FOREIGN NOTICES. 



189 



vorable circumstances, if the frost is allowed free 

 access to them. 



The above practice is only recommended for the 

 earlier crops; for later ones it is not required. 

 One of the largest growers of forced strawber- 

 ries for the London market never pots the later 

 crops for forcing until they are wanted for that 

 purpose. His success is beyond question ; but 

 then old plants are never chosen. Young plants, 

 about a year bedded out, are such as he selects; 

 a great amount of trouble and expense is thus 

 saved. This cultivator has been equally success- 

 ful in forcing the same plants two seasons con- 

 secutively — a practice not generally followed. 

 Gard. Chronicle. 



Monstrous Flowers of Pf,i,.\rgomums. — The 

 following extract from a paper read by Mr. Sow- 

 erby at the Conversazione Meeting of the Royal 

 Botanic Society, in the Regent's Park, describes 

 an interestiniT case of monstrosity. After point- 

 ing out the distinguishing characters of the gene- 

 ra Geranium and Pelargonium, Mr. Sowerby pro- 

 ceeded to say: "The gardener, as in this case, 

 when he tinds nothing hut external beauty to re- 

 commend a plant, endeavors, by selecting the 

 most perfect, and then cultivating it highly, to 

 increase in the succeeding both the beauty of 

 colour and of form ; and as the beauty of form de- 

 pends on the same elements as that of colour, 

 that is, as before explained, upon the indication 

 of perl'cct adaptation to the end. or the resem- 

 blance of that indication, so a full round form is 

 especially aimed at by the cultivator of flowers, 

 and the Pelargonium fancier endeavors to obtain 

 five broad and equal petals, to form a round 

 flower, with the upper two deeply and brilliantly 

 coloured, to produce a contrast to the three lower 

 and light coloured ones; but with all his care the 

 flowers do not come constant, and now and then 

 one will play the truant, and sport as he calls it, 

 and this commonly happens among the most pet- 

 ted or highest cultivated varieties. When the 

 dark colour disappears from the upper petals al- 

 together, and the petals become equal in size and 

 form, it will be observed that the characteristic 

 tubular nectary also disappears. The want of the 

 nectary or honey tube is also accompanied by a 

 regular arrangement of five anther-bearing and 

 five abortive filaments. The white varieties are 

 less liable to this change than those with rose or 

 salmon-coloured petals, and it is also rare among 

 the new fancy varieties; frequently it occurs in 

 the central flower of the truss. In some flowers 

 the nectary is also shortened, and in others a 

 small spot will remain on one petal when the nec- 

 tary is absent. In the fancy variety called Yeat- 

 mannianum grandiflorum, which has spots on all 

 the petals, the spots become equal, the two large 

 spots being reduced. A.n additional petal also ac- 

 companies the change in a few cases. One plant 

 of the Beauty of Clapham, a rose-coloured varie- 



ty, has almost every flower changed more or less. 

 Thus it a])pears that cultivation makes one spe- 

 cies of plant appear to run into another, and may 

 destroy a remarkable generic character, consist- 

 ing of the presence of an important organ in the 

 flower, &c. Thus the gardener seems by over- 

 cultivation to reduce his flower to a lower stand- 

 ard, but I do not think this is exactly the case; 

 for though he may apparently reduce a Cape Pe- 

 largonium to a European Geranium in the eye of 

 a botanist, or partly so, still he would have a 

 more truly beautiful flower if he could obtain a 

 full truss of beautiful large rose-coloured or pink 

 flowers ; we would recommend a trial of the seed 

 from these sporting flowers." Magazine of Na- 

 tural History. 



Exposing Grf.f.nhouse Pl.\nts in Summer — 

 Manv greenhduse plants, and especially the more 

 delicate kinds, often sutler much injury from ex- 

 posure to the sun's rays in summer. When so 

 exposed without the benefit of shelter of any kind, 

 the soil is apt to become so thoroughly dried, that 

 it is with dilflculty again welted, and hence the 

 scorched and stunted looking growth which may 

 sometimes be seen on such plants in the sunmier 

 season. The injury in most cases arises not from 

 exposing the stem and branches of the plants, but 

 from exposing the pot in which it is growing ; the 

 sun's rays acting on the sides of the pots, in con 

 junction with the evaporation constantly going on 

 soon deprives the soil of its moisture; and as all 

 the tender roots are usually more or less in con- 

 tact with the inner surface of the pot, their injury 

 is inevitable. It is no uncomnKin thing to see the 

 soil so much dried as to shrink away from the pot, 

 and in this case the roots cannot avoid being more 

 or less injured. Under such circumstances, too, 

 the water which is supplied sinks down as fast as 

 it is poured on, and fails, for a long time at least, 

 to moisten the interior of the soil. Then again, 

 the necessity (or constant watering, caused by this 

 exposure, is an evident waste of time. When- 

 plants are turned out doors (and also when kept 

 in doors) their roots ought to be sheltered by some 

 means from the influences alluded to ; plunging 

 the pot in some open porous material will answer 

 the end as well as anything; and of the substan- 

 ces that may be employed, moss, coal ashes, 

 rough peat, sawdust, or fine charcoal are among 

 the best that can be employed. It is desirable, 

 also, to afford the entire plants a very thin shade 

 during the intense sun heat of summer, but the 

 lighter the material employed the better. Lon- 

 don Hort. Mag. 



On the Use of Coffee in Arabia and Abys- 

 sinia. By M. A. d'Abbadie. — Great nutritive 

 qualities have been attributed to coffee by M. de 

 Gasparin, in his memoir, on the mode of living 

 pursued by Belgian miners; and he quotes, in 

 support of his opinion, the experience of the 



