10 April, 1916.] .1 Rennrkahle Di><cover)/. 249 



The Dwarf Gum grows in poor, boggy country in the low-lying tracts, 

 but also occurs in the drier hills at Foster. The oil of this species is 

 valuable. 



The Neglected Gum {Eucalyptus nef/lecta, Maiden). 



A dwarf tree like the one previously described, and closely allied to 

 it. It differs, however, from the Dwarf Gum, having broader leaves, 

 smaller, and less angular buds and fruits. It grows in swampy places 

 near the Great Dividing Range, at Omeo. 



(To he continued .) 



SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE: A REMARKABLE 



DISCOVERY. 



London papers are publishing a description of a remarkable process 

 by which the vitality of plants has been enormously increased, under ex- 

 perimental conditions, and it is claimed that the process is cpiite applic- 

 able toi the production of food on a large scale. Here is the description 

 of what has been done, and probably a great deal more will be heard of 

 the discovery in th3 near future: — 



In a wooden box filled with moss, on the roof of King's College, in 

 the Strand, potatoes are in full growth in October. 



Some weeks previously a box, 16 inches long, 6 inches wide, and 4 

 inches deep, was filled with moss and planted with four potatoes. Once 

 every week the moss was watered with an extract from the bacterized 

 peat, the discovery of which Professor W. B. Bottomley recently 

 described to the British Association. The box, after eight weeks' growth, 

 was as full as it could be of fine new potatoes. Given a little sun, there 

 ih no reason, he says, why these vegetables should not be grown in a 

 similar way, nol only on the roof, but in one's room if necessary, almost 

 all the year round. 



In many cases the size of plants has been doubled and trebled by this 

 treatment. Radishes and tomatoes have even been grown in pure sand 

 watered with the peat extract. Seventy-two cucumbei's, weighing 1 lb. 

 each, liave been cut from eighteen treated plants after a twenty days' 

 growth, and sold at Covent Garden before those grown in the ordinary 

 way were ready to cut. Sixteen pounds of tomatoes have been taken 

 from one tomato plant. Similar examples of extraordinary growtli could 

 be multiplied by tiie score. 



Some tims ago Professor Bottomley began these exi>erimenls in pro- 

 moting plant growth by inoculating the soil witli tiie culture of bacteria 

 obtained from tlie root nodules of leguminous plants. It was found that 

 in soil so treated more nodules were produced in the i-oots. and tliat 

 the nitrogenous material in tlie earth was greatly increased. If the cul- 

 tures contained humus— that is to say, the black, decaying matter that 

 is found in tlie soil, they did better still. 



