186 MISCELLANY OF NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



should be cut away, and others shortened back. This done, and haying some 

 good soil — not too wet, nor yet too dry, hut moist, and some porous pots and 

 crocks in readiness, the crocks are to be placed over the hole at the bottom of 

 the pot carefully, so as to prevent the ingress of worms ; then some coarse soil, 

 then a little finer, next place the roots of the plant, and lay them out carefully; 

 then put in the soil, and give the plant a gentle shake, so that the soil may get 

 between the roots ; keep the collar of the plant a little above the surface. The 

 pot should not be filled with soil, as it would throw off the water. The soil 

 should not be pressed hard, nor the pot knocked hard on the potting board, only 

 just sufficient to settle the soil about the roots. If the plant requires support do 

 it by means of a neat stick, and take the plant to its stage or its place for 

 growth, and give it water enough to moisten the whole of the soil. When 

 plants are watered, they should always have enough to penetrate the whole of 

 the soil. In shifting plants from one pot to another, care should be taken not to 

 destroy the roots ; take off the surface of the ball, and carefully take out the old 

 crocks, and pot it as before stated ; work in the soil between the ball and the pot 

 by means of a stick. Plants are more or less nourished and augmented as the 

 water which is given to them contains a greater or smaller quantity of proper 

 teirestrial matter in it. There is a considerable quantity of this matter contained 

 both in rain, spring, and river water; spring and rain water contain pretty near 

 an equal quantity of vegetable matter, river water more than either of them. 

 Water is not the matter that composes vegetable bodies, it is only the agent by 

 which it is conveyed to them, and by which it is introduced and distributed to 

 their several parts; but water is not capable of performing this office to plants, 

 unless assisted by a due quantity of heat, and this must concur, or vegetation will 

 not succeed. It is not possible to imagine how one uniform homogeneous 

 matter having its principles or original parts all of the same substance, constitu- 

 tion, magnitude, figure, and gravity, should ever constitute bodies so egregiously 

 unlike in all those respects as vegetables of different kinds are, nay, even as the 

 different parts of the same vegetable. One plant carries a resinous, another a 

 milky, a third a yellow, a fourth a red, juice in its veins ; one affords a fragrant, 

 another an offensive smell ; one is sweet to the taste, another bitter; one U 

 nourishing, another poisonous ; one purging, another astringent, &c. Soil in its 

 natural state is fiiled with the remains of organic bodies which decompose and 

 yield nitrogen, or become converted into carbonic acid. Nitrogen and the car- 

 bonic acid incessantly forming below the surface of the earth, enter freely into 

 the roots, and, combining with water, and such other | rinciples as may already 

 have Deen formed there, they ascend the stem, the carbonic acid decomposing to 

 a certain extent as it passes along, and giving, apparently, its oxygen to the spi- 

 ral vessels, which convey it into other parts of the system; when it reaches the 

 leaves it liberates its oxygen completely, and leaves its carbon to unite with the 

 tissue of vegetation, or to enter into new combinations with water, atmospheric 

 air, or other elements that it finds itself in contact with, whence proceed the 

 gummv, amylaceous, resinous, oily, and other products peculiar to the vegetable 

 kingdom. The life and growth of a plant greatly depends upon the system of 

 potting and watering ; if the soil is not kept open, the water cannot penetrate it, 

 and then the whole mass becomes sour, and the plant will show si^ns of sick- 

 ness : although plants require a constant supply of water, the}' do not like the 

 soil stagnated; when such is the case turn out the plant and shake off' the sour 

 soil, ana repot it in some of a more porous quality. In watering, it is generally 

 necessary that the soil should be nearly dry before water is again administered. 

 We hardly know of any fluid in all nature, except fire, whose constituent parts 

 are so subtle and small as those of water are ; this enables them to enter the 

 finest tubes and vessels of plants, and to introduce the terrestrial matter, con- 

 veying it to all their parts, whilst each, by means of organs it is endowed with 

 for the purpose, intercepts and appropriates to itself such particles as are suitable 

 to its own nature, letting the rest pass on through the common ducts. — J. Cooper . 

 Bead before the Long Ditton Gurd. Soc. 



Roelia ciliata. — This is a fine old greenhouse plant, which has been neg- 

 lected for mure novel favourites. I know of no plant that merits more attention 



