THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



OCTOBER, 184L 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



A RT. I. The Principles of Gardening physiologically considered. By 

 G. Kegel, Gardener in the Royal Botanic Garden at Berlin. 



(Translated from the Garten Zeitimg, March 14. 1840, p. 81.)- 



The treatment of this subject has its particular difficulties. It 

 is not our intention entirely to exhaust it here; it is only an 

 attempt to make the newly acquired discoveries of vegetable 

 physiologists available to practical gardening ; to place the 

 general principles of physiology in close connexion with the 

 phenomena daily observed by gardeners themselves,. and thus to 

 unite, as it were, their experience into a whole, founded on 

 scientific principles. 



Perhaps this paper may give rise to the subject being more 

 comprehensively and fundamentally treated than it is in these 

 pages ; nor would my numerous readers perhaps have requested 

 it, had I not enjoyed friendly guidance and help from a quarter 

 which it is not necessary further to particularise. 



The subject will be divided into as many sections as there are 

 stages of growth in plants, each of which will form a whole 

 of itself. 



I. On the Propagation of Plants. 



A. Propagation by Seed, accompanied by the Phenomena of Germination. 



Of all the means of propagation, undoubtedly that by seed is 

 the most important to gardeners; partly because many plants 

 are exclusively confined to that manner of growth, and partly 

 because a more speedy increase is effected thereby. 



The seeds of annual plants germinate in general quicker and 

 more certainly than perennial plants, and in general retain their 

 power of germination much longer. The greater part of the 

 seeds of perennial plants, when well kept, also preserve their 

 germinating powers for a long time, while comparatively few 

 decay soon after ripening, as is the case with oily seeds, such as 

 Z)ictamnus, Magnoha, iViyristica, &c. Thus, it has often been 

 remarked, that on places that for twenty or more years have 



1841. — X. 3d Ser. i i 



