered as adapted for rockwork ; and pot plants, or such as for the same qualities are adapted for growing in pots. There are also lawn plants, or such as are adapted for growing singly on a lawn, as the Peony ; and covering plants, such as the Terbena Melindren, which are adapted for covering beds and parterres with masses of flowers of the same colour. The common divisions of herbaceous plants into annual, biennial, perennial, bulbous, tuberous, ramose-rooted, and fibrous-rooted, it is unnecessary here to describe.

74. The uses of plants have given rise to several divisions ; such as horti- cultural plants, ag;ricultural, culinary, medicinal, tinctorial, pomological and other plants bearing edible fruit ; grauiferous, pasturage, and herbage plants ; hedge plants, or such ligneous species as are adapted for growing as hedges ; copsewood plants, or such as shoot up freely from the stool or collar when cut down, and are consequently adapted for copsewoods ; seaside plants, or such as are adapted for standing the sea-bi-eeze, &c.

75. Plants are also distinguished as having variegated foliage; or anoma- lous foliage, in which plants having naturally simple or entire leaves, exhibit them occasionally much divided, as in the Fern-leaved Beech, Cut-leaved Lime, &c. ; as having double flowers, which, in the earlier ages of gardening, was considered the greatest beauty which a plant could have; as being dwarfs, and lower than the normal size; or tall, and higher than the normal size. Considered with reference to climate, plants are described as hardy, growing in the open air without protection ; half-hardy, requiring some kind of protection ; frame, requiring the protection of elnas w.;bniii

BTOMENCLATITEE OF PLANTS. 19

heat ; greenhouse plants, requiring glass with heat; and hothouse plants, which may be either dry-stove plants, such as Cacti, Aloes, Crassulas. &c., â– which require a high degree of heat with a dry atmosphere, or damp-stove plants, such as the Orchidaceae, which require a high degree of moist heat.

Sect. III. — Nomenclature of Plants, with a view to Horticulture.

76. The principles on which plants are named ought to be known to the young gardener and the amateur ; partly because they ought not to be entirely ignorant of anything closely connected with their pursuit, and partly hecause the names of plants sometimes indicate ideas respecting their nature and culture. The names of the grand divisions, as we have already seen, are compounded of Greek words expressive of the structure or character of the division or subdivision. The names of the orders are, for the most part, without meaning in themselves, farther than as being the names of certain genera which are considered as the types of the orders, all the plants of which have a close general resemblance to that genus in struc- tu re and properties. The same may be said of the names of tribes.

77. The names of the genera of plants are chiefly compounded of Greek words signifying something respecting the plant, as Chionanthus, snow-flower, from the snowy whiteness of the blossoms, or Gypsophila, because the plant loves chalky soil; or they are commemorative of individuals, as Smithia, after Sir James Smith. Occasionally, but rarely, they are named after countries or a people, as ^rmeniaca from Armenia, and Araucaria from the Arauca- nians, a people of Chili. By far the greater number of generic names are after persons, and those in this volume, and in all our other works, are distinguished by having the letters additional to the name in italics, as explained with other matters at the end of the Preface. Specific names are generally Latin adjectives expressing some obvious quality of the plant ; or proper names used adjectively, to signify the change that has taken place in removing the species from the genus, of which the adjective was the name ; as for example. Veronica Chamaj'drys indicates that Chamae'drys was formerly the generic name of that species of Verdnica. Commemorative names are also used as specific names, sometimes in the genitive case, as Ferbena Drummondj, in- dicating that the plant was discovered or originated by Mr. Brummond ; or with the addition of ana as Terbena Tweedidna, indicating that the plant was named in honour of Mr. Tweedie. Specific names also often indicate the situation or the country where the plant is found naturally, as palustris growing in marshes, or edinburgensis growing about Edinburgh.

78. The names of varieties of plants given by Botanists follow the same laws as those of species ; hut the names given by horticulturists and florists are sometimes indicative of properties, as large, small, &c., and for the most part fanciful, and sometimes whimsical. In general, culinary vege- tables and fruits bear the name of the person who raised them, with the place where they were raised, with or without the addition of some adjective expressing their properties, as Forest's Large Upsal Cabbage, Reid's New Golden Pippin, &c. The names applied to varieties of gooseberries, florists' flowers, and roses, are for the most part given in honour of individuals; some- times they indicate a quality, as Brown's Scarlet Verbena, and sometimes they imply a superiority, or a challenge, as the Top-Sawyer gooseberry, or Cox's Defiance Dahlia. The Dutch give their florists' flowers many high- sounding titles, which at first sight appear ridiculous ; but in giving them

c2

20 STRUCTURE OP PLANTS, CONSIDERED

•tlicy intend at once to compliment their patrons, and to describe sometliing of the nature of the flower: thus the letters W.,Y.,0.,R.,C.,P.,V.,B.,&c., when capitals, are understood to mean white, yellow, orange, red, crimson, purple, violet, blue ; and hence, when a flower is named William the Con- querer, or Wonder of Constantinople, its colours are understood to be white and crimson ; Charming Phyllis, crimson and purple ; British Rover, blue and red, &c. It is always desirable to know the meaning of a name, or even to know that it has no meaning ; in the former case some positive ideas are obtained, and in both the memory is assisted.

Sect. IV. — Structure of Plants, with a view to Horticulture.

79. The anatomy of a plant furnishes us with numerous component parts, of which we can do little else than enumerate those more imme- diately connected with the practice of horticulture.

80. Elementary organs consist of cellular tissue, or transparent vesicles which adhere together so as to form a substance more or less compact, which, in the lea\es, fills up the interstices between the veins, and forms the parenchyma. Woody fibre is an elementary organ consisting of elongated tubes, which are found more or less in most plants, and especially in the wood and inner bark, among parenchymous matter. Spiral vessels consisting of elastic tissue twisted spirally within a membrane, are found in the medullary sheath, but rarely in the wood, bark, and root, and they scarcely exist in acrogens. Plants furnished with them are called Vascu- iares ; a term which includes both exogens and endogens : and plants without them are called Cellulares, in which the acrogens are included. Other forms of elementary tissue are : the ducts, which are transparent tubes marked with lines or dots ; the cuticle, which is a thin skin covering the leaf; and the stomata, which are pores scattered over the cuticle, or epidermis, of the leaves. Grafting and budding are founded on the affinity of the elementary organs in difi^erent species.

81. Compound organs are combinations of the elementary organs and consist of the axis and its appendages ; two words which comprise the whole vegetable stmcture. The axis may be compared to the vertebral column of animals, and is formed by the development of a seed, a bulb, or other germ or of a leaf-bud. An embryo is the origin of a plant contained within a seed, and it differs from a bulb or bud in bemg produced by the agency of sexes. When a seed or a bud is excited by its inherent vital action, the tissue of which it is composed, and which has the power of generating new tissue t)y the growth of one elementary vesicle out of another, developes itself in three directions, upwards, downwards, and horizontally. The part which descends is called the descending axis or root ; the opposite part the ascending axis or stem ; and the horizontal elongations, which are chiefly leaves and buds, are called the appendages of the stem.

82. The root begins to be formed before the stem ; from which it differs anatomically, in the absence of spiral vessels, of pith, of buds, with certain exceptions, and of stomata. The uses of roots are to fix plants in the soil and to absorb nutriment from it by their spongioles.

83. The stem is generated by the development of the plumule of the seed, and incrpa.<)ed by the development of leaf-buds. Tf a rmg of bark be cut off from the <)tn-n of au exogenous plant, liolow a branch or even at the base of a Rowing shoot of the current year covered with leaves, or if a ligature be

WITH A VIEW TO HOKTICULTUHE. 21

made round the stem in a similar situation, the part of the stem above the wound or ligature swells and increases in thickness, while that below it does not ; a proof that, in exogenous plants, the matter by which stems are thick- ened descends. Hence, when a shoot is cut through immediately below a leaf-bud, the portion of the shoot left dies back to the next bud. Hence, also, has arisen the technical expi-ession of " cut to the bud ;" which means that, in pruning or cutting off a shoot, the section should be made so close to a bud as that the wound may soon be healed over, and no stump left, as is the case in gardens where trees have been carelessly pruned. The greater the number of leaves on a shoot, or of leaf-buds on a stem or branchj the greater will be the diameter of the parts below the leaves, buds, or branches, and the contrary.

84. Stems are either exogenous, growing from the outside ; endogenous, growing from the interior ; or acrogenous, growing by elongation or dila- tation, and mostly without buds. Exogenous stems consist of the pith, a fungus-like matter occupying the small cylindric space in the centre of the stem, and never increasing in diameter; of the medullary sheath, consisting of a thin cylinder of spiral vessels and ducts immediately surrounding the pith ; and of the wood, which surrounds the medullary sheath in the form of concentric layers, which layers are penetrated by projections from the pith called medullary rays. In general every concentric layer requires a year for its production ; and henoe the age of a tree may be known by the number of rings shown in the section of the main stem. In woody stems of several years' growth, the interior of the wood is rendered hard by the deposition of secreted matter, and is called heartwood ; while the more recent exterior layers are known as soft wood or alburnum.

85. The ba7'k surrounds the young wood, and like it consists of concentric layers, one being added yearly on the inside, between the previously ex- isting bark and the alburnum. Every layer of bark consists of woody fibre, and duets covered with parenchymous matter ; the two former constituting the liber, or inner bark, and the latter the cellular integument, epidermis, or outer bark. The uses of th« bark are, to protect the alburnum, to servo as a channel for the descending sap, and sometimes to serve as a medium for the deposition of the peculiar properties of plants.

86. The medullary rays or plates consist of compressed vertical parallelo- grams of cellular tissue, which connect together the different layers of wood, and serve, at least in trees that are without dead wood in the centre of their stems, as a communication between the pith and the bark. Between the liber and the alburnum, a viscid secretion is found in spring, which renders trees easily disbarked at that season, and this secretion is called cambium. It has been supposed to nourish the descending fibres of the buds, and to originate medullaiy rays.

87. Endogenous plants have stems which offer no distinction of pith, medullary rays, wood, and bark ; the whole structure being composed of bundles of vascular tissue among a mass of cellular tissue, surrounded by a zone of cellular tissue and woody fibre : but, as this exterior zone is not sepa- rable from what it encloses by any natural division, it is consequently not bark. Endogenous stems increase by the successive descent of new bundles of vascular tissue into the cellular tissue towards the centre of the stem, and these bundles of tissue gradually distend those previously formed, by which means the diameter of the stem is slowly increased in thickness, and its circumference in hardness. After this hardness has reached a certain

22 STRUCT0BE OF PLANTS, CONSIDERED

point, it can no longer be distended, and the diameter ceases to increase. Hence, generally, the life of an endogenous tree seems more limited tnaii that of an exogen ; because it is well known that trees of the latter kind will live for an indefinite period, and even for centuries, after the interior of the trunks have become entirely rotten, and .their circumference separated so as to form vertical sections, or fragments of trunks, with rotten wood on one side, and living bark and growing shoots on the other ; the increase both of bark and wood still going on. Endogens differ from exogens m commonly developing only a termmal bud, as in Palms, in which case the stem is of the same thickness throughout, and cylindrical; but when several buds deve- lope themselves, as in the stem of the Asparagus, and in that of the Bamboo, the stem becomes conical like the stems of exogens.

88. Though the normal direction of stems and branches is upwards, or at all events above the surface of the ground, yet there are exceptions in the case of creeping roots, as in the Everlasting Pea ; in rhizoraas, which are un- derground stems, as in the Water-lily, and the common Reed ; in tubers, which are stems under the surface, as in the Potato ; and in corras, as in the Crocus, the root of which, though commonly called a bulb, is, botanically, a dilated stem.

89. Nodi, or knots, are the places where buds are formed, and intemodla the spaces between them Whatever is produced by a leaf-bud is a branch, which, when in a growing state, is called a shoot. Leaf-buds sometimes are imperfectly developed so as to form a spine, with or without leaves, as in the common Hawthorn ; and such spines are therefore imperfectly developed branches. All growths from the stems which are not the evolutions of leaf-^ buds, as for example the prickles, are modifications of the cellular matter, and of the epidermis of the bark. The uses of prickles to the plant ajipear to be imperfectly understood.

90. Buds ai-e either leaf-buds or flower-buds, and the former are either regular or adventitious. Regular leaf-buds are only found in the axils of the leaves, or in the axils of their modifications. Hence, as scales, stipules, bracts, sepals, petals, stamens, and carpellas, are considered as metamor- phosed leaves, adventitious buds are believed to exist in their axils ; though they are rarely developed in a state of nature and only sometimes by artifi- cial processes. Regular buds alone develope themselves untouched by art or accident ; and, hence, whatever may be the arrangement of the buds, the same will be that of the branches. Adventitious leaf-buds are found surrounding the bases of regular leaf-buds, and in general where there is an anastomosis of woody fibre. They are found in the roots of a number of plants, and sometimes on the margin of leaves, or at the base of their petioles ; they are never visible either on the root or stem till they begin to develope themselves and burst through the bark.

91. Leaves are expansions of the bark, and only found at the nodi of the stem. They are developed as the stem advances in growth, one above and aftPr another, opposite, alternate, or verticillate, and in each of these modes with greater or less regularity. A complete leaf consists of a petiole or foot- stalk, a lamina or disk, and a pair of stipulse or small side leaves at the base of the petiole. The lamina is sometimes wanting or changed in shape, and sometimes the petiole is extended, and instead of terminating in a lamina, it assumes a cylindrical wirelike figure, and becomes a tendril. The veins of leaves luanch in all exogenous plants, with the exception of the orders Coni- ferso and Cycadeee, the stems of which have an exogenous structure, while

WITH A VIEW TO HORTICULTURE. 23

the veins are parallel like those of endogens. The veins of a leaf are in two strata, the one forming the upper, and the other the under surface ; the former conveying the juices from the stem for elaboration, and the latter returning them when elaborated. Simple leaves have undivided laminae, or laminae divided hut not articulated ; in the latter case it is a compound leaf, as in the Mimosa, and in what would, at first appearance, seem a simple leaf, the Orange. Some leaves have a power of producing leaf-buds, but com- monly not till they have dropped off and lain some time on moist ground, as in Bryophyllum, Malaxis, and some tropical Ferns.

92. Hairs are minute expansions of tissue, found occasionally in all parts of the plant above ground, but chiefly on the under surface, and they are in- tended for the purposes of secretion, for the control of evaporation, and for the protection of the surface on which they are placed.

93. Flower-buds consist of floral envelopes and sexes, and they either pro- ceed from the axillae of common leaves, or from those of bracts or floral leaves. The floral envelopes are connected with the stem by a peduncle. The modes in which flower-buds are arranged on a stem, whicli are various, are called the forms of inflorescence ; and the order in which they expand is called the order of expansion.

94. Inflorescence is the ramification of that part of the plant bearing the flowers, and it is in general either terminal, that is, at the end of the branch ; or axillary, proceeding from the axils of the leaves. Both these kinds of inflo- rescence assume a great many dificrent forms which cannot be here detailed.

96. The floral envelopes consist of the calyx and corolla, both of which are generally present, but sometimes only one, which in that case is considered the calyx ; and sometimes both are wanting, as in apetalous flowers. The divisions of the calyx are called sepals, and those of the corolla petals.

96. The sexes of plants consist of the male organs, or stamens, and the female organs, or pistilla, with a process, usually an annular elevation, which occurs between them, refen'ed by former botanists to the nectary, but now called the disk. The pistillum occupies the centre of the flower within the stamens, and it consists of three parts, the ovarium, the style, and the stigma. The ovarium is the lowest part, and encloses the ovula or young seeds, in one or more vacuities called cells ; the stigma is the summit of the pistUlum, which is connected with the ovarium by the style. This last part is sometimes wanting, but the ovarium and stigma are always present. Those parts of the pistillum which remain, and continue growing after the floral envelopes and the stamens have decayed, are called carpels, which are sometimes united, as in the Poppy, and sometimes separated, as in the Ranunculus.

97. The ovulum is the infant seed united to the interior of the earpella by the placenta, to which it is attached by the funiculus, podosperm, or umbilical cord.

98. The fruit, in a strict botanical sense, is the mature pistillum ; but, in a less strict sense, it is applied to the pistillum and floral envelopes taken together, and united in one general mass. All fruit, except those of the Coniferae and Cycadeae which have no ovarium, indicate upon their surface some traces of a style ; and, wherever this is the case, what are apparently and commonly called seeds, as the grains of Corn and other Grasses, are pro- perly fruits. When, the pistillum has become mature fruit, what was tlie ovarium takes the name of peiicarpiuni.

2i FUNCTIONS CF PLANTS, CONSIDERED

99. Fruits are either simple, proceeding from a single flower, as in the Poppy, Rose, Strawberry, Apple, &c. ; or compound, formed out of several flowers, as in the Mulberry, the Fig, and all the Coniferffi. When simple fruits are formed of a single carpellum, they are called follicles, as m the Peony ; legumes, as in the Pea; drupes, as m the Peach; akenia, as in tlie strawberry ; cariopsis, as in Corn ; or utricles, as in the Chenopodium. The capsule is a many-celled dry pericarpium, as in the Poppy ; the silique is a pod, consisting of two or four carpella, as in the Cabbage tribe, and all the Cruciferae. The nut or gland is a dry, bony, one-celled fruit, enclosed in an involucmm, cupula, or cup, as m the Oak ; the berry is a succulent fruit, the seeds of which lose their adhesion when ripe, and lie loose in the pulp, as in the Grape and the Gooseberry ; the Orange is also a berry separable into an epicarp, or outer skin, and endocarp or central part in which the seeds are fixed, and a saroocarp or fleshy substance between the epicarp and the endocarp ; the pome consists of two or more inferior carpella united, as in the Apple ; and the pepo is a pulpy fruit in which the seeds are embedded, l)ut their point of attachment never lost, as in the Cucumber. Of all these fruits, the most remarkable are : the Pine -apple, which is a spike of inferior flowei-s grown together into a fleshy mass ; the Fig, which is the fleshy hollow dilated apex of a peduncle, in the interior of which the flowers are arranged, each flower containing a one- seeded pericarpium; and the cone of the ^bie- tinae, which is an indurated amentum ; and when reduced in size, and ita scales so firmly adhering as almost to resemble a berry, is called a galbulus, as in 3'huja and t/unlperus.

100. The seed is a mature ovulura, and consists of the integument or testa, the albumen or perisperm, and the embryo, which consists of the cotyle- dons, the radicle, the plumula, and the collar or neck. As all ovula are enclosed within an ovarium, and all seeds are matured ovula, there can be no such thing as naked seed, except in Coniferse and Cycadese, in wliich the ovula are destitute of every covering, and exposed naked to the influence of the pollen. In consequence of some ovula rupturing the ovarium in the course of their growth, the seeds become naked, as in Leontice ihalic- troides ; while in some, as in iieseda, the ovula are imperfectly protected by the ovarium, and in that case also the seeds are naked. When a seed is separated from the placenta, and the umbilical cord is removed, a scar appears on the point where it was attached, which is called the hilum or umbilicus. It is very distinct in the common Bean, and in all the Legu- minosae. The hUum always represents the base of the seed, or that part whence the roots proceed ; and hence it ought to be placed undermost when the seed is committed to the soil. In curved seeds, however, as in the Mignonette, the apex and base are brought together; and in sowing such seeds they should be laid on their side. There is much to study on the subject of seeds, both with a view to a scientific knowledge of plants and to their culture, and we must therefore recommend the reader to study either Lindley's Outlines of the First Principles of Botany, or his Introduction to Botany, 3rd edit., 1839 ; the last being by far the most complete work of the kind extant.

Sect. V. — Functions of Plants, with reference to Horticulture.

101. The development of a plant takes place in consequence of the elas- ticity, excitability, and hygroscopicity of its tissue ; and it requires the

WITH REFEHENCE to HORTICULTtTRE. 25

presence : 1. of •' substances containing carbon and nitrogen, and capable of yielding tlieso elements to the growing plant ; 2. of water and its elements ; and 3, of a soil to furnish the inorganic matters, which are likewise essential "to vegetable life." (^Liehig, p. 4.) A summary view of the whole process of vegetable development is thus given by Professor Henslow : " Plants absorb their nutriment by their roots ; this nutriment is then conveyed through the stem into the leaves ; there it is subjected to a process by which a large proportion of water is discharged ; the rest is submitted to the action of the atmosphere, and carbonic acid is first generated and then decomposed by the action of light. Carbon is now fixed under the form of a nutri- tive material, which is conveyed back into the system ; and this material is farther elaborated for the development of all parts of the structure, and for the preparation of certain secreted matters which are either retained within or ejected from the plant." (^Descriptive and Physiological Botav-y, p. 176.) This short passage comprehends the essence of all that can be said on the subject of vegetable development ; but, for the purposes of horticul- ture, it will be useful to go moi'e into detail, and to consider vegetable de- velopment under the form of germination, growth, function of the leaves, action of the flowers, and maturation of the finait and seed.

102. Germination. — The seed containing an embryo plant, its develop- ment is effected by its being placed in suitable circumstances for that purpose. These are, moisture, warmth, the absence of light, and contact with air ; to which may be added, with a view to cultivation, the presence of soil. The undeveloped seed is principally composed of concentrated carbon ; and, in the act of germination, this carbon, by the absorption of water, is converted into mucilaginous matter, which is decomposed and rendered soluble by the oxygen of the atmosphere. Thus it appears that the first act of germination is to reverse the process of maturation ; and hence the reason why all seeds, if sown fresh when they are nearly ripe, will germinate more speedily than when fully ripe ; and when fully ripe, sooner if sown immediately than if kept for months or years. The soluble mucilage of the cotyledons supplies the embryo plant with nourishment till it is able to extract food from the soil, after which it absorbs food from the soil by the points of its radicles. Seeds will not germinate without the presence of oxygen. In nitrogen, or in carbonic acid gas, if moistened with wafer, they will swell, but not vegetate. Hence seeds excluded from the atmosphere and from water may be preserved from decay for an indefinite period ; but it does not follow that during the whole of this period they will retain their vital principle. The presence of light is not only unnecessary to the germination of seeds, but injurious; and hence, in horticulture, they are always more or less buried in the soil, generally to a depth equivalent to the diameter of the seed. The temperature required to germinate seeds varies from 32° to 80° or 90° ; and some seeds, such as those of the Roblnio Pseud-^cacia, and of some species of Australian Acacias, may be immersed in water at the boiling point, and kept for some minutes in it, without destroy^ ing vitality. The seeds of no plant wiU vegetate under 32°, because below that degree water freezes, and consequently could not be absorbed by the tissue of the seed. The common Annual Grass (Poa annua) will vegetate at, or very slightly above, that temperature ; as will the Chickweed (^Isine media), the common Day-Nettle (iamium rubrum), and various others. The process of malting barley is exactly the same as that of germinating a seed. By moistening the barley, it swells, the starch of the cotyledon is changed

26 FUNCTIONS or PLANTS, CONSIDERED

into sugar, and absorbed by the embryo, the radicle being protruded at one end of the grain or seed, and the plumule or commencement of the stem elongated at the other.

103. Growth in plants is effected, not as in animals by the expansion of all the parts of the embryo, but by additions to it. Thus roots and sterna lengthen by matter added to their extremities ; and are thickened by layers of matter deposited on their surface in the case of exogenous plants, and in the interior of thek stems and roots in the case of enddgens. In the embryo, the root first begins to move by the extension of all its parts, but imme- diately after it is protruded into the soil, and the young stem is elevated into the air, the root ceases to increase by the general distention of its tissue, and grows by the addition of new matter to its point. Hence the extreme delicacy of the points of young roots, which, like all the newly formed parts of vegetable matter, are extremely hygrometrical, absorbing water like a sponge, and hence are called spongelets or spongioles. Roots, from their organic structure, are not permeable by water throughout their whole length, and it is only by means of the spongioles at the extremities of the small fibres that they absorb nourishment. In general, the buds of plants have a power of producing roots from their base, in a manner analogous to seeds ; but much greater care is required on the part of the cultivator to bring about this process, and with many plants it wiU not succeed. In some, it may be effected by taking off a mature bud, and placing it in the soil, like a seed ; but, in most plants, it is requisite to preserve a portion of the stem along with the bud, as in striking Vines by buds ; in others it is re- quisite to have a plate of the bark, with or without a portion of the soft wood, as in propagating by budding on the living plant ; and in some a leaf or leaves are requisite. Roots are also protruded from all parts of the stems of some plants, as of most kinds of Willow ; and from the joints imme- diately under the buds of most plants. On this last property depends the art of propagating plants by cuttings inserted in the soil. In some plants cuttings of the matured wood without leaves will emit roots : but in many others, and indeed in most plants, roots are most freely produced from cuttings of unripe or partially ripened wood, with the leaves on, and in a growing state ; and even in those cases in which roots are produced fi-om cuttings having no leaves, if leaves are not speedily produced, the roots will decay, and the cuttings will die. In short, the connexion between leaves and roots is as intimate in cuttings, whether of stems, branches, or tubers, as it is betv/ecn the radicle and the plumule of the seed. A portion of the tuber of a Dahlia, which has no bud, will produce roots ; and we have known these to live, and the tuber to remain fresh, for upwards of a year, without leaves having been protruded ; ultimately, however, the roots decayed, and the tubers soon after- progress of the plant, in the growing season, yet they continue to perform their office even in the winter season, unless the soil which contains them should be frozen. In this case they are much injured, and the spongioles are wards rotted. Though roots are most active, and most essential to the ruptured and destroyed ; but, when the growing season returns, new spon- gioles are formed, commonly branching out from the fibres more numerously than before. This result is sometimes produced by overpowerful liquid manures poured on the roots of plants, which destroy the spongioles, and cause the fibres to throw out a greater number. As plants absorb their food chiefly, and almost entirely, by their roots, and as it has been proved that in general the spongioles have no power of selection, it follows that plants may

WITH REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 27

he poisoned in the same manner as they are nourished ; and hence it has been found that solutions of opium, mercury, arsenic, and even common salt, presented to the roots of plants, will destroy their vital powers. In general the roots of plants are not furnished with buds, and hence roots cannot be used in propagation in the same manner as branches : nevertheless, there are numerous exceptions, and some extensive orders of plants, such as the iJosacese, Campanulaceae, Cruciferse, and some of the Amentaceae, have roots abounding in adventitious buds ; and if these roots are cut into por- tions, and planted in the soil with the part of the root which was next the stem uppermost, and theu- points exposed to the air, or very slightly covered, they will produce plants. This, however, is never the case with the roots of annuals or biennials; and hence, in CrucxfersB, while the common Sea-kale produces buds in abundance from the cuttings of the roots, the same thing never takes place in the common Cabbage. The nature of plants in this respect is very different ; for while the fasciculated tubercles of the Dah- lia, if deprived of the plate which produces the buds, have no power of originating fresh budSj yet the tubers of the common Peony so treated produce them freely.

104. Every plant contains nitrogen in its albumen and gluten, and it has been found that this elementary principle abounds in a particular manner in the spongioles of the roots, and in all the newly-formed parts of plants, and that those seeds germinate the earliest which contain the largest quantity of nitrogen. Hence the great value of animal manures to plants, all of whioh contain nitrogen ; but especially those of carnivorous animals. (JL,ieb. p. 190.)

105. The stem of plants is not protruded so early as the root ; but as soon as the latter is in a state of action, and has penetrated a few inches into the soil, the seed-leaves appear above the surface, and from the centre of these arises the stem. Both the roots and stems of plants, when first springing from seed, are perpendicular to the earth's surface, or, in other words, they extend in the direction of radii from the earth's centre. The root, which penetrates downwards, always avoids light ; and the stem, which rises upwards, as constantly seeks the light, and avoids darkness. There are some apparent exceptions to this law ; as, for example, in the Mistletoe, the seeds of which, when deposited on the under side of a branch, send their radicles upwards, and their stem downwards ; and this may perhaps also be said of some orchideous epiphytes ; but, in general, few laws are so universal as that of the ascending and descending axis of a plant being always in the direction of a radiating line from the centre of the earth.

106. The stem at first is a mere point, scarcely so large as to be recognised as a bud ; but, as soon as it feels the effect of the nutriment impelled into it by the growing root, it becomes developed, enlarged, furnished with leaves, and solidified. From being a small portion of cellular tissue, possessing neither strength nor tenacity, it becomes, by the formation of woody matter, a slender rod or shoot, sufficiently firm and tough to require an effort to sepa- rate it from the root ; and in a short time it adheres to the latter so firmly, as, when drawn up forcibly, to pull the entire plant out of the soil.

107. Before the formation of leaves on the stem, it is quite succulent, and without woody fibre ; but, as soon as the leaves appear, woody matter is deposited in the form of tubes of extreme fineness, which, originating in the leaves, pass downwards through the cellular tissue, and are incorporated with it, so as to add to its bulk, strength, and flexibility. The first woody matter

28 FUNCTIONS OF PLANTS, CONSIDERED

arises from the base of tlic SRed-leaves, and is in general in very small quantity ; but, as soon as the proper leaves appear, the quantity of woody matter formed is considerable, even during the first growing season.

When this woody matter first penetrates the cellular tissue of the infant stem, it forms a little circle within its circumference, and thus separates the interior of the stem into two parts. These parts are, the bark or exterior portion, and the pith or central part ; and between these, at least in all exogens, there is a third portion, which constitutes the wood.

108. Organically, the stem may be said to consist of two parts : the cellukr tissue, which is not, from its nature, capable of increasing by growth more in one direction than in another ; and the woody fibres, which are trans- mitted from the leaves through the stem, and down into the roots. In speaking of the construction of stems, the cellular tissue in them is called the horizontal system ; and the woody fibres, as they increase longitudinally by the addition of new fibres or tubes having the same lengthened dh-ection. as themselves, are called the perpendicular system.

109. Wood, in exogenous plants, consists chiefly of the perpendicular sys- tem, while the pith in the centre of the stem, and the bavk on its circum- ference, are chiefly formed of the horizontal system. The bavk communi- cates with the pith by the continuation of the cellular tissue through the woody fibres ; and the cellular tissue, seen among these woody fibres in the section of a tree made smooth by the plane, is called the medullary rays, from the pith in plants being supposed analogous to the medulla of animals. Hence the section of the trunk of a tree has been compared to a piece of cloth ; the horizontal system, or medullary rays, representing the woof, and the woody system the warp.

110. ^yhen a stem is injured by the removal of a portion of the bark of such a depth as to reach the wood, the wound is healed over; firet, by the cellular matter oozing out of the last-formed wood, and granulating on the surface ; and secondly, by this ".ellular matter being penetrated by the fibres of the perpendicular system. Rings of bark are frequently cut from the stems of trees for the purpose of checking the returning sap, either to cause the tree to produce blossoms, or for the purpose of inducing the stem or bi'anch to throw out roots along the upper edge of the part from which the bark has been taken. The immediate effect of the process is the protrusion of granulated matter, or cellular tissue, along both sides of the wound, but especially on the upper side. Now, if the wound be surrounded with a quantity of moss, tied firmly on, and kept moist, the perpendicular system, or ligneous fibre, will penetrate through the granulated matter, and become roots ; while no roots whatever will be protruded from the granulated matter on the under side of the wound ; thus proving, firstly, the truth of the theory of the perpendicular system ; and secondly, that roots, in gi-owing plants, are formed by the protrusion of woody fibre through cellular matter. The first process of nature, when a cutting is formed and planted in the soil, is to protrude cellular matter round the edges of the section of its lower extremity ; this protmded matter, or callosity, as it is termed by cultivators, sometimes remains for several months before it undergoes any change ; but ultimately, if the cutting succeeds, the perpendicular system passes through it and appears in the form of roots, and the cutting is established as a plant. If a cutting be planted in the soil in an inverted position, though the portion in the soil be cut and urepared as in cuttings treated in the usual

WITH REFERENCE TO HORTICULTtTRE. 2!)

manner, yet in general it will neitlior produce a callosity nor roots ; though there ai-e some exceptions, as in the Willow tribe, and of these if the cutting is prepared at both ends,-and laid horizontally in the soU, then at both enda callosities, and ultimately roots, will be formed. Hence a shoot of a Willow inserted in the ground at both ends, being bent for that purpose so as to form an arch, will root at both ends ; but this is a result that wiU happen ia the case of very few plants.

111. The bark consists of two parts; the outer bark, formed entirely of cellular matter, and resting on the liber or inner bark ; and the inner bark, which consists partly of woody, and partly of cellular matter. The latter ultimately becomes wood, and the former ultimately hardens, cracks, and sometimes falls otF. No wound in the outer bark can be healed or filled up, but the reverse is the case with wounds in the alburnum. The wood in tdl exogenous plants of the tree kind is distinguishable into the heart wood, or that which is mature, and the soft wood or alburnum, which is wood in a young and growing state. The heart wood is for the most part of a darker colour than the soft or young wood, which is generally white, till by age its tubes and vessels become thickened with matter deposited by the sap in its ascent to the leaves, when it darkens in colour, at least in most trees. When the sap absorbed by the spongioles enters the solid matter of the plant, it passes upwards through the alburnum to the leaves ; and, being elaborated there, it descends through the liber, communicating horizontally, by means of the medullary rays, with both the old and the young wood. Wherever it penetrates, it deposits cellular matter, till at last in the old wood the pores become completely filled up and hardened.

112. The stems of all plants, and especially of exogenous trees, have, beginning at the centre, pith, old wood, medullary rays, alburnum, liber or inner bark, and outer bark. The medullary rays connect all the parts of the section of a stem or brauehes horizontally; and the ligneous fibres, which penetrate all the parts except the pith, connect them longitudi- nally, and complete the vegetable structure. In all plants whatever these parts exist ; but in many herbaceous plants, especially annuals, and others of short duration, they are not easily defined ; the wood, alburnum, and liber often appearing in one homogeneous body, and the bark and the pith only being quite distinct. The root stem differs from the stem above ground in being without pith, without visible buds, and without an outer bark ; or at all events without a, bark which cracks and decays, like that of the stems and branches. There are exceptions in the case of some root stocks of herbaceous plants, such as those of the Colchicum and the Crocus ; but nevertheless this holds true in the underground stems or tubers of the Potato, in the fasciculated tubercles of tlie Dahlia, and in most other tuberous-rooted plants.

113. ieaw« are formed on the surface of stems at certain distances, and in a certain order in each species of plant ; and at the base of the petiole of each leaf there is a bud either visible or latent ; in either case ready to be called into action and produce a new stem, shoot, or branch, when the neces- sary excitement is given. If the leaves are removed from a growing stem as soon as they appear, no buds are formed in their axils ; or, if the germs of them have existed there, they die for want of the nourishment of the leaf. Hence, by taking off every leaf as soon as it is protruded from an over- vjgorous-growing shoot of the current year, that shoot may be prevented

30 PTTNCTtONS OP PLANTS, CONSIDERED

from maturing its buds and wood, and consequently deprived of the power of growing vigorously the following season ; and this is found a better mode of treating excessively luxuriant trees than cutting off such over- vigorous shoots, which would only throw more vigour into the heart of the tree. By taking off the incipient leaves the tree is allowed to exhaust itself of all its superfluous force. (See Beaton in Gard. Mag. 1837, p- 203.)

1 14. In general, buds are rarely found except in the axils of the leaves ; but occasionally they are formed in the spaces of the stem between the leaves, more or less distant from the base of the leaf, or from the joints whence leaves are pro- duced. They are also, as we have before observed, sometimes found in roots, though never visible in them to the naked eye ; and they are also produced in some cases on leaves, as in Kalanchoe (Bryophyllum) crenata, and in Car- damine hirsuta. Buds of this kind are said to be dormant or adventitious. When the bud of any stem has been once matured, if rubbed off, one or more other buds will arise from its base; and this will take place though the operation be repeated an indefinite number of times, provided the plant be furnished with leaves in some other part of its stem above the point whence the buds were rubbed off, so that the shoot or stem may be continued in a growing state. Thus the regular visible buds of vines are frequently cut entirely out, but still the adventitious buds throw out shoots with such vigour, other circumstances being favourable, as to produce abundance of fruit the same season.

115. Buds are of two kinds, leaf-buds and blossom-buds. It is only the former that can produce shoots, or by which, under ordinary circumstances, a plant can be propagated directly. But if a blossom-bud be taken off and inserted in a living plant by the usual operation of budding, though only blossoms will be produced the first year, yet the dormant leaf-buds will the second year produce shoots. In practice this does not hold good alike in aU plants, but it is the case with many of the iJosaceae. for example in the Peach. The nodule is a concretion of embryo buds found in the bark of various trees, and especially of the common Elm, the Birch, some of the Poplars, and the Olive; and by fragments of which these trees may be propagated.

IIG. All bulbs are buds, and the scales of which they are composed are abortive or imperfectly developed leaves ; consequently, as at the base of every leaf there is a bud, so must there be, at the base of every scale of a bulb, a bud either regular or adventitious. Hence, by cutting over the bulb of a common Hyacinth about the eighth of an inch above the plate to which the scales are attached, a number of buds and young leaves wUl be produced from between the bases of the scales, and by these buds the plant may be increased.

117. The stem of a plant may be considered as the base, receptacle, or habitation of the leaves and buds ; by means of which they are exposed to the air and light, without being too much crowded, and are thus enabled to elabo- rate the sap sent to them by the roots, and to form buds and seeds for the continuation of their species. The watery matter absorbed by the spongioles ascends the stem by the soft wood, dissolving in its ascent a part of the stai-ch or sugar which it finds there, and hence becoming denser as it ascends ; its specific gravity increasing till it reaches the summit of the stem and branches. An it ascends it enters the leaves, where it is elaborated in consequence of the action of light on their upper surface, and it is then returned to the stem by

WITH REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 31

the vessels in the under surface of the leaves, whence it descends to the roots not however by way of the alburnum, where it would meet with and inter- rupt the ascending sap ; but by way of the inner bark, communicating hori- zontally, as we have before observed, with the interior of the stem by means of the medullary rays. Hence, the great importance of the alburnum and the inner bark to plants ; the former in conveying sap from the root to the leaves, and the latter in returning it from the leaves to the stem, branches and roots. Hence also we find that trees will live, and even thrive, with the interior of their trunk entirely rotten, provided the alburmim, the inner bark, and the leaves, are in a healthy state. The alburnum is constantly changing into hard wood, and the inner bark as constantly into hard bark or outer bark. As the heart wood when thoroughly hardened may be removed without injury to the growth of the tree, so also may the thoroughly hard- ened outer bark. The hard wood is to the tree what the bones are to an animal, the chief source of mechanical support ; and the outer bark, being a non-conductor of heat, protects the inner bark and the alburnum from too great cold, and in hot climates from too much heat, in the same manner as the outer coverings of animals.

118. Though the sap of plants circulates in general bj' rising through the alburnum, and descending through the inner bark, yet such is the effect of vitality, and the simplicity of their structure, that the sap can be made both to rise and fall by the alburnum, and to rise and fall also by the inner bark. Instead of ascending fi-om the roots to the branches, it can be made to enter by the branches and descend to the roots. To prove the truth of the first of these assertions, the trunk of a tree has been sawn through in opposite direc- tions in such a manner that there could not, by any possibility, be dii'eet linear communication between the portions below and above the wound, and yet the tree has lived. The wood of the shoot of a Willow has been extracted at the peeling season, and the shoot being supported by a stake has grown, and in the course of the first summer filled up the cavity left by the removal of the wood. That the sap will both ascend and return, not merely by the alburnum, but by wood of a considerable degree of age and hardness, is proved, among other instances, by a Lime-tree in the royal gardens at Fon- tainebleau, which continues to live and produce leaves every year, though a large portion of the stem has been without bark for thirty years. Fig. 1 is from a sketch made by M. Poiteau, a scientific cultivator and physiologist, in whose company we examined this tree in July, 1840. To prove that the sap will enter by the branches and descend to the leaves, take a ligneous plant growing in a pot, and elevating it on a post between two trees of the same or of allied kinds, inarch the extremity of a branch of each tree into the plant in the pot, and in two years ceast" to supply water to the earth in the pot, and at last shake this Lime-tree at Fontaine- earth away from the roots, and leave the plant suspended bieau. between the two trees. We have not seen this done, but

we have seen branches which had inosculated with other branches cut through, and, being left attached by the inosculation, live for several years. Some curious experiments bearing on this subject, by Mr. Niven of Dublin, will be found in the Gardener's Magazine, 1838, p. 161.

ll!l. The cause of the motion of the sap is a subject which has occasioned much discussion. The general opinion is, that it is in motion, to a certain

n2 FUNCTIONS OP PLANTS, CONSIDERED

extent, in winter as well as in summer ; but that an extraordinary absorp- tion by the roots, and consequent ascent through the alburnum, takes place with the development of the buds, in consequence of the stimulus of heat in spring. The swelling of the buds, and the expansion of the leaves, decom- pose a quantity of sap in the same manner as the swelling of the embryo of the seed (102); a portion is fixed in the plant, and a portion given off into the atmosphere ; and, to supply the consumption thus occasioned, the office of the spongioles of the roots is called into extraordinary action, and nature, always stronger than strong enough, produces a superabundant supply.

120. The haf of the plant is an organ of so much importance, that there can be no growth beyond the first development of the seed without it. No mode of treatment will compensate to a plant for the want of leaves, and the most vigorous plant that exists may be destroyed in a short time by the removal of all the leaves as soon as they appear. The important consequences that result from this fact, are not sufficiently known to many gardeners, ana they require particularly to be impressed on the minds of amateurs. We have seen in a preceding paragraph how trees may be weakened, and parti- cular shoots killed, by the removal of leaves. The most powerful weeds, for example, Perennial Thistles, Docks, Ferns, Rushes, and all similar plants, may be killed in grass lands on the same principle ; that is, by the removal of the leaves as soon as they appear, and before they are developed.

121. The normal form of a leaf consists of an expanded part called the disk, and a narrow prolongation called the petiole (91); but some leaves are solid and cylindrical, and others are so modified as to appear like scales ; for example, in bulbs, the bracts in the fruit of the Pine-apple, spines in the common Thorn, tendrils in the Vine ; and, consequently, all these organs or appendages ought to have buds, either visible or adventitious, in their axils. This is accordingly found to be the case. Shoots have been produced where the tendrils of a Vine have been cut off; and, in the fruit of the Pine-apple, every bracteal leaf having a " pip" or flower in its axil has produced a sucker. (^Cowel.) The disk of the leaf is considered as an ex- pansion of the inner bark (91) ; its veins are the continuation of the ligneous fibres of the bark, and its cellular substance of the horizontal system or cellular tissue of the trunk. The woody tissue which forms the veins of leaves, as already observed, is arranged in two layers; one forming the upper surface of the leaf, by which the sap is elaborated ;' and the other, the under surface, by which the elaborated sap is returned to the inner bark. The two plates of layers may be readily seen in a leaf which has been ma- tured, and afterwards anatomised, by the alternate action of water and the atmosphere. The upper layer has its vessels in communication with the interior of the stem, while the under layer communicates only with the inner bark ; the upper one mamtains a connexion with the soft wood, in order to receive the sap from it, while the under one is connected with the inner bark, m order to return the sap through it to the stem and roots.

122. The two plates of vessels and cellular matter which form the disk of the leaf, are covered with a thin skin or epidermis. This epidermis, when the leaf is beginning to expand, abounds with innumerable minute cavities fiUed in that early stage with fluid ; but ultimately, when the leaf is fully grown, these cavities become dry. In plants indigenous to moist and shady places, the epidermis is thin; but in tliose growing naturally in hot, dry, cx- j)osed situations, it is very hard and thick. It varies, indeed, not only 'with

WITH REFEKENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 33

Ihe natural habitations of plants, but with their natures. In nil, vvhetJior thick or thin, it is pierced with numerous pores, called stomata, which can- not be seen witli the naked eye, but through which the leaf inhales and exhales gases, and perhaps watery matters. The stomata are generally largest and most abundant ui aquatic or marsh plants, or plants adapted by nature for shady places, and which can procure at all times an ample supply of liquid food ; and they are, on the contrary, fewest and least active, in warm, open, airy situations, where liquid food is less abundant. Thus it appears that the structure of a leaf being adapted to the particular situation in which the plant naturally grows, it may serve to indicate what sort of culture may be most suitable for plants of which we have previously known but little. It is evident, however, that this criterion must be of rather difficult application in practice, except by gardeners who are scientific bota- nists, and have been in the habit of using powerful microscopes.

128. There are some plants which produce no leaves, or in which the leaves are so small, and drop off so soon after they are formed, as to leave no traces of them on the bark. Instances of this kind are found in the genera Cactus, Epiphyllum, Opuntia, Stapelia, and even, but in a much less degree, in some species of jlsparagus, iSpartium, and Genista. In all such cases, the functions that in other plants are performed by the leaves, are performed in these plants by the bark. The functions of the leaves, and of the green parts of the bark, and of the plant in general, are to absorb carbonic acid, and, with the aid of light and moisture, to appro- priate its carbon. Carbonic acid may enter the plant by the roots, by the leaf, and by the green parts of its bark, ^rhen either of these parts is exposed to the action of the sun, the carbonic acid is decomposed, oxygen is given off, and the carbon is fixed in the leaf or bark. The escape of the oxygen may be proved by immersing a leaf in water, and exposing it to tlie sun. If a leaf be immersed in water in the shade, little or no air will be given off, and that little will be found to be carbonic acid gas. Plants, it has been found, decompose carbonic acid during the action of solar light on the leaves during the day, and form it again in the shade and during night ; and hence, in a healthy plant, the decomposition of carbonic acid and the liberation of oxygen during the day, and the absorption of oxygen and the liberation of carbonic acid gas during the night, are perpetually going on while the plant has leaves, or is in a gi-owing state. The healthiness of a plant, other circumstances being alike, is in proportion to the quantity of carbonic acid decomposed during the day ; and this will depend on the quantity of light it receives during the same period. Plants which naturally grow in shady situations form exceptions to this general principle ; probably, because the powerful action of the sun on their leaves would cause them to perspire water in too great abundance.

124. In conclusion, it may be observed, that all assimilations of matter by plants, whether of a general kind, such as carbon, or of a specific nature, such as acids and alkalies, resins, oils, &c,, are effected by the action of light on the loaves; and hence, as we have said before (9), the treatment of the leaves of plants is of far greater importance than the treatment of any other part whatever.

125. The action of the leaf generally ceases when the part of the stem to which it is attached is matured, or when the fruit which is nearest to it is ripened. At that period the ]eaf commonly changes colour, ceases to deeom-

D

34 FUNCTIONS OP PLANTS, CONSIDERED

pose carbonic acid, and, yielding to the chemical influence of the oxygen of the atmosphere, dies and drops off. Those leaves are called deciduous (G9), which fall off in the autumn after the maturation of the shoots of the current year; those are called persistent (68), which remain on in a withered state till the following sprmg; and those evergreen (66), which remain attached and green till the following summer, or later. Some of these evergreen leaves, as for example in certain species of Coniferse, remain on for several years.

126. The flowers of plants generally consist of the following parts : — 1st, The floral envelopes, comprising the calyx or exterior covering, which is generally green, and the corolla or interior covering, which is commonly of some other colour than green ; 2d, The organs of reproduction, comprising the stamens and pistil ; and 3d, The germen or rudiment of the fruit and seed. In general, the calyx and the corolla are present in every flower, and also both sexes are contained in the same flower : but there are numerous exceptions ; some flowers having a calyx without a corolla, as in .4tragene ; others having the calyx coloured, so as to resemble a corolla, as in Fuchsia and many bulbs ; many being without any floral envelopes, as in the Wil- low ; and the sexes being, in many cases, on different plants, as in Macluro and Salisburia, Populus and 5alix. No flower in a natural state, how- ever, is to be found in which there is not present one or other of the sexes, except double flowers, which are monstrosities, and those of some hybi-ids, which are anomalies.

127. The floral envelopes may be considered as making the nearest ap- proach to common leaves ; and in many plants, particularly such as are in a high state of cultivation, they assume the appearance of leaves ; as, for example, in some varieties of Rose. In many plants the sexes are also changed into leaves, and this is the mode in which most double flowers are produced. Occasionally both the floral envelopes and the sexes are turned into leaves, as is found occasionally in wet seasons in the flowers of the common Parsley. In the earlier stages of the progress of gardening in Britain, when few plants were introduced from foreign countries, the great object of the curious cultivator was to produce double flowers, and other monstrosities ; and hence we have double-flowered varieties of most of the ornamental herbaceous plants that have been long in cultivation, and even of some trees and shrubs, such as the Double-blossomed Cherry, Double-blos- somed Hawthorn, Double-blossomed Peach, &c.

128. The art of causing plants to produce flowers sooner than they would do naturally, is one of great importance to the cultivator. The principle on which it is founded seems to be, that of causing a greater accumulation of nutritive matter in the particular part of the plant intended to produce flowers than is natural to that part ; or, in the case of annual plants, to con- centrate the nutritive matter of the entire plant, by growing it in a drier soil than that which is natural to it. Hence by ringing any particular branch of a tree, blossom-buds will be formed on the part of the branch above the ring, while shoots more watery than usual will be formed below it. Hence, al.so, by grafting a shoot from a seedling tree on the extremities of the Ijranches of a full-grown tree of the same species, blossoms will be produced aime years sooner than would have been the case had the branch remained en its parent plant. In this way new kinds of fruit, raised from seed, may be proved much sooner than if the seedling plairts were left a