346 



THE (iAUDEXEIVS MOyTULV 



{November^ 



the other as the euse may be. But these shifjle 

 experiments often do u;reat in just lee. There are 

 scores of reasons wh}- seeds do not grow besides 

 their l)eing bad. The only fair test of seeds, is 

 to take five or more difTerent lots of the same 

 seed, and take the average for comparison for 

 competition with a similar set from the other 

 kind. 



EuAi)UATiN"<i KAHE PLANTS. — A Correspon- 

 dent of the Gai(leiier\s Chronicle, thus goeth for 

 ye man who cleaneth out ye last specimens. 

 We rather suspect he took care to have in his 

 own herljarium a ''Malaxis paludosa" a "Cyp- 

 ripedium," and a '' Lizard orchis" before he saw 

 ''with liorror" and so forth. Still the lover of 

 rare plants, may sympathize with the wail 

 which in his better moments he gives, especially 

 lus it is beginning to apply to our own country: 



" In Britian it has been rendered necessary to 

 legislate for the protection of wild birds, for the 

 same reason ; but as yet the law has not reached 

 our wild plants, which, owing to the greed of 

 eradicators, under the cognomen of botanists, 

 are becoming more and more rare — nay, some 

 are extinct ; and owing to the spread of a taste 

 for having in a garden what would look better 

 wild, we shall soon have to go far afield to find 

 a Primrose or a Fern. "Would that eradicators 

 would exercise their spuds on such plants as 

 Docks, Dandelions, and Thistle, and deserve 

 thanks instead of reprobation. We have heard 

 of a collector who, once calling on a country 

 "botanist to inquire the wherealjouts of a rare 

 English plant, Malaxis paludosa, was asked if 

 he were an "Eradicator," and replied he was a 

 *' Botanist," a talismanic term, which so touched 

 the hearer that he kindly took some trouble to 

 indicate the desired spot, when the "Botanist," 

 espying in a damp spot a single specimen, sprang 

 on the devoted plant and uprooted it, much to the 

 horror of the cicerone. 



where are Cypripedium, the Lizard Orchis, 

 •&C., &c. ? They are in Herbaria, if not eaten by 

 beetles, and the fortunate owner of the last spec- 

 imen is not ashamed to boast its possession. If 

 it were the last Dandelion or Shepherd's Purse, 

 he'w^ould be more deserving of credit." 



How THE Root Grows. — "When the plant 

 is in a natural state, the method of growth of 

 the roots provide it with all necessary supplies. 

 The rootlets, as has been said, lengthen at the 

 extremities, and creep through all the little cre- 

 vices and passages they can find, constantly tak- 



ing new mouths to new food. In the soil of the 

 garden subject to artific-ial ditVuuUies, this is the 

 reason why we keep the roots from being tram- 

 pled on, and fork the borders to keep the soil 

 open and free. Therefore also it is not good, 

 except in particular cases, to use sifted earth, for 

 it clogs hardl}^ together, and therefore we often 

 put l)rick rubbish and rough lumpy vegetable 

 mould, or morsels of turf, that there may be suf- 

 ficient passages for the roots; and here also is 

 the reason of one of the most frequent disap- 

 pointments to the amateur in moving plants. 

 Some special plant is admired in a neighbor's 

 garden, and a specimen is kindly bestowed; but 

 who would ofler a plant all loose earth? So, ac- 

 cordingl}', before it is papered up, the remnants 

 of a ball are smoothed, and kneaded, and patted, 

 till it is as tough as a ball of dough, and the 

 root-fibers are tightly fixed in the mass. — Gar- 

 dener^s Chronicle. 



Pasteur's Theory of Fermentation. — A 

 correspondent asks us to state in the Journal 

 what is the so-called " Pasteur theory of fer- 

 mentation." According to M. Pasteur, fermen- 

 tation is a very common phenomenon ; it is life 

 without air, without free oxygen ; and ferments, 

 properly so-called, are organisms which easily 

 accommodate themselves to this mode of life, — 

 organisms independent of air, which grow at the 

 expense of oxygen in combination with sugar. 

 But moulds, generally living in the air, can 

 themselves become ferments if they are com- 

 pelled to vegetatCf without air. It also suffices 

 to immerse saccharine fruits in carbonic acid 

 gas to produde a spontaneous alcholic fermenta- 

 tion, by a kind of perversion of the chemical pro- 

 cess of nutrition, which is afterwards kept up bj'^ 

 means of oxygen of the sugar. The vegetable 

 cellule , instead of elaborating sugar, lives upon 

 that which exists in the fruit, and transforms it 

 into alcohol. Grapes, Melons, Oranges, if con- 

 fined under a bell-glass filled with carbonic 

 acid, ferment at once, though no trace of yeast 

 can be discovered in the pulp of these fruits. 

 "While Plums exposed to the air become very 

 soft and sugary, the same Plums in carbonic acid 

 gas become firm, hard, lose much sugar, and, 

 if distilled, yield alcohol. Hence there is every 

 reason to believe that fermentation is nothing 

 more than an example of nutrition by means of 

 combined oxygen ; but it must be added that 

 free oxygen is necessary for commencing the 

 fermentation by awakening the vital activity of 

 the ferment. — Journal of Chemistry. 



