A«giist a, isCT. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICTJLTXTRE AIID COTTAGE GARDENER. 



107 



logical botany is that which is the most inipoi-tant to the 

 mere gardener, allied and linked as it is with so many other 

 sciences. Hail we time we co\ild descant for months on 

 this subject, and yet not please ourselves in making the 

 matter simple and attractive. The great bulk of the writings 

 of this serial have, by the closeness of their practical details, 

 just tended to throw more and more light on phytological 

 botany. We are the less inclined U-> enlarge on tliis tempt- 

 ing field, because so much has been well said for years ; 

 and a very good handbook can be procured from the office, 

 •' Science and Practice of Gardening," for 3s. We need not 

 say that such a volume in our young days would have saved 

 us borrowing and poring over expensive works, making 

 many erperiments as often unsuccessful as successful, and 

 giring the cranium many a scratch behind the ear, when 

 we got fairly in the mist and could see no light out of a 

 dense cloucUand. 



We have said that we cannot enter on this study of vege- 

 tation without being drawn in to have some general know- 

 ledge of many other sciences. Thus, for instance, as re- 

 spects the soil : we will be all the better if, in addition to 

 the mere mechanical composition, we know its geological 

 formation, and thus avoid many errors in culture, draining, 

 lie. Frequently lime and other earths are driven for long 

 distances, when perhajjs a shaft of 30 feet or less would 

 reveal near at hand the very thing wanted. There are 

 many books on this charming theme, opening up worlds 

 and worlds in the ages of the past ; and few can read the 

 pages of Lyell and Buckland without deep attention, but for a 

 beginner the simple treatise of Phillips may be as interesting. 



Then for the nature of soils, the character of manures 

 as suitable to various crops, there is Chemistry revealing its 

 wonders, and the strange transfonnations effected in plants 

 — a science which no mere gardener can hope to master, but 

 the principles of which, as applied to garden and field, we 

 may fully comprehend from reading the jjages of Liebig, 

 and Johnston on " Agricultural Chemistry." 



Again, independently of chemistry, there are many facts 

 connected with water in its various states, with air as 

 respects its weight, abundance of moisture, or comparative 

 freedom from vapour, and the influence of heat as absorbed 

 and radiated, that render a small treatise on hydrostatics, 

 hydraulics, and pneumatics, the principles of caloric, and 

 the still imperfect science of meteorology, extremely interest- 

 ing ; and even a slight study of these sciences would prevent 

 us making some palpable blunders. A visitor lately on admir- 

 ing ovu' flower-beds, and compassionating the somewhat foxy 

 appearance of the lawn, imagining no doubt it would please 

 us with visions of abundance of water, concluded the con- 

 dolence with — " But why not have an artesian well ? " and 

 that on the highest ground for miles round, and where now 

 we go down the best part of 300 feet to reach water, and just 

 now have only about 6 feet of water ! We believe that now, 

 dry as we have been, there is enough of rainfall here to meet 

 all our requii-ements, could we only have means to keep the 

 water xintO we wanted it. However, this season has taught 

 us to leave less to chance for the future. A fi-iend of ours, 

 with large ranges of houses, was much worse off than we ; 

 but a small rivulet trilled along at a considerable distance, 

 and by choosing a proper place, where the ground fell con- 

 siderably, he seciu-ed a pei-pendicular fall of some S feet, and 

 with that ■RTOught a water-ram, which gave him abundance 

 of water. We lately told how Mi-. Pressley, of Knockmaroon 

 Lodge, threw water from the river Lifiey to the top of the 

 hiU by means of a wheel. Two fine places in this neigh- 

 bourhood, situated on the top of small hiUs, are supplied by 

 means of water-rams fr'om streams in the valley. A lady 

 who has one of the finest, if not the very finest, out-door 

 ferneries in England, a.nd who has as yet been supjjlied fr-om 

 a large tank, seriously proxJOses having a ram iixed in a 

 stream fr-om one to two miles oS, and the water taken in 

 pipes all the way. But for science, no such schemes could 

 ever have been thought of. The pressure of the air becomes 

 in such cases oui- force-pump servant. 



Then, as to the imperfect science of Meteorology, how 

 much better could we regulate our artificial atmosphere in 

 glass houses, if we knew more of the condition of the ail- in 

 almost every part of the world as respects weight, density, 

 and the vapour contained in it. Our first lessons in this 

 direction were derived from that fine old book, "Wells 



on Dew." Wo have read the far more elaborate work of 

 DanieU, and would like to have the chance of reading it 

 again ; but ever and anon we turn back to the close reason- 

 ing and the clear demonstrations of Wells ; because, from 

 his teaching we obtained a light as to the reason of many 

 practices, and especially the whole of those having reference 

 to the protection of tender plants, keeping heat in and 

 cold out — in other words, preventing the radiation of heat. 

 Kr. VA^eUs clearly demonstrated that, properly speaking, dew 

 neither rose from the ground nor fell from the air — that it 

 was merely vapour condensed into water — and that, there- 

 fore, before dew could be deposited on any body, that body 

 must first be cooled by frefr radiation below the temperature 

 of the air holding the vapour in suspension ; and thence it 

 followed, that as clouds by arresting radiation prevented the 

 formation of dew, and a sheet or a pocket-handkerchief sus- 

 pended above the ground on a clear night prevented the 

 formation of dew on the grass beneath it, just because 

 radiation of heat was arrested, so the understanding of this 

 simple matter makes plain all the mysteries about our modes 

 of protection. 



Again : Leaving such matters, we come back to vegetation 

 and to the diseases and maladies to which it is subject from 

 unsuitable climate, improper soils, and impui-e water, never 

 forgetting, however, that plants, like men, live that they 

 may die, and that deaths will take place when there is 

 neither carelessness nor ignorance to be charged against 

 the cultivator, other^Tise our doctors and physicians would 

 have a pretty time of it amongst us. One of the fr-uitful 

 soui-ces of the iU health and premature decay of plants arises 

 from the attacks of the numberless insects to which they 

 are subject: hence the importance of the study of ento- 

 mology. The watching the changes and transformations 

 of these insects is exceedingly interesting, and where there 

 is a natiu-al taste in that direction there will be sure to be 

 a combination of pleasure and profit. We have had Httle 

 boys destroying thousands of the white butterfly. We know 

 the myriads of caterpillars we otherwise should have on 

 every Cabbage leaf. We regret to say that most of the 

 pojjular works on natural historj' do not give particular.^ 

 enough for the student. Kirby and Spenoe is stiU a good 

 introduction. A good deal of information will be found in 

 the "Cottage Gardener's Dictionary," in Loudon's works, 

 a,nd also in the pages of this Journal ; but a good work on 

 insects that axe injurious to garden and field, going into all 

 the details of their transformations, and treating us aU as 

 if we knew nothing at 3.11 about the subject, has yet to 

 be written. If our Editors would only do for us in this 

 respect, bringing aU present knovv-ledge to bear upon prac- 

 tice, just as Mi-. Johnson has done in the " Science and 

 Practice of Gardening," we of the blue apron ought to 

 raise a monument to their honour. At present much of 

 what we wish to know is scattered through expensive works, 

 which the humble means of gardeners prevent them from 

 possessing. 



And, lastly, though, as connected with the physiology of 

 plants rather of the first than the last importance, is the 

 study of Geography. Every department is extremely inter- 

 esting, descriptive, social, political, and physical. The poor 

 fellow who had Dr. Johnson's Dictionary put into his hands to 

 amuse him, might well say, "' It is very good no doubt, but 

 exceedingly dry." But there is no dryness even in general 

 geography'. To most minds its facts possess all the charms 

 of romance, because many of its stern traths are stranger 

 than the wildest fiction. As a subject of study, therefore, 

 our earth with its many diversities of climate, of inhabitants 

 a,nd of vegetation, is well worthy of serious attention. If 

 much time cannot be set apart to this subject, muchknow- 

 ledge win be, as it were, incidentally gained, if in our 

 general reading we endeavour to get a clear idea of the 

 country or place that comes before us. We may thus become 

 acquainted with geography just as we have hinted that 

 many of us have done with spelling and gi-ammar. 



However tant.alising general geography may be to the gar- 

 dener, that which is styled physical geography is the most 

 interesting, connected as it is with the distribution of plants 

 accordmg to climate, latitude, and altitude, the gi-eat diver- 

 gence in this respect of the different hemispheres, the dif- 

 ference between continents and islands, and how vegetation 

 is regulated, not merely by medium, but the highest and 



