126 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



HORTICULTURAL GOSSIP, XV. 



BY L. WOOLVERTON, GKIMSBY. 



The Univirse. — I have just been 

 reading a book that I would like to 

 place in the hands of every horticuU 



nrist who has a taste for readinj 



It 



is entitled " The Universe ; or, the 

 infinitely great, and the infinitely 

 little : " it is written by Dr. Pouchet, 

 Director of the Museum of Natural 

 History, at Rouen, &c., was published 

 in London in 18S2, and contains 518 

 pages with 270 fine wood engravings. 

 Everyone cannot be a tiiorough student 

 of such sciences as Botany, F'ntomology, 

 Geology and Natural History, a know- 

 ledge of which to so large an extent 

 contributes to success in fruit culture ; 

 nor has every one a taste for the scien- 

 tific nomenclature or the technical 

 language of science ; but a book of this 

 kind })laces before one, in a manner as 

 attractive as a novel, a carefully 

 arranged and beautifully illustrated 

 mass of interesting details drawn from 

 these subjects. 



The vegetable kingdom, for instance, 

 is treated under such heads as the fol- 

 lowing, viz. : The Anatomy of Plants, 

 The Physiology of Plants, The Sleep of 

 Plants, Vegetable Sensibility, The 

 Movements of Plants, Physiology of 

 Plowers, The Nuptials of Plants, Seed 

 and Germination, Giants of the Vege- 

 table Kingdom, Vegetable Longevity, 

 Migrations of Plants. 



I am informed that a most valuable 

 and attractive book on the insect world 

 will soon be published by the worthy 

 President of our Society. T am sure 

 from what we already know of his 

 ability in that branch of study, and 

 from his attractive style of writing, 

 that we shall each eagerly await the 

 opportunity to become possessed of so 

 interesting and useful a work. 



Some errors corrected. — Among other 

 interesting points touched upon in Dr. 



Pouchet's work, are those of Absorbtion 

 and Circulation in plants. He shows 

 that moisture and other elements are 

 absorbed from the soil by the micro- 

 scopic spongioles which terminate the 

 young and almost invisible capillaiy 

 filaments that cover the newly-formed 

 roots. This absorbtion is not, however, 

 direct, as any student of Botany knows, 

 for there is no open end through which 

 it can take ])lace ; but each spongiole is 

 composed of one or more elongated 

 cells, through the young and thin walls 

 of which absorbtion takes place by a 

 process called endosmose ; and it is by 

 the same process that the elements of 

 nourishment are distiibuted frt)m cell 

 to cell throughout the tree. The young 

 roots, however, soon become covered 

 with a skin, which becomes harde?-, 

 thicker with age, and through which 

 absoi-btion can scarcely take place at all. 

 It will thus be evident that the com- 

 mon custom of piling manure and ashes 

 closely about the trunks of trees for the 

 purpose of nourishing them, is a great 

 blunder, because that is just where the 

 roots are old and hard, and least likely 

 to absorb it. Manure should rather be 

 scattered far about the tree, where the 

 young fibres may take it up. 



Again, a tree or plant will not absorb 

 into its circulation the elements in the 

 soil, until they become oxydized, or 

 combined with the oxygen of tlie air ; 

 in this form they are soluble in water 

 and easily imbibed by the roots. It 

 thus becomes evident that one great 

 use of cultivation is to expose the ele- 

 ments of fertility in it to the action 

 of the air, in order that they may unite 

 with the oxygen thereof, and thus be 

 prepared to nourish vegetation. Froni 

 the facts above cited, it is also evident 

 that it is altogether a foolish notion to 

 bore holes in trees and enclose therein 

 sulphur, iron filings, or other drugs, 

 with the idea of curing fungus, blight, 

 * or yellows, because these substances are 



