ACTION OF CHARCOAL ON VEGETATION. 251 



from eight to ten days, and several others, amounting to 

 forty species, including Ilex and many others. Leaves, 

 and pieces of leaves, and even pedunculi, or petioles, took 

 root and in part budded in pure charcoal. Amongst others 

 we may mention the foliola of several of the Cycadecz, as 

 having taken root, as also did parts of the leaves of the 

 Begonia Telfairicz, and Jacaranda brasiliensis ; leaves of the 

 Eupkorbia fastuosa, Oxalis Barrilieri, Ficus, Cyclamen, 

 Polyanthes, Mesembryanthemum ; also the delicate leaves 

 of the Lophospermum and Martynia, pieces of a leaf of the 

 Agave americana ; tufts of Pinus, &c. ; and all without the 

 aid of a previously formed bud.''^ 



**Pure charcoal acts excellently as a means of curing 

 unhealthy plants. A Dorianthes excelsa, for example, which 

 had been drooping for three years, was rendered com- 

 pletely healthy in a very short time by this means. An 

 orange tree which had the very common disease in which 

 the leaves become yellow, acquired within four weeks its 

 healthy green color, when the upper surface of the earth 

 was removed from the pot in which it was contained, and a 

 ring of charcoal of an inch in thickness strewed in its 

 place around the periphery of the pot. The same was the 

 case with the Gardenia. 



**I should be led too far were I to state all the results 

 of the experiments which I have made with charcoal. The 

 object of this paper is merely to show the general effect 

 exercised by this substance on vegetation ; but the reader 

 who takes particular interest in the subject will find more 

 extensive observations in the ^Allgemeine Deutsche Garten- 

 zeilung ' of Otto and Dietrich, in Berlin ; or Loudon's 

 Gardener^s Magazine, for March, 1841. 



*'The charcoal employed in these experiments was the 

 dust-like powder of charcoal from firs and pines, such as is 

 used in the forges of blacksmiths, and may be easily pro- 

 cured in any quantity. It was found to have most effect 

 when allowed to lie during the winter exposed to the action 

 of the air. In order to ascertain the effects of different 

 kinds of charcoal, experiments were also made upon that 

 obtained from the hard woods and peat, and also upon 



* The cuttings of several of these plants being full of moisture, require 

 to be partially dried before they are placed in the soil, and are with 

 difficulty made to strike root in the usual method. The charcoal is 

 probably useful from its absorbing and antiseptic power. The Hakea 

 is extremely difficult to propagate from cuttings. All the Laurus tribe 

 are obstinate, some of them have not rooted under three years from the 

 time of planting. — fV, 



