174 



furnish almost a new era in existence. It can scarcely be doubted tliat nature has pro- 

 vided, in the earth, the best possible receptacle for the roots of plants ; yet even this 

 position will admit of considerable modification, for we have first to consider whether 

 our object in cultivation is to carry out the designs of nature, or to make nature sub- 

 serve our artificial requirings ; if the latter, it is quite certain that art can be advan- 

 tageously applied : we have but to call to mind our commonest fruits and vegetables 

 as examples. Thus, although plants may best achieve their destined ends when rooted 

 in the earth, it may reasonably be doubted whether in turning their good properties to 

 our uses a more advantageous receptacle may not be found. But without extending 

 the enquiry so far as this, if it be once admitted that earth is in no ^vise the food of 

 plants, then, cceteris paribus, the most unproductive sand, for instance, the heaths of 

 Surrey, may be rendered as productive as the Golden Valley : we have only to make 

 use of this sand, as nature intended it, for a receptacle of roots, and then having learn- 

 ed what is the true food of plants, to supply that food in the most profitable way. It 

 is now generally admitted that carbonic acid gas is the food of plants ; but leaving 

 even this question to those more competent to decide on it correctly, it is quite certain 

 that their food, whatever it may be, is evolved in greater quantities from certain che- 

 mical preparations than from the richest and most highly manured earth. Poverty of 

 soil thus becomes a nonentity : rotation of crops a mere amusement : once admit that 

 earth is simply a receptacle for roots, and you invest it with a property which you can- 

 not wear out. Every common and heath may be made to produce wheat at the will 

 of the cultivator, and the supply must ere long greatly exceed the consumption ; that 

 very description of food, the supply of which causes such difficulty to all our legisla- 

 tors, becoming more abundant than our most zealous philanthropists could desire. — 

 Edioard Newman ; 65, Ratdiff Highivay , February 12, 1842. 



122. New British Equisetum. We have received from Francis Whitla Esq., of 

 Belfast, a very fine Equisetum, hitherto unnoticed as British, the Eq. elongatum of 

 Willdenow ; a southern plant, indeed, but of which, as is well known to be remarka- 

 bly the case with some other plants that have been supposed to be peculiar to warmer 

 skies, the range has extended to Ireland. Mr. Whitla found it in mountain glens, 

 near Belfast. * * Our specimens are 2j and 3 feet long. If the roughness of 

 the stem, its great length and ramification, and elongated teeth of the sheaths, and 

 the apiculus of the spikes be considered, it cannot be confounded with any other of 

 our native species.— London Journal of Botany, p. 42. 



123. New British Chara. Chara latifolia of Willdenow. This fine species of Cha- 

 ra, which I have no hesitation in stating to be new to Britain, occurred in great abun- 

 dance in Belvidere Lake, Co. Westmeath, where I collected it in August last. The 

 great size and semipellucid appearance, at once struck me as remarkable. The main 

 branches are striated and covered with raised rough points, as are the first joints of the 

 whorled ramuli, while the remaining portion consists only of one pellucid tube, which 

 is thicker than the lower joint, and ends in a sharp point. The branches of the whorls 

 are again beset with smaller ramuli (not bractese), in which respect it difiiers from all 

 our species in the opaque division. I regret I could not find the [species in^ fruit, 

 neither globule nor nucule was present ; though I examined hundreds of specimens in 

 various parts of the lake, where it sometimes covered the bottom to the extent of ma- 

 ny square perches ; and what is singular enough, all the other species in the opaque 

 division occurred abundantly in the same lake, and were all in full fruit, each pre- 

 serving its respective character. — D. Moore ; in London Journal of Botany, p. 43. 



