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shoots. Never allow any of the shoots to hang away from the wall, as this checks their growth, and tends to throw them into a fruiting condition. The next season cut back all the trained shoots about a third of their length, and in the following season they will quite fill up the spaces between them with their side-growths, and make a vigorous upward growth from the top buds left at the former pruning. From this time forward cut back all the growth to a regular line with the help of a straight-edge, and remove all superfluous surface growth, so as to retain on the wall only one layer of stems. Our common English ivy is unsurpassed for beauty when treated in this way, and one plant is enough for a breadth of twenty feet of wall, which may thus be kept covered with a felt of vegetation consisting of closeembracing stems and elegantly-veined leaves. It has been sufficiently explained that, when the plant can no longer ascend, it forms fruiting instead of climbing stems. This peculiarity of its habit renders it essential to keep ivy closely trained so long as it is required to run; for, if the growth of this year is allowed to fall away from its support, or is torn from the wall by wind, the next season it will begin to form flowering shoots and a bushy head. Sometimes the growth of years is torn from walls by the immense weight of the flowering bosses at the summit; but this destruction of a noble object is easily prevented by means of a rough frame of woodwork fixed under the projecting growth parallel to the top of the wall, to lessen the strain and the rocking of the mass during high winds.

STANDARD IVIES.-The vigorous habited green-leaved kinds make fine standards for the lawn or terrace garden. Cuttings should be struck in pots in July or August, and kept in a frame or pit all the winter. In April select only those that have plump straight leaders, and plant them out in soil consisting of at least one-half rotten manure, and the other half good loam, well broken up to a depth of two feet. Keep them carefully trained to upright stakes all the season, and give them abundance of water until the end of July, and pinch in all side-shoots to two or three leaves from the base. The next April cut them back to the height of the intended standards; allow all sidegrowths to push, but continually pinch the side-shoots in, to prevent any of them acquiring a preponderance. At the same time train out the shoots of the head their full length, to keep the vigour of the tree in the head. Cut back again the next April to within two or three buds of the base all the side-shoots and shoots of the head. At the end of five years they will be handsome trees, and may be planted where they are to remain for ornament. After that time the side-shoots may be removed from the stem a few at a

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types they may be related, they have these invariable characteristics-that the growth is forked, twiggy, and tends to form close symmetrical rounded heads; that the leaves are either wholly entire or very slightly lobed; and that there is a disposition to the formation of flowers and fruits abundantly. The quickest way to produce fine specimens

is to graft in March shoots cut from flowering wood of the kind to be propagated on strongly rooted stocks of Irish ivy. The stocks should be struck for the purpose the previous April or May, and be kept in pots, so that when the grafts are put on they may be housed and kept shaded, to encourage a quick union. But flowering wood will readily strike if the cuttings are made early in the season. Take off at the end of June a number of shoots on which the leaves are all entire, prepare them in the usual way to form cuttings four to six inches long, and pot them singly in 54 or 60 sized pots; place them in a pit for about eight days, and keep them shaded and sprinkled occasionally; then put them on a gentle bottom-heat, until the pots are full of roots; shift to 48 or

Natural growth of the arborescent Irish ivy.

32 size, using a fourth part rotten manure in the compost; place them on a bed of fermenting material out of doors, and there let them remain until the end of September, when they must be removed to a pit or other place of shelter sufficient just to protect them from severe frost. In March these will be in fine condition for grafting, and will require no further potting for another year. The after management consists in providing them with sufficient pot room, watering as

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46

required, pinching back

any shoots that grow too fast for the formation of symmetrical heads of whatever shape may be

required.

UMBRELLAS

SCREENS.

easily formed, and the

These are useful at fêtes,

and to decorate halls and

entrances, and may be adapted to fit into re

cesses and form dividing screens between apart

ments, by growing them

in troughs fitted with

The troughs

should never be larger than can be carried by

T

fast growing kinds should be alone employed for the purpose. Pot young plants liberally, and set them growing; train out

on wire, and when the

outline of the design is

covered, pinch in all sideshoots, so as to form the

head into a dense mass

of verdure.

tirely remove the side

shoots from the stem

until a good head has been obtained, as they

help to swell the stem,

but keep them pinched

back, and when they may

be dispensed with remove

a few at a time, commencing at the bottom.

two strong men, unless

it is certain that they

will be employed on the

same level at all times, in

which case they may be

mounted on low wheels.

To provide ornamental

covers for them is a com

paratively simple matter,

light wirework or painted

basketwork being best

adapted for the purpose.

This mode of employing

the ivy was recommended

in the first edition of

"Rustic Adornments for

Houses of Taste," pub

lished in 1856.

PYRAMIDS. The

Skeleton plant of British ivy, to show the mode of training to form an umbrella.

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