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GARDENERS- CHRONICLE 



Rosette Plants and Others 



WILLARD N. CLUTE 



APPARENTLY the original form for the bodies 

 of plants was an erect column. This, at least, was 

 the pattern after which the great forests of the 

 coal period were fashioned and it still persists in our 

 arborescent vegetation. In fact, the chief distinction 

 between shrubs and trees is that trees always have but 

 one main stem rising from the ground while shrubs 

 usually have several. As the earth has grown older, 

 however, various modifications of the vegetation have 

 taken place. One of the most important of these was 

 the introduction of the herbs. Those who delve into the 

 geologic history of the earth tell us that in the beginning 

 the plants were prevailingly woody, and that it was only 

 in comparatively recent times that the tender grass and 

 other herbs appeared. A curious fact in connection with 

 this is that herbs and herbivorous animals appeared on 

 the earth together. In the great forests of the coal period 

 there was abundant life, but it was not the life that lives 

 by grazing; there was nothing to graze. 



The period in which the herbs appeared, seems to have 

 been one of rapid change. Evolution was in full swing 

 and new species sprung up everywhere, struggling with 

 others for a place to live and, if successful, fixing their 

 particular types as component parts of the landscape. It 

 was probably at this time that our flora gained the start 

 in variety that characterizes modern vegetation. 



One of the most interesting of the special forms is 

 that kind called the rosette-plant. It is essentially the 

 original colunmar form in which the internodes or spaces 

 between the leaves failed to develop. Often it further 

 indicates the relationship by sending up an aerial stem 

 after it has accumulated sufficient material for the pur- 

 pose in the rosette form. Since room to spread out their 

 leaves is an essential feature of the rosette-plant habitat 

 we find the best examples in open places. Old fields, 

 roadsides and gardens will yield excellent examples. The 

 dandelion, evening primrose, thistle, shephard's purse, 

 teasel and the plantain are of this nature. Some of these 

 possess aerial stems and others never do. Open places 

 are by their nature dry places and the drier the region 

 the more numerous the rosette-plants until the limit of 

 dryness is reached. The houseleek and yucga, both in- 

 habitants of desert places, are characteristically compact 

 forms produced by great heat, strong sunlight and lack 

 of water. A large number of rosette-plants are also 

 known as crevice plants from their habit of growing on 

 cliffs where they send their roots deep into the cracks 

 and crannies in search of the scanty moisture. Such 

 plants are nearly always equipped with a strong central 

 tap-root. Practically all the common garden plants 

 whose roots or leaves we use for food are rosette plants 

 with roots of this kind. 



Invariable companions of the rosette-plants, are the 

 mat plants. To the casual observer, there seems to be 

 little difference between the two for both types spread 

 out flat on the ground. The mat plants, however, as 

 their name indicates, form mats often of considerable 

 size and, to do this, branch extensively. Rosette plants, 

 on the other hand, have such short stems that they are 

 often spoken of as stemless. The two groups indicate 

 very nicely the fact that there is often more than one 

 way of doing a thing. The object of each is to spread 

 out its green tissues to the light. Among the most 

 pestiferous of the mat plants are the spurge, knot-grass, 

 purslane, and spreading amaranth. In cold and very dry 



regions, as on mountain tops, in the arctic regions, and 

 on cliff's, occurs a variation of the mat plant known as 

 the cushion plant. In this, the stems are very much 

 dwarfed and thus form rounded masses which are very 

 characteristic and conspicuous. 



The various forms of vines are. as to form at least, 

 closely related to the mat plants. They belong, however, 

 to a dift'erent habitat for their peculiar structures would 

 be of little use in the places where mat and rosette 

 plants grow. Though they live in woods and thickets 

 they do not appear to grow there so much because they 

 have something to cling to, as because they have a form 

 of stem which places them at no disadvantage among the 

 others in getting up to the light. Unlike the mat plants, 

 they seldom branch until well along in development and 

 some do not branch at all. The vines range all the way 

 from the morning-glory, hop, and cinnamon vine, to the 

 grape and woodbine of our own woods and the giant 

 tropical creepers with stems hundreds of feet long and 

 more than a foot thick. The Spanish call these latter 

 forms lianas, and this term is fast coming into use to 

 indicate all woody vines and to distinguish them from 

 merely herbaceous species. Lianas have four general 

 ways of climbing: they may twine like the bittersweet, 

 have tendrils like the woodbine, produce aerial roots 

 like the poison ivy, or cling by recurved hooks as in the 

 climbing roses. 



WATER AND CULTIVATION 



LIAPPY is the grower who has ample means for water- 

 ing his open air stock. 



In times such as the present, when week after week 

 passes without any material rainfall, outdoor stock 

 is something of a gamble, and particularly so where the 

 soil is of a light sandy nature. For many lines, a medium 

 to light soil is an advantage ; it is easily worked and en- 

 courages fibrous roots, but in periods of drought, the 

 heavy soil is an asset, always providing that it is kept well 

 cultivated. 



Heavy soil not frequently hoed, and especially after a 

 soaking rain or watering will crack and so lose vast quan- 

 tities of moisture. Light soil, unless of a fine nature, does 

 not run together so quickly, and therefore does not crack 

 so readily. 



But while moisture evaporation is less rapid in one 

 sense, it is more so in another, inasmuch as light soil 

 does not hold so much water in suspension; thus, even 

 with cultivation, light soils feel the effect of drought 

 severely unless, as is sometimes the case, the water level 

 is fairly high. 



Cultivation on all soils staves oflf serious efifects, espe- 

 cially if the hoes or cultivator tools work fully three 

 inches deep, but this cannot be done among small or newly 

 planted stock. 



Particularly is this so on light land, as soil falls away 

 so readily. Because of this fact, a water supply is of ut- 

 most importance. There are some who argue that water- 

 ing is of no service or that it is even harmful, and that 

 cultivation persistently conducted will carry a crop 

 through. 



True enough, it will, and when water is not available 

 cultivation is the salvation of a crop, but that doesn't 

 (Continued on page 645) 



