290 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



in presenting you a plant, feeling quite satisfied 

 that you will be pleased with it. [We shall be 

 much obliged. En.] Yours truly, James Stewart, 



btk st.. and N. Y. dvenue, Washington } D. C. 

 Nov. 1849. 



Green-house plants and Gardeners. — Sir : 

 Your readers will perhaps recollect thai the bear- 

 ing of my former letters was (partly) to the effect 

 that light and air are as necessary to give vigor- 

 ous vegetation, as food is to sustain animal life. I 

 have shown in a former number, (page 145) the 

 injurious elfect that strong light has upon plants 

 under glass; also the remedy most suitable to 

 counteract it, and aid in the healthy development 

 of their various organs. Air is as essential to 

 plants as light. Liebig says, that by loosening 

 the soil that surrounds young plants we favor the 

 aecess of air, and the formation of carbonic acid; 

 and that the quantity of their food is diminished 

 by every difficulty that opposes the renewal of 

 air; and that placed in a closed vessel in which 

 the air, (and therefore the carbonic acid) cannot 

 be renewed, a plant dies exactly as it would in the 

 vacuum of an air pump, or in an atmosphere of 

 nitrogen or carbonic acid, even though its roots be 

 fixed in the richest mould. The same author fur- 

 ther adds that all plants die if placed in soils and 

 water which contain no oxygen. Absence of air 

 acts exactly in the same manner as an excess of 

 carbonic acid. This theory is sufficiently explicit 

 as to the importance of air to plants. Their food 

 consistimr of inorganic substances, such as carbon, 

 nitrogen, oxygen, ammonia, &c, &c, and the air 

 being impregnated with or composed of these va- 

 rious substances, its exclusion, particularly in day 

 lio-ht, will be injurious to vegetation. On the oth- 

 er hand, such a draft of dry air as is often produ- 

 ced by throwing doors and windows on all sides, 

 open in very dry weather, or during parching cold 

 winds, will rob plants of their water as well as 

 intense light; besides, it not unfrequently changes 

 the sepals of undeveloped flower- buds and scales 

 that protect the growing points, of evergreen 

 plants from their usual colour, to that blighted or 

 black appearance so often observed in Camellias 

 and other plants. This is also caused by keeping 

 the plants out of doors (as is commonly practiced) 

 durinf heavy autumn rains and great extremes of 

 temperature, for which this country is remarkable. 

 Yet, strange to say, many of our best amateurs 

 and gardeners have hitherto failed in ascertaining 

 the cause of this defect, and will not be unfre- 

 quently heard to express a surprise at what caus- 

 ed it. All that is required to obviate this evil, is 

 to remove the plants to their winter quarters (or 

 at least under glass) before the heavy autumnal 

 rains set in, as the days are then generally hot, it 

 is necessary that the plants should be shaded from 

 the mid-day sun. If the foregoing precautions, 

 careful watering, judicious ventilation, and good 

 drainage is attended to, this long-complained-of 

 difficulty will soon disappear. 



Your readers will perhaps recollect that I have 

 always endeavored to impress the necessity of air 

 as well as an adjustment of light as not only es- 

 sential but indispcnsiblc to all plants under glass, 

 a subject on which there is little or no difference 

 of opinion among practical men, with the solitary 

 exception of Mr. Leuchars, one of the • corre.v 

 p lents of this journal, who has broached a doc- 

 trine hitherto unprecedented in horticultural re- 

 cords. He was not satisfied with thus infringing 

 on the simple but wise lessons that nature teaches 

 us, but has designated all European gardeners in 

 this country, (with "a few honorable exceptions") 

 us imposters, deceivers, quacks. 



As a British gardener, I am particularly ac- 

 quainted with many of the profession from every 

 part of the British Islands, several of which are 

 now in this country. In justice to them, I must so 

 far deviate from Mr. Lkuchar's opinion, that I 

 believe them a credit both to their profession and 

 their country. I perfectly agree with Mr. Mee- 

 han's remarks as to the injury that such whole- 

 sale statements are calculated to inflict on Euro- 

 pean gardeners. 



Who can read the leading article of the same 

 number, where you establish the taste and ability 

 of European (particularly British) gardeners eve- 

 ry where, in the following words: " So complete- 

 ly is this true, that wherever on the continent one 

 finds a garden conspicuous for the taste of its de- 

 sign, one is certain to learn that it is laid out in 

 the English style, and usually kept by an English 

 Gardener;" what conclusion I ask can your read- 

 ers arrive at, but that Mr. Leuchar?, who wish- 

 es to teach the American people, knows nothing 

 of the gardening of the most refined nation. 



Let us next take a retrospective view of Mr. 

 Leuch rs' practice, and see if the many calum- 

 nies he so liberally heaps upon us poor foreign 

 gardeners, will not retaliate on himself. In his 

 first article, he tells us that he keeps his plant 

 house shut in the day, throwing water on the floor, 

 on the flues, and on every available surface, and 

 throwing them open at night. 



Now, the following is the practice in European 

 gardens: In hot weather, during the summer 

 months, the plants are watered and syringed, if re- 

 quired, after 4 o'clock in the evenings, and in some 

 places, where the families recreate themselves in 

 the evening in carefully studying the natural pro- 

 ductions of foreign climes, as grouped in their plea- 

 sure grounds, or congregated within the limits of 

 a small house, the walks are kept perfectly dry. 

 Should other work interfere with this routine, it is 

 done the first thing the next morning, the passages. 

 &c. dried as before, so that it will be found ready for 

 the family or visitors at all times. In the winter 

 months, when the days are short, the weather cold 

 and damp, and vegetation partly arrested, this bu- 

 siness of watering is performed in the forenoon. 

 Drying walks, &c, as directed for the summer 

 months, always giving air when the weather per- 

 mits. Under this treatment, a lady with the thin- 



