August i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



107 



the breakers' in Fifeshire we used to cart the seaweed toect 

 from the beach to the Asparagus beds. The value of this 

 manure consists in the salts it contains. Soot is a very 

 useful agent in the kitchen-garden, and said to be '• a very 

 powerful mauui-e " when thrown on the groimd m a dry 

 state. It is much used by growers of vegetables for the 

 market, who find it especiabv useful for the onion crop. 

 I would uot like to say that it would quite prevent the 

 attack of the onion-maggot, but in some instances, when 

 appUed at the right time, it has resulted in a good crop, 

 free from the maggot. I have found it very useful lor 

 destroying the celery-maggot, and it also gives vigour to 

 the CV-lerv plani. It is best to begin dusting the plants 

 overhead" in the early stages of their growth, before the 

 leaves are injured, and to dust them at mter.vals dunng 

 the growth of the celery. It is also a deterrent for slugs, and 

 shou.d be dusted over Lettuce and Cabbages in a young slate 

 Wood-ashes are most valuable agents in the Idtchen 

 garden, not only as a manure, but by acting mechanically 

 on heavy soils. "l do not see how the ashes can destroy wue- 

 worm, as they are said to do, but they are used with good 

 effect on beds of carnations and picotees, and I only wish 

 I could get a quantity for the Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts 

 and Caulidower quarteis. They should be spread over the 

 surface, to be forked in lightly liefore plautmg the crop. 

 They will also check the progress of the turnip-fly, and it 

 persistently used from the drst will save the crop. I would 

 like here to place emphasis on the words '■ per.si.stently used 

 from the first," because ui many instances such instructions 

 as I have given are carried out in the most perfunctory 

 manner When the leaves oi the turnips have been well 

 riddled with the fly, a dusting of ashes may be thro^^^l over 

 them ; and even then care may not be taken to dust aU 

 the leaves, and the operation is finished. Now thele;ives 

 must be dusted if the fly is only expected, and they 

 must be dusted two or three times a week, untdaU danger 

 of the fly ..ttacking them is over. The leaves should be 

 wetted before dusting them. . 



Lime is a most useful manm-ial agent m the kitchen 

 garden and shou'd be used in soils deficient in calc- 

 areous matter, but should not be used as qmck-lime. An old 

 wi-iter who had a perfect knowledge of kitchen gardening, 

 writing on this subject, says : •' All soils which do not 

 effervesce with acids are improved by mild hme (that is 

 Ume which has been exposed for some time to the action ot 

 the atmosphere), "and ultimately by quick hme; sands are 

 more improved by limes than clays." When a soil which 

 is deficient in cidcareous matter contains much soluble 

 vegetable manure, the application of quicklime should always 

 be avoided as it tends either to ilecompose the soluble 

 matters by unitmg to them carbon and oxygen so as to 

 become mild lime or it combines with the soluble 

 matters and forms those compounds which have less at- 

 traction for water than the pure vegetable substances ; the 

 case is the .same with resp- ot to most animal manui-es, 

 but the operation of the lime is different m various cases, 

 and depends on the nature of the animal manure.' Mag- 

 nesian limestone does not answer for all classes of soil, 

 hue may be applied in quantity to peat soil. Lime ought 

 to be at hand always in the kitchen garden, to throw over 

 the land to destroy '•nrious grubs, slugs, &c. When our 

 vine borders were jnade at Loxford Hall, I used mild lime 

 in considerable quantity. It was mixed with our hghtsandy 

 soil, and the quality of the grapes far surpassed my most 

 sanguine expectations. I would u.se mild lime on the Broc- 

 coli quarters always in the same class of soils. I fancy 

 Mr Barron told me that he could not grow Broccoli on the 

 Chiswick Garden .soil. If lima has not beentned, I would 

 adx-ise its use as an experiment.— Gnrrfe«e/-s' Chronic/ 1. 



THE FERNS OF INDIA. 



Batulhook to the Ferns of British India, Cei/lon, and the 

 Malay reniasnla. By Colonel R. H. Beddome, F. L. S., 

 late Conservator of Forests, Madras.- Large 8vo, 500 pages, 

 with 300 illustrations. (Calcutta: Thacker & Spink; 

 London ; W. Thacker & Co., 18.S3.) ^ , „ , , 



For something like the last thirty years. Col. Beddome 

 has made a special studv of Indian ferns under very favor- 

 able circumstances. Holding as he did till about a year 

 ago the post of Chief Resident Conservator ot the forests 

 of the Madras presidency, he was brought into dally con- 



tact mth them in his official work, and at his home at 

 Ootacamund, he formed a large collection of them under 

 cultivation, many of which have never reached England in 

 a li-viu" state About ISCO he commenced his wellknowu 

 series of iUustratious of Indian ferns, in continuation of 

 Wight's " Icones," in which the ferns had been entirely 

 neglected. His plates, hke Wight's, were in quarto, un- 

 coloured, and were mamly executed by native artists. His 

 " Ferns of Southern India and Ceylon " contains plates of 

 '71 snecies and varieties, and was issued in parts -.mA 

 finishejl in 1863. His " Ferns of British In.lia." which xvas 

 devoted to the species uot found m the southern presul- 

 ency. contains 34.S plates and was finished in 18Ci^. In 

 Is7ti he published a supplementary part, coutaiumg 4.5 

 adcUtional plates, thus raisins the total number to (idO, 

 and a revised general catalogue and summary ot genera 

 and species Now he has retired from his official position 

 and come to England, and the present work is the first- 

 fruits of his leism-e It contains m a handy form .i full 

 description of all the Indian genera and species, and is 

 illustrated by 300 uncolom-ed plates, reduced by means of 

 photographv" from those of his larger books, one full paye 

 plate, with analytical details being given for each of the 

 nnetv-eight tenera he adopts, aud the others of smaller 

 size interspersed amongst the letterpress. It is tbe first 

 special book of portable size and moderate price which has 

 been devoted to Imhan ferns, and is in every way deserv- 

 ing of the extensive curculatiou it is sure to obtain. 



India is one of the great fern centres of the world, 

 and it would not be an extr.avagant estimate to say that 

 three-quarters of the genera and one-quarter of the whole 

 number ot ferns are known to grow within the area covered 

 by the present work, which is precisely the same as that 

 included in the " Flora of British India," by Sir .L D. 

 Hooker, of which, three volumes are now completed, tir- 

 ope is not a rich fern-continent, and mostoftlie European 

 species extend theh- range to the M'estern Himalayas. 

 The Malay Islands are very rich in ferns, and a large 

 proportion of the Malayan species extend to the hastern 

 Himalayas and the mountains of the Peninsula and Ceylmi ; 

 and there are in India a considerable number of endemic 

 species Col. Beddome deserves full credit for not making 

 or admitting species upon insufficient grounds, and t_he 

 number described in the present work does not fall far 

 short of six hundred, all of which are Filices in the n- 

 stricted sense, the Lycopodiacea; and Rhizocarps, which 

 would carry up the number a hundred more, not being 

 included. 



Ferns are plants that suffer very little in the drying 

 process, and they are generally the first plants to be col- 

 lected when a new country is explored. But on the other 

 hand they are often far too large in size to be well re- 

 presented in herbarium specimens, and often so extremely 

 variable in habit, that it is very ea.sy to mistake a mere 

 casual variety, for a genuine species. The first naming of 

 Indian ferns on a large scale was in the gi-eat he' barium 

 of Indian plants distributed by AVallich ; but he gave nu 

 descriptions, simply names and numbers and localities, and 

 very often confused together two or three totally, ifferent 

 plants under the same number. In the five volumes of 

 his ' Species Fihcum," the species were worked out and 

 described by Sir AVUliam Hooker ; and they were worked 

 up again with abridged descriptions in the " Synopsis Filic- 

 um." which it fell to my lot to continue after his death. 

 In England, the other botanists who had specially attended 

 to Indian ferns were Prof. David Don and Messrs. John 

 Smith and Thomas Moore. So that till within a com- 

 paratively recent date no one had written upon Indian 

 ferns who had had any chance of studying them in the 

 field But now the matter stands upon an entirely different 

 footing' In 1H80, Mr. C. B. Clarke, who, after working 

 for five years at Kew on the " Flora Indica," has just 

 returned to India, and who had paid special attention to 

 ferns whilst collecting largely in the Him-alayas, published 

 in the fii-st volume of the new botanical series of the 

 Transactimis of the Linnean Society, a revision of the North 

 Borneo species, illustrated by 36 plates ; and now Col. 

 Beddome. whose field experience has been mainly gained 

 amongst the mountains of the I'eiiinsula, has worked up 

 the whole series, with a full opportunity of consulting the 

 type-specimens of his predecessors, deposited at Kew, the 

 Linnean Society and the British Museum. 



