are like so many Arms that spring out of its Tuft and take Root it likewise is propagated by Cuttings but bears no Seed Muscat See Vines N. NAsturces commonly called Capucin Capers are multiplied only by Seed which is a kind of Pea or Haricot or French-Bean which climbs and gets up upon Branches or Poles which are near it the Leaf of it is pretty large and the flower of an Orange colour the figure of the Seed is a little Pyramidal divided by Ribs having all its superficies engraven and wrought all over being of a grey colour inclining to a light Cinnamon They are Sown in hot Beds about the end of March or the beginning of April and afterwards they are Replanted by some Wall well exposed The Seed easily falls as soon as ever 't is Ripe as doth that of Borage and the Belles de Nuit or Night Fair Ones and therefore they must be carefully gathered O. ONions as well the White as the Red are multiplied only by Seed which as I have already said is like that of Ciboules P. PArsly as well the Common as the Curled sort is multiplied only by Seed which is little and very small and of a greenish grey colour and a little bending inward on one side and all over streaked with little rising streaks from one end to the other Macedonian Parsly or Alisanders is also propagated only by Seed which is pretty big and oval and a little more full and swelling on one side than on the other which bends a little inward streaked throughout its whole length and is also streaked a cross on the edges between the sides Passe-pierre See Pierce-Pierre Parsnips are multiplied only by Seed which is flat and of a round figure a little oval and as if it were hemmed or edged streaked throughout its length and is of the colour of a brownish Straw Patience See Dock Passe-Musquee See Muscats and Vines Peas or Pease are multiplied only by Seed there are great Ones little Ones white Ones or yellow Ones and green Ones All the world knows they grow in Cods and are almost round and sometimes half flat Perce-Pierre vulgarly called Passe-Pierre i. e. Pass or Pierce Stone being a kind of Stone-Parsly is multiplied only by Seed which is more long than round pretty big of a greenish grey colour striped on the Back and Belly and resembling a Lute in shape Pimpernell See Burnet Pompions or Pumpions or Pumkins See Citrulls Potirons a sort of Flat Citrulls or Pumpions are multiplied only by Seed which is altogether like that of the Common Citrull or Pumpion and grows in the same manner Purslain as well of the Green as Red or Golden sort is multiplied only by Seed which is black and extraordinary small and of a half flat roundish figure To have a good Crop of this Seed the Purslain Plants must be Replanted at the end of May at a full Foot distance one from the other The Seed grows in little Husks or Shells each of which contain a great many and when we are to gather it we cut off all the heads of the Stalks and lay them to dry a little in the Sun and then we beat the Seed out and Fan or Screen it R. RAdishes are multiplied by Seed which is round pretty thick and of a reddish Cinnamon colour it grows in a kind of little Cods which they call Coque-Sigrues in Provence Raspberries both Red and White are propagated only by slips that sprout out of their stocks every year in the Spring time and are sit to Replant the next Spring after Reponces or Field Radishes are multiplied only by Seed and are a sort of little Radishes that are eaten in Sallats and grow without any pains in the Fields Rocamboles are a sort of mild Garlick otherwise called Spanish Garlick which is multiplied both by Cloves and by Seed which latter is about the bigness of ordinary Peas Rocket being one of the Sallat Furnitures is multiplied by Seed which is extreme little and of a Cinnamon or dark Tan colour Rosemary is a little very odoriferous Shrub that is propagated by Seed or Branches that have some portion of Root Rubarb is propagated only by Seed which is pretty big and triangular the three Angles being as thin as very thin Paper and there being a thickness in the middle where the Bud or Shoot is Rue is multiplied by Seed whose shape resembles that of a Cocks Stone it is of a black colour and rugged but yet we usually propagate it rather by its Layers and Cuttings than by its Seed S. SAge is multiplied only by a kind of hooked slips that have a little Root Salsifie or Goats-Beard the common sort is multiplied only by Seed which is almost like in all things to that of Scorzonera except in its colour which is a little greyer it is of a very long oval figure as if it were so many little Cods all over streaked and as 't were engraven in the spaces between the streaks which are pretty sharp pointed towards the ends Samphire or Sampire See Pierce-pierre Saracens Wheat or Turky Wheat is a dark red Seed or Grain about the bigness of an ordinary Pea very smooth round on one side and a little flat on the other where it is fastned to its Spike or Ear. Savory is multiplied only by Seed which is extraordinary small and round slick and grey Scorzonera or Spanish Salsifie is propagated only by Seed which is small longish and round withal and of a white colour and grows in a kind of Ball mounted on the top of the Stalk of the Plant having its point garnished with a kind of Beard like that of Pissabeds or Dandelions Sellery See Cellery Shalots or Eschalots are multiplyed by Off-Sets or Kernels which grow about the foot of its Plant and are about the bigness of a Filberd Nut. Smallage is multiplyed only by Seed which is reddish and pretty big of a roundish oval Figure a little more full and rising on one side than on the other and is streaked from one end to the other Sorrel as well the Lesser one which is the common sort as the Greater one are both multiplyed only by Seed which is very small slick and of a Triangular Oval Figure the ends of it being sharp and pointed and being of an excellent dark Cinnamon Colour Round Sorrel is propagated only by Slips or Runners so that out of one Tuft we may easily make several plants of it French or Wood-Sorrel See Alleluia Spare-Mint See Mint Spinage is multiplyed only by Seed which is pretty big and horned or Triangular on two Sides having its corners very sharp pointed and prickly and the other part which is opposite to those pointed Horns is like a Purse of a Grayish colour Straw-berry Plants as well the white as the red and those called Caprons are propagated only by Runners which are produced by a kind of Threads or Strings which springing out of the body of the Plant and creeping along upon
thrust the Root For rugged Pumice or a scorching Clay Will stop their Passage and obstruct the way A stiffned Marl resist or Chalk deny The vital moisture and the Plant will die A rocky ground avoid with equal care That moisture wants and is averse to bear The wither'd Trunks will stretch its Arms in vain To dropping Clouds and beg supplies from Rain But Shrubs and common Flowers that quickly shoot Ask little Earth nor fix a deeper root On any Bed you may securely plant For Nature's kind and will suppy their want On little Earth they are content to live And crave no moisture but what Clouds can give With various Beauties they adorn the Soil Whilst odorous Sweets refresh the Tiller's toil Observe these Rules the stubborn'st ground will yield And Flowers and Trees will crown the poorest field Rich Orchards arise and fruitfull Branches shoot And Fields once barren wonder at their Fruit. Thus learn'd Quintinius spoke and more design'd Disclosing the large treasures of his mind But L s with officious cares opprest Revolving Fates of Empires in his Breast Thus said Enough whilst I for Arms prepare And Victory the Royal Gardens be thy care He said Enlarg'd Quintinius bow'd and took A higher Genius from his awful look Scarce had he cast enlivening Eyes a-round But hatefull Barrenness forsook the Ground Her long black Wings upon a Northern wind She stretcht nor left one blasting damp behind To Lybia's parcht inhospitable plains She fled and there in a vast Desart reigns Secure she reigns but lo the times shall come I see them roul through the Abyss of Doom When our victorous Arms shall reach the Moors And plant fresh Lilies on the barren shores With new born grace the Fields began to smile And felt his vigor ere he turn'd the soil O happist Artist Thou alone couldst grace The Royal Gardens and exalt the place Oblige great L s and thy Art alone Adorn those Seats where he hath fixt his Throne To thee her business Nature gladly yields And sits at Ease whilst Art improves the Fields Here Frost and Snow in vain cold Winters bring You break their Force and make perpetual spring In every season foreign Fruits appear And various Flowers crown all the blooming year Here groves and Forests rise here Fawns do sport In shady Grots here Sylvan Gods resort Secure from the mad tumults of the Court. And hence the gay Pomona crown'd with flowers And fill'd with Fruit enjoys Versalian Bowers With statelier pace and with a nobler port Approaches L s and adorns his Court. An Explication of the Terms of Gard'ning in an Alphabetical Order A. TO Ablaqueates or lay bare the Roots of Trees See Bare and Trees and Roots Acclivity is the sloping of the side of a Hill or Bank or Ridge or any other Ground not level considered as Rising or Ascending which when considered as descending is called Declivity See Declivity Ados is a French Term signifying sometimes a sloping Bank raised against some well exposed Wall to sow hasting or early Pease or Beans in or plant Artichokes or any thing else we would have more forward than ordinary and sometimes Ridges or Double Slopes with Furrows or Drains between them to lay the Plants dry in wet or marshy or over moist Grounds See Banks Hillocke and Slopes Agriots in French Griots are a sort of choice Cherries of the sharp sort such as are our right Kentish Cherries Alberdge is a name given to Peaches that are but of a small or scarce midling Size To Aline is to range level or lay even in and to a strait and direct Line Said of Walls Rows of Trees and sides of Banks Allies or Beds which is performed with Lines fastned to Spikes fixed in the Ground or Wall as is amply described in its proper place See to Range to Level Aliners are such Rangers or Men imployed in the abovesaid work of Ranging or Levelling Rows of Trees Walls c. It were well our English Gard'ners would naturalize those two Words not being otherwise able to express their signification without a Circumlocution and having with less necessity naturalized many other forreign terms without so much as altering their Termination which in these I have made perfectly English Allies are such as we call Walks in any Garden See Walks and their Use and Proportion see in the Body of the Book Allies are said to be Bien Tirrées Bien Repassées or Bien Retirrées that is well plain'd when they are laid smooth and firm and tight again with the beater or rouling Stone after they have been scraped or turned up with an Instrument to destroy the Weeds Diagonal Allies See Diagonal Parallel Allies See Parallel To Amend is to Meliorate recruit or improve any Ground that is either exhausted by continual bearing or that is naturally Barren with Dung Marl Compost Fresh Mold or any other usual way of improvement Amendment is Mucking Dunging or any other way recruiting or improving of Ground as abovesaid Amputation is the sloping or cutting off of any considerable Branch or Limbs of a Tree Annual Plants or Flowers are such as continue but a Year Ants Pismires or Emets are known Insects Approlch to Graff by Approach See Graffing and Inoculation in the first part of this Work To Apple or Pome See to Pome Argots or Spurs are the pointed ends and extremities of dead Branches in any Trees which no neat Gard'ner will neglect to cut off But it is particularly necessary to do it in Nurseries for Trees grafsed Scutcheon-wise See Spurs Arms are the main Branches or Limbs of a Tree Aromatick Plants are such as are Spicy and hot in Scent and Tast whether sweet or no. Artichoke-Eyes or Eyelets are the off-sets growing about the main Stool or Heart of Artichoke Roots from which Spring the Suckers or Slips by which they are propagated Artichokes Suckers are of two sorts viz. Headed Suckers that bear small Heads and shoot out of their stems round about their main Heads but grow not so big or Suckers which as is abovesaid spring from the Off-setts of their Main Roots called by the French Orilletons or Eyelets which are therefore their Slips or Slip-suckers App See Exposure and Exposition Avenves are certain Allies or Walks in Gardens larger than ordinary but more properly leading to the front of the Houses which are commonly accompanied with two Bye-Walks commmonly call'd Counter-Walks which are both Bordered with great Trees either Elms Linden Trees or Oaks and sometimes Standard Fruit-Trees Aviary is a convenient place in a Garden or House where Birds are kept to Sing Breed c. Augusted is a Term used to signifie any thing that is Sun burnt and has endured the heat of the Summer and is turned ripe and yellow like Corn in August and hard and firm withall It is spoken of several things as of Branches of Trees that are of a full Summers growth of Melons Pumpions c. when they are grown yellow and hard and will endure the
Branch being small at the time of its Graffing becomes afterwards much thicker than before methinks that it is hard forbearing to say that it is grown the stronger by it there being no likelyhood of maintaining on the contrary that the thicker it is the weaker it is From all I have been saying to explain the signification of those words Strong and Strength Weak and Weakness it follows that they may according to my sence be usefully employ'd and distinctly understood in the Treatise of the Pruning of Trees Now among these Trees there are some which yearly produce a great quantity of thick Branches and few small ones There are some that produce a reasonable number of both and in fine there are some which grow but little either from Foot or Head That is that produce but few new Roots under Ground and even those all small ones and but few new Branches above ground and those likewise almost all short and small which are consequently far from appearing as they say commonly Fine Strong and Vigorous Trees but on the contrary look if I may express my self so Sick and Languishing This Production of different Branches is only the Work of Nature which is perform'd innocently and without the least dependance on the Reasonings of Philosophy and tho' this Production has not been the work of the Meditation of Man yet it has furnish'd him a fair Subject to work upon so that we pretend to have drawn great Instructions from it towards the Cultivating and Management of our Fruit-Gardens Being then certain that all the Parts of which all manner of Trees are Compos'd do not receive an equal quantity of Sap since all the Branches are not of an equal thickness and length I mean some being considerably thicker and harder to break which consequently may be said to be stronger than others their Neighbours Being likewise certain that upon the same Trees there are certain Branches which are considerably smaller and more easie to break and therefore may be said to be weaker than other Neighbouring ones It is moreover certain as I have heretofore offer'd and 't is what I have observ'd which perhaps few had done before me I say it is certain that very seldom Fruit-Buds form themselves upon thick and strong Branches so that for Instance if a Pear-Tree produce none but such it will commonly bear no Pears whereas on the contrary the small and weak Branches produce generally a great deal of Fruit insomuch that if sometimes in one and the same Tree all one side appears as it were Pining in not having produc'd any new Branches or at least but very weak ones It is observable that that side grows ordinarily full of Fruit-buds while the other part of the Tree which by the abundance of Fine Branches appears very Healthy and Vigorous produces but very few and often none at all This Observation has put me upon performing two Operations which I have found very successful The first is that when a Fruit-Tree remains several years without producing hardly any thing besides these kind of Branches of an extraordinary thickness and length and consequently bears but little Fruit In that case I have found no better and readier way to make it Fruitful than by the extraordinary Pruning I have mention'd heretofore that is by applying my self at the beginning of the Spring to the Source or Spring of that Force and Vigour which are the Roots in order to diminish their Action and to that end I lay open half the Foot of that Tree and wholly take away one or two and sometimes more of the thickest and most active Roots I meet with and retrench them so well from the Place where they grow that there does not remain the least part capable of performing the least Function of a Root by that means I prevent the Luxuriance of the Sap for the future and consequently render the whole Head less Vigorous whence it follows that it Shoots less of these thick Branches and more small ones and thus it is dispos'd to bear Fruit. The second Operation is that when in the Month of May a Branch shoots out of an extraordinary thickness either in the ordinary Course of an old Planted Tree or in the first Years of Graffing and that consequently it will be evident that such a Branch will be at the same time very long and have no Disposition to bear Fruit this being grounded upon the Reason of its Strength or Thickness which proceeds from too great an abundance of Sap in such a case I am of Opinion that it is easie for those that are willing so to do to divide as I may call it that Torrent of Sap and whereas instead that its whole Tendency was only to the Production of a thick Branch which for the most part would he of no Use at all it is easie to reduce it and as it were oblige it to make several very good ones whereof one part will be weak for Fruit and others sufficiently thick for Wood. And that is fit to be done in the Month of May Therefore at that time I cause that young thick Shoot to be Pinch'd that is broken with the Nail and leave it no greater length than that of two three or four Eyes at most Hereafter I will explain the manner and success of such an Operation after having explain'd what relates to Pruning But before I enter into the particulars of Pruning I suppose that we are to Prune either young Trees which have never yet felt the Pruning Knife and for Example have not been Planted above a Year or two or Old Trees which have already been Prun'd several Years before I suppose besides that these old Trees are in a good condition as having been govern'd by Persons of Understanding so that they only want being preserv'd or else that they are in an ill case either for having always been neglected that is not Prun'd or else for having been ill Prun'd so that it may be necessary to endeavour the correcting of their defects I do not really believe that I may so foresee all the Cases of Pruning as without forgetting one be able to give Rules for every one that may happen I am far from being so presumptuous knowing that it is almost in this case as it is in Physick and in the matter of Law-Suits Hypocrates and Gallen with so many Aphorisms for the one Le Code and Le Digeste with so many Regulations and Ord'nances for the other have not been capable of foreseeing and providing against all nor consequently to decide all since there daily occur new Cases All I pretend is to give you exact Information of the Method I have practis'd for these Thirty Years with an extraordinary application in which I have been very successful as well as those who understand it and who in imitation of me do me the Honour to Practise my Maxims To explain the particulars of this Method I will divide what I have to say into three
of it two several times to be supplied with it so much the longer because that which has been long sown easily runs to Seed and grows hard We sow it then the first time upon Hot Beds in the beginning of April and because its Seed is so extream small we cannot help sowing it too thick so that if we be not careful to thin it and crop it in time to make it grow to some strength and bigness before we transplant it it warps and flags its head too much and grows weak and shoots its Leaves straglingly outward instead of producing store of them from the middle of its stock The surest way is to transplant it in a Nursery Bed placing the Plants two or three Inches one from another for which we make holes with our fingers only we transplant that which comes of the first sowing at the beginning of June and sow our second sowing at the latter end of May or beginning of June but 't is in open Beds and we take the same care to thin crop and transplant this as we did that of the first sowing but we must plant more of it the second time than at the first There are two ways of transplanting it the one is in a Pit or Trench one full spit deep and between three and four foot broad in order to place in it three or four ranks of these Plants at the distance of one foot from one another This way of making hollow Beds Earth up our Cellery in is good only in dry Grounds wet ones being too apt to rot it The second way of transplanting it is in plain Beds that are not made hollow and at the same distances as in the other taking care in both sorts of Beds to water them extreamly in Summer time its chief goodness consisting in being tender as well as in being very White Watering contributes to the first kind of goodness and for the second you are to observe that to Whiten Cellery we begin at first to tie it with two bands when it is big enough chusing dry weather for that effect and afterward we Earth our Cellery Plants quite up with Earth taken off the high raised path-ways or else cover it all over with a good quantity of long dry Dung or dry Leaves as we do Cardoons Cellery so Earthed up with dry Earth or Clothed with long dry Dung or dry Leaves to the very top of its Leaves Whitens in three weeks or a Month and because when 't is Whited it rots as it stands if it be not presently eaten by consequence we are not to Earth it up or cover it with Dung but in such proportion as we are able to spend out of hand there needs no other precaution to be used to it so long as it does not freeze but as soon as ever it begins to set to freeze we must then cover up our Cellery quite over head and ears for a hard Frost spoils it presently And that we may the more easily cover it after we have first tied it up with two or three bands we take it up with the Earth about it at the beginning of Winter and plant it in another Bed setting the Plants as close as we can one to another and then there needs much less stuff to cover them than when they are left standing in their old places at such great distances asunder The way to raise Seed from them is to transplant some Plants of them in some by-place after Winter is past which will not fail to run to Seed in the Month of August we know but one sort of it Chards of Artichokes otherwise called Costons are the Leaves of fair Artichoke Plants tied and wrapt up with Straw in Autumn and Winter which being covered up all over but at their very top with Straw grow white and by that means lose a little of their bitterness so that when they are boiled they are served up like true Spanish Cardons but after all are not so good and besides the Plants often rot and perish whilst we are whiting them Chard-Beets are Plants of white Beets transplanted in a well prepared Bed at the distance of a full foot one from the other which produce great Tops that in the middle have a large white and thick downy Cotton-like Main shoot and that downy Cotton-like shoot is the true Chard used in Pottages and Intermesses After we have sown white Beets upon Hot Beds or in the naked Earth in the Month of March we transplant that which is yellowest in Beds purposely prepared and by taking care to water them well during the Summer they grow big and strong enough to resist the hard winter cold provided care be taken to cover them with long dry Dung just as we do Artichokes They are likewise well placed when two Ranks of them are transplanted between two Ranks of Artichokes We uncover them in April and dress the Earth about them and give them careful attendance and by the means of this diligent Culture they produce those fine Chards we have in the Rogation Season and in the Months of May and June in fine they run to Seed which we gather in the Months of July and August to sow in the following Spring The Chassela's is a very good and sweet sort of Grape of which there are two kinds white and Red and this latter is very scarce and rare but the other very common It requires the good Expositions of the South East and West to be so much the yellower the more firm and crackling the better It is of all Grapes that which keeps longest if it be not suffered to grow too ripe upon the Vine before it be gathered It s Culture which consists in pruning it is the same with that of the Bourdelais or Verjuice Grape Musked Chervil is one of our Sallet-Furnitures and at the beginning of the Spring whilst its Leaves are young and tender it is agreeable and proper to contribute towards the giving a perfuming Relish but they are to be used no longer when they are old and tough It remains several Years in its place without being spoiled by the Frost so that its Stock grows pretty big and high it runs to Seed towards the Month of June and by that is multiplyed Ordinary Chervil is an annual Plant or rather a plant of few Months which serves for many Uses and especially in Sallets when it is young and tender and therefore we ought to see a little of it every Month proportionably to the occasions we have for it and to the quantity of Ground we have It runs very easily to Seed and if we have some of it betimes we must sow it about the end of Autumn and doubtless we shall have the Seed quite ripe towards the middle of June following we cut down the stalks as soon as it begins to grow yellow and beat it out as we do that of other Plants Chicons are a sort of Lettuces to tie up see their Culture under
other Infirmities you may easily discover by Cutting or Peeling a little of the Rind of the Stem Branches and Roots which should be pretty firm and close and of a yellowish Green the Bark also loosen'd a little from the Wood should be found of an Oily Moisture which is the Effect of the Sap's being plentifully in it On the other side if the Bark be too soft or rather rotten or very rough hard and dry they are Mortal Symptoms and you 'll commonly find the Wood underneath the Bark to appear blackish and spotted and such are only fit for the Chimney Those Trees which are brought us without the Earth or any Clod about the Roots and have yet perhaps other good Marks are to be Trimm'd from Head to Foot The Head that is to say the Branches being commonly Naked and Bare of Leaves should be sufficiently Prun'd and Abated and so order'd that new Shoots may Spring from their Tops fit to be form'd into beautiful and handsom Heads round and full as we shall shew in due place As to the Roots be sure to â—eanse them well from their Hairy Fibers which for the most part you 'll find quite dry'd and shrunk up and take so much off the other Roots that you leave not the very largest and best grown above four or five Inches in length and in proportion the least also Cutting those that are spoil'd by any Galling or Bruise quite off to the very Quick And this done plunge the Roots for five or six hours into common Water and then Plant them in Baskets Tubs Cases or Pots fill'd with good Mould a little lighter than that which is compos'd for Grown Orange-Trees such as you have had a good while and that have their Clod about them For these new Plants therefore there needs not be in the Composition of the Mould above a quarter part of the grosser Earth at most the rest being of the above-mention'd Ingredients When this is done place the Baskets or Vasas in a moderate Hot-Bed made in some shady Place where the Sun does but a little Peep through or if more expos'd to its Heat which may dry and injure the tender Plants during the first hot Months in this case you must cover them with Matresses or Canvas so as preventing these Inconveniences you may yet give them Air in Rainy Close and Cloudy Seasons being also careful to Water them from time to time moderately and with discretion so as the Mould may remain always a little Moist yet so as that the Earth in the Case may enjoy some be it never so little since a very little is sufficient of the warmth and comfort of the Hot-Bed But by no means too much for that were worse than none at all Arm'd with these Cautions you will be able to save most Orange-Trees so In-Cas'd Potted or in Baskets leaving them in the same Bed all the rest of the Year until towards the middle of October when you are to remove them to such a Green-House as we have recommended or else made them a warm Cover as they stand with dry Dung and Litter well Matted c. sufficient to preserve them from the Cold of Winter to the end of April or the beginning of May when you shall take them out of this first Case or Pot together with Earth and all or if in Baskets which commonly you 'll find Rotten at the Years end put them as they are into new and proportionable Cases without troubling your self about taking any of the Rotten Basket-Twigs away lest by letting in the Air you prejudice the tender Râ—oâ—s This done give them the ordinary Dressing and Culture as hereafter we shall direct from henceforth beginning to form the Head till it arrive to the utmost Beauty it is capable of Thus much touching Orange and Lemon-Trees brought to us with the Clod Branches and Leaves about them As for such as come with all this Furniture you are First To Examine whether the adhering Clod be Natural because they are sometimes Artificially Clump'd and Daub'd about the Root with Clay after the Root is Cut but this is easily discover'd by the manner of the small Roots clinging to it for if it be Natural it will stick very firmly to them but if loose 't is a certain sign of Knavery And if it be only such as has apparently been thus applied take it all clear off if otherwise â—abating very little let most of it remain since 't is likely to be no great quantity and then you need only refresh the Roots by pairing and shortning them discreetly But for the others they are to be Treated as has already been shew'd where we speak of such Young Orange-Trees as arrive without their Clod. Having thus perform'd what is necessary about the Clod you are in the next place to Work about the Head and consider how to give beginning to the most agreeable Figure which you shall do by taking away a great part of the little small straggling Branches you find to grow Confus'dly Cutting also the grosser ones off which you see hinder the Symmetry and Beauty of the Head which should be reduc'd to a perfect Round and Full. This done Bathe the Root a good quarter of an Hour namely so long as that being quite under Water you perceive any Air-Bubble to rise and then set it as long to Drain Lastly Place it in your Case after the same manner we commonly do Orange-Trees out of an Old Case CHAP. VI. Of the Size and Bigness of good Cases and other Circumstances relating to them THERE needs no great Directions about the Bigness and Shape of Cases which ought to be of Capacity made proportionable to the Growth and Substance of the Trees which you would Plant in them A small Tree would appear as ridiculously in a large Case as a great Tree in a small one but with this difference in the mean time That the latter would Languish and be in danger of Perishing for wâ—nt of competent Nourishment it being impossible a great Tree together with all its Roots should find sufficient to maintain Life in a Vessel that contain'd but little Matter whereas a little Orange-Tree in a great and large Case would run no such danger but be in effect the same as if it had been Planted in the wide and open Field I am not of some Curious Mens Opinion who hold that large and ample Cases hinder the Growth and Thriving of young Orange-Trees unless they also imagine they would grow and be worse in the plain Earth and open Field 'T is a great mistake to think that a single Root produces nothing of it self let it be never so throughly heated it will never exert any thing if it be not Animated with a certain Vital-Principle as I have fully demonstrated in one of the Chapters of my Treatise of Reflections Now the Impression which must promote this Activity seems to proceed more Naturally from the Superficies than from the sides What remains
Branches when they grow too thick or of its unless suckers and Cions Cleft to Graff in the Cleft See it in the fifth part of the Book Clod as a Clod of Earth is called in French Motte To Close a Tree that is Graffed is said to Close when the Bark grows over the cut where it was Graffed so that it appears smooth without a Scar or when the Bark grows over and covers any other cut or wound in Pruning A Close cut See cut Cloves is a term used to signify the Off-sets of Garlick and some other like Roots See Oss-sets Clusters or Bunch To Coffin themselves is said of Flowers that shrivel up and dry away in their Buds without flowing or spreading Compartiments See knots Compost Is rich made Mold compounded with choice Mold rotten Dung and other enriching ingredients A Conservatory is a close place where Orange-Trees and other tender Plants are placed till warm weather come in See Green house A Coronary Garden is a Garden planted with Flowers and other materials that compose Nosegays and Garlands To Couch is to bend a Wall-Tree for palisading or to lay down layers to take Root Counter Espaliers are Pole Hedges or Trees growing in Pole Hedges fronting the Wall-Trees and spread palisadoed and Trellissed like them They are now almost out of use in France but only for some sorts of Garden Vines Cotty or squatted is said of bruised in falling without cutting their skin Courtilliere is a sort of insect or Palmer Word bred in Horse Dung and consequently in Hot Beds about two Inches long at full growth pretty thick and yellowish with many legs It crawls very nimbly and gnaws the Roots of Melons Succory c. growing on Hot Beds See Insects and Palmer Crop is a known word to signifie the whole increase we gather from any thing as a crop of Corn c. To Crop also is to plant sow or furnish a Ground that is empty c. To Crop is to break or pinch of useless Branches without cutting To Cross is said of Branches in Wall Trees that grow cross one another Crown is used for the head or upper hollow extreamity of Kernel Fruit. to Graff in the Crown See Graff in the fifth part of the Book Crumpling or Guerkins are small Cucumbers to pickle called in French Cornichons They are also small crumpled Apples A Cubical Toise or Fathom See Toise and Fathom Cuckows are Straw-berry Plants that blow without bearing Cucurbit Glasses filled with honied Beer or water are hung upon Wall-Trees to catch and destroy wasps and flies Culture is the Tillage of Ground or the whole care and labour that is taken for the Tillage of Ground dressing of Gardens or rearing raising and improving of any particular Plant or Fruit. A Curtain To Cut and the several ways of it see in the Treatise of Pruning A close Cut is a Branch of a Vine shortned to the length of 3 or 4 Eyes or young Buds Cuttings are ends of Branches cut off from some certain Trees shrubs and Plants which being set or planted will take Root and grow Cutworks are Flower Plots or Grass plot consisting of several pieces cut into various pleasing figures answering one another like cut work made by Women D. DEclivity is the sloping of the side of a Hill Bank Ridge or any Ground not Level considered as Falling or Descending and is contrary to Acclivity which see Deaf Beds See Beds Dented is spoken of any Leaves of Trees or Plants that are dented Devils Gold Ring in French Lisette a sort of a Worm or Cater-pillar infesting the young shoots of Vines Diagonal Allies or Lines are Allies or Lines drawn cross one another through the Center of each and cross any square in a Garden from corner to corner thereby to give them that walk in them the fuller view of the square Diet. See Milk Diet. Feed Refresh To DIG or delve are terms known to all Doughie Is said of the Pulp of fruit as a Doughie Pear a Doughie Peach c. See Pulp Drains are Dykes or Gutters made in Grounds to carry off the water See Dykes Gutters Water-courses To Dress Is said of the Tillage or Tighting up of a Garden or any part of it It is likewise said of the pruning and trimming of Trees Thence we say a Vine dresser or to dress a Vine c. Dung is a known Term and is long and new or short and old Long and new fresh Dung is Litter that has served Horses or Mules but one or two Nights at most and has all its straw entire in it and has not yet fermented and much less rotted old and short Dung is Dung that has fermented and lost its heat and whose Straw is rotted and formed into a kind of Mold with the Dung. Dwarf Trees are Low Standards or Trees so dressed and pruned in Planting as to have but low Trunks and moderately spreading Branches and Tops Musty Mouldy or Hoary Dung is used for a Mushroom Bed See Beds Mouldy and Mushrooms Dikes See Drains Gutters Water-courses E. EMbroidery is a term used in Flower Gardens signifying Flower Plots that are wrought in fine shapes like patterns of Embroidery Ear-Wigs are an Insect well known Earth in Gardning is taken for the Soil or Ground in which Trees Legumes or Edible and useful Plants or their Seeds are to be sown or planted and is of several sorts as for example It is call'd Sower Bitter and Stinking when in smelling to it or taking the water in which it has soaked we perceive it Sowr bitter or stinking It is called White Clay when it is of a White stiff and slimy substance and is fat heavy gross and Cold and cuts like Butter and is very apt to chop with the Summers heat and some call it dead Earth because of its unfruitfulness It is stiled good when we can make any thing grow in we have a mind to And bad when neither Trees Plants nor Seeds thrive in it It is called hot and burning when it is so light and dry that upon the least heat all the Plants in it dry away and wither It is called Gravelled when 't is mixed with much sand and many little stones tempered with a little light Red Clay It is called Tough heavy and by some stubborn and because of its unfruitfulness Chast and in England Red Loamy stiff Clay when it cuts smooth and stiff and is very hard to Till or dress because the great rains beat it all into a marsh like mortar and the heat on the other side ehops it and makes it hard as a stone It is called strong free or rank Earth when without being stiff and Clayie it is like the bottom or mould under the turf of good medow Ground and in handling sticks to the fingers like a paste and receives any shape or impression from them whether long round c. It is termed Cold moist and backward when upon the advance of the Spring it is long before it conceives
is a sort of Chalkie and faultty substance used to warm and amend land that are cold and moist Matts and Mattrasses are used to cover Plants with from the Cold. Melons and Muskmelons are known Fruits Their main Branches are called Vines to break of the tops of which Vines is called checking or stoping them and by the French to arrest Melons c. Micote a gently rising and falling Ground hardly to be discerned from a level Mellow Earth See Earth Mildew is a sort of Honey dew that falling upon Plants blasts rots and spoils them Milk Diet is Milk diluted or mix'd with water and discreetly let down to the Roots of Orange-Trees or other like tender Exoticks and for curious Plants to refresh and recover them when sick by letting it gently drop out of the Vessel by a rag laid partly in the Milk and part of it out Mother Insects See Insects Mother Branches See Branches Move as to Move stir turn up and new dress or turn up the Earth in any Place Musk. Mural-Trees are Wall-Trees Musked those Fruits are said to be Musked that have a rich spicy or winy taste and leave a smack of perfume in the Mouth and smell well Mushrooms are certain fungous or spungy excrescentes of the Earth which are now highly prized in Sauces Musty or Mouldy Dung that is so Mouldy that it begins to grow all Hairy with Hoariness is then fit to use to make Hot Beds for Mushrooms See Beds Dung Musty and Hoary N. TO Nail up a Wall-Tree is to fasten well its Branches and palisade and Trellise it as it should be to keep it tight and in due shape and figure The neck of a Tree See foot Nectarins called also Brugnons are smooth skin'd Peaches that cleave to their stones To nip See to pinch Novelties of the Spring are such things as are forced to a maturity upon Hot Beds a considerable while before their natural time of ripening Nursery Gardens or Seminaries are Gardens planted only with seedling or other stocks to Graff on or young Trees ready Graffed in order to have thom ready to transplant in other Gardens as occasion shall require Nursery Beds or Seminary Beds are Beds where young plants or Herbs are sown or planted in order to be transplanted afterwards elsewhere O. OFf-Sets are young kernell Excrescences breeding from the sides of the lower part of Boulbous Roots which are round without and concave within which in time grow to be Bulbs themselves and serve for their propagation In Garlick they are called Cloves Onions is a common term in French for all Boulbous Roots Odoriferous is said of all sweet scented plants Flowers or Fruits In Fruits this quality is termed by the French Musked or Perfumed Orangist is a Gardner that cultivates Oranges or any person that understands and delights in the Culture of them Orangery is a place stocked with Orange Trees whether within doors or without Orchards or Hort-yards Ort-yards are inclosed pieces of Ground planted chiefly with Standards Fruit-Trees and more often fenced with Hedges or Ditches and other fences than with Walls P. PAnach't is said of a Tulip Carnation or such like Flower when they are curiously striped and diversified with several Colours like a gaudy Plume of Feathers which the word properly signifies To Palisade is to bend spread and couch Trees upon Trails or Trellisses or against Walls whence Trees are named Palisaded Trees Paradise Apples are a sort of sweet Apple growing on small Trees very sit for some purposes of Graffing To Graff upon Paradise is to Graff upon the stocks of such Trees Parallel Allies are Allies of an-equal breadth through their whole length and running along in lines equally distant all along from the lines that compose the sides of the Allies which answer them Parterres are Flower Gardens or Flower plots in such Gardens Under Pasture is Earth or mold taken up from under the Turf of good Meadow or Pasture Ground to carry into Gardens to mend or recruit the Soil Pavies are Peaches that stick fast to their Stones Peaches In a strict Sence in this Author are such only as loosen from their Stones Stone Peaches are Peaches growing on a Tree sprung from a Stone without graffing To Peg down is to fix down the Layers of any Plants to make them firm that they may take Root the better Perfumed or Musked is that which has a spicy tast mixed with a smack both of the tast and smell of Musk or some such like perfume To Perch is to inclose Trees or Plants with fences made with poles or perches laid cross one another to keep off Beasts and Boys Perennial See Ever-green Pickets See Spikes To Pinch See in the Treatise of Pruning The Pith is the sappy part of the Wood of a Tree Plain or pure is said of a Flower that is but of one colour without being pannach't or striped See Pure To Plant or Set is a Term used in Contradistinction to sowing A Plant Merchant or Herborist is a Term sufficiently known A Plantation is a piece of Ground stocked with plants of any sort or of many kinds A Plot as a Garden Plot is a piece of Ground modelled out ready for planting according to the design of the Plantation To Plump or fill is said of Fruits when they begin to grow bulky and towards ripening To Pome or Apple is said of the Heads of Artichokes when they grow round and full shaped as an Apple It is said also of Lettuce c. Pomace is the mash which remains of pressed Apples after the Sider is made used for producing of Seedling Stocks in Nursery-Gardens To Pot is to put or sow any Seed or Plant that is tender or curious into a Pot for its better and safer Cultivation Potagery is a Term signifying all sorts of Herbs or Kitchen-plants and all that concerns them considered in general Pot-Herbs are always used in the Pot or Kitchen Powdret is the dryed Powder of Occidental Civet otherwise called human Dung used by some to the Roots of Orange-Trees but condemned by the Author To Prick is to pull up young Seedlings where they grow too close and thick in the Nursery Beds and prick them into other Beds at more distance To Prop is to prop up any Plants with Perches forked Sticks or Poles such as Hops Vines Peas French-Beans c. To Prime and its several ways See in the Treatise of Pruning Pulp is the inward Substance or fleshy part of any Fruit of which there are several sorts as Buttred and melting Pulp is that which is melting and sweet in the Mouth like Butter such as is that of the Butter-pear Bergamots c. Short Pulp is that which breaks short in eating such as is that of Pears that are firm without being hard and that crackle between the Teeth in eating It is called tough harsh and hard in certain Pear that have nothing of fine or delicate as in Catillac's Double-flowers c. It is called Mealy when it
eats dry and mealy as in over ripe Dean-pears Cadet-pears c. It is called Doughy when it is fattish and disagreeably soft like Dough as in white Butter-pears Lansacs that grow in theshade It is called Tender in certain Pears that though they be neither melting nor short yet are tender and excellent without being soft fatty or otherwise distastful as in unknown Chaineaus Vine Pears Lastly some Pears have sower taste as the St. Germain Pears and some sharp and biting as the Crasauns A Punaise or Bug is a sort of a Tyke that preys upon Plants as the stinking Bugs of the same Name do Human Bodies Pure See Plain Q. QUince Stocks that are smooth strait vigorous and fit to graff upon the Author calls Coignassiers and those that are rough knotty and skrubbed and unfit he calls Coigniers But he believes them not Male and Female according to the vulgar Fancy Of these the Portugal are best R. RAke a Gard'ners Rake whether of Wood or Iron is well enough known and the action of using it Rame and Ramberge are terms used of Melons when instead of a pleasant they have a stinking and filthy taste contracted from the neighbourhood of some stinking Weeds or being too near the Dung the same happens to hasty Asparagus from the Hot Bed To Range is to place in good order or plant even in a Line Rank Earth See Earth Random Plants are such as having been smothered and deprived too much of Light and Air or oppressed with any weight grow white small Curl'd and crooked and slim like such we find under great Stones or Logs when we take them up See Estioler To Recreate is to turn up Ground and recruit it with some heartning and fatning Mold or Mixtures and convenient waterings c. Red Winds are the dry and blasting North East Winds that Reign in March and April To Refresh is said in two Senses viz First Trees are refreshed by Ablaqueation i. e. by laying their Roots bare and retrenching their decayed and superfluous Roots and recruiting them with good fresh Earth or well tempered Mould or by turning up side down and well dressing and stirring the old Earth Secondly To Refresh is likewise to water Trees or Plants as also to feed them and diet them with Water diluted with Milk or well tinged with Dung or other rich ingredients or with Bloud or other fatning and nourishing things when they are Sick To Release See Unbind Retrench Rye-Straw being long firm and steept in Water to make it pliable is used to make Bands to tie up Lettuce or Cellery c. to whiten or wads to wrap about them or covers to cover them or other Plants and some tender Trees in Winter See Stram A Ridge is a double Slope between two Furrows in any digged or plowed Land See Slope Roses or Arroses fine are gentle waterings Rossane is a Name for all Yellow Peaches Roots such Plants whose Roots are most in use are called often simply by that Name as Carrots Turneps c. Rub as to rub of superfluous Buds See it in the Treatise of Pruning Rust is the effect of Blasting or Mildew S. THE Salt of the Earth so called in Gard'ning Terms is a certain Spirit which renders its Fertile supposed to be communicated by the rays of the Sun tempered with the nitrous parts off the Air and Dew Sand and Sandy Earth See Earth Sap is the radical moisture or Juice that nourishes a Plant. Saped see Sobbed is any thing that is too much soaked in Water Scar is a gash which remains after the cutting or pruning of a Tree To Scrape as to scarpe off Moss Spawn or Eggs of Vermines c. needs no Explication Scions See Cions A Scoop to scoop out Water and the use of it are things well known Screens or Skreens are inventions made of Straw or other Matter to shelter Plants Scutcheon or Escutcheon a Term of Graffing See it explained in the Treatise of Graffing part Season a thing is said to be in Season while it continues fit to eat Seedlings are little young Plants sprung from Seeds or Kirnels in order to form Stocks fit to graff on Thus we say an Apple Seedling a Seedling Orange-Tree Seed-Leaves See Leaves Seminaries are Nursery Beds or Gardens See Nursery To Set is to plant with the Hand as distinguisht from sowing Well Set or Budded See Budded To Settle is the sinking of the Earth in order to grow firm after digging or plowing or otherwise tilling or of a Hot Bed after its great and first heat is past To Sever is to sever that end of any young Graff that is graffed by Inarching or a pqroach from the Stock on which it grew when the other end of it has taken good hold and footing in the Stock into which it was graffed 'T is said also of rooted Layers when slipt off from their old Stock To Shed Fruit Trees are said to shed their Flowers or Blossoms when blasted or nipt by Winds or Frosts they fall off without producing Fruit. To Shoot is the same as to spring or sprout out Shoots are such young Branches as shoot out every year To Shrivel or Fold is said of Leaves Blasted or dying Trees or Plants Shrubs are small kind of Trees of a midling sort between Trees and Herbs Slips are Suckers slipt off from any Trees or Plants to set again to propagate them To Smooth is to pare or cut even a large Bough with a pruning Knife after it is sawed off Smut is the Blacking or Smutting of Corn or other Plants that happens to them in some Years Snivel called Morve is a sort of rotting moisture hanging about some Plants Spicy is said of all hot scented and tasted Plants Spikes are separated Sticks fixed on the sides of Beds or in Rows where Trees are to be planted to guide the Eye to keep them in a direct Line Spindles are those stalks in stocks or Tusts of Carnations or Clove-gilliflowers that bear the Flowers Spit is the depth a Spade pierces into the Ground as one Spit deep two Spit deep c. Sprigs are small young Shoots Sprouts are young green Shoots A Stalk is said of that part that bears any Fruit immediately and tacks it to the Branch on which it grows It is also the stem of any Plant or Herb that is not a Tree or Shrub Standards are tall Bodied Trees growing in open Ground Stake Squatted See Cotty Stem is the Body of a Tree between the Foot and the Head Stick is said properly of a strait Stem that runs up high and upright all the way without any Branches till just at the top Sticky or Stringy is said of Roots when not kindly or running to Seed Stiff is said of some Earth See Earth To stir or stir up is gently to move the Earth without diging or plowing it though sometimes it be used for any sort of Tillage A stock is the stem or Body of a Tree upon which after due trimming and
Defect and therefore we ought to affect rather to Graff them upon Free-stocks and in a Ground where driness does not so much predominate yet I will say to its Honour that this sowrish Taste is found only in such Pears of this sort that because they are worm-eaten mellow in November and is seldom met with in those that come not to mellow till the end of December The Marquis or Marchioness assumes two different Figures according to the difference of the Soils or Trees on which it grows If the Ground be dry it is pretty like in Bigness and Shape to a very fine Blanquet-pear or a midling Boncretien and it proves the same upon a Standard-Tree But in Grounds that are fat and moist and upon a Dwarf-tree there are of them that grow extraordinary great This Pear is of a handsom make it has a flat Head a little Eye or Crown sunk inwards a pretty big Belly and handsomly sloping down towards the Stalk which is indifferent long thick bent downward and a little hollow set its Skin is somewhat rough its Colour is of a green Ground flourished with some flakes of red as is to be seen in the Butter-pear which Colour if it change not in ripening the Pear proves very bad having in that the same Destiny with the Louise-bonnes or Good Louise's the Thorn-pears Petit-oins and Lansacs this miscarriage comes from the moistness of the Soil or the too thick and tuffed Figure of the Dwarf-tree in such Grounds But when the green of it grows kindly yellow as the Fruit ripens then the Pulp of it is tender and fine the Taste pleasing the Juice sufficiently abounding and as much Sugred as is to be wish'd in a marvellous Pear It 's true it has something of a stony Substance towards the Core but that sure ought not to hinder it from being look'd upon with some esteem in the Months of October and November The Pear of Colmar came to me under that Name from an illustrious curious Gentleman of Guien and from another Place under the Name of a Manna-pear and under that of the latter Bergamot And indeed this last Name would better agree to it than that of Colmar it has very much of the Air of a Boncretien and sometimes of a fair Bergamot Its Head is flat its Eye or Crown indifferent great and sunk very hollow its belly a little thought bigger than the Head moderately lengthening it self and very grosly lessening till it comes to the Stalk which is short pretty thick and bent downwards It s Colour is a spotted green like the Bergamet and sometimes a little tinged with red on the side next the Sun It grows a little yellow when it comes to be mellow which happens in December and January and sometimes reaches as far as February and March Its Skin is gentle and smooth its Pulp tender and its Juice very sweet and very sugred in which you have the Picture of an Excellent Pear but yet it has the same ill Offices to fear from the Quality of the Soil and of the Seasons with the Thorn-pear the Louise-bonne or Good Louise the Petit oin c. being a little subject to have its Pulp gritty and insipid besides which it fears the least blasts of the Autumn Winds which especially upon Tall-trees easily blow down its Fruit and hinder it from acquiring that degree of Perfection which naturally it should have It s just maturity of mellowness is not easie to nick for though it be yellow it is not always ripe enough for all that but after it has appeared yellow for a considerable time when it yields a little to the Thumb if gently pinch'd The Petit-oin which some Angevins or People of Anjou name Bouvar others the Russet of Anjou others Amadont and lastly others the Winter-Marvel is a Pear of November It is almost of the bigness and shape of the Ambrets or Leschasseries It s Colour is a clear green a little spotted and has a small touch of yellow when it is ripe one would be ready enough to take it for a midling Bergamot but that it has nothing of flatness but on the contrary is very round has a great Eye or Crown jetting outwards a small stalk pretty long a little bending downward and shallow set a Skin between rough and soft its Body is a little uneven and full of Bunches its Pulp extreamly fine and melting without any stony or earthy remains its juice very sweet very much sugred and agreeably Perfumed with a smack of Musk all which confirms to us That as little as it is in Bulk it ought to be allowed a Place among good Pears and be ranked among the first in Fruit-Gardens though as I have elsewhere said it runs the same hazards as the Thorn-pear and other principal Pears of contracting a doughy and insipid Pulp but in fine for all that it may be said That provided its natural temper be not spoiled by those Things which may be termed the sworn Enemies of all good Fruits which are too much moisture and too little heat there cannot during two Months space be seen a better little Pear than this is in its perfect Maturity The Louise Bonne or Good Louise is of a shape pretty like that of St. the German-Pear and even of the Verte-Longue or Long-green-Pear of Autumn but that it is not quite so narrow pointed some of them are much bigger and longer than others but the least are best its stalk is very short a little fleshy and bent downwards its Eye or Crown is small and even with the body its skin very gentle and smooth its colour of a speckled greenish growing whitish as it ripens which happens not to the bigger of them The First Mark then of its ripeness is that whiteness tho that be not sufficient alone but it must yield to the thumb when it is gently pinched towards the Crown It 's other good qualities consist in that it is marvellously fruitful and supplies almost the two whole Months of November and December that its Pulp is extreamly tender and full of Juice which Juice is pretty sweet and of a rich Taste in that it grows not soft and pappy as most other Pears do and above all in that it very much pleases his Majesty but that is to be understood when it has all the goodness it is capable of for it seems to be like Children that are born with good inclinations of whom it may be truly said that if they be well Educated those good Qualities improve in them to perfection but if ill they degenerate and are corrupted in the same manner wet grounds makes this Pear very big but at the same time very bad withal giving it a green crude and wildish Tast and a very peculiar sort of pulp not otherwise to be described but by saying it is almost like congealed Oyl it being true enough that this pulp makes no continuous body its parts hanging
on the contrary we have more need of seeking some Consolation for our lost Labours than any occasion to Rejoice at our Successes which may be a great instruction to us to let us see that we are not to attempt to force Nature in every thing and every where no she is a wise and understanding Mother who looking upon all the parts of the Earth as so many Children all equally belonging to her thought good therefore equally to dispense among them the good things and other favours she had to bestow upon them so that the better to maintain that Union and good Intelligence she had a mind should Reign Eternally among them she has so well regulated all things that every one of them is furnished with Qualifications Enabling them to Signalize themselves by some kind of Productions singular and peculiar to them which is the cause that being as 't were Jealous lest the Order and Allotment she has so well Establish'd and which she is Zealous to maintain entire should be violated she very often opposes the Encroachments made by any of the Parties upon any of their Sister Countries and the Attempts by which they go about as one may say to Rob them of that which was given them for their peculiar portion The Anana-Grape Ripens in the Indies and the Pergolese the Passe-Musquee or Passing-Musk-Grape and all the other principal sorts of Grapes Ripen even in the open Air in Italy c. But 't is not so with them in our Provinces there none of them can arrive to any tolerable Ripeness and likewise on the contrary Kernel-Fruits prosper wonderfully among us whereas the Mexicans and Moors let them do the utmost they can to make them grow under the Line find always their endeavours baffled Let us now return to lay down directions what Methods are to be used to give our Grapes all the means possible to attain in our Country that Perfection which they naturally should have upon which head we tell you we have nothing more Sovereign for that than the most advantageous Expositions of our Walls and for that reason in the Contestation here to be terminated we ought to make it our care to treat them well and demonstrate by that how much esteem we have for their excelling Merit Some of our Curious Gentlemen will not plead here in general for all sorts of good Grapes so as to comprise the Chasselas Cioutat and Corinth-Grapes but at least for the Muscat or Muscatell Now of this Muscat or Muscatell there are Four sorts viz. The Long-Muscat otherwise called the Passe-Musquee or Passing-Muscat which is the most difficult of them all to be brought to Ripen and the White-Muscat Red-Muscat and Black Muscat which Three last have their Grape or Berry round and of a middling size and tho' they need a great deal of Heat yet not so much as the Long-Muscat in my Opinion the Black one is the least of them all but the White seems to excel the Two others And indeed a White Muscat or Muscatell whether its Grape be small or great 't is no matter so it be Clear Firm Yellow Hard and Crackling and its Juice Sweet Sugred and Perfumed such a Muscatell Grape I say what pleasure gives it not to him that Eats it Can there be seen a more excellent Fruit during the Months of September and October and sometimes till the end of November In Hot Countries they have admirable ones growing in the full Air that is upon a Vine planted in the open Field but here to have any that are constantly pretty good we must necessarily have recourse to the assistance of some Easterly or Southerly-Walls The Year 1676 particularly produced us the most delicious ones in the World in those Expositions and in dry and sandy grounds we have had better Grapes of them in the Easterly than even in the Southerly Exposition from whence those Gentlemen would conclude that a Wall can never be better employed than by planting it with good Muscat-Grapes Other Curious Persons will hold as stifly for good Peaches as well for the Beauty of their Colour it being really the Fruit that above all others most delights the Eye as for its Beauty and Largeness its lovely round Figure the abundance of its Sugred Juice and its rich and sweet Perfume c. And truly their Party is likewise very great and considerable It is very true there is nothing comparable to a good Peach in the Months of August September and October and even in the beginning of November till the Frosts come but we can have but few of them here unless it be against Walls which is a sensible displeasure to us all because in the open Air they become incomparably better than against Walls And 't is the open Air that has Evidenced to us here how far their chief Excellence can attain the open Air which yet cannot do us any good in their favour in this Country unless it be in the Gardens within great Cities which by a great number of lofty topping Walls of Houses are in the first place extreamly well sheltered from the Winds and from the frosts of the Spring and that it is which makes them bear so great an abundance of Fruit for in effect we can seldom say we have any great plenty of Peaches but when we have a reasonable number of Dwarf-Trees of them and those Dwarf-Trees take In the second place those high Walls shut in and augment that heat that is necessary to ripen their Fruit on all sides and so in fine those Fruits being thus exposed to the Air to the Zephirs or gentle growing Winds and to the Rain acquire in that manner of situation a degree of Goodness which the violent ardour of the Sun reflected against a Wall could never be able to give them equally on all parts of their Circference The experience we have of these singular good effects of the full Air has made me to think of raising a kind of cavelling objection against Wall-Plantations for though I know indeed for certain that 't is they that contribute to the insuring us a crop of Fruit yet I know as certainly at the same time that 't is they that by cramping up our Fruits against a Wall and thereby depriving them of the free enjoyment of the Air hinder them from acquiring the full Goodness they naturally would have as if those Trees out of a Sense of impatience and indignation at the violence and torture they suffer by being so tyed and crampt up had a mind to punish us by a suppression of some part of their Goodness for the injury we do them in robbing them of that liberty which Nature had blest them withal In the Spring time then I take advantage of the assistance of the Wall to make the Peaches knit and take the more surely and at Midsummer I draw the Branches with Fruit on them forwards from the Wall which after my manner of
if their roots be much defective we must e'en reckon such Trees good for nothing To be able to pronunce a Tree then to be well qualified as to its roots in the first place they must be of a proportionable thickness to the bigness of the Tree that is it must have at least one root very near as big as the body of the Tree for when they are all small and Fibrous and like a head of Hair it is almost an infallible sign of the weakness of the Tree and of its approaching death or at least of its never being likely to produce any good effect neither is the over great quantity of such Fibres any very good sign In the second place we must see that the principal roots be neither rotten nor split nor very much peeled or unbarked nor grown very red or dry or hard for if they be rotten they show a great infirmity in the principle of life of the whole Tree the roots never rotting when the Tree is in good health If they be split in the place out of which they Spring it is a wound that may be termed incurable and the Gangreen and Rottenness will sieze upon it and so it will be left like a Work-man without either hands or tools And therefore they who pull up Trees should be very careful to do it dextrously and gently and for that effect to make good holes that they may not be obliged to strain any part of them too violently when they draw them up or else they will not fail to split or break some good Root or other If likewise they be too much grated or unbark't in those parts which should be most particularly preserved those are also dangerous wounds and especially in Stone Fruit-Trees the gum seldom failing to breed in them And in fine if the roots be dried up either by frost or by having been too long drawn out of the Ground and exposed to the air we are to Reject that Tree it being certain it will never take to grow again I most particularly value the young roots that are Newliest shot out they sprouting commonly out of that part of the main body nearest the surface of the Ground and care little for the old ones which are commonly knotty and in Pear-Trees Plum-Trees Wildings c. they are blackish whereas the young ones are reddish and pretty smooth and even In Almond-Trees they are Whitish in Mulberry-Trees yellowish and in Cherry-Trees Reddish CHAP. XIX How to prepare a Tree for Planting THis preparation is of so great a consequence for the making of Trees take new footing and grow again that very often they take and produce a good effect only because they were well prepared before they were replanted and no less often fail taking or producing a good head or top because they were ill prepared There are two things to be prepared in them viz. a less principal one which is the head or top and another which is most highly principal and important and that is the foot or roots As to the head there is but little mystery in ordering that either in Standard or Dwarf-Trees it being needful only for that effect to remember these two points The first is that as it appears we do a great prejudice to a Tree when we pluck it up because we always weaken it thereby and abate its vigour and its activity at least for some time we must therefore take off so much of its charge and burthen about its head as may be proportionable to what we take from it of that strength and activity as we certainly do by removing to a new place and retrenching it of some of its Roots That is a maxim that needs no proof The second point we are to be mindful of is that we must leave its body no higher than is convenient for the use the Tree is designed for Some being to produce their effect very low as the Dwarfs and Wall-Trees which therefore must be cut pretty short and others to produce theirs very high as the Standard-Trees which therefore must be left of a considerable height But I seldom cut either sort of them to the length they are to be of till I have first finish'd the whole operation that is to be performed about their roots And this is the Method I observe in doing it First I order all the Fibres to be cut off as near as can be to the place out of which it springs unless it be a Tree that I plant again assoon as ever 't is pluck'd up without leaving it a moment out of the Ground otherwise if it continue never so little while in the air all that would be good to preserve of its root which is a kind of tuft of White small hair like roots or Fibres turns presently black and consequently spoils being as it seems no more able to endure the air than some sorts of fish that die as soon as ever they are out of the Water But we can never have opportunity to save this White Fibrous part of the roots but when we pull up a Tree in one part of our Garden to plant it immediately in another place of the same Garden for then indeed we may save some part of those Fibres which is not broken and whose extremities or points appear still acting as 't were and that comes out of a good place otherwise if all those conditions be not found in it we are not to make any account of it and for the better preservation of it we may too at the same time take along with it some of its former mold that hangs next about it like a kind of Turf taking care in planting it to place and spread out well that hairy or Fibrous part To return now to order a Tree that has been longer pulled up I first of all then take away all that Fibrous or hairy part which many Gard'ners save with so much care and so little reason in such Trees as those And when I am about stocking any large Plantation Iorder my people immediately to fall to work to retrenching from the Trees what is to be cut from them before I plant them and that both in the day time in some bye place of the Garden and particularly in the night in some place within-doors by candle light to hinder the delaying of some other work no less in hast that cannot be done but without-doors and so by that means I take advantage of the night which comes upon us so soon and so unconveniently at the usual season of making our plantations The Fibres being thus taken away and by that means the greater roots laid open to my full view I am the better able to see the bad ones to take them quite off and to discern the good ones to save them and afterwards to regulate the cutting them to the exact length I would leave them of and very often when I find the roots of any Trees
a little too much dried I order them to be steeped seven or eight hours in water before I replant them When I speak of good and bad roots it may be thought I mean by these latter only such roots as are broken or unbarked or rotten or dry But yet I mean something of greater consequence and that is that every Tree that is planted and especially every Nursery-Tree shoots out sometimes either all good roots or all bad ones or both good ones and bad ones at the same time which comes to pass as follows A Tree planted with the preparations recommended by me if it takes must shoot forth new roots or else it dies all its old roots being of no service to it And of those new ones some are fair and thick and some are feeble and small the fair ones will spring either out of the Extremities of those which we left it which is most to be desired or else from some other part that is either from the body of the Tree and consequently above the old roots which composed the extream parts of the Tree or from that part of the old ones that is nearest the Body of the Tree whilst the old ones either have shot out nothing at all throughout their whole extent or but very small roots out of their Extremities and some thicker ones a little further off those Extremities In which two Cases the thick ones growing either out of the Body of the Tree or out of any part of the old roots but their ends make all the rest both old and new insensibly to perish and dwindle away and therefore the perishing ones are to be counted bad because if not taken away they make the Tree grow Yellow and Languish in some part of its top or head It is no hard matter to know the good ones from the bad ones because that supposing according to the order of nature the lower part of the Body of the Tree planted should as in truth it ought be always bigger than the rest of it and maintain it self always in that condition yet if we perceive that part instead of enlarging it self proportionably to the rest of the body according to the same order of nature to remain on the contrary smaller than some part a little higher from whence in effect we find some fair roots to spring then the unthrifty part is to be looked upon as 't were accursed and abandoned by Mother Nature which seems to take pleasure in bestowing its favours upon another and consequently we must entirely cut away all that lesser part with all that it had shot forth before which many Gardiners call Pivot but are mistaken as I shall afterwards shew The first thing to be done then in this case is entirely to take away all that part of it that appears to be so abandoned and disgraced as close as we can to the part well nourished and which is as 't were in favour that we may only preserve those roots that spring from the fortunate part what kind of ones or in how small a number soever they be for indeed the number of them should never be very great and above all we must take care as I have said to take away the greatest part of the old ones which far from having any appearance of vigour and of youth or a lively and fresh colour look all Black shriveled and rugged and worn out and therefore we are only to esteem those which are fresh and new and that we find at the same time well placed And these young ones are to be kept short proportionably to their length the longest in Dwarf-Trees of what bigness soever it be which is commonly not very great never being to exceed eight or nine Inches nor much above a foot in Standards We may leave a greater length the roots of Mulberry and Almond-Trees because those of the first are very soft and those of the second very dry and hard and therefore will be in danger of perishing if they be cut too short After we have fixed the length of the biggest roots of our Fruit-Trees I am to tell you that the length of two or three or four Inches will serve for the lesser and feebler ones and that proportionably to the bigness of each the least being always to be the shortest and here as I have elsewhere told you we must use a quite contrary method to that we practise in the pruning of the Branches One single rank or story of roots is enough and I make more account of two or three roots well placed than of twenty midling ones I term roots to be well placed when being round about the Tree foot they are like so many lines drawn from the center to the Circumference And I would have all my Trees as near as possible so prepared that without being planted they may be able to stand upright of themselves like so many nine-pins and especially such as are designed for Dwarfs or Standards to grow in the open Air for to plant against Walls because we must keep them always a little bending forward and that it is not convenient there should be any root turned towards the Wall we must entirely cut away all those we find turned that way and which in appearance were the worst for having occasion to preserve the best to be sure I always retrench those that were the worst qualified and most inconveniently placed Methinks these Maximes are easie to be understood and are so easie to practise that any man that has but seen a Tree prepared according to their prescription as 't is represented in the figures therewith inserted may be able to prepare all sorts of Trees and especially of those sorts that are not very prickly as Quince-Trees Plum-Trees Wildings of the Woods c. But in ordering of Trees that prick as Wildings come of Kernels Stones c. there there is a little more difficulty And the better to enable my self to compass the ordering of them as well as of easier Trees I made coice of fifteen Trees among the great number that I have taken up and replanted these five and twenty or 30 years which were such in which I observed any remarkable difference in the situation of their roots by which I found that generally all Trees in the spreading of their roots imitated some one of those fifteen so that having first caused them to be drawn out in figures exactly as they were when newly pulled up and afterwards when they were cut and trimmed ordering them to be drawn over again in other plates in the condition they were in then to show how they must be order'd before they be planted any Gentleman may after that model regulate the operations that are to be made upon the roots of all sorts of Trees whatsoever I likewise thought it very convenient to have them drawn too in the state they were in while they were shooting out the new roots they produce after
Accordingly I chuse out some good place in the Garden the most shady parts of it being the most proper for this effect and there I plant some Trees in Osier Baskets well ticketed or at least carefully set down in my Book according to the order both of their Ranks and of the respective places allotted to them in those Ranks that I may have recourse to them when any Tree shall happen to die or languish in its place Being desirous if it be possible that my plantation should continue finished and compleat as well in its figure as in the kinds of Trees according to my first modelling of it In order to which I keep in a leaning posture in the Reservatory Baskets those Trees that are designed for the Wall and in a straight and upright posture in the middle of the said Baskets those that are intended for Dwarfs that when I have occasion for either of them I may the more commodiously remove and place them with Basket and all so as the Tree may be every whit as well situated as if it had been first planted there which it would not be if the Tree designed for a Wall-Tree were placed bolt upright in the middle of the Basket because we could not so easily bend the Tree towards the Wall the same inconvenience almost happens if we be to plant for a Dwarf a Tree that we find in a leaning posture in a Reservatory Basket though of the two that be easier to place well than the Tree designed for a Wall-Tree This operation of the Transporting of Reserve Trees may be done till Mid-summer and when we have a mind to go about it we must first by way of preparation water those Reserve Trees well that we design to remove which probably will be the fairest we have and then move the Earth away neatly round about the Baskets for fear of breaking the roots of the plants in case they have shot any beyond the compass of their Baskets and we must ch 〈…〉 rainy weather to do it in or at least weather that is mild and temperate and a time when the Sun is low or a little after he is set or a little before he rises and he must be extreamly carefull not to shake or loosen the Tree in the least manner in the World neither when we are taking it up nor when we are carrying it off nor when we are replacing it in its designed station the shaking and loosening of it being in this case very pernicious and often Mortal Now when in removing these Reserve Trees we perceive any roots of them to have begun to shoot out of the Basket we must first in placing it be very careful to preserve the points of those new Roots place them well and support them with good mold cover them immediately and ramm the Earth close against the Basket and then water the Ground pretty plentifully round about the Basket to make the Earth next to it cleave the closer about it so as there may remain no hollow which may be known by the waters not sinking so hastily when you pour it on the place as before And this watering is indispensably necessary in what manner soever we remove our Reserve Trees And lastly on those days when the Sun shines hot we must cover the head of the Tree with straw Screens till such time as it begins to sprout and then we may begin to take them off a nights But this last precaution is not necessary but when we see any new roots Sprout out of the Basket or when the Tree has been shaken and loosened The same care and caution we use in placing against Walls Trees thus brought up in Reserve Baskets We must practise too in placing the same sort of Trees for Dwarfs or Standards and above all we must have a special care to leave those new roots as little as possible in the Air otherwise they will presently grow Black and consequently die I have nothing else to add about this head but only directions how to make these Baskets which must be made purposely and so loose wrought that you may see through them as well because the roots of the plants may the more easily grow through them as that taking up less stuff they may cost so much the less and besides when there is so much stuff as to make them too thick and impenetrable it do's but harm They must be made of the greenest and freshest gathered Oster that is to be had that being put quite green into the Earth they may last the longer without Rotting that is at least a whole Year for those that have been made any time rot sooner They must not be very deep because then they would be too troublesome to remove eight or nine Inches depth is enough that when they are set into the Ground as deep as till their brims be covered we may have room enough to put into them first about four or five Inches depth of Mold and then the Tree and after that cover their roots with a little quantity of Earth more and we may in removing these Reserve Trees with their Baskets take off some of the uppermost Mold if we find them too cumbersome to carry But as I told you before we must be very careful to ramm down the Earth close about the Baskets that there remain no chink or hollow As to the bigness of the Baskets it must be proportionable to the length of the roots of the Trees we design to plant in them They must be at least big enough to afford us room to put in three or four Inches depth of Mold between the ends of the roots and the Brim of the Basket so that for Trees designed for Wall Trees the Baskets need not be so large as otherwise because those Trees are planted in them in a leaning posture and therefore lie so near one side that all their roots are turned to the other and so their new roots may find room enough provided the Basket be wide enough But for Trees designed for Dwarfs because they must be planted in the middle and therefore shoot out roots round about them the Baskets for them must be a little Larger The Baskets likewise for Standards must be proportionably greater than for low Trees I need not tell you that the Baskets must be round because every Body knows that though they might be made Oval or Square too but then they would cost more and be never a whit the better The Difference therefore of the Bigness of Trees obliges us to make Baskets of three different Sizes viz. Little ones of about a foot Diameter Midling ones of about fifteen or sixteen Inches and Great ones of about eighteen or twenty The principal Quality most to be look'd after in them is that their bottom be strong and solid enough to bear without bursting the weight of Earth to be charged upon them and that the Edges both above and below be so well wrought
bear the Fruit they are to produce without breaking This so material Distinction in point of Branches shall be more particularly explain'd in the Chapters that treat of the Manner of Pruning I will say nothing here of the Original of Pruning by reason that what has been said of it is fabulous and ridiculous and consequently cannot at present serve for Instruction For Example What signifies it to know that some pretend to derive the Original of Pruning from that Province of Greece which was called Nauptia a Country abounding in Vineyards An Ass having brouz'd or nibbl'd some Branches of Vines it was observ'd that the nibbl'd Branches produc'd a great many more Grapes than those that were untouch'd which made them resolve thenceforward to shorten or break or cut that is to prune all the Branches of Vines It is moreover reported that so much Success attended this Experiment that to express their Acknowledgment of so fine an Invention they erected in one of the finest Places of that Province a Marble Statue to that Animal as to the Author of Pruning of Vines that is to say to the Author of the Abundance of Wine And our Books tell us that this is the true Reason of Bacchus's being drawn mounted upon an Ass The Usefulness of Pruning Vines being visible it was judg'd from thence that it would not be less advantageous to prune Fruit-Trees and thus in the Beginnings they did in this as has been done in all other Arts and Sciences they begun to cut grosly that is to prune some of the Branches of Trees till by degrees they have study'd to refine upon it and even in these Days People still study by Reason and Observation to improve and render themselves more and more perfect in it This is the Information we receive from Books as to the Original of Pruning It will easily be granted that this is not a very material Thing But What is very necessary to be known Are three principal Points without the understanding of which it seems impossible to me either to speak well of this Pruning or to perform it The First relates to the Reasons for which it is done The Second To the Time in which it must be done And the Third relates to the Manner of doing it with Skill and Success Let us examine these three Points one after another CHAP. II. Of the Reasons of Pruning I Will begin with the Reasons for which Pruning is used which in my Opinion are two The First and chief is That which Pruning aims at The speedy getting of abundance of fine and good Fruit without which no Fruit-Trees would be had or cultivated The Second which is pretty considerable informs us That Pruning serves to make Trees in all Seasons even in those in which they have neither Fruit nor Leaves appear more agreeable to Sight than they would do if they were not prun'd Now the Satisfaction of the Sight in this last Point depends wholly upon the well-understood and well-proportion'd Figure a skilful Hand is capable of giving to each Tree And as to what relates to the Abundance of fine and good Fruit as much as the Industry of the Gard'ner can contribute to it it depends first upon the Knowledge he must have of every Branch in particular to know those that are good from those that are not It depends in the second place upon the judicious Distinction which is to be made among the Branches wholly to take away those that are bad or useless and carefully to preserve all the good ones be they Branches for Wood or Branches for Fruit with this caution that if among these last some be found not too long they shall be left as they are But as to the main of the others which are too long they must be Prun'd more or less according as Reason may require either as to the Abundance or even to the Figure of the Tree This abundance depends in the third Place upon the proper time of Pruning all times not being fit for it In relation to the two first Heads which relate to the Knowledge and Distinction of Branches in general I shall shew hereafter in what Order and to what Use Nature produces them upon Fruit-Trees how some are useful for one thing others for another and chiefly how some have more Disposition to Fructify and others less and shall conclude from thence that it is according to that Order and that Intention of Nature and according to that more or less Disposition that those Branches must be Order'd and Prun'd in a different manner the one from the other But before I enter any farther into that matter which has a great extent since I must therein explain especially the Manner or Rules that must be practis'd in the Pruning of a great number of Trees which commonly are very different the one from the other I think it will not be improper to say first and as briefly as I can what I think of the Time of Pruning since that Article is soonest decided CHAP. III. Of the Time of Pruning THere is but little to be said upon the Time of Pruning because that by a general Approbation it is commonly fix'd to the End of Winter or at the Beginning of the Spring that is a little before the Trees sprout and partly about the time that the Buds begin to swell in order to become Blossoms and the others to stretch out to become Branches Which happens infallibly after the great Colds which generally attend the Months of November December January and February are past the Spring coming in and consequently the Air beginning to grow hot and mild the Plants that had wholly ceas'd to act during four Months begin as it were to waken and really to enter into Action That first Motion is constantly perform'd at the Head before it begins at the Roots that is to be understood when the Cold has been so great as to interrupt their Function for among us in mild Winters there is not much more Interruption than in very hot Countries We shall shew this Order in another place This External Renewing of Action is a certain Sign that it is time to prune People were formerly so scrupulous as to the precise Time of Pruning that they durst not absolutely labour about it but in the Decrease of the Moons of February and March It was almost the only Maxim in that Case that appear'd well establish'd and was in effect inviolably observed It may be said that it was a kind of Rote which most Gardners affected with an incredible Obstinacy or rather that it was a kind of Tyranny which they exercis'd when they were employ'd by Gentlemen who were Lovers of their Fruit-Trees That Custom was grown to that heighth that both the one and the other would have thought all lost had any thing been prun'd out of those Declinings It was an Epidemical Distemper of which there are still but too many ill Remains I grant that in other things that are
at a loss when any body desires to know the Reasons of his Pruning And that is the Subject I intend to Treat of in the following Chapter CHAP. IV. Of the Reasons that oblige to Prune WE have two principal Reasons which Prescribe and Authorise Pruning The First is To be sure to have a greater abundance of fine Fruit and sooner The Second is To render the Tree at all times more agreeable to sight than it would be if it were not Prun'd It is undeniable that it is not only the Fruit and Leaves that render a Tree beautiful They are indeed its greatest Ornaments but there is something more requir'd since the Fruit not remaining upon it all the Year round it were to be wish'd that when it is stript of those Adornments or is not yet old enough to have them all it may at least be compos'd and shap'd so as to delight the Eye Now that which besides the importance of Fruit renders a Tree pleasing to the Eye is nothing but the beautiful Figure a skilful Gard'ner can give to it And whereas we have two sorts of Trees upon which particularly we Exercise Pruning to wit Dwarfs and Wall-Trees we must establish good Principles to proceed prudently upon both Those Principles relate particularly to the thick Branches without which we cannot have beautiful Dwarfs and by means of which it is easie and even Infallible to attain to a perfection in it the whole Mystery of that Operation shall be discover'd in the Chapters that Treat of the manner of Pruning Dwarfs and Wall-Trees there being no other Rules for the one than for the other I say first That for those two sorts of Trees it must be granted that their Figures being so opposite the one to the other the Beauty consequently must needs be so too therefore I think it will not be amiss to shew in what particularly I faney that those two different kind of Beauties may consist And perhaps after that it will not be improper to compare in that respect a good Gard'ner to a skilful Carver For as the latter conformably to the Idea which fills his Imagination ought at first sight to behold in his Marble the Figure he designs to work out of it and consequently to behold distinctly in it the place of every particular Beauty of which it is to be compos'd So an Understanding Gard'ner conformably to the Idea he shall have fram'd to himself of a fine Tree must at a view behold whatever is to be done in any Tree either to beautifie it when it is not so or to preserve it in its Beauty when it has acquir'd it whether it be to render it useful or for Example to see where the Fruit shall be and consequently the Branches that shall produce it to observe the Branches that must be taken off and those that must be preserv'd to give it an agreeable Figure c. And as from time to time the Carver draws back from his Work to see whether he has perform'd or executed his Thought well so a skilful Gard'ner in Pruning his Tree ought to do the same thing that is to draw back from it from time to time to see whether he has really hit upon the beautiful Figure he designs to give it But before we enter into the explication of that Idea or Notion of Beauty in Trees it will be necessary to remember That as I have said in my Treatise of Plantations we have but few of those that are call'd Fruit-Trees that Naturally remain Low Dwarfish and as I may say Creeping enough either to make regular Dwarfs or yet less to make Wall-Trees All Trees following the Inclination which Nature has given them endeavour to rise and consequently 't is only the Industry of the Gard'ners who opposing the Course of Nature hinders them from forming long Stems and from growing Tall. These Gard'ners knowing that as we have already said the Sap which is to form those Stems lies partly in the Trees much in the same manner as the water which is to form the Spouts of Water-Works lies in the Pipes They have concluded from thence that if they stopp'd the Passage which carries this Sap upwards which is easie to do by short'ning the Stems of the Trees there wou'd be no further likelyhood of its growing to be a Standard and so that Sap which is in motion or strives to get out without any possibility of being prevented finding no longer a passage to rise up as it ought will discharge it self at the place where its Course has been interrupted and will produce the same effect there it would have done higher had it had the liberty of ascending further so that this Sap springing out of the sides not only by many Overtures which are already actually form'd there but likewise by or through others that it will make it self proportionably as it is abundant it will produce to the right and left a pretty considerable quantity of fine Branches I must now tell you that if the Tree that is shorten'd be Planted in the open Air it may be dispos'd to make a fine Dwarf and if near any Wall to make a fine Wall-Tree I have also explain'd in the same Treatise of Plantations what is a Dwarf and what a Wall-Tree I have there shewn what was the Intention of those that first made them and of what use they may be to us I have likewise declar'd in it that when the Walls are high you must Plant Long Body'd Trees to garnish the top of the Wall and that instead of leaving them there the liberty of forming a round Tree as they wou'd do were they left at liberty their Branches must be constrain'd like those of the Trees that are shorten'd as we will demonstrate after having first explain'd wherein the Beauty both of the one and the others does consist I mean of Dwarfs and Wall-Trees CHAP. V. Of the Idea of Beauty which the Dwarfs Require THE Beauty of Dwarfs requires two Conditions the one in respect to the Stem and the other of the Head According to the first Condition Dwarfs must be low Stem and according to the second they must have an open Head that is free from thick Branches in the middle it must be round in its Circumference and equally furnish'd with good Branches on the sides I will explain more particularly hereafter what I mean by that Opening of the Middle and it shall be in the place where I shall give Directions how to attain to it but in the mean time a Man must have a right apprehension of the four Conditions of that Figure and be fully perswaded of it in order to understand usefully my Maxims of Pruning and grow Skilful in them in case he approves them so well as to be willing to Practise them I say nothing as yet of the heighth of the Head of those Dwarfs it depends on the Age of the Trees being low in those that are yet young and rising in all
not the least Confusion that being the greatest harm that can happen to a vigorous Tree And whereas to moderate the great Fury of such a Tree in respect to our selves that is to make it bear Fruit the sooner two things are particularly required besides the Overture which are first the length and multitude of good weak Branches when they are plac'd so as to cause no Confusion and in the second place a considerable Plurality of Out-lets upon the thick Branches through which that abundance of Sap may perform its Effect since we cou'd not hinder it from doing it in some part of the Tree Therefore when the Figure of my Tree will permit it if some Branch prun'd the preceding Year has produc'd three or four all pretty thick ones I often do not retrench them so that having one or two of the best plac'd I preserve one or two of the others for the Pruning of the next Year and leave them reasonably long Besides this if I preserve the lowest I cut the highest Stump-wise and when I preserve the highest I leave under them either on the out-side or upon the sides one or two Stumps of the thick Branches form'd like the Hooks of a Vine each about two Inches in length as it appears by the Figure annex'd hereunto which succeeds very well to me There infallibly happens in those Stumps or Hooks a Discharge of Sap which produces some favourable Branches either for Fruit when they prove weak or to become in time fit Branches for the Figure when they are strong The best way always is to lower the Tree in taking away the highest Branches to preserve the lowest and not take away the lowest to preserve the highest to the end that if the Tree cannot fill both at top and bottom it may rather be dispos'd to remain low and well fill'd than to rise high without being well fill'd These kind of Stumps and Hooks will not please our Gard'ners at first who neither know my Principles nor the way of Cupping which we have explain'd here above But if after having known my Reasons and long Experience they will neither approve or try them so much the worse for them they must give me leave to pity their Ignorance or Obstinacy CHAP. XXIV Of the Pruning that must be perform'd the Third Year upon all sorts of Trees planted within Four Years THis Case does not require the preceding Distinctions we have made to determine what was to be done to Trees according to the smaller or greater quantity of Branches they had produc'd the first Year They must at the end of four Years be partly all of the same Classis though they be not all furnish'd with an equal quantity of thick Branches But however both the one and the other must have produc'd a sufficient number to shew a Head entirely form'd and though even that for Example which had produc'd but one the first Year shou'd have produc'd but four or five in the fourth still there shou'd be nothing to be said in respect to that since that if it be vigorous it will partly fall under the Case of a Tree which at first had produc'd four or five or more and if it be not of those that are capable of producing more than one thick Branch on the Extremity of the Pruning you must regulate your self upon the meanness of its Vigour both in keeping the thickest Branches short and expecting but one thick one on the Extremity of each making it ever grow on that part where the Figure requires it most We must always inviolably follow the Idea of a fine Tree we have first of all propos'd to our selves either in a Dwarf or Wall-Tree and never fail to proportion the Burthen of the Head to the Vigour of the Foot in leaving more and longer Branches on a vigorous Tree and less and shorter on that which appears weak And whereas many old Branches must be carefully preserv'd on a vigorous Tree especially for Fruit provided there be no Confusion on the contrary you must ease a weak Tree of the Burthen of the old Branches as well those that are for Wood as those that are for Fruit and out them short in order to make it shoot new ones if it can with resolution to pull it out of the Ground if not able to perform it which being done a better must be plac'd in its room after having taken away all the old Earth which may be judg'd to be either ill or worn out and having put new in the room of it I still forewarn that in Pruning Provision must be made for those Branches that may proceed from those that are Pruning in order to prepare some that may be proper for the Figure with this Assurance that when a high Branch is taken down over a lower this being strengthen'd by all the Nourishment that wou'd have gone to the highest which has been taken away this low Branch I say will produce more Branches than it shou'd have done had it receiv'd no Re-inforcement In short when according to my Principles a young Tree shall have been conducted to a fourth Pruning the Effect will infallibly have made good what I have promis'd both as to the beautiful Figure which must then appear in its prime and as to the Fruit of which Pears then begin to shew a Sample and Stone-Fruit abundance After this apparently every body must be capable thenceforward to manage all manner of Fruit-Trees without needing any other Instructions than the preceding and indeed I have no other new ones to give and it wou'd be ridiculous and tiresom to repeat the same things which in my Opinion I have sufficiently establish'd It seldom happens that all the Trees of the same Garden though order'd alike prove equally vigorous no more than the Children of the same Father all equally healthy Trees as well as Men are subject to an infinite number of Accidents that can neither be fore-seen nor avoided but it is certain that all the Trees of a Garden may be form'd agreeably in their Figure and this is one of the principal things to which a Gard'ner is oblig'd Above all I advise every body not to be obstinate in preserving Pear-Trees which yearly towards the end of Summer grow extream yellow without having produc'd fine Shoots nor those of which the Extremities of the Branches likewise die every Year They are commonly Trees graffed upon Quince of which some of the principal Roots are dead or rotrotten They are Trees that produce but small Roots at the upper part of the Foot and consequently Roots that are expos'd to all the Injuries of the Air and of the Spade The same thing may be said of the Peach-Trees that appear the first Years to gather Gum at the greatest part of their Eyes and of those that are extreamly attack'd with certain little Fleas and Pismires Such Peach-Trees have certainly some rotten Roots and will never do well I am likewise of the same Opinion for those
rather as half Wood-Branches They really are of some use for the Figure and to fill up some Vacuity for two or three Years after which they must perish which must be expected and without relying upon them endeavour to get others near them to supply their Room otherwise a Tree will soon grow defective 31. Observation WHen a Tree either Dwarf or particularly a Wall-Fruit-Tree especially Peach or Plumb-Tree no longer shoots new Branches it must be look'd upon as a decay'd Tree and therefore another must be prepar'd against the next Year and without Pruning any of its Branches for Wood all those that are likely to produce fine Fruit must be preserv'd to that end retrenching all the Sapless ones exactly as being incapable of doing any good 32. Observation YOU must never Prune a Branch for Wood when you have no such occasion for it and therefore for Example when a high Standard begins to be press'd by the Neighbourhood of a lower Tree so as to be partly necessitated to cut off some of the lowest Branches of that high Standard to make room for the highest of its Neighbour in such a Case those Branches of the high Standard must be left long for Fruit especially if it be vigorous and can nourish these without prejudicing the principal Branches And thereby Endeavours are us'd to get some Fruit by the extraordinary length of such Branches before one be necessitated to cut them off quite 33. Observation WE must cut Stump-wise that is entirely all the thick Branches that are shot from the Extremity of another passably thick and long which if Prun'd according to the common Method of Pruning wou'd grow too naked and too long and consequently wou'd look disagreeable By this manner of Pruning Stump-wise we may commonly hope for some new Branches from the Body of the old one proper to maintain the Beauty of the Figure in filling up every part 34. Observation WE likewise cut Stump-wise when upon a very vigorous Tree of two strong Branches grown on the Extremity of a vigorous one we think fit to use the Second preferably to the First and yet do not think it proper to strengthen that Second any more and so we leave for the space of a Year or two or more a small passage for the Sap to the highest cut Stumpwise in order to take it quite away as well as the new Branch that shall be shot from it as soon as the Tree shall begin to bear Fruit. However I must confess that the most common Use that is made of that way of Pruning Stump-wise is seldom for any Branches but such that from weak and passably long as they were are grown extraordinary thick and vigorous insomuch that they have shot from their Extremity one or two or many thick Branches The original Weakness of such Branches only proceeded from their length which shou'd not have been allow'd them had they been as thick as they are grown since and therefore being grown thick they must begin to be us'd like Branches for Wood that is they must be shorten'd 35. Observation AND in case that Branch cut Stump-wise has produc'd no Branches for Wood in its Extent especially drawing near to the place whence it proceeded and on the contrary has shot a thick Branch at the place of the Stump or close by it this last thick one must again be cut Stump-wise especially the old one not being too long for if it be too long and has not been shorten'd at a proper time the Pruning must be perform'd upon the Body of that old one and consequently shorten'd according to the Rules heretofore establish'd 36. Observation IF on an old but pretty vigorous Tree altogether disorder'd with false Wood barely by the defects of an ill-perform'd Pruning Care be not taken for three or four Years one after another to take it lower by a Branch or two yearly until it be quite shorten'd it will never yield any satisfaction but by that means it may very well be brought to be a fine and good Tree This is fit to be done when a Tree is of a very good kind If not it were better to take it quite down and to Graff a better kind upon it Slit-wise either of such as we have not already or have not a sufficient number of 37. Observation SOmetimes certain Trees are so vigorous that they cannot especially the first Years be reduc'd to a small compass therefore they must be allow'd to extend either upwards or on the sides otherwise they will only produce false Wood Afterwards you may by degrees reduce them to the Standard of others when they begin to bear Fruit. Such are commonly Virgoulé Lady-Thighs Saint-Lezin Robine Rousselets or Russettings c. 38. Observation A Very vigorous Tree can never have too many Branches provided they be well order'd and cause no Confusion whereas on the contrary a weak Tree can never have too few that the Burthen may be proportion'd to the Vigour of it and therefore you must seldom leave any upon it but such thick Branches as it may have 39. Observation THE Branches of false Wood or Suckers as to Peach-Trees and other Stone-Fruit are not commonly so defective as to the Eyes or Buds as those that grow upon Kernel-Fruit-Trees but are more subject to perish and to have their Eyes extinguish'd with Gum which is a peculiar Distemper to them As for the Pruning they must partly be manag'd like the Branches of false Wood of Pear-Trees when they are but in a small number upon a Tree but when there are a great many on the lower part of a Tree they must be look'd upon as proper to renew that Tree and therefore a considerable length must be allow'd to some in order to take them away when the fury shall be over and in the mean time those that shall be pitch'd upon for the Foundation of the Re-establishment of a fine Figure must be Prun'd according to the common Method We seldom meet with this abundance of thick Branches upon any but Peach-Trees especially Stone-Peaches which begin to grow ancient and worn out about the head 40. Observation ALL manner of Trees have a Branch or two predominant over the others and sometimes more happy are those in which the Vigour is divided unhappy those where the Torrent lies all on one side 41. Observation A Wood-Branch growing on the in-side of a Dwarf which you intend to close is ever welcome and the same if favourably plac'd to supply a thin side 42. Observation FRuit-Buds of Pear and Apple-Trees sometimes form themselves the very same Years in which the Branch they are adherent to has been form'd as generally all the Buds of Stone-Fruit do but sometimes there are some that are two or three Years and even longer before they come to perfection Some arrive to it at the Entrance of the Spring so that it happens that some may be seen at the time of the Blossom which did no wise appear during the
Common as the Curled Macedonian Parsly Parsnips Patience a sort of Sorrel Vid. Sorrel Pease from the Month of May which are the Hastings till Allhallow-tide Passe Musquée See Muscats Piercepier a sort of Stone Parsly Pompions or Pumpkins called in French Citruls Potirons a sort of flat Pumpion or Pumpkin Purslain both of the Green and Golden or Red sort R. RAdishes both in Spring Summer and Autumn Raspberries both Red and White Responces or Field-Radishes Rue Rocamboles or Spanish Garlick Rocket a kind of Sallet Furniture Rose-mary Rubarb S. SAge Salsisie or Goat's-Beard Saracens or Turky Wheat Savory Scorzonera or Spanish Salsiâ—ie Sellery See Cellery Shalots See Eschalots Smallage Sorrel both the Great the Little and the Round Spinage Spare-Mint See Mint Straw-berries both Red and White Succory Vide. Endive Suckers of Artichokes Sweet Herbs See Fine Herbs or Aromaticks Sharp Trefoil See Alleluia T. TIme for Borders Tripe-Madam Sharp Trefoil vid. Alleluia Turkey or Saracens Wheat Turneps V. VErjuice Grapes vid. Bourdelais Vines Violets in Borders W. VVHeat See Turkey and Saracenâ— Wheat Worm-wood for Borders Wood-sorrel See Alleluia CHAP. II. Containing a Description of the Seeds and other things which contribute to the production and Multiplication of every sort of Plant or Legume A Alenois Cresses See Cresses Alfange See Lettuce ALLELUIA or Wood or French Sorrel is a sort of Trefoil that is multiplied only by Runners or slips which sprout from the foot of it as do Violets and Daises c. It bears a White Flower but no seed Anis Is propagated only by seed which is pretty small and of a yellowish Green and is of a longish Oval Figure Striped Which Oval is Bunched on one side In a word it is altogether like Fennel-seed Artichoaks are commonly multiplied only by their Oeillitons or little Eyes or Off-Sets which are a sort of Kernals which grow about the heart of the foot of their plants â—hat is in that part that separates the Root from the Eye or bud out of which the stemm grows that produces the Artichockes These little Eyes or off-sets begin commonly to breed at the very end of Autumn or in Winter when it is mild and shoot forth their Leaves in the Spring that is at the end of March and in the month of April at which time we grope about the foot of the Artichoke and separate or slip off these Suckers or off-sets in French called little Eyes and that is called Slipping or dis-Eyeing These off-sets or suckers to be good should be White about the heel and have some little roots those that are black about the heel are old and produce but very little Artichokes in the spring whereas the others stay till August September or October before they bring theirs to perfection according to the intention of the Gard'ner Sometimes Artichokes are multiplied by the seed which grows in the Artichoke bottoms when they are suffered to grow old to flower and to open and lastly to dry about Midsummer When we tie them up in Autumn we wrap and cover them up to their whole length with straw or old dung and so Whiten the Cottony sides of their leaves to make Artichoke Chards of Asparagus or Sparagras are propagated only by seeds which is black a little oval round on one side and very flat on the other about the bigness of a great pin's head and grows in a shell or round Cod which is Red and about the bigness of an ordinary Pea there are four or six seeds in each shell and those shells grow in Autumn upon the head of those Asparagus plants that are a little fairer and stronger than the rest Sometimes those shells are sown whole but the best way is to break them and beat the seeds out of them The time of sowing them is about the end of March. B BAlm in French Melisse is multiplied only by Runners and Cuttings Basil or Basilick as well the Great as the Small sort is multiplied by seed which is of a blackish cinnamon colour and very Small and a little oval and is propagated no other way but that The common Bay or Bays is propagated by seeds which are Black or else by Layers Beans as the Marsh or Common Beans which are pretty thick and long of an oval figure round at one end and flat at the other with a black list or Crease pretty thick and broad of a sullied White colour having a smoother skin than the Haricauts or Kidney Beans which are likewise long and oval but narrower lesser and thinner than the other having a black list in the middle of one of the sides of the oval which is round on one side and a little bending Inward on the other The Feverolles or Venetian Beans dister only from these last in that they are a little less and are some of them White some Red and some mottled with several Colours there is one sort of them that is very small Every body knows they all grow in Cods Beet-Raves or Beet-Radishes that is Red-Beets to produce Roots for Sallets are multiplied only by Seeds which are about the bigness of middling Peas and round but all gravelly in their roundness they are yellowish and so like those of the White Beet that they are hardly to be distinguish'd one from the other so that People are often mistaken thinking they have sown Red Ones for Roots and see nothing come up but White Beets they are planted apart when designed to run to Seed White Beets called Porrêe or Poirée for Chards are also propogated only by Seed which is like that of the Red Beets only 't is of a little duller colour They are replanted to produce Chards Bonne-Dame or Good Lady is multiplied only by Seed which is extreamly flat and thin and is round and reddish Borage is propagated only by Seed which is black and of a long bunchy Oval Figure and having commonly a little white end towards the base or bottom which is quite separated from the rest the length is all Engraven as 't were with black streaks from one end to the other Bugloss is likewise only multiplied by Seed which is so like that of Borage that they cannot be known asunder Buckshorn Sallet is multiplied only by Seed which is one of the least we have it is besides that longish and of a very dark Cinnamon colour and grows in a Husk like a Rats Tail Burnet is propagated only by Seed which is pretty big and a little Oval with four sides and is all over engraven as 't were in the spaces between those four sides C. CAbbages called in French Choux and comprehending both Cabbage Coleworts and Colyflowers of all kinds of what Nature soever they be are multiplied only by Seed which is about the bigness of an ordinary Pin or of Birding Powder and is reddish inclining to a brown Cinnamon colour Capucin Capers See Nasturces Caprons See Strawberries Spanish Cardons are propagated only by Seed which is longish oval and about the bigness
it a great deal of good to water it in Summer There is but one sort of it whose Seed is gathered at the end of Summer C. CAbbages of all sorts of Kitchen-Plants take Root again the easiliest when transplanted as they are likewise the most known and most used of any in our whole Gardens They are multiplied by Seed and are of several sorts and Seasons There are some called White or headed Cabbages which are for the service of the latter end of Summer and for Autumn There are some Curled called Pancaliers and Milan Cabbages which produce small headed Cabbages for Winter there are some of a Red or Violet Colour and some called long sided Cabbages whereof some are Bright or White and very delicate ripe in Vintage time and others Green and are not very good till they be Frost-bitten Lastly there are some called Choux Fleurs i. e. Cabbage Flowers and by the English Collyflowers which are the most noble and valuable of them all and are not used in pottage but in choice intermesses they cannot endure the Frost and therefore assoon as they begin to form their heads they must be covered with their Leaves tied up for that end over them with Straw bands to guard them from the insults of the Cold that spoil and rot them They are for our Winter spending and must be sheltred in the Green house or Conservatory whither they must be carried and there planted with a turf of their old Earth about them where they commonly are used to perfect the full growth of their heads All other Cabbage-Plants yield Seed in France but only these whose Seed we are fain to have brought up from the Eastern Countries which makes them ordinarily very dear To make Cabbages run to Seed we use every year either in Autumn or Spring to transplant some of the best and fairest of them which run to Seed in the Months of May and June that is gathered in July and August You are by the way to remark two things The first is that all thick Plants that run to Seed and grow pretty high as Cabbage Leeks Ciboules Onions Red Beet-Roots Carrots Parsnips Cellery c. must be supported either with upright props or croâ—s sticks to hinder the wind from breaking down their stems before the Seed be Ripe The second is that we seldom stay to let any Seeds dry upon their Plants as they stand it being enough to let them only Ripen when we cut down their stems and lay them to dry upon some Cloth after which we beat them out and fan and cleanse them and lay them up when they are fully dry And thus we do with the Seeds of Cresses Chervil Parsley Radishes Borage Bugloss c. Ordinary Capers grow upon a sort of small Shrub that is raised in niches made purposely in well exposed Walls for that end which are filled with Earth to nourish the Plants and every year in the Spring we prune their Branches which afterwards shoot out buttons or swelling buds which are pickled up in Vinegar to be used in Winter either in Sallets or in pottage Capucine-Capers or Nasturces are annual Plants which are usually sown in Hot Beds in the Month of March and transplanted again in the naked Earth along by some Walls or at the foot of some Trees where their mounting stalks which are but weak and grow pretty high may take some hold to support themselves They are also planted in Pots and Boxes in which some sticks are set up to support their stalks Their Buttons or round Buds before they open are good to pickle in Vinegar Their Flower is pretty large of an Orange Colour and very agreeable They must be carefully watered in the Summer to make them shoot vigorously and so long time as they should Their Seed falls to the Earth assoon as ever 't is ripe as well as that of Borage and Bugloss and therefore must be carefully gathered up Caprons are a sort of large Straw-berries not over delicate which ripen at the same time as those of the better kind Their Leaves are extraordinary large velveted and of a darkish Green Colour They are little to be prized and are found in the Woods as other Straw-berries are Spanish Cardons or Cardoons grow only from Seed They are sown at two several times The first is commonly about the middle or latter end of April and the second at the beginning of May. They must be sown in good and well prepared Ground and in little Trenches or pits a full foot wide and about six Inches deep filled with Mold We make Beds of four or five foot wide in order to place in them two ranks of those little Trenches or pits checker-wise We put five or six Seeds in every hole with intention to let but two or three of them grow if they all come up taking away those that are over and above that number either to throw away or to new stock those places where there perhaps are none come up or where we may have sown some few upon a Hot Bed for that intention And if in fifteen or twenty days we do not see the Seed come up we should uncover them to see whether they be rotten or begin to sprour that so we may fill up their places with new ones in case of need The Seeds of the first sowing are generally three weeks coming up and those of the second fifteen days Cardons must not be sown before the middle of April for fear they should grow too big and run to Seed in August and September and then they are not good Great care must be taken to water them well and when towards the end of October we have a mind to whiten them we take the advantage of some dry day first to tie up all their Leaves with two or three bands and some days after we cover them quite up with Straw or dry Litter well twisted about them so that the Air may not penetrate to come at them except it be at the very top which we leave open These Cardoon Plants thus wrapt up whiten in about fifteen days or three weeks and grow fit to Eat We make an end of tying up and wrapping or covering all that we have in our Gardens when we perceive the Winter approach and then we take them up with the Earth about them to transplant them in our Green House or Conservatory Some of those Plants are good to transplant in the naked Earth in the following Spring to run to Seed in June or July or else some Plants of them tied up in their first places will serve for that three or four times together Carrots are a sort of Root whereof some are White and others Yellow that grow only from Seed and require the same care and ordering which we have already described under the head of Red Beet-Roots Cellery is a sort of Sallet produced by Seed and is not good but at the end of Autumn and during the Winter Season We sow
Lettuces and especially the green sort for the Bright Genua and Red Genua run more easily to Seed and will hardly come to good but in light Grounds We should therefore prepare a great many of these green Genua's against the Dog-days and the first Frosts we may also intermix with them some few Bright and some Red Genua's but more especially we should be sure to mix with them some Alfanges and a great quantity of bright or white Endive as likewise a great many Perpignan Lettuces both of the bright and green kind The great Inconveniencies that happen to Cabbage Lettuces are first that they often degenerate so far as to cabbage no more which is discovered by their Leaves growing out in length like a Cat 's Tongue as Gard'ners term it or by their changing their natural colour into another more or less green and therefore we must be very careful to gather no Seed from any but such as cabbage very well for which effect we should be sure to mark out at first some of those that turn best in order to reserve them to run to Seed where they stand or to remove them with a turf of the Earth about them into some separate place assigned for that purpose The second is that as soon as the most part of them are cabbaged they must be spent unless we would have the displeasure to see them run to Seed without doing us any Service in which Respect the Market Gard'ners have a great advantage beyond other Persons because they can sell off in one day whole Beds of these Cabbage Lettuces for commonly the Beds which were new planted at the same time Cabbage likewise all at once whereas in other Gardens we cannot spend them any faster than we need them for which Reason we are obliged to plant often of them and that in greater quantity than we are able to consume that we may have a continual supply of them successively without any Discontinuation it being much more commodious to have an over-plus quantity of them than to want The surest way is to keep particularly to those sorts that are the most Rustical and that last a great while cabbaged before they run to Seed such as are the Shell Lettuces the Perpignans the Green Genua's the Aubervilliers and the Austrichettes or Austrian Lettuces which I must confess too are a long time cabbaging The third inconvenience is that the Morie that is the Rot which begins at the ends of their Leaves seizes them sometimes and that when the Ground or the Season are not favourable to them they remain thin and lean and run up to Seed instead of spreading and cabbaging There is hardly any Remedy to prevent this Rot because there is hardly any to be found effectual against the cold and rainy Seasons that cause it but against the defects that may be in the Ground there are infallible ones that is to say it must be amended and improved with small Dung if it be barren whether it be a sandy or a Cold and gross Earth and to this last we should give a little slope if when the Ground is good the waters spoil it by settling too much in it and by that means make all the Plants growing there to rot Good Dung throughly rotten being the Soul and Primum Mobile of Kitchen-Gardens without which no more than without frequent waterings and dressing of the Ground no man can ever be rich in fine and goodly Legumes There yet remains to be known for the perfect understanding the ordering of Lettuces that they which grow biggest must be placed ten or twelve inches one from the other which is to be understood of the Shell Lettuces Perpignans Austrians Bellegardes or Fair-looks Aubervilliers Alfanges and Imperials and for those that bear heads but of a midling size the distance of seven or eight inches is enough which are the Bright Curled the short the little Red and the Green Chicon Lettuces c. Those that will be good husbands may sow Radishes in their Lettuce Beds because the Radishes will be all drawn out and spent before the Lettuces cabbage and for the same reason because the Endives are much longer before they come to perfection than the Lettuces we may Plant some of these last among the Endives they agree well enough one with the other and so we may have a double crop to gather upon one and the same Bed and in the same Season for the Lettuces are gathered first and afterwards the Endives arrive to their full goodness M. MAches are a sort of little Sallet which we may call a wild and rustical Sallet because indeed it seldom is brought before any noble Company They are multiplied by Seed which is gathered in July and are only used towards the end of Winter We make Beds for them which we sow about the end of August they are hardy enough to resist the rigours of the Frost and because they produce a great many little Seeds that easily fall though we have but a little quantity of them they will propagate themselves sufficiently without any other culture but weeding them Mallows and Marsh-mallows ought to be allowed a place in our Kitchen-Gardens though civility will not permit us to explain in this Treatise what uses they serve for and though they be rather Plants of the wild fields than of a Garden They grow of their own accord and have no more need of cultivating than any of the Weeds that infest the good Herbs When we have a mind to have any of them in our Gardens it will be best to sow them in some by-place Marjoram or Marjerom is an Odoriferous Plant of which we compose agreeable Borders and Edgings There is the Winter Marjoram which is the best and the Summer Marjoram which lasts not beyond that Season Both of them are multiplied by Seed and likewise by Rooted slips or suckers They are principally used in making Perfumes Mint called in French Balm when once planted needs no other particular culture than being cut down close to the Ground every year at the end of Autumn to make it shoot out store of tender Sprouts in the Spring which are mingled with the Furnitures of Sallets for them that love them a little spicy and perfumed It must be renewed every three years at least and placed always in good Earth The Branches when cut off take Root at the place where they are covered and by that means of one great Tuft we may easily make a great many which are to be planted at the distance of a foot one from the other In the Winter likewise we plant some thick Tufts of it upon Hot Beds and by taking care to cover them with Bells they spring very well for about fifteen days and then perish Muscats are a kind of Grapes which when they attain to their natural goodness are one of the most considerable commodities of a Kitchen-Garden There are three sorts of them viz. White Red and Black the White is
not much for those whose Beam surpasses this Height tho' they have otherwise their Beauties also and really something in them of Noble and Royal such as would Infinitely become a Plantation without Doors and in plain Ground But for the Case and Box they would bring with them great Inconveniences and be nothing so Commodious in regard of the difficulty of Carrying and Removing them the Height and Capacity of the Doors and Cieling of the Conservatory c. A Green-House from Fifteen to Sixteen Feet is an handsom proportion for the well entertaining any Reasonable and Curious Person 's Trees But for such as have Houses of Twenty Twenty two and Twenty four feet high as indeed there ought to be for Trees of Eight Nine and Ten feet Stem or above they ought to have Heads correspondent to their stature and will require Cases of four and five feet Depth But I confess these Gyants affright me there being I fear few Persons that would be at the Expence of such Buildings And indeed hardly find we the Gates of Cities of that Altitude However they deserve due Praise and Encouragement who in our Days attempt the Raising Trees of that goodly Stature since we may hope that as they appear Worthy the Curiosity of the greatest Monarch of the World so we shall shortly see them an Extraordinary Ornament to his Gardens Now therefore to be able to pronounce that the Head of an Orange-Tree whatever it be is Endow'd with all the Beauty and Accomplishments 't is capable of these six Conditions are requisite First That the Head be of a Round Figure yet so as it be also large well-spread and almost flat approaching in Shape to that of a Mushroom newly risen or of a Calott yet not Affected or nicely Circular as they use to cut Myrtles Tews Philyria's and Standard-Honey-Suckles Box c. which appear forc'd and constrain'd but of a Natural Roundness Free and Airy and without Art as we commonly see grow the Constantinople-Chess-Nut Lime-Trees c. Secondly That it be Full without Confusion within and not void and hollow as we Affect to have our Fruit-Trees But the Orange-Trees Heads should be furnish'd with a pretty number of fair well-fed Branches almost of an equal size and easie to be seen and numbred if one be dispos'd This is one of the most principal Conditions of the Beauty of Orange-Trees as it is also the most Rare whilst many do not Esteem this Confusion for any great Defect though I confess it appears to me a great one Thirdly That the Branches which form and compose the Head of the Tree be sufficiently and well Nourish'd and so strong that their Tops instead of Inclining towards the Earth as many we find do erect and hold up their Heads to the Air with plenty of large and green Leaves yet so as that the longest Branches exceed not half a Foot since if the Boughs sink down 't is a mark they are so weak that they are not able to Redress themselves and seeing the new Shoots spring only from the Extremities and Tops of the old ones whose Situation they naturally follow it comes to pass that all such Shoots as proceed from those feeble ones are yet more feeble and less able to erect themselves and consequently yield a very Ill-favour'd Prospect Besides If the Leaves be small and yellow 't is yet a sign of greater Imbecillity in the Roots for as much as Naturally this Tree does produce Leaves that are large green thick and in plenty and therefore that they will quickly fall off and denude the Tree of its genuine Ornament In short the Reasons of this third Qualification propos'd are That if the utmost length be excessive as a Foot or more would be the Leaves not being of above three or four Years abiding on the Branch which bears them and even for those a Tree ought to be a very lusty one since most of those which we see seldom hang on above a Year or two and live not beyond three or four it happens that coming to drop off in their turns those over-long Branches will appear all naked and bare which is extreamly unsightly therefore whatever Branch in the Spring of the Year advances above half a Foot it should be nipp'd off and confin'd to that dimension Fourthly The fourth condition requires that the Tree should be ready to put forth plenty of fair Shoots every Spring Yearly which if it do not or that it only produce but small and trifling ones the defect is from the Foot and the next Year after it will be in danger of losing its Leaf which should be prevented by all means possible Now no Shoots ought to be accounted fair but such as are of competent length and bigness and consequently as we shew'd able to sustain themselves without bending their Tops such never fail of large and green Leaves which they keep on from falling since those which have now perhaps been on for three Years past coming to drop according to the course of Nature there is still a succession of those of the two former Years besides those of the current and present Year to maintain the Ornament and Decoration of the Tree Fifthly 'T is required that our Orange-Tree produce not an Infinite but a Reasonable quantity of Flowers fair great long large and weighty such as give presage of goodly Fruit On which I am to Advertise That Orange-Trees do every Spring produce two sorts of Flowers one whereof proceeding from the old Wood or Shoot of the precedent Year usually are but small and round and confus'dly plac'd so as most of them drop off without knitting and these first appear in the early Spring But Woe to that Tree which is over-charg'd with them however the Owner esteem of it their Beauty will soon pass and the end of it be unprosperous and displeasing I foresee that my Sentiments herein will not be very Acceptable to every body divers Curious Persons fancying that an Orange-Tree can never bring forth too many Flowers but for all that I adventure to declare it a great Mistake which Time and Experience will Cure them of I should willingly be of their Opinion were it possible to Reconcile that large quantity of those sort of Flowers with those other Conditions which indeed I esteem a great deal more the Beauty of the Abundance of those being but for one Fortnight whereas the other are the Beauty of the whole Year about and therefore to be preferr'd The other Flowers of the Orange-Tree spring out at the tops of the Shoots of that Year and commonly with those transcendent Qualities we have enumerated nor come they in Clusters and confus'dly but are of substance long and well fed and do not appear ' til the end of June or beginning of July and of which we cannot have too many The Sixth Requisite to the Beauty of the Orange-Tree is its being free of all Ordure Dust and Sullage and especially of Bugs and
of Norway Or if on the contrary he should lay down this as the only Reason why Firrs that stand exposed to the South are the Best namely Because nothing else but the excessive Heat of the Sun can compress the Parts of that matter wherewith they are Nourished and consequently harden and strengthen the Fibers of such Trees more than of those that are not so directly exposed to its Influence How will this way of Arguing hold concerning such Firrs as are almost continually in a Frozen Condition Pray Is not Cold as apt to close and harden and strengthen any thing as Heat And is it not as usual for Rains to come from the South as from the North And consequently are not such things as as lie to the South as liable to be kept moist as those that lie towards the North From all which it appears how unsafe it is in Treating of Vegetation to go upon General Considerations And that it is much better to examine Particulars And that not barely with a Design to Feed and Gratifie a vain and useless Curiosity but especially to discover something that may be of real Use and Benefit to the Artist in the way of his Profession We shall therefore take little or no notice of such Notions as being but barely probable are not sufficient to advance any general Maxime upon and keep our selves from paying too great a defference to the Authority and being Prepossessed with all the Opinions of Persons who not contenting themselves to know and to be justly esteemed for their Skill in some Things take upon them to lay down Rules in others they do not so well understand Every Body knows that Trees that grow in an open Plain and in a dry Earth yield more Top-Wood then such as grow in a Forest and in a moist Ground But I believe it matters not much whether such Trees as grow in a Plain be more exposed to the South or to the North Such Positions being in some Countries not at all taken notice of And this is evident particularly in the Vines of Versenay which are much better when they are exposed to the North then to the South notwithstanding that General Maxim of the Ancients to the contrary Now he that taking these Words in their strict Literal Sense for an Universal Maxim should go about to Maintain and Propagate it by Reasons and Arguments would find many Dissenters from this Opinion of his and the Ancients How Necessary soever the Heat and Influences of the Sun may be in themselves and how advantageously soever any Plant may be exposed to it yet if it have not the Benefit of a good Earth as well as the Prospect of the Mid-day or Afternoon Sun we very seldom see that its Productions are any way Extraordinary Hence comes that vast Difference we see in Vines that have all exactly the same Position towards the Sun And hence also it comes that we have so much Marsh Ground that is wholly Useless so many Plains that are Rich and Fruitful even without Tillage and so many Mountains that produce nothing at all If the Pipes of an Organ or any other Instrument be not good and well made to what purpose is it to put them into the most Skillful Musicians Hand Are not all Mens Souls of the same Immaterial Substance and equally Perfect in themselves To what therefore shall we ascribe that Wonderful Difference we find between the Abilities of Wise Ministers of State or Great Philosophers and the others who are so Dull and Rude that they are capable neither of Ingenious Arts nor Common Civility but to the Difference of their Temper and of the Organs of their Body 'T is most certain therefore that the Good or Bad Disposition of the Earth is chiefly to be look'd upon as the Principal Cause of whatsoever Difference we find in its Productions And in order to the several uses they are to be put to all that is necessary to be here further observed is That such Trees as grow in large and thick Forests are much taller and their Timber streighter than those that grow in thin Woods or Thickets The Reason whereof may be this That every Tree having a kind of Natural Desire to Enjoy the Benefit of the Sun and as it were Fearing to be stifled by the closeness and over-topping of those next it endeavours to raise its Head so high as to reach the free and open Air And all of them having if I may so call it this Natural Instinct each endeavours to overtop the rest and so all of them grow to a much greater height than those that stand alone And if such a Forest happen to be very thick the Trees growing up too hastily to an excessive height have not a proportionable Bulk whereas such as grow up more at liberty having no such Necessity of growing high on a sudden make the best advantage of their Nourishment grow up leisurely and with a thickness answerable to their height And this may be sufficient to satisfie our Curiosity as well as to Direct the Artist what sort of Trees may be fit and which not for his several purposes in Building CHAP. XXII Reflections upon the Influences of the Moon in its Wain and Full c. I Shall now in the last place consider those Superstitious Observations our Modern Gard'ners make upon the Influences of the Moon in its Wain and Full. I know they will take it ill that I should look upon that as a piece of Superstition nay as downright Folly which they pretend to have been the constant Observation and Practice of all Times and in all Parts of the World They will tell you that according to the Opinion of the Ancients every Friday the Moon is in a kind of Wain and that above all the rest Good Friday is to be made choice of for Sowing all manner of Seeds insomuch that Sowing upon that day such whose Fruit you would have to be early Ripe they will perswade you that they will be Ripe exactly at the time you expect such for Instance as Melons Cucumbers Pease c. As also that those you would not have to come so soon to their Maturity will as exactly Answer your Expectation namely all sorts of Pot-Herbs Coleworts Lettuces Ofeilles c. And all this doubtless out of a profound Respect they bear to the day whereon they were set And that such as are set in any other time of the Moon do quite fail the Gard'ners Expectations This they will not be convinced to be a gross Delusion as are also several others which they have received by a kind of Tradition from the Ancients namely such as these That neither Plants nor Graffs nor Lopped Trees will be quick in Bearing unless they be set or cut in the Wain of the Moon And that so many days as any of these is done after the Full so many years the sooner will the Trees come to their Perfection in Bearing And they