216 



THE GARDENERS MONTHLY 



[July, 



The trees are, I suppose, about sixty feet in height, 

 and they appear to be in full vigor, their long 

 shining leaves being particularh' beautiful, 

 though without the red brown velvety back 

 which the leaves of our Magnolia forest trees 

 have. It would, I think, be properly called a 

 swamp laurel, of which there are so many 

 lovely varieties in our State. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Directions op Nutrition. — Prof. Karl Koch, in 

 one of his lectures, says: "The view held by 

 pomologists and fruit gardeners, that the nutri- 

 tive substances move only in a downward direc- 

 tion, is refuted by their own practices 



" I would direct particular attention to the fact 

 that all new growths and lengthening of the 

 various axes of fruit trees (branches and twigs) 

 takes place at the tips, and therefore it is at these 

 points that the greatest quantity of nutritive 

 substance is required, and consequently the 

 greatest flow is not downwards but upwards. 

 Moreover, when the cultivator wishes to cause a 

 latent bud to push forth, which in its action is a 

 consumer of food, he should, acting under the 

 same view, make his incision below the bud in 

 order to divert the greatest quantity of nutritive 

 substances to the new growth; but lie does not 

 make it below the bud, he makes it above. As a 

 matter of fact the nourisliment which should go 

 to the upper part of the axis is impeded in its 

 upward course by the incision, and actually 

 serves to develop the dormant bud. Again, why 

 does the gardener pinch back the tips of shoots i 

 in spring? It is either to strengthen a fruit-bud 

 below, or indeed to bring it to development. 

 The nourishment that would have been used in 

 the elongation of the shoot now remains to 

 benefit the fruit-buds below." 



We do not think intelligent pomologists in this 

 country believe that nutritive substances do not 

 flow upwards. After all, it is a question what the 

 Professor meant by " flow of nutritive substance." 

 New growth is formed by the continuous germi- 

 nation of cells. In the primal cell of the season 

 nutrition is stored from the accumulations of 

 last year, and the successive new growths are 

 formed from these stores for some time after the 

 growing season opens. To this extent nutrition 

 may be said to have an upward flow. But that 

 there is also a downward flow, every gardener 

 knows who has had any experience in layering. 

 A stool plant may in time be utterly destroyed 



by persistent layering of all its braTiches; the 

 "downward" flow of nutrition reaching only to 

 the roots of the layered branch, and literally 

 starving the old plant though with numerous 

 roots of its own — and it is from the knowledge of 

 this fact that layered plants of grapes are not 

 valued, because a stool kept for layering comes 

 in time to have a low vital power, laying the 

 progeny open as an easy prey to diseases. 



Thuja Standishii. — It has been generally sup- 

 posed that this Japan introduction was synony- 

 mous with the Thuja gigantea of the Pacific 

 coast, but Dr. ^Masters, in a recent Gardener's 

 Chronicle, decides that it is a distinct species. 



Fungus Spores — A species of Phallus, a fun- 

 gus which appears regularly in the same spot in 

 successive years, producing an immense number 

 of spores — millions on millions, probably — :and 

 which, from their dust-like nature, can be borne 

 by the wind many miles ; and yet it is believed 

 the species is rarely found, for the oddity of its 

 form, did it exist, would attract the attention of 

 the most stolid observer to say nothing of the 

 impression it would make on those matter-of-fact 

 individuals who are accustomed to "follow their 

 nose" in travelling through the world. This fact 

 has been noticed by observers in connection 

 with other fungoid plants. It seems to point to 

 the generalization that it requires a very nice 

 combination of circumstances for tjie spore of a 

 fungus to be safe in germinating; and, hence, 

 nature prepares an abundance of material, in a 

 sort of ratio to the risk — Independent. 

 I Destruction of Plants in Winter. — It has 

 I been often recorded in our magazine that it is 

 the hygrometrical condition, conjointly with the 

 thermometrical, that decides the hardiness of 

 ' plants in most cases where the tissues do not 

 burst by the freezing of their liquids, for in many 

 cases vegetable tissue contracts instead of ex- 

 pands under the action of frost. The Gardener's 

 Record, of Dublin, furnishes the following in- 

 stance : " At Ballygiblin, near Mallow, the seat 

 of Sir Henry Becher, Bart., there is a plant of 

 Pimelea decussata growing in the open air. It 

 has stood in the same situation for the past four 

 years, and has never received the slightest pro- 

 tection during winter. It is in perfect health, 

 and produces its flowers freely in the month of 

 June each year. It is in a very sheltered position, 

 but, nevertheless, it has withstood some 14 deg. 

 of frost." In our dry atmosphere the plant 

 would be destroyed by the first light frost. 



