Farm and Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 316, 2 March 1878, Page 21

Farm and Garden.

ABOUT TREES. A cypress tree in Oaxaca, Mexico which for hred years ago measured 120 feet in height, 111 feet 10 inches in circumference, and which sheltered Hernan Cortez and his followers under his wide-spreading boughs, about the year 1520, is supposed to be now 5,000 years old. A type of antiquity in the vegetable kingdom is that of a fig tree in Ceylon' 1 planted, according to documentary and traditional evidence, 268 B. C, making it 2165 years old. The oldest oak in England is in Herefordshire, situated in Hatfield Park. It is over a thousand years old. Beneath its branches Princess Elizabeth, while a prisoner at Hatfield, during her daily rambles in the park often sat in meditation and solitude, and here she was sitting when the tidings reached her of Qneen Mary's death and her own elevation to the throne. Another old oak is the Parliament Oak," from the tradition of Edward I. holding a Parliament under its branches, on one of the estates of the Duke of Portland. It is considered to be 1300 years old. The tallest oak in England was the property of the same nobleman, and was called the "Duke's Walking-stick." It was higher than Westmiuster Abbey. The largest oak is known as " Calthorp Oak," at Worksop, is so called from its shade covering part of the counties of York, Nottingham, and Derby. In .London the now almost lifeless trunk of a venerable sycamore tree is fostered with great care, marking the spot by the old Thame? wall where was once the margin of the river, and where Oliver Goldsmith, JL»r. Johnson, and their companions sat for hours in the summer season. At Fortworth, in Gloucestershire, is a large chestnut tree. Its circumference, five feet from the ground, is over fifty feet. As it was mentioned as a boundary mark of the manor in the reign of Stephen, was famous in King John's time for its magnitude, and was in existence in the time of Egbert, it may be even older than 1000 years. The plane trees of Greece are of immense mrgnitude. One of the species is an the European side of the Bosphorus, and is conjectured by M. de Candolle to be more than 2000 years old. When measured in 1831, it was found to be 140 feet in circumference at the base and 100 feet high. Its branches are said to be more like a forest than like a single tree. It sides are cavernous, and shelter the herdsman who make fires in these hollows. There are wonderful trees in California, some of which run up from 300 to 400 feet. The stump of one tree measured on its surface a space of 600 square feet. One called the " Fallen Monarch," yhich has for years lain prostrate, is nineteeen feet in diameter at the base, and six feet at a distance of 200 feet from the butt ; but the greatest wonder is the "Grizzly Giant," which }i ninety feet from the ground, has a limb six feet and six inches in diameter. The trunk is twenty feet in diameter eleven feet above the ground. There are giant trees in Western Australia. One near Warren river recently discovered was found to be two hundred feet high, and large enough to permit three riders and an additional pack-horse to enter its hollow trunk and turn in it without dismounting. There is a willow in Pemiscot County, Mo., that measures twenty-four feet in circumference at the base, and is one hundred feet in height. There is a willow in Trenton, N. J., whose history is remarkable. It was formed by the importation of a branch from the original willow that shaded the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte at St. Helena. There are many noted and noble elm trees in the United States. The historic elm on Boston Common, which was blown down a gale of wind, February 15, 1876, was known as the " Big Tree" and " Liberty Tree." In 1835 the tree was accurately measured by the City Engineer, who recorded the following dimensions : Height, 74ft. 6in. ; average diameter of greatest extent of branches, 101 ft. It was handsome in form, large in size, and venerable in age. This tree was known as the " Liberty tree" in 1784. Albany recently had a famous elm at the corner of State and North Pearl-streets. Under its branches, it is said, many Indian and Dutch councils in early days were held. The elms of New Haven, Conn.. are world-wide in reputation. An elm at Granby, Mass., is 105 years old. Upon the side of this tree, twelve feet from the ground, is a currant bush rooted in the bark, which has thrived and produced its annual crop of fruit for many years.

GROWING GERANIUMS.

A correspondent of the Fruit Recorder, America, writes as follows :—" Among the many plants for garden or house decoration, nothing will surpass the geranium, in brillancy and abundance of bloom. Many err in starting their slips, giving them too much water, thereby causing them to damp off and die, especially if they are not well ripened, but seem succulent. Eor the past two or three yeai-3 I have tried the following plan, and have never lost a cutting : About the middle of August I look over my geranium plants, and after selecting suitable branches, I take a sharp knife and cut slanting upwards half through the stalk just below the leaf, being careful to make the cut about two or three inches from the end of the branch, as they will root out more readily at that point and make better shaped plants than if the slips are taller. I let them remain on the plants about a week after being cut, as by that time a callus is formed, and the slips can then be wholly severed from the plant and placed in saucers of sand or small pots to root. For soil I use one part sand, two parts good loam, and two parts leaf mould. The lat.er is two years old, well rotted, upon which has been turned the first year washiug-sud and other slops. I find thi3 excellent for plants, and do not use

manure in the soil, as this leaf mould is sufficiently rich without it. Sometimes I start my slips in saucers of sand, keeping them verv wet; sometimes in the soil in which they are to grow in small pots. In either case they start readily and make fine plants. If rooted in sand they must be removed as soon as roots are formed, which can readily be ascertained, and placed in two or three-inch pots. Young plants of the geraniums will soon blossom after their pots are filled with roots. East winter I had clusters of blossoms, the largest I ever saw, and kept my plants (those started in August and September) in those three-inch pots° all winter, taking them out when I thought it necessary, shaking off an inch or more of soil at the bottom, putting in fresh, being careful to disturb the roots as little as possible. After the pots are well cleaned and the plant replaced with fresh earth at the bottom, it is well to scrape away a little of the old soil at the top and put on new, which will soon cause them to start with fresh vigor and reward you with many buds and blossoms.