1846.] Horticulture. 113 



fotentilla formosa, and the same southern range of the Himalayas, 

 the most delicious fruit of the temperate zone — 1 mean the peach. 



Plants conform by a kind of instinct, to the climates in which 

 they are indigenous. Thus on the approach of heat and drouth, 

 the tulip contracts itself into a bulb, and waits for a more conge- 

 nial season to resume its growth. The auricula, though an ever- 

 green, sleeps safely under the snows of the Austrian Alps, but 

 perishes without protection in the valleys below; and the holly- 

 leaved barberry, another evergreen from the Rocky mountains, 

 suffers under our milder but more variable winters. We have, 

 therefore, tender plants from very cold as well as from very torrid 

 regions. 



When we considei' that soils of almost every peculiarity, have 

 furnished us with plants, we cannot expect all these delegates to 

 give up their predilections, and consent to grow side by side in 

 the same border. Many, it is true, will do it, perfectly indiffierent 

 to soil, satisfied wherever their lots may be cast, and flourishing 

 without abatement; but the wild lupin pines for its bed of sand, 

 and "• the superb lily" for its bog. The laurel, so abundant nine- 

 ty miles to the south, declines in health w'hen removed to our 

 common soil, and eventually perishes as if it were poisoned. The 

 rose acacia also refuses to flourish where lime abounds, unless 

 lifted above it by engrafting on the common locust. 



Peaty earth mixed with silicious sand, seems best to agree with 

 such delicate feeders, though soils in w^hich peat forms no con- 

 siderable portion will answer in some cases. Several years ago, 

 I procured a Chinese magnolia. It flowered once or twice, but 

 became sickly, and its leaves lost their fine green. Being at a 

 friend's house among the sandhills of Junius, 1 told him I wanted 

 a bushel or two of the poorest soil on his farm; and got such as 

 Indian corn might grow in with pale yellow leaves and perhaps 

 a foot high. In the spring I removed all the earth round the 

 magnolia, as well as I conveniently could without disturbing the 

 roots, and applied the steril mass, three or four inches in thickness. 

 In a month or less, the leaves resumed their fine green, and it has 

 continued vigorous ever since. 



I may remark that this barren earth acted as a manure, for the 

 roots spread through the same ground that they did when it 

 changed color. It is evident then, the plant was not poisoned, 

 but starved, some element essential to its health, not having been 

 contained in the fertile border where it stands. 



When the drift or deposit of earthy matter was first left by the 

 retreating w^aters, it was not properly soil, for it was deficient in 

 those vegetable remains which in some places, and on some plants, 

 produce such extraordinary eflfects. We may take sand, clay, 

 lime, magnesia, and other minerals in due proportion; but we 



