Jane 2G, 1873. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



509 



rival the never.failing Gloii'e de Dijou in earliness of bloom 

 and profusion of flowers. Let those who have been unsuccess- 

 ful in its culture try again. Most people think that without a 

 south wall or glass houses to grow it the hopes of ever seeing 

 this Kose in flower would only be doomed to disappointment. X 

 am quite sure there are as many successful cultivators of this 

 beautiful Hose as there are unsuoceesful ones, and if a few of 

 them would state their experience in growing it, it would be 

 the means of adding fresh recruits to the Rose-loving army of 

 Margchal Niel. — T. J. Hamhson, Famdon, Cheshire. 



PLANTS IN SLEEPING-KOOMS. 



A GKEAT deal of nonsense originates with people who think 

 but do not observe. They take hold of what is really true, 

 and imagine a great deal more, by means of which they build 

 up a tolerable " bugaboo," at which people who trust to the 

 learning of the builders get very much frightened. Thus it is 

 known that plants give off carbonic acid gas at night, and 

 straightway arises a commotion as to the danger of having 

 them in sleeping-rooms at that time. 



The quantity which they give out is so small that it does 

 not compare in a slight degree with what human beings give 

 out. We venture to say that a sleeping infant would exhale 

 more carbonic acid in one night than a hundred pot plants ; 

 yet who ever suggested that the health of a mother was seriously 

 affected by the baby resting in her arms '? As to the injury 

 from vegetation, those of us who have had to sleep at various 

 times in woods, with but green branches for a pillow, and the 

 sweet wild green grass instead of a feathered bed, know well 

 after a few days of such experience, that it is the most health- 

 giving of all luxuries, notwithstanding the " awful " amount 

 of carbonic acid so much vegetation must give out every night. 

 Surely if this is so injurious it ought to affect the lungs more 

 especially than any other part of the system, yet the experience 

 of army life is abundant that many a person who, with lung 

 disease, supposed he might as well " die for his country " in 

 the woods and fields as " on a feather bed," and went into the 

 war of the rebellion, was, if not wholly cured, much ameliorated 

 by thus sleeping out amidst the carbonic acid of open-air vege- 

 tation. 



Still facts and figures please most people. Governor Holt 

 addressed a letter to Prof. Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, recently, on the subject. The Professor replies at length. 

 We make the following extract : — 



" Not to leave -this matter in the condition of mere conjec- 

 ture, I have gathered and analysed specimens of air from a 

 room w-here the influence of growing plants would be exhibited 

 in a greatly exaggerated form. Thus, instead of taking the air 

 from a room containing a few plants, I gathered it from the 

 College greenhouse, where more than six thousand plants are 

 growing. I gathered the air before sunrise on the mornings of 

 April ICth and 17th ; the room had been closed for more than 

 twelve hours, and if the plants exhaled carbonic acid to an in- 

 jm-ious extent, the anslysis of air from such a room would 

 certainly disclose this fact. The three specimens of air 

 gathered on the morning of AprU IGth, from different parts of 

 the room, gave i.ll, 4.00 parts of carbonic acid in ten thousand 

 of air, or an average of 4.03 in ten thousand. The two speci- 

 mens of air gathered AprU 17th gave 3.80 and 3.80 parts of 

 carbonic acid in ten thousand, or an average on the whole of 

 3.94 parts of carbonic acid in ten thousand of air ; while the 

 out-door air contains four parts in ten thousand. It will thus 

 be seen that the air in the greenhouse was better than ' pure 

 countrj' air.' This deficiency of carbonic acid was doubtless 

 due to the absorption of carbonic acid and consequent accumu- 

 lation of oxygen during dayUght, since the windows of the 

 greenhouse were closed day and night on account of the cool 

 weather. 



" To ascertain whether the air of the greenhouse had more 

 carbonic acid by night than by day, I gathered two specimens 

 of air in different parts of the house, at two o'clock r.ji., 

 April 17th. These gave 1.40 and 1.38 parts of carbonic acid in 

 ten thousand, or an average of 1.39 parts, showing that the 

 night air contained more carbonic acid than did the air of day. 



" Now, if a room in which were more than six thousand 

 plants, while containing more carbonic acid by night than by 

 day, contains less carbonic acid than any sleeping-room on 

 this continent, we may safely conclude that one or two dozen 

 plants in a room wUl not exhale enough carbonic acid by night 

 to injure the sleepers. 



" It is so easy to be deceived by a name ! I lately saw an 



article showing the beneficial and curative influence of flowers 

 in the sick room. Instances were related where persons were 

 cured by the sight and smell of flowers, and without question 

 their influence is good. Yet flowers exhale this same carbonic 

 acid both by day and by night ! The flowers, by their agree- 

 able odour and delicate perfume, impart an air of cheerfulness 

 to the sick chamber which will assist in the recovery from 

 lingering disease, notwithstanding the small amount of car- 

 bonic acid which they constantly exhale. — R. G. Kedzie." — 

 {American Qardener's Monthly.) 



A CENTURY OF OBCHIDS FOR AMATEUR 

 GROWERS.— No. 11. 



TRICnOPILIA. 



A GENUS comprising but few species. All of them are dwarf 

 in habit, the majority producing gaily-coloured flowers. The 

 pseudo-bulbs are compressed, and bear a single leaf on the 

 top. Peat and sphagnum in about equal parts form the Boil 

 they thrive best in. 



T. BUAvis. — This is tho only species which I shall include 

 in this enumeration, but it is a truly beautiful one. There 

 are many varieties of this plant, and therefore the amateur 

 should endeavour to secure a good one. The pseudo-bulbs are 

 somewhat ovate, bearing a large solitary leaf ; the flowers (seo 

 page -502), are large, produced in great abundance, and de- 

 liciously sweet ; the sepals and petals white ; the lip white, 

 spotted and blotched with crimson, and stained at the base 

 with bright orange. Native of Costa Rica. 



SOPHEONITIS. 



The plants comprised in this genus are all small and beauti- 

 fully coloured. They are best grown upon a block of wood or 

 in small baskets ; in the latter case it should be half filled 

 with pieces of charcoal and covered with sphagnum moss. 



S. GKANDiFLORA. — This Uttlo gem should be grown in quan- 

 tities by everyone ; the whole plant does not exceed 3 inches 

 in height. The flowers are large, thick and fleshy in sub- 

 stance, and rich crimson-scarlet in colour. Blooming as it 

 does in November and December, it produces a cheerful effect 

 within-doors when all without-doors is dull and dreary. Native 

 of the Organ Mountains. — Expeeto Cbede. 



LETTERS FROM JAPAN.— No. 3. 



Tokio, November, 14th, 1872. 



According to promise I will continue my description of 

 Su-mae-Yah. On entering the gateway of oue of the gardens you 

 generally come on a pretty little winding path leading up to the 

 gardener's house, which is usually situated near the centre of 

 the garden. On both sides of the walk specimens of the hardy 

 ornamental trees of the country are planted, many of which 

 are dwarfed or clipped into round table forms. The Yew 

 (Taxus cuspidata) is one of the principal ; but there are dif- 

 ferent species of Thujas, Retinosporas, and Pines duly repre- 

 sented. Plants cultivated in pots are usually placed near the 

 gardener's house, or put under a shed of bamboo work. He 

 protects his tender plants in rooms, which are fitted with 

 shelves, in the winter months. Glass houses have not yet 

 been built. Among these plants you will find the Cacti, Aloes, 

 Fuchsias, &c. 



Dwarf plants are greatly esteemed by the Japanese, and they 

 are wonderfully clever in making miniature gardens. I have 

 seen a porcelain flower pot, 7 inches square by 3 inches in 

 length, in which were actually growing two Fir trees, a fruit 

 tree, and a Bamboo. The trees and plants generally chosen 

 for dwarfing are Bamboos, Plums, Cherries, Pines, Junipers, 

 and Thujas. 



I will endeavour to give your readers a description of the art 

 of dwarfing trees, which I have learnt. It is one I always had 

 a great interest in when iu England ; and finding the Japanese 

 plan quite different from our English one, it will no doubt con- 

 cern your readers. In the East the art of dwarfing trees is 

 based upon one of the commonest principles of vegetable 

 physiology. Their practice is perfectly correct, and would 

 astonish some of our cleverest horticulturists. If they can, by 

 the means they adopt, check or retard the flow of the sap in 

 the trees, they prove that the formation of wood and leaves is 

 likewise retarded. This they do by confining the roots in a 

 small pot, withholding water, and training the branches into 

 any design they wish. They generally bend tho main stem 

 into a zigzag form, which checks the flow of the sap, and forces 



