624: Queries and /I/isive7'S. 



therefore, that it is only some nurseryman's name ; and I slioulil not be at all 

 surprised it" it were simply a Pinus sylvestris which had been brought from 

 Cevennes. — V. Furls, Oct., 1837. [The plant in the Chiswick Garden of 

 this name is evidently P. Laricio ; but, as we were anxious to know, if pos- 

 sible, what species or variety the name was intended to be applied to, we wrote 

 to M. Vilmorin, and the above is his answer. — Cond.'] 



Making a Peach taste of Wormwood. — If I had seen Vol. XII. p. 52. of 

 the Gardener s JMagazlne sooner, I should not have waited till now to 

 satisfy, as well as I could, the desire of your correspondent, A. B., on 

 the " Manner of making a Peach taste of Wormwood." The day has gone 

 by for people believing the impositions practised by a few gardeners to 

 deceive the multitude ; but, by attentively studying the process of vegeta- 

 tion, certain phenomena will appear, which are not so easy to explain, 

 even with the assistance of physiology ; and it is still more difficult to give 

 a decided opinion on the subject. For example : at first sight, the asser- 

 tion of Mr. John Murray, of giving the smell of the onion to the rose, 

 by being planted near it, appears ridiculous ; and yet, even the celebrated 

 De CandoUe, in his Physiologle Vegetale, omits giving an opinion on the 

 subject ; a proof that there is room for improvement in vegetable physi- 

 ology, and particularly as it regards smell and taste. For my part, I can 

 tell you, as a fact, and a well established one, that all the wine merchants 

 abstain from going to a particular part of the province of Vicenza for 

 their wine ; and the reason of this is, that the wine there smells of the 

 walnut, because the peasantry have a custom of training their vines on 

 walnut trees, instead of using vine props. This smell may arise from dif- 

 ferent causes; and it is a remarkable fact, that the walnut does not always 

 give its flavour to the grapes it supports, but, in general, only to those vvhich 

 have grown on light and dry soils, when the vine has received any bruise, 

 or wound, such as by a severe shower of hail, or by the roots having been 

 injured by the plough. It thus appears to me, that, wherever the wine 

 tastes of the walnut, the spongioles of the vine could not have been in a 

 healthy state : the greater part of them nmst have been decayed ; and, 

 from the connexion between the root and the stem, when the hail injures 

 the shoots of a plant, even the fibrils of the roots suffer, and are probably 

 destroyed. It is evident that the mutilation which the vine sustains by the 

 plough must also destroy the fibrils ; and, in both cases, a section of the 

 main root becomes the opening through which the juices of the soil are ab- 

 sorbed ; and, instead of these juices being digested and properly prepared by 

 the spongioles, they are conveyed to the plant through the decayed or muti- 

 lated roots, either by capillary attraction, or the absorbent power of the roots, 

 in a greater quantity, and in a comparatively raw state. As the roots of 

 the walnut which communicate with water are known to give it their 

 smell, all the moisture which comes in contact with the roots of the vine is 

 impregnated with this flavour; and, being absorbed and transmitted, with- 

 out digestion, through the truncated roots, it gives the same flavour to the 

 grapes. In the Kouveau Cours d\lgr., under the head of " Parsley," you 

 will see it remarked, that if the celery (sedano) is covered with new dung, 

 it will taste of it. I have mentioned this in a paper which I have written 

 on celery, in the GlornaL' Agrarlo Lonibardo-Veneto ; and shown how much 

 the French gardeners are in error, in taking up or transplanting celery ; by 

 which method few or none of the plants have their roots entire. Kee[)ing 

 these examples and principles in view, and following the same process, 

 who can say that it is impossible that the smell of the onion may not be given 

 to the rose, and the taste of wormwood to the peach, &c.? — G. Alanctll. 

 Jan. 4. 1837. 



END OF THE TllIRTEENTII VOLUME. 



London : PrinteJ by A. SrimiswuoDi!, New-Strect-Square. 



