616 Vegetable Physiology, 



complete remedy we should go to the fountain head ; plant shallow 

 in pure maiden loams, and reserve the manures for our celery 

 and cabbages, where it can scarcely be misapplied. Those who 

 adopt this mode will scarcely know what the mildew in peaches 

 means. I plant all my wall trees on a substratum of bricks or 

 stones, allowing only 9 in. of soil above the bricks, and the roots 

 immediately in contact with the bricks. 



TheChinese chrysanthemum has always struck me as a remark- 

 able plant, and calculated to throw much light on the blossoming 

 principle, if subjected to a series of experiments. This plant, 

 it is well known, does not form a blossom bud, under the usual 

 modes of cultivation, until the cold nights of autumn commence. 

 Yet after the bud is once formed, a gentle warmth of from 58° 

 to Qb° seems very desirable to get the blossoms to expand freely. 

 Now, what we call unequal, irregular, or inclement, seasons 

 tend to produce the blossoming principle in no small degree in 

 many plants; especially periods of extreme drought, or sudden 

 declension of atmospheric heat after a hot period, together with 

 perhaps an increased degree of solar light. The "buttoning" 

 of the cauliflower has plagued many a gardener : and here, the 

 plant having been imprudently planted too eai'ly, and in too rich 

 a soil, is kept through the winter in the close atmosphere of a 

 frame, from which it is transferred in a gouty or plethoric state, 

 and what we gardeners term " drawn," to the open ground, to 

 face a March wind and sun|; the consequence, of course, is, that 

 the growing principle is suddenly arrested, and the premature 

 formation of a blossom is produced. A humid and shady atmo- 

 sphere like that of Britain, as compared with our more favoured 

 neighbours with their bright skies and perhaps elevated tracts 

 of country, may well be expected to produce cases similar to 

 " drawing." Observe the potato growing in close and rich gar- 

 dens, and mark the same kind in fresh maiden unmanured soils, 

 in elevated tracts of farming lands ; who would believe it to be 

 the same kind, unless practically acquainted with these facts ? 



Oulton Park, near Tarporley, Cheshire, 

 November, 1841. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Vegetable Physiology ; being Part of a Popular Cyclopcedia 

 of Natural Science. London, Svo. 1841. 



We noticed this work in p. 327., and the following is a more detailed account 

 of it by our correspondent J. M., of whose extensive knowledge of the subject 

 most of our readers are aware. 



" As a means of intellectual discipline, as stated in the Prospectus, the study 

 of natural science is perhaps second to none ; it has the advantage of in- 

 teresting the pupil much more than the greater part of the ordinary routme 



