378 General JVotices. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Use of Charcoal in the preservation of Plants. — One of the great in- 

 conveniences of low and moist grounds is, the difficulty they present in 

 cultivating flower-roots of every description. These are generally de- 

 stroyed by a kind of mouldiuess which attaches itself to the shoots be- 

 low, at different periods of their growth. It is easy to know when a 

 plant has been thus attacked, for the stem assumes a dirty green color, 

 approaching a yellow. The yellow soon supersedes the other, the leaves 

 change, and sometimes fall off. The only means of preventing this evil, 

 which most commonly attacks a number of plants at the same time, is 

 to place a layer of powdered charcoal over the parts where the roots 

 are to be planted. The best kind of charcoal for this purpose is, that 

 which remains in dust after the large pieces have been taken away. 

 When the earth has been prepared in the usual way for the reception 

 of roots, about half an inch of the charcoal powder should be spread 

 over the surface; the whole should then be lightly stirred together, in or- 

 der that the charcoal should be incorporated with the earth. We have 

 tried many experiments to prove the efficacy of this remedy, and in no 

 instance has there been a failure. Thus, in a bed of roots fifteen feet 

 long, by five wide, situated in a low moist soil, two-thirds were, a short 

 time back, prepared in the way above stated, while the i"emainder was 

 left undefended. The result was, that in the latter portion the roots 

 were lost, whilst in the other we never had finer plants. The powder 

 should be preserved dry, and, genei'ally speaking, it may be used with 

 advantage in the flower garden. 



The Poor Man''s or Cottager^ s Tree. — Such is the apricot; and so it 

 has been justly designated by the few patriarchs of gardening who now 

 survive. Alas! how are these worthies passing away ! 



The apricot originally belonged to the plum genus; it has of late 

 years been removed from that family, and ranks as the head of the genus 

 Armeniaca, a word derived from Armenia, the supposed native country 

 of the tree. It was received in England from the Levant, so we are 

 told, in 1548. The advocates of the natural system force this tree, with 

 the apple, pear, plum, and many others, into their order J?osace», from 

 some fancied resemblance to the rose. There are natural affinities in 

 abundance, doubtless, and we love to see them ably illustrated; but our 

 heads ache at the multifarious anomalies which crowd upon and over- 

 whelm the mind. 



But, however, this rose of an apricot is the tree of trees to the poor 

 man. Its habit is to bloom early, before the leaves expand; and there- 

 fore it is apt to lose its fruit when formally trained in a low horizontal 

 direction; nevertheless, when it is favorably planted, as to soil and as- 

 pect, and can run up against a high and broad chimney, where the fol- 

 iage can soon be early called into action in support of the young germs 

 of fruit, those germs, while in the bud of the blossom, being, as well as 

 the stamens, preserved by the slight yet genial heat of the brick-work, 

 the multitude of fruit produced is frequently prodigious. The writer's 

 next door neighbor has two trees; one faces the west, and is trained 

 very upright against the house wall — it bears pretty well. The other is 

 less, but faces the south, and has a kitchen chimney, as it is supposed. 

 Last week the man gathered twice, sixteen dozens, and eighteen dozens 

 — in all, thirty-four dozens, and sold them for tarts: numbers remain 

 on. A tall tree (on a single main stem) in the west of England, which 



