THE TREE-MIGNONETTE.--This plant does not appear to be a distinct
variety, for the common mignonette, properly trained becomes shrubby. It
may be propagated by either seed or cuttings. When it has put forth four
leaves or is about an inch high, take it from the bed and put it by
itself into a moderate sized pot. As it advances in growth, carefully
pick off all the side shoots, leaving the leaf at the base of each shoot
to assist the growth of the plant. When it has reached a foot in height
it will show flower. But every flower must be nipped off carefully.
Support the stem with a stick to make it grow straight. Even when it has
attained its proper height of two feet again cut off the bloom for a few
days.
It is said that Miss Mitford, the admired authoress, was the first to
discover that the common mignonette could be induced to adopt tree-like
habits. The experiment has been tried in India, but it has sometimes
failed from its being made at the wrong season. The seed should be sown
at the end of the rains.
GRAFTING.--Take care to unite exactly the inner bark of the scion with
the inner bark of the stock in order to facilitate the free course of
the sap. Almost any scion will take to almost any sort of tree or plant
provided there be a resemblance in their barks. The Chinese are fond of
making fantastic experiments in grafting and sometimes succeed in the
most heterogeneous combinations, such as grafting flowers upon fruit
trees. Plants growing near each other can sometimes be grafted by the
roots, or on the living root of a tree cut down another tree can be
grafted. The scions are those shoots which united with the stock form
the graft. It is desirable that the sap of the stock should be in brisk
and healthy motion at the time of grafting. The graft should be
surrounded with good stiff clay with a little horse or cow manure in it
and a portion of cut hay. Mix the materials with a little water and then
beat them up with a stick until the compound is quite ductile. When
applied it may be bandaged with a cloth. The best season for grafting in
India is the rains.
MANURE.--Almost any thing that rots quickly is a good manure. It is
possible to manure too highly. A plant sometimes dies from too much
richness of soil as well as from too barren a one.
WATERING.--Keep up a regular moisture, but do not deluge your plants
until the roots rot. Avoid giving very cold water in the heat of the day
or in the sunshine. Even in England some gardeners in a hot summer use
luke-warm water for delicate plants. But do not in your fear of
overwatering only wet the surface. The earth all round and below the
root should be equally moist, and not one part wet and the other dry. If
the plant requires but little water, water it seldom, but let the water
reach all parts of the root equally when you water at all.
GATHERING AND PRESERVING FLOWERS.--Always use the knife, and prefer such
as are coming into flower rather than such as are fully expanded. If
possible gather from crowded plants, or parts of plants, so that every
gathering may operate at the same time as a judicious pruning and
thinning. Flowers may be preserved when gathered, by inserting their
ends in winter, in moist earth, or moss; and may be freshened, when
withered, by sprinkling them with water, and putting them in a close
vessel, as under a bellglass, handglass, flowerpot or in a botanic box;
if this will not do, sprinkle them with warm water heated to 80 deg. or 90 deg.,
and cover them with a glass.--_Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Gardening_.
PIPING---is a mode of propagation by cuttings and is adopted in plants
having joined tubular stems, as the dianthus tribe. When the shoot has
nearly done growing (soon after its blossom has fallen) its extremity is
to be separated at a part of the stem where it is hard and ripe. This is
done by holding the root with one hand and with the other pulling the
top part above the pair of leaves so as to separate it from the root
part of the stem at the socket, formed by the axillae of the leaves,
leaving the stem to remain with a tubular or pipe-looking termination.
The piping is inserted in finely sifted earth to the depth of the first
joint or pipe and its future management regulated on the same general
principles as cuttings.--_From the same_.
BUDDING.--This is performed when the leaves of plants have grown to
their full size and the bud is to be seen at the base of it. The
relative nature of the bud and the stock is the same as in grafting.
Make a slit in the bark of the stock, to reach from half an inch to an
inch and a half down the stock, according to the size of the plant; then
make another short slit across, that you may easily raise the bark from
the wood, then take a very thin slice of the bark from the tree or plant
to be budded, a little below a leaf, and bring the knife out a little
above it, so that you remove the leaf and the bud at its base, with the
little slice you have taken. You will perhaps have removed a small bit
of the wood with the bark, which you must take carefully out with the
sharp point of your knife and your thumb; then tuck the bark and bud
under the bark of the stock which you carefully bind over, letting the
bud come at the part where the slits cross each other. No part of the
stock should be allowed to grow after it is budded, except a little
shoot or so, above the bud, just to draw the sap past the
bud.--_Gleenny's Hand Book of Gardening_.
ON PYRAMIDS OF ROSES.--The standard Roses give a fine effect to a bed of
Roses by being planted in the middle, forming a pyramidal bed, or alone
on grass lawns; but the _ne plus ultra_ of a pyramid of Roses is that
formed of from one, two, or three plants, forming a pyramid by being
trained up three strong stakes, to any length from 10 to 25 feet high
(as may suit situation or taste), placed about two feet apart at the
bottom; three forming an angle on the ground, and meeting close together
at the top; the plant, or plants to be planted inside the stakes. In two
or three years, they will form a pyramid of Roses which baffles all
description. When gardens are small, and the owners are desirous of
having _multum in parvo_, three or four may be planted to form one
pyramid; and this is not the only object of planting more sorts than one
together, but the beauty is also much increased by the mingled hues of
the varieties planted. For instance, plant together a white Boursault, a
purple Noisette, a Stadtholder, Sinensis (fine pink), and a Moschata
scandens and such a variety may be obtained, that twenty pyramids may
have each, three or four kinds, and no two sorts alike on the whole
twenty pyramids. A temple of Roses, planted in the same way, has a
beautiful appearance in a flower garden--that is, eight, ten, or twelve
stout peeled Larch poles, well painted, set in the ground, with a light
iron rafter from each, meeting at the top and forming a dome. An old
cable, or other old rope, twisted round the pillar and iron, gives an
additional beauty to the whole. Then plant against the pillars with two
or three varieties, each of which will soon run up the pillars, and form
a pretty mass of Roses, which amply repays the trouble and expense, by
the elegance it gives to the garden--_Floricultural Cabinet_.
How TO MAKE ROSE WATER, &c--Take an earthen pot or jar well glazed
inside, wide in the month, narrow at the bottom, about 15 inches high,
and place over the mouth a strainer of clean coarse muslin, to contain a
considerable quantity of rose leaves, of some highly fragrant kind.
Cover them with a second strainer of the same material, and close the
mouth of the jar with an iron lid, or tin cover, hermetically sealed. On
this lid place hot embers, either of coal or charcoal, that the heat may
reach the rose-leaves without scorching or burning them.
The aromatic oil will fall drop by drop to the bottom with the water
contained in the petals. When time has been allowed for extracting the
whole, the embers must be removed, and the vase placed in a cool spot.
Rose-water obtained in this mode is not so durable as that obtained in
the regular way by a still but it serves all ordinary purposes. Small
alembics of copper with a glass capital, may be used in three different
ways.
In the first process, the still or alembic must be mounted on a small
brick furnace, and furnished with a worm long enough to pass through a
pan of cold water. The petals of the rose being carefully picked so as
to leave no extraneous parts, should be thrown into the boiler of the
still with a little water.
The great point is to keep up a moderate fire in the furnace, such as
will cause the vapour to rise without imparting a burnt smell to the
rose water.
The operation is ended when the rose water, which falls drop by drop in
the tube, ceases to be fragrant. That which is first condensed has very
little scent, that which is next obtained is the best, and the third and
last portion is generally a little burnt in smell, and bitter in taste.
In a very small still, having no worm, the condensation must be produced
by linen, wetted in cold water, applied round the capital. A third
method consists in plunging the boiler of the still into a larger vessel
of boiling water placed over a fire, when the rose-water never acquires
the burnt flavour to which we have alluded. By another process, the
still is placed in a boiler filled with sand instead of water, and
heated to the necessary temperature.
But this requires alteration, or it is apt to communicate a baked
flavour.
SYRUP OF ROSES--May be obtained from Belgian or monthly roses, picked
over, one by one, and the base of the petal removed. In a China Jar
prepared with a layer of powdered sugar, place a layer of rose-leaves
about half an inch thick; then of sugar, then of leaves, till the vessel
is full.
On the top, place a fresh wooden cover, pressed down with a weight. By
degrees, the rose-leaves produce a highly-coloured, highly-scented
syrup; and the leaves form a colouring-matter for liqueurs.
PASTILLES DU SERAIL.--Sold in France as Turkish, in rosaries and other
ornaments, are made of the petals of the Belgian or Puteem Rose, ground
to powder and formed into a paste by means of liquid gum.
Ivory-black is mixed with the gum to produce a black colour; and
cinnabar or vermilion, to render the paste either brown or red.
It may be modelled by hand or in a mould, and when dried in the sun, or
a moderate oven, attains sufficient hardness to be mounted in gold or
silver.--_Mrs. Gore's Rose Fancier's Manual_.
OF FORMING AND PRESERVING HERBARIUMS.--The most exact descriptions,
accompanied with the most perfect figures, leave still something to be
desired by him who wishes to know completely a natural being. This
nothing can supply but the autopsy or view of the object itself. Hence
the advantage of being able to see plants at pleasure, by forming dried
collections of them, in what are called herbariums.
A good practical botanist, Sir J.E. Smith observes, must be educated
among the wild scenes of nature, while a finished theoretical one
requires the additional assistance of gardens and books, to which must
be superadded the frequent use of a good herbarium. When plants are well
dried, the original forms and positions of even their minutest parts,
though not their colours, may at any time be restored by immersion in
hot water. By this means the productions of the most distant and various
countries, such as no garden could possibly supply, are brought together
at once under our eyes, at any season of the year. If these be assisted
with drawings and descriptions, nothing less than an actual survey of
the whole vegetable world in a state of nature, could excel such a store
of information.
With regard to the mode or state in which plants are preserved,
desiccation, accompanied by pressing, is the most generally used. Some
persons, Sir J.E. Smith observes, recommend the preservation of
specimens in weak spirits of wine, and this mode is by far the most
eligible for such as are very juicy: but it totally destroys their
colours, and often renders their parts less fit for examination than by
the process of drying. It is, besides, incommodious for frequent study,
and a very expensive and bulky way of making an herbarium.
The greater part of plants dry with facility between the leaves of
books, or other paper, the smoother the better. If there be plenty of
paper, they often dry best without shifting; but if the specimens are
crowded, they must be taken out frequently, and the paper dried before
they are replaced. The great point to be attended to is, that the
process should meet with no check. Several vegetables are so tenacious
of their vital principle, that they will grow between papers; the
consequence of which is, a destruction of their proper habit and colors.
It is necessary to destroy the life of such, either by immersion in
boiling water or by the application of a hot iron, such as is used for
linen, after which they are easily dried. The practice of applying such
an iron, as some persons do, with great labor and perseverance, till the
plants are quite dry, and all their parts incorporated into a smooth
flat mass is not approved of. This renders them unfit for subsequent
examination, and destroys their natural habit, the most important thing
to be preserved. Even in spreading plants between papers, we should
refrain from that practice and artificial disposition of their branches,
leaves, and other parts, which takes away from their natural aspect,
except for the purpose of displaying the internal parts of some one or
two of their flowers, for ready observation. The most approved method of
pressing is by a box or frame, with a bottom of cloth or leather, like a
square sieve. In this, coarse sand or small shot may be placed; in any
quantity very little pressing is required in drying specimens; what is
found necessary should be applied equally to every part of the bundle
under the operation.
Hot-pressing, by means of steel net-work heated, and placed in alternate
layers with the papers, in the manner of hot pressing paper, and the
whole covered with the equalizing press, above described, would probably
be an improvement, but we have not heard of its being tried. At all
events, pressing by screw presses, or weighty non-elastic bodies, must
be avoided, as tending to bruise the stalks and other protuberant parts
of plants.
"After all we can do," Sir J.E. Smith observes, "plants dry very
variously. The blue colours of their flowers generally fade, nor are
reds always permanent. Yellows are much more so, but very few white
flowers retain their natural aspect. The snowdrop and parnassia, if well
dried, continue white. Some greens are much more permanent than others;
for there are some natural families whose leaves, as well as flowers,
turn almost black by drying, as melampyrum, bartsia, and their allies,
several willows, and most of the orchideae. The heaths and firs in
general cast off their leaves between papers, which appears to be an
effort of the living principle, for it is prevented by immersion of the
fresh specimen in boiling water."
The specimens being dried, are sometimes kept loose between leaves of
paper; at other times wholly gummed or glued to paper, but most
generally attached by one or more transverse slips of paper, glued on
one end and pinned at the other, so that such specimens can readily be
taken out, examined, and replaced. On account of the aptitude of the
leaves and other parts of dried plants to drop off, many glue them
entirely, and such seems to be the method adopted by Linnaeus, and
recommended by Sir J.E. Smith. "Dried specimens," the professor
observes, "are best preserved by being fastened, with weak carpenter's
glue, to paper, so that they may be turned over without damage. Thick
and heavy stalks require the additional support of a few transverse
strips of paper, to bind them more firmly down. A half sheet, of a
convenient folio size, should be allotted to each species, and all the
species of a genus may be placed in one or more whole sheets or folios.
On the latter outside should be written the name of the genus, while the
name of every species, with its place of growth, time of gathering, the
finder's name, or any other concise piece of information, may be
inscribed on its appropriate paper. This is the plan of the Linnaean
herbarium."--_Loudon_.