GARDENING FOR SMOKY CITIES AUTD LARGE TOWNS. 727 



^vhich surmount our crowded dwellings. Smoke of this sort is generally con- 

 sidered to consist of two parts, — gaseous exhalations and certain minute 

 particles of carbonaceous matter called soot. Both these constituents are 

 capable of producing more or less injmy to the bark, leaves, and blossoms of 

 whatever trees, shrubs, and plants, are brought into contact with them. 

 Soot, applied as a manure to the soil, is a decided fertilizer, or perhaps it 

 would be more correct to call it a stimulant to vegetation ; but this is a very 

 diflferent application of soot from that with which vegetation is treated, when 

 it is found struggling for existence against the dense masses of soot which are 

 emitted from the chimneys of our populous cities and large towns. The 

 gaseous vapours charged with soot form a black gummy coating over the 

 stems and leaves, which prevents the respiratory organs of plants from 

 performing their proper functions for the support of life. Still, so tenacious 

 is Nature of her own rights, that even in the most murky and sooty atmo- 

 sphere something green will be found growing. Indeed, the traveller through 

 our coal districts is often struck with the luxuriance of the corn crops 

 growing even up to the pit's mouth, and with the manner in which large trees 

 have been able, at any rate, " to hold their own " in the severe struggle which 

 they have had for years to maintain. We ourselves have vivid recollections 

 of having seen, in the midst of " the black country " of South Staffordshire, 

 at the foot of Dudley-Castle hill, several years ago, many very gay gardens in 

 front of the cottages of the pitmen. Though Flora and her attendant train of 

 Nature's beauties rejoice most in clear fresh country air and the pleasant 

 places of the earth, it is a great mistake to imagine that they voluntarily 

 banish themselves from, and cannot be invited to dwell in, the dax-k and sooty 

 regions of mining enterprise and manufacturing industry, or where men 

 densely crowd their dwellings together for purposes of business and profes- 

 sional intercourse. Of course it would be as useless as it would be foolish, 

 under such unfavourable circumstances, to attempt the cultivation of all sorts 

 of shrubs and plants indiscriminately ; but it should be a matter of thankful- 

 ness that some sorts will grow, and that experience has pointed out those 

 which will flourish and do best. It is the same with vegetable as with animal 

 life ; so varied are the gifts of Nature, that the same atmosjiheric conditions 

 are not essential to the welfare of every individual, nor is the same food 

 requisite for its support. The old proverb, " one man's food is another's 

 poison," may be made to apply to both. It is not every 'constitution that 

 can stand the extreme heat of the drying-rooms of some of our factories, 

 much less the vitiated atmosphere of those stifling chambers to which our 

 needlewomen and dressmakers' apprentices are too often consigned ; and so it 

 is with plants. Attempt to grow the delicate white China rose within the 

 influence of London smoke, and it will not only disappoint you in flowering, 

 but in a short time the plant itself will wither and die, while the common 

 cabbage-rose, and even the maiden' s-blush, under precisely similar circum- 

 stances, will flower freely and live to a good old age. It is necessary, there- 

 fore, to know what trees, plants, and flowers will flourish best; and such 



