1885.] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 311 



shown by its effects ; but where it went after leaving the tree is 

 difficult to say. By the time the powerful and subtle fluid reached 

 the tree, it was evidently far exhausted of its force, otherwise the 

 branches and wood of the tree, as well as the bark, would have 

 been disjjlaced, and probably rent and torn to fragments. The tree 

 grows to-day as when it was when struck, and will bear the mark 

 it then sustained as long as it exists. 



Within four miles of this occurrence, in the adjoining parish, 

 lightning, during a thunderstorm four years ago, first touched tlie 

 ground, rose ten feet altitude, ran along a wire fence in a zig-zag 

 form, and struck several objects at an altitude fully forty feet higher 

 than when it first descended to the earth. 



It is our humble opinion, that lightning as it leaves the cloud 

 goes in any direction, sometimes up, at other times down, and leaps 

 and darts in any direction, but that which strikes terrestrial objects 

 necessarily goes downward in the first place. After reaching the 

 ground, it either lodges in the earth or other object, or exhausts 

 .itself in mid-air. 



It will be very interesting to hear still further the experience of 

 cjthers on this important subject. C. Y. Michie. 



CuLLEN House, 20th Due. 18S4. 



POT-TWISTIXG—A COMPLAIXT. 



Oldlands, Uckpield. 

 CI IE, — About a year ago I ordered from a well-known nurseryman 

 k3 three dozen Pinus insignis. These I had placed in a nursery, 

 intending to plant them out this autumn. I find, however, that 

 only six of the thirty-six are alive. I send two of the roots, and 

 there can be no doubt but that the cause of the death of the twenty- 

 eight is that the plants having been kept in small pots, have, as you 

 will see, grown with roots curled round into a ball. Some roots are 

 curled round three, four, or even five times. 



It is obviously impossible that if they had lived, they could ever 

 have made fine trees. 



I hear that such a state of things is by no means uncommon, and 

 is known to gardeners as " pot-twisting." To me it seems that the 

 sending out plants in such a condition is a practice which may be 

 fairly stigmatized as fraudulent. 



How much loss and disappointment must be due to this cause ! 

 How many trees and shrubs have been supposed to be not hardy 

 enough to bear the English climate, when " pot-twisting " may have 

 been the real cause of the failure ! 



This summer a Pinus insignis which has been for some years 

 planted here, and had reached the height of nine feet, died. On 

 examination of the roots, they were found to be nearly all curled 



