126 REMARKS ON THE CULTIVATION OF PLANTS IN CHARCOAL. 



the late calamitous fire, can bear testimony to their beauty and lux- 

 uriance. The earth of one large Camellia (double white), with about 

 250 blooms, was nearly altogether changed, the tub having fallen off 

 with much of the earth. I hardly expected to save the blossoms, but 

 they opened in as great splendour as the others. It seems to me that 

 the period of the opening of the flowers was also generally accelerated. 

 We had twenty or thirty out the first week in November ; and the first 

 week in December, just previous to the fire, I counted above 500 in 

 full beauty. This was certainly earlier than we had them in pre- 

 vious years. Passiflora Loudoni, which, under the best of common 

 cultivation, has always yellow and unhealthy-looking leaves, was 

 placed in this mixture, with the addition of charcoal drainage. The 

 rapid change in its appearance was surprising, and although, from 

 unavoidable circumstances, it was removed into this soil just previous 

 to flowering; yet, instead of being checked, fresh flower racemes shot 

 forth, and, with the others, opened their beautiful blossoms in the 

 greatest splendour, the foliage becoming of a fine healthy green, and 

 spread open, not curled in at the edges. I had several other experi- 

 ments in progress on the use of charcoal, some of which I had hoped 

 would have thrown light on its immediate action on the roots of 

 plants, a subject on which we are at present in the dark. Unfortu- 

 nately, these, with many others, were destroyed by accidental fire. 

 My impression from these trials is that, although charcoal alone is 

 nearly useless, yet, when mixed in due proportion with the earths and 

 salts usually found in soils and manures, its presence is highly bene- 

 ficial, and greatly promotes the luxuriance of vegetation, as far as 

 regards stems and leaves. Of its value in the production of flowers 

 and seeds, I am not, for the reasons before stated, able to give an 

 opinion of any worth. It may be thought, and probably is in part 

 true, that much of the luxuriance of the last-named experiments arose 

 from the use of guano water ; but, from other experiments with char- 

 coal, instituted for the purpose of making comparisons with guano, 

 and in which, of course, none was used, I cannot hesitate to believe 

 that some portion of this luxuriance was also due to the charcoal. 



