152 Increasmg Plants by Cuttings, 4'C'i 



will ripen to be good for anything, except at a high temperature 

 and pretty dry atmosphere. In all these cases, then, it is abso- 

 lutely necessary to prevent the escape of moisture from the 

 troughs. If this can be done, the only remaining objection is 

 the difficulty and inconvenience of obtaining a perfect level for 

 the troughs. 



Without wishing to rob Mr. Corbett of the credit due to his 

 ingenuity, I must observe that the system he adopts is not alto- 

 gether so new as he supposes ; but is, in fact, a return, in some 

 degree, to the form of the earliest hot-water apparatus erected 

 in this country. All of these consisted partly of pipes, and 

 partly of open cisterns, on the same level, having covers to 

 regulate the escape of moisture. Such an apparatus is described 

 and figured in vol. vii. of the Hort. Iraiis., p. 203., by Mr. 

 Whale, gardener to Anthony Bacon, Esq., in whose garden the 

 apparatus was erected ; and I have seen many similar apparatus 

 of the same date. Mr. Corbett's plan converts a larger portion, 

 or the whole, of the circuit into open cisterns, or troughs ; which, 

 for many kinds of plants, and for forcing at certain seasons, is 

 very desirable ; but its efficiency must depend upon the power 

 of withholding moisture at will, as even Orchideae require a 

 season of rest and drought. 



Surrey, January, 18 41. 



P. S. — Why the old plan of open cisterns has been aban- 

 doned, and close pipes preferred, I know not ; but suspect that 

 the greater facilit}' of laying the pipes in different situations, 

 and at different levels, has led to the change. 



Art. V. On increasing Plants by Cuttings, S^c, by the Use of 

 Charcoal. By Professor Zuccarini of Munich. (Translated 

 from the " Garten Zeitung," by J. L.) 



I TAKE this opportunity of laying before the friends of gardening 

 a number of experiments, which, though they have been very 

 recently made, justify in their results our warmest expectations. 

 They refer to a method, new in this neighbourhood at least, of 

 increasing plants by shoots, leaves and parts of leaves, calyces, 

 &c., by inserting them in charcoal dust ; and this practice has 

 been followed by the best consequences, even with those plants 

 that seldom or never make roots in the usual way of treatment. 



Last spring an industrious and clever assistant in the Royal 

 Botanic Garden here, M. Lucas of Erfurt, discovered that 

 several plants in the hothouse that were plunged in charcoal 

 ashes, or the refuse of charcoal, showed an extraordinary vigour 

 of growth as soon as they had pushed their roots through the 



