Maicli 7, 1873. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



215 



of all natural deformity iu the natives of South America, who 

 do not wear any clothing. In the experiments of General 

 Pleasanton on some pigs and a calf, lie thought that a decided 

 advantage was derived from placiug them under tlie influence 

 of the blue ray. Then wlieu we long since examined the 

 action of light upon plants, we were met with many facts 

 which excited our curiosity and anxiety for more knowledge 

 than we possessed. As my brother, Mr. George W. .Johnson, re- 

 marks (Priiu-lplex of Gardeniiui, page 252), plants are obviously 

 stimulated by light. Everyone must have observed that they 

 bend towards the point whence its brightest uifiuence proceeds. 

 M. Bonnet, the French botanist, demonstrated this by some 

 very satisfactory experiments, in which plants growing in a 

 dark cellar all extended themselves towards the same small 

 orifice admitting a few illuminating rays. Almost every 

 flower has a pa'Mcular degree of light requisite for its full ex- 

 pansion. The blossoms of the Pea and other papilionaceous 

 plants spread out their wings iu fine weather to admit the 

 solar rays, and again close them at the approach of night. 

 Plants requuiug powerful stimulants do not expand their 

 flowers until noon, whilst some would be destroyed if com- 

 pelled to open in the meridian sun. Of such is the Night- 

 blooming Cereus, the flowers of which speedily droop, even if 

 exposed to the blaze of light attendant on Indian festivities. 



Then, again, light not only exerts a chemical action on 

 plants, but it would seem that some of them appear to absorb 

 it, or at any rate they emit it. This light, winch plants and 

 certain animals difl'use, has been the source of much discussion. 

 That it is euritted from some insects — from decaying wood or 

 fish, and even when pieces of lump sugar are rubbed together 

 in the dark — is too well known to be denied ; but that certain 

 plants are also occasionally luminous in the dark has been 

 disputed. The plants from which light has been emitted ai'e 

 the flower of the African Marigold, the Orange Lily, Nastur- 

 tium, the scarlet Verbena, and even from some of the Lichens. 

 The emission of light from plants has been denied chiefly on 

 account of the difficulty of explaining the fact. That objection, 

 however, ap'plies to the glow-worm of our hedges, to the me- 

 teorolites which are glidhig through the atmosphere, and even 

 to the summer o.' sheet lightning flashing around our horizon. 



■\Ye have seen the efi'ect of light upon Viue cuttings reported 

 by General Pleasanton, and this is not the earUest evidence iu 

 our possession, for the action of light upon cuttings, as Dr. 

 Lindley long since concluded, is hardly inferior to that of heat 

 (Theonj of Hurticnltiire, p. 291). The moment light ftrikes 

 a green plant it excites perspiration ; and that the influence of 

 different coloured rays of hght upon plants is varied appears 

 from other evidence than that of the American General. Thus, 

 the Ferns at Kew placed under green glass by Dr. Hooker 

 flourish with unusual luxuriance. 



Although, as I before remarked, it is a modern discovery 

 that the different coloured rays of light produce different 

 chemical effects upon plants, that white light does so has 

 been long known. The gardener is well aware how iu its 

 absence liis vegetables become more watery. The chemist 

 long since discovered that plants in the light emit oxygen and 

 absorb carbonic acid gas, and so purify the air, which is cor- 

 rupted by the breathing of animals, since animals absorb 

 oxygen and emit carbonic acid gas. The keepers of aquariums 

 are aware of this — they are cai-eful to preserve a due proportion 

 in these between the fish and the aquatic plants with which 

 they tenant them. Plants, however, w-liich are placed in sleep- 

 ing-rooms rather tend to render it less wholesome, since thej- 

 iu the dark inhale the same oxygen gas as ourselves. These 

 facts did not escape the notice of the celebrated chemist Davy, 

 for iu one of his works he remarks : " It may be said that, if 

 in summer the leaves of plants purifj' the atmosphere, towards 

 the end of autumn and through the winter and early spring 

 the air iu our climate must become impure, the oxygen in it 

 diminish, and the carbonic acid gas increase ; which is not the 

 case. But there is a very satisfactory answer to this objection : 

 in our winter, the south-west gales convey air which has been 

 purified b.y the vast forests and Savannas of South America ; 

 and thus those events which the superstitious formerly referred 

 to the wrath of Heaven, or the agency of evil spnits, and iu 

 which they saw only disorder and confusion, are demonstrated 

 by science to be ministrations of Divine intelligence, and con- 

 nected with the order and harmony of our system." 



Prolific Hyacinth Bule. — I have a very singular specimen 

 of Charles Dickens Hyacinth, now in bloom. It has four dis- 

 tinct spikes, each about 8 or 10 inches long, full of flower, and 



all springing from the crown, not from offshoots. Each spike 

 bears as many bells as an ordmary Hyacinth with a single spike. 

 It is grown in a pot, in loam, &c. The bulb is of ordinary 

 size. — C. W. 



WHO RAISED THE RIBSTON PIPPIN? 



" A Hull correspondent sends the following ; — On the 1st 

 of September, 1119;) , in the fifth year of King William and Queen 

 Mary, Eobert Clemesha, of Goldsborough, brought his son 

 Eobert to be bound apprentice to the Honourable Eobert Ej'erby , 

 of Mettridge Grange, iu the county of Durham, as a gardener. 

 His master covenants to find him sufficient meat, drink, clothes, 

 lodgings, and washing suitable for an apprentice. When bound 

 he signs with a cross, not being able to write. The Honour- 

 able E. Eyerby had land near Goldsborough — I know from 

 receipts for rent iu my possession. Perhaps he lived at Eibston 

 Park. In after-life Eobert Clemesha was gardener there. He 

 had given him the pip of an Apple brought from France, which 

 he was desired to endeavour to cultivate. This he succeeded 

 m doing, and the fruit was much approved and takes the name 

 of Eibston Pippin, from the locality where it was first raised. 

 The tree died in 1840. The indenture in my possession wan 

 ready to drop in pieces, so I had to glue it to cartridge paper, 

 and have presented it to the Hull Philosophical Society, in 

 whose museum it is now deposited." — {Hichmoiul and Shipton 

 Clironiclc.) 



[The indenture proves that Eobert Clemesha was apprenticed 

 to a gardener, and he may have held that office at Eibston 

 Park, but what authority is there to show that he raised the 

 Eibston Pippin ? There are other claimants of the parentage 

 of that excellent Apple. We quote the following from Dr. 

 Hogg's " British Pomologj' :" — 



"It is not mentioned in any of the editions of ' Miller's Dic- 

 tionaiy,' or by any other author of that period ; neither was 

 it grown in the Brompton Park Nursery in 1770. In 1785 I 

 find it was grown to the extent of a quarter of a row, or about 

 twenty-five plants ; and as this supply seems to have sufficed 

 for three years' demand, its merits must have been but little 

 known. In 1788 it extended to one row, or about one hundi-ed 

 plants, and three years later to two rows ; from 1791 it in- 

 creased one row annually, till 1794, when it reached five rows. 

 From these facts we may pretty well learn the rise and pro- 

 gress of its popularity. It is now [1851] in the same nursery 

 cultivated to the extent of about twenty-five rows, or 2500 

 plants annually. 



" The original tree was first discovered gi-owiug in the garden 

 at Eibston Hall, near Knaresborough, but how, when, or by 

 what means it came there, has not been satisfactorily ascer- 

 tained. One accoiuit states that about the year 1688, some 

 Apple pips were brought from Eouen, and sown at Eibston 

 Hall, near Knaresborough ; the trees then produced from them 

 were planted in the park, and one tm'ued out to be the variety 

 in question. The original tree stood till 1810, when it was 

 blown down by a violent gale of wind. It was afterwards sup- 

 ported by stakes in a horizontal position, and contiuued to 

 produce fruit tiU it lingered and died in 1835. Since then a 

 young shoot has been produced about 4 inches below the sur- 

 face of the ground, which, -nith proper care, may become a 

 tree, and thereby preserve the original of this favomite old 

 dessert Apple. The gardener at Eibston Hall, by whom this 

 Apple was raised, was the father of Lowe, who during the last 

 centuiy was the fruit-tree nurseryman at Hampton Wick."] 



INGESTRIE HALL, 



The Se.\t of the E.vbl of Shkewsecky. 

 Beighi rapidly-flowing streams of water bear about them a 

 charm to which the most stoUd and careless observer cannot 

 be altogether insensible ; and as in these gross manufacturing 

 days clear waters are rapidly becoming more rare, it is with a 

 feehng of satisfaction that one first gazes upon the Trent iu 

 the neighbourhood of Ingestrie Hall. Eising iu the highlands 

 of the northern part of Staffordshire it passes through the 

 county iu nearly a south-easterly direction until it reaches 

 Eugeley, where it turns more to the north-east, and enters the 

 adjoining county of Derby. Shortly after lea-i-ing Stoke it 

 enters the broad valley that bears its name. The Trent 

 Valley is remarkable for the richness of its meadows, which in 

 some places are barely elevated above the range of the floods, 

 and therefore have very large breadths often submerged at the 

 tuue when these prevail ; in fact, the whole of the level land 



