36 



in this case a sort of spurious peat is formed, The fermentation in 

 these cases seems to be of a different kind : much more gaseous 

 matter is evolved, and the neighbourhood of morasses (or tanks) 

 in which aquatic vegetables exist, is usually aguish and unheal- 

 thy, whilst that of true peat formed on soils originally dry is 

 always salubrious. 



Soils may generally be distinguished from mere masses of earth, 

 by their friable nature, dark colour, and by the presence of some . 

 vegetable fibre, or carbonaceous matter. The species of soil is 

 always determined by the mixture of matters, and never by the 

 colour or texture of that mixture, which belongs to the nomencla- 

 ture of varieties. Thus a clayey soil with sand, is a sandy clay 

 this is the name of the species : if the mass is yellow or red, it 

 is a yellow or red sandy soil, which expresses at once the genus, 

 species and variety. 



The true nourishment of plants is water and organic matter. 

 Both these exist only in soils, and not in pure earth, but the 

 earthy parts of the soil are useful in retaining water, so as to sup- 

 ply it in proper proportions to the roots of vegetables, and they 

 are likewise efficacious in producing the proper distribution of the 

 animal or vegetable matter. When equally mixed with it, they 

 prevent it from decomposing too rapidly, and by these means the 

 soluble parts are supplied in proper proportion. 



The power of soils to absorb water from air is much connected 

 with fertility. When this power is great, the plant is supplied 

 with moisture in dry seasons, and the effect of evaporation in the 

 day is counteracted by the absorption of aqueous vapour from the 

 atmosphere by the interior parts of the soil during the day, and 

 by both the exterior and interior during the night, 



SUCKERS. If you desire to get stocks, or plants, by this method, 

 all that is necessary is, that the sucker, or young shoot which 

 springs up from the root of the tree, should be carefully removed 

 with a sufficiency of earth round it, so that the spongioles are in 

 no way injured in the removal to the nursery bed or the spot 

 where they are to remain. 



TENDRIL Is the thread-shaped and generally spiral process is- 

 suing from the stem, branch, or petiole, and sometimes from the 



