359 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[October i, 1882 , 



a year, whereas other substitutes need uo end of attention 

 — such as the acacia lophantha, which impoverishes the 

 soil whei L'ver it is planted. Acacia armata, or prickly acacia, 

 has been largely patronised, but it has a tendency to get 

 patchy and bare, and now presents a very sorrowful aspect 

 around many a country and suburban garden. The arbor- 

 vitaj, when duly attended to, does much better. The New 

 Zealand pittosporum Eugeniodes forms a very beautiful 

 garden hedge, and bears clipping remarkably well. The 

 various kinds of cypress, such as erecta, torulosa, hori- 

 zontalis, and lambcrtiaua, as well as the olive and ceanothus, 

 have all been used with more or less success, according 

 as attention has been bestowed upon their cultivation. 

 The common furze forms a capital hve fence, but as it 

 gets very dry, and susceptible of easy ignition when a 

 little old", it is rather a dangerous subject to deal with 

 in this hot climate. Then there are the privets, deciduous 

 and evergreen, which make a very beautiful and orna- 

 mental fence ; the Cape and prickly broom are also used 

 for such a purpose, as Well as the Chinese enonymus 

 japonicas and variegatns, which also stands clipping well. 

 The famous Osage orange (maclura aiurantiaca) and GleiUts- 

 cliia, both from America, form fine strong hedges — many 

 prefering the former to the ha^vthorn. Certainly the 

 Osage orange makes a very substantial fence. Bursaria 

 spinosa, a native of this colony, which flowers in January, 

 is a very pretty ornamental shrubj and adapted for a 

 garden hedge. 



As aheady stated, however, there is no plant like the 

 thorn so suitable for forming a hedge, not only for small 

 gardens, but boundary fences, fields, and forest plant- 

 ations. It takes well with richly prepared soil, and amply 

 repays any extra labor in the due preparation of the 

 ground for their reception, which ought to be well-trenched, 

 and incorporated with a good supply of well decomposed 

 manure. Any quantity of young seedUngs can be obtained 

 at the nurseries, but three-yeai'-olds, twice transplanted, 

 having fibrous roots, may be rehed on as very satisfactory. 

 When put in about six inches apart in the hedge-row, 

 and headed down to within two inches from the ground, 

 the following season numerous shoots will have burst forth. 

 The erect mode of planting is preferable to the horizontal 

 method, so commonly pursued in the old country. For a 

 couple of years the plants may he left to their natural 

 growth, but the third season brings round the trimming 

 process, which may then afterwards be pm-sned according 

 as the will of the practitioner may suggest. The usual 

 form adopted is the wedge shape, being by far the most 

 easily performed with the hedge-bill than the other modes 

 Lhat sometimes find favor. It is of paramount importance, 

 in order to be successful, to see that the ground is always 

 Kept in good order on either side of the hedge. — Toien 

 and Country [N. S. Wales.] 



« 



PLANTS WITH?!!- i: Vr.TH. 



A certain amount of ingenuity may co-exist in an in- 

 dividual with a want of true perception of the value of 

 a discovery or plan. Anyone who has observed the way 

 plants grow need not be told that they are not always 

 particular as to a " medium." If we bring a loaii of fine 

 ehed from the shore in winter, the first spring day it 

 will be taken possession of by a number of plants, which 

 will grow and flower well the same year. Cinders are 

 not soil, yet a heap will soon get covered with plants 

 by no means sickly-looking. Ferns, usually suppo.sed to 

 love moist rich soil, often tlirive in the lime dust of a 

 dry wail. We have often noticed the yellow fumitory 

 high on an old fort, where soil or moisture in any ord- 

 inary sense did not exist. Coeoanut fibre — the detritus 

 of the husk of a fruit — is chosen by gardeners for its 

 excelleut qualities in assisting in the growth of cuttings 

 and young plants. Pure sand is used to a large extent 

 for propagation ; and we have seen very remarkable results 

 obtaiuetl in striking fine-foliaged tropical plants in saw- 

 dust in M. Truffaut's nursery at Versailles. 



We may take advantage of such facts, and learn some- 

 thing from them, without buililiug unwarrantable assump- 

 tions thereon. This we may say of the growth of plants 

 in moss — a somewhat recent French " inventiou," of which 

 we have heard a good deal. This so-called discovery 

 reveals to us that plants may be grown in moss without 

 earth, though we already knew the fact that orchids grew 



often in moss, and even in air, without it or anything 

 else. Moss is nearer in nature to soil than some of the 

 abovementioned substances, and it has been used a good deal 

 in various kinds of cultivation and propagation. In America, 

 Peter Henderson, of Jersey city, has great success with 

 sphagnum moss, used in a layer in seed raising ; but no 

 one has hitherto recommended it for use instead of earth. 

 Mr. Dumesnil does this at last, and, judging by the 

 exaggerated statements that have gone the round of the 

 papers concerning his method, he has been busy urging 

 its merits on those who take tor granted all that is 

 said on the subject. No one doubts, who has observed 

 the above and many other facts, that plants will grow 

 in moss. We often see them so growing in very mossy 

 woods and on mossy rocks. Bog earth, used to a very 

 large extent by itself for plant culture of various kinds, 

 is mainly decayed and compressed moss. But these things 

 would not justify anyone in giving rise to statements such 

 as we give examples of from Good Words. 



We om-selves tried this system as presented to ns by 

 the agents of the discoverer, and found, as we expected, 

 that the plant — a Ficus — lived fairly well in the moist 

 moss. There was no advantage in the case in having the 

 plant in moss, because it would occupy no more ^ space 

 in good earth, which moreover would have been simpler 

 and better for the house and its owner, as well as the 

 plant; for the inventor, not having confidence in moss 

 alone, saturates it with some chemical which to us, as 

 tested in a large room, had a slightly cadaveromi, oflfensive, 

 though not strong smell. A pot of good earth never has 

 any odour of the kiud ; but one could get that in the 

 she^l, whereas this prepared moss has to be bought like 

 our patent medicines. The one use that such a plan 

 would have is in enabling " floral decorators" to put plants 

 in various elevated and awkward positions in rooms — in 

 our country a matter of limited importance. If it would 

 enable us to grow plants better indoors, the plan would 

 be a gain ; but it does not do this — on the contrary, it 

 would make their culture more expensive and troublesome. 

 The following extracts from Good Words may serve to 

 show the length to which want of judgment will urge 

 persons who might write usefully if they would plead the 

 claims of the no-earth plan in terms befitting its use and 

 importance — and they are modest enough : 



" A Eussian laTly, suffering from intermittent fever, was 

 attended by Professor Edward von Eichwald, of St. Peters- 

 burgh. The disease readily gave way to quinine, but 

 returned again and again in the most inexplicable manner. 

 At last the cause was discovered ; when she left her 

 sick room convalescent she went into the saloon, a large 

 room filled with plants. Professor von Eichwald ordered 

 the room to be entirely cleared, and the fever returned 

 no more. Such malignant eff^ects are impossible with 

 fertilising moss ; it cannot turn sour like earth and poison 

 the plants, or contain germs of malaria and poison their 

 owner. " 



We need scarcely say here that various plants may 

 be grown in a room without in the least tainting the 

 air. The odour of certain plants in flower may be dis- 

 agreeable, but there is nothing in a pot of sweet earth 

 with healthy roots in it which anyone need fear. In the 

 trial we made with this •' fertilising moss," there was, 

 as we have said, an oilour which, to sensitive persons at 

 least, would be offensive, if not injurious. 



" The object in the cultivation of vegetables being in- 

 creased and regular productiveness, the plan adojited by 

 the gardener of VasCLOuil is to place their roots, en- 

 veloped as above described, in an ordiuary bed of mould. 

 The results are most satisfactory. We saw at Vascoeuil 

 as many as thirty fine potatoes the produce of one mother- 

 tuber. T/ins the jnwrest laiul may he made to teem with 

 rich crojjs, the soil hci'iu/ nf no importance^ the earth merely 

 affording room and shelter for the plants. Seedlings and 

 cuttings are raised in the same way. In tact, the process, 

 seems to have all the characteristics of a gi-eat discovery : 

 perfection in principle and iu<lefinite powers of further 

 development. The discovery of a nourishment applicable 

 to all forms of vegetable lif^' is the primary fact in the 

 Dumesnil culture. The fertilising moss agrees with every 

 kind of jjlant, those that grow wilil, as well as exotics, 

 herbaceous, or ligneous, ornamental or for food. By its 

 fostering power with plants, natives of the Pyrenees, the 



