MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 293 



inches high, spreading, perennial, pink flower.'. Double Rockets, white, 

 purple, and yellow kinds, four or six plants, two feet high, Is. each. Trade- 

 scantiu I irginica, cungcsta, white, one loot high, Is. each. Gentianella, blue, 

 four to six inches high, two or three tufts, Is. each. Tigridia puvonia, (Tiger 

 Flower.) spotted, orange red with dark, a few patches of four or six roots in 

 each, two feet high, 3s. per dozen roots, Llsclvscholtzia cnlifornica, two or 

 three plants, two feet high, yellow, 9d. each. Double Scarlet Lychnis, two to 

 three feet high. Is. each. Verbena Melindres, scarlet, three inches high, 

 spreading, Is. each. Lobelia J'ulgens, crimson scarlet, two feet high, !>d. each. 

 Coreopsis lanceolaia, (Tick-seed Sunflower, yellow,) four feet high, 9d. each. 

 liusa indica minor, one or two plants, crimson, two feet high, Is. each. And 

 the following kinds of annuals: — Media elegans, yellow, four feet. Sweet 

 Peas, Ma tope trifida, deep rose, two feet. Lupines, of sorts. Prince's Feather. 

 Two or three Oenotheras, (Evening Primrose.) iAibclia criuuiiha, six inches, 

 blue. Collinsin grandiflura, nine inches high, blue. Convolvulus minor, three 

 feet high, blue and white. Convolvulus major, rose, blue, and white, varieties, 

 thr.>e to six fept high, varying according to the richness of the soil. Zinnia 

 elegans, purplish crimson, one foot high. — (See Vol. I. pages 43-45.) h, aa 



An Ardent Amateur. 



Reply to the Query of " A Countryman." — The author of the Do- 

 mestic Gardener's Man ual regrets that he has so long overlooked this query 

 addressed to him as " G. I. T," per date July 9th, 1834, (i>\>. XVIII, p. 18&) 

 It is his desire to attend to every question which may be referred to him by 

 any one, and at any time ; but the fact is, his occupations are so multiform 

 and unintormitting, that he occasionally does not even sec the several articles 

 in the periodicals for some considerable time after they come to hand. In a 

 recent paper addressed to the Editor, he observed that he was not a florist; 

 and in respect to the Ranunculus in particular, he is not from observation 

 enabled to write very minutely. The subject must, therefore, be considered 

 generally. The leaves of all plants are provided with oscular pores — termed 

 in botanical language stomafa, (from the Greek stoma, a mouth.) These 

 orgaus in tree leaves abound chiefly on the under surfaces, and are un- 

 questionably trauspiratory orifices ; — in fact moisture, during hot sunshine, 

 is frequently seen to be deposited on other leaves or substances that happen 

 to be nearly in contact with, and below the under surface of a large leaf. In 

 herbaceous plants, both surfaces are generally provided with stomata ; but in 

 these, the analogy of facts proves that the upper surfaces only are destined 

 to receive water; for all, or nearly, present those surfaces to the falling rain. 

 It may be doubted whether any good results can be traced from watering 

 artificially over leaves ; and though rain falls on plants and refreshes them, 

 it is quite certain that the attnusphtre is in a peculiar electric condition before 

 rain can be either formed or fall. This condition no human being can in- 

 duce; therefore, to water over leaves is always an artificial and unnatural 

 operation. The under surfaces are peculiarly injured by waterings ; and Mr. 

 Kmoiit has proved that a melon crop was once ruined by injudicious 

 syringing so applied, to wash away the acarus. It should soein that the 

 Ranunculus affects a moist, dripping season ; and if so, the watering by rain, 

 (that is during a state of air prepared for the application,) did good, in as far 

 as it was perfectly congenial to the habit of the plant. In dry seasons it 

 has been observed that among a whole bed of the plants, there was scarcely 

 a leaf on them that was not yellow and unhealthy. In such seasons, the 

 water applied by the gardener could only increase the evil, by scorching tho 

 upper surfaces, and closing the pores of the lower, by the splashing and dirt 

 Which it created. Light also acts inimically on under surfaces; and tho 

 writer has now before hiin a healthy lig tree, whereon balt'-a-dozeii leaves are 

 Iried det p brown, and become] as it were, burnt, by merely bending down 

 ft branch -" a- !.. expose those surfaces to the sun. Physiologically, then, 

 <;. I. I. thinks that water ought always to he applied to the ground only, un- 



■ insects require its application VO the leaves, --that the leaves 



of low growing hardy herbaceotii plants ought never to be spiinkled; as 

 whatever tends to leave water on lliem in bright weathor, provides the means 

 for the destruction of many pores of the cuticle by obstruction and burning ; 



