On /Ac Propagation of Plants in Charcoal. 249 



Art. III. Some JS^jtice of the recent Experiments made in 

 the Propagation and growth of Plants^ in Charcoal. Ex- 

 tracted from the translation in the Gardener''s JMagazine, 

 from the ^^ Garten Zeitv.ng.'''' 



Since the pubhcation of Liebig's Organic Chemistry, 

 charcoal seems to have become a more important substance in 

 vegetation, and to possess more valuable properties than has 

 heretofore been supposed. Recent experiments in Germany- 

 have resulted in placing it as one of the most important agents 

 in the propagation of plants, which has ever been discovered. 

 The theory of its operation has been explained by some of 

 the German writers, which we shall have occasion to notice 

 in our remai'ks. Believing the subject to be one of impor- 

 tance to all cultivators of plants, we have devoted a few pages 

 to a notice of the experiments which have been made in Ger- 

 many, and which are, at the present time, attracting attention in 

 England, by the publication of several articles translated from 

 the '■^Garten Zeitung,^^ of Germany, in the Gardcner^s JJag- 

 azine. 



The discovery of the method of growing plants in char- 

 coal was first made by M. Lucas, an assistant in the Royal 

 Botanic Garden of Munich. He observed several plants in 

 the hot-house, that were plunged in charcoal ashes, [the dust,] 

 or the refuse of charcoal, showed an extraordinary vigor of 

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

 holes in the bottoms of the pots, into the charcoal. Among 

 other plants which exhibited this vigorous growth so striking- 

 ly, was the Thunbergia alata, which ripened its seeds without 

 impregnation. IM. Lucas, struck with the appearance of the 

 plants, thought it would be well to follow up the experiment: 

 this he did by adding a proportion of charcoal powder to the 

 usual mixt soil, in which plants were already rooted, and also 

 by using it pure for cuttings, instead of sand. We shall di- 

 vide the subject into three parts, viz: — Propagating Cuttings 

 in Charcoal — Charcoal as a mixture with earth — and the The- 

 ory of its action on Vegetation. 



Propagating cuttings in charcoal. — 3L Lucas, before pro- 

 ceeding with a record of his labors, describes the mode in 

 which his beds were prepared for the insertion of the cut- 



VOL. VII. NO. VII. 32 



