190 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



views with others on the production of double flowers, and with some suggested 

 by various experiments on guano, it seems to me highly probable that certain 

 manures are particularly conducive to a luxuriant growth of stem and foliage, 

 while others are peculiarly so to the production of numerous and well-filled seeds. 

 Suppose the nitrogenous (ammoniacal) and alkaline (potash and soda) manures 

 to be those chiefly instrumental in producing stem and foliage, then nitrate of 

 soda will be valuable for this purpose, and if the soil itself contain the ingre- 

 dients of the seed in a fit state for absorption, the plant thus thrown into a state 

 of luxuriance will be enabled to draw from it sufficient to make plenty of good 

 seed. But if the soil in itself contains them very sparingly, then this excess of 

 stem and foliage, although containing a quantity of nitrogenous and palatable 

 food for cattle, will be deficient in rich seed. Now we know that phosphate of 

 lime and of magnesia, with sulphurous compounds exist in all seeds useful to 

 man and animals : these, however, do not form part of nitrate of soda and potash, 

 hence the latter can only assist the plant in extracting them from the soil. 

 Suppose, secondly, we use a manure combining the nitrogenous principles in the 

 shape of urates, &c, with the alkaline phosphates, sulphates, muriates, &c, then 

 even on the poorest soil, while the ammoniacal portion in performing its office of 

 causing luxuriance in foliage and stem, the ingredients of the seed are offered in 

 abundance to the root. This is exactly the predicament of guano — most of the 

 salts in which are soluble in water— and those which are not, such as the phos- 

 phate and oxalate of lime, become so when combined near the roots with the 

 carbonic acid furnished by the humus as well as by other portions of the manure. 

 The use of a solution of guano in water is therefore good, when the seed is not 

 required; but where it is, the deprivation of the insoluble phosphate of lime is 

 very injurious. Hence, from the proper use of guano, a luxuriant vegetation is 

 followed by the production of a large crop of fine seed. As a farther elucida- 

 tion of my views. I will state that the manure made use of for the purpose of pro- 

 ducing double flowers, is the highly nitrogenous stable mauure, which is used in 

 such quantity as to prevent the roots from coming into contact with that part of 

 the soil containing the ingredients of the seed — this manure being then chiefly 

 favourable to the production of foliage alone, if continued through many genera- 

 tions will by degrees convert the stamens, pistils, and the parts destined by 

 nature to prepare the seed, into leaves or petals, and finally obliterate the seed. 

 These flowers, if grown in a poor soil, scarce in nitrogenous substances, will again, 

 as is well known, revert to their normal single seed-bearing state. Several of my 

 experiments with guano proved to me that it shortened the internodes, or portions 

 of the stem between each leaf; this was particularly evident in seedling Orange 

 and Lemon trees, and is a sure indication of fruit or seed-bearing; indeed the 

 spurs, which are well known as the fruit-producing parts of many trees, are but 

 shortened branches where the internodes are reduced to a mere nothing, and 

 where, consequently, the axillary action is concentrated into a small space. I 

 have, therefore, no doubt of the beneficial action of guano on fruit trees. Many 

 experiments are, however, yet desirable ; such as whether guano acts bene- 

 ficially on the receptacle of the seed, which is the fruit of the Strawberry and 

 Raspberry ; whether on the exterior covering of the seed, which is the Apple, 

 Peach, Plum, &c, or on the kernel or nut, or on the pulpy envelope of the seed, 

 as the Gooseberry, Grape, Melon, Gourd, &c. I hope that these ideas will give 

 rise to numerous experiments this year, aud that those who make them will not 

 hesitate freely to communicate them for the general benefit. I will merely add 

 further, that I should consider it advisable, in all experiments on fruits, to try 

 both the guano itself, as well as a weak solution of it in water ; it is highly pro- 

 bable that the solution will be efficacious where the receptacle or the exterior 

 of the seed is most valuable ; whereas in Corn, Peas, Beans, &c, those phos- 

 phates which are insoluble in water, and are very necessary, would be thus lost 

 to the plant. — Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture. 



On drying Flower Specimens. — For several years I have paid attention to 

 the delightful pursuit of obtaining specimens of flowers, drying them, and pre- 

 paring a herbarium. A few mouths back I obtained some prepared paper from 

 Messrs. Bentall and Co., of Halstead, and have tried it during the above period 



