1879.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



217 



ring running upon the long Avire completes tliis 

 apparatus. It is found tliat a cat thus fastened 

 can run fore and aft with perfect freedom of 

 movement, and frightens birds in a manner to 

 which no stuffed cat is equal. Better for the 

 gardener than amusing for poor puss. 



Some of the papers like to get up imaginar}^ 

 correspondents, for the purpose of getting in 

 some bit of knowledge they have just picked up, 

 thus : 



Henry. The aromatics, especially the frank- 

 incense of Arabia, occupy tlie twelfth book of 

 Pliny. The great i3oet, Milton, in Paradise 

 Lost, introduces in a simile, the spicy odors tliat 

 are blown by the nortli-east winds from the Sa- 

 bsean coasts, 



"Many a league : 



Pleased with tlie grateful scent, old ocean smiles." 



X. Y. Z. Yes, houses have been built of rock 

 salt by the Chaldeans. You will find it stated 

 in GibboiVs Roman Empire^ Vol. 9, page 226, ! 

 Milman's London edition. 



William Coxe, some time mayor of Burling- 

 ton, N. J., it is believed, published the first 

 American book on Fruit Trees, a handsome 

 octavo, still an authority. An enthusiastic lover 

 of fruit is now engaged in cultivating all the 

 trees named in that work. He is an enthusiastic 

 Massachussetts lover of good tilings, and fruit 

 especially. 



ARE PLANTS FED THROUGH THEIR 

 LEAVES? 



BY MANSFIELD MILTON, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO. 



It is not always the person who has the largest 

 experience in any particular branch of industry, 

 that is the closest observer and possesses the 

 most knowledge of it in every particular. In 

 the cultivation of plants, Mr. Darwin's exper- 

 ience has been but limited when compared with 

 many ; but there are few, if any, who know more 

 about the uses and workings of the different or- 

 gans of plants at the present day than he. 

 There are but very few I think, who following 

 the details of his experiments with the feeding 

 of the different plants examined by him, but 

 will admit that the leaves of plants do some- 

 thing more than merely evaporate moisture. 



The experiments also made by Professor Bal- 

 four, Edinburgh, assisted by my old friend and 

 fellow laborer, Mr. Lindsay, clearly showed that 

 plants fed through their leaves did increase in 

 weiiiht over such as were nnlv fed tlirouL;]i the 



roots. These experiments were published in the 

 Gardener'' s Chronicle. Every one knows, who lias 

 paid any attention to the study of vegetable 

 physiology, that plant food, before it can be ab- 

 sorbed by either roots or leaves, has to undergo 

 a chemical change; and this change cannot be 

 produced without moisture. A plant, be it ever 

 so great a feeder at the I'oots of nitrogeneous 

 matter, will not absorb any of it if there is not 

 sufficient moisture to produce the necessary 

 change. Leaves cannot absorb any kind of 

 nourishing food more than roots, without suf- 

 ficient moisture to bring it into a condition 

 suitable for being absorbed through the organs 

 of the leaves. Mr. Henderson's example of 

 the plants in the neighborhood of the bone 

 manufactories not being benefitted, is not very 

 suitable for the support of the theory he wishes 

 to support; the gases passing off from those 

 factories are not in a suitable condition to be 

 absorbed by the leaves. Xor would the plants 

 be benefited by the roots coming in contact 

 with it under the same condition. 



Mr. Henderson's experience in horticultural 

 work has extended over more years than I have 

 been with mother "earth; but I think he must 

 surely have written his last article for the 

 Monthly without much study, when he ques- 

 tions the matter of plants absorbing moisture, 

 and that moist air acts only as a negative bene- 

 fit ; if this were the case, a plant once wilted could 

 not be recuperated by the application of moist- 

 ure to the leaves ; that if it acted only as a nega- 

 tive, the plant would remain the same when 

 moistened on the foliage or brought into a moist 

 atmosphere. Now Mr. H. knows as well as I 

 do that geranium cuttings, for instance, if al- 

 lowed to wilt, (so long as the organs of the 

 leaves are not destroyed,) then placed in a moist 

 atmosphere will recuperate, and the leaves and 

 stems regain their former plumpness, and get 

 heavier than before being placed in the moist 

 atmosphere. Now I would like to ask Mr. H., 

 if the moisture was not absorbed through the 

 leaves or stems, how was it absorbed, there being 

 no roots? 



I have kept several of the Bilbergias in a. 

 moist atmosphere without any roots, and they 

 have grown considerably. Now if they have 

 not fed through their leaves how were they fed ? 

 Please try some of them Mr. Henderson, and I 

 think you will come to the conclusion that there 

 are plants which can be nourished for a good 

 wliile, allliougli the roots are gone. 



