460 
THE GARDENERS' 
* 
CHRONICLE. 
[Jur 11, 
— 
They are in general regarded as plants possessed of 
little or no beauty, a cireumstance which may arise 
from little attention having been paid to their culture, 
for where are to be found colours more agreeably 
blended together than in some of the Mesembryanthe- 
mums, for instance? Besides if not all beautiful, most 
of them are at least curious, and therefore interesting. 
In giving some account of their treatment, we will 
begin with Aloes, Mesembryanthemums, and some of 
the species belonging to Crassulacee or Houseleeks. 
Aloes.—Under this head may be added Apicra, Ha- 
worthia, Gasteria, Bowiea, and Pachydendron, These 
being chiefly from the Cape of Good Hope, it cannot be 
expected that any of them will bear frost, and they may 
therefore be idered to be g I plants, Al- 
though several species of Agave and Foureroya may be 
seen growing in stoves, and are often called Aloes, yet 
they belong to a different family and cannot be enu- 
merated under this head. As regards soil, I prefer 
turfy loam and peat, in equal proportions ; these, well 
mixed together, form a compost in which any of the spe- 
cies belonging to the above genera will grow freely. As 
a general rule they require to be repotted every spring, 
as soon as they begin to show symptoms of growth. An 
important point is the watering, for here I am per- 
suaded the greatest error is most likely to be com- 
mitted. For a few weeks in winter little or no water 
should be given ; certainly no more than will keep the 
leaves from shrivelling. In spring, after the operation 
of repotting has been effected, give water about once a 
week. This will be sufficient until the roots have made 
some progress in the new soil throughout the summer 
months. However, they should be watered always 
when dry, but never till then, or the roots will perish. 
If watering in spring must be increased gradually, it 
should be decreased in autumn in like manner, in order 
that the plants may enjoy their season of rest without a 
cheek, 
Mesembryanthemums.— Most of these being also from 
the Cape, they require to be treated nearly in the same 
way as Aloesso far as watering and repotting is con- 
cerned ; but, as regards soil, they seem to thrive best 
in sandy peat. Being, however, very tenacious of life, 
they will live in almost any sort of soil As might be 
expected in so large a family, some are compact growers, 
while others are very straggling. To keep suchas M. 
uneinatum, M. dilatatum, or M. tenuifolium dwarf, they 
must have their branches pegged down on the soil. 
This is not only a good mode of making compact speci- 
mens, but also a good plan whereby to propagate them ; 
for if the operation be performed in spring, every 
branch will root in a few weeks. 
Houselecks.—In selecting a few subjects from this 
extensive natural order, which contains both hardy and 
Stove as well as greenhouse plants, those most com- 
monly met with will perhaps be the most suitable, such as 
Rochea falcata, Kalosanthes coccinea, Crassula arbor- 
escens, Sempervivum arboreum, Cotyledon ovata, and 
Echeveria secunda. Some of these may be seen in 
almost every garden, flourishing where other plants 
would perish, thus showing how easily a collection of 
such planis might be cultivated. They grow freely in 
any light soil, whether poor or rich ; requiring little or 
no water in winter, and in summer, if not in too ex- 
posed a situation, water applied once a week will be 
sufficient. Although Echeveria secunda, a native of 
Mexico, is stated to be a stove plant, it has been proved 
that it may with propriety be numbered among the 
greenhouse species, as may doubtless many others men- 
tioned in catalogues as being stove plants. 
Few groups of plants are more easily multiplied than 
greenhouse succulents. Aloes may be increased by 
euttings, or from suckers, which they generally send up 
from the root, requiring only to be taken off and potted. 
Mesembryanthemums all strike freely from cuttings, 
without a bell-glass ; if some of the dwarf sorts, from 
which cuttings cannot be obtained, be divided, every 
crown will strike root. Plants of the Houseleek order all 
strike freely from cuttings ; a great number of them will 
strike from leaves laid on a pot filled with silver-sand. 
Such as Monanthes polyphylla may be divided.—D. 
ON THE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS WHICH CON- 
STITUTE THE NUTRITIVE PORTIONS OF 
THE POTATO. 
By the Rey. Prof. Henstow. 
; (Continued from p. 428.) 
The starch called * Portland Arrow-root” is prepared 
from the tubers of the common * Lords and Ladies" 
(Arum maeulatum), which, I am told, are culti- 
vated in the Isle of Portland for this purpose. The 
Arum tribe possesses many species which have large 
tuberous expansions at the base of their stems ; and some 
of these are cooked for food in the countries where they 
grow. One of the most remarkable may be here noticed, 
Arum campanulatum (fig. 5.) It is found in the East 
Iudies, and an account of it, with a coloured plate, 
which best represents the extreme singularity of its ap- 
pearance, is given in the “ Bot. Mag.,” vol. lv., pl. 2812. 
This tuber abounds in an acrid juice, which is rendered 
harmless by boiling, or is dissipated by drying the tuber. 
One plant of this tribe, called the * Dumb Cane” (Dief- 
fenbachia Seguina), has its juices so exceedingly acrid, 
that if a person merely bites the stem, his mouth swells to 
such an extent that he is rendered incapable of articula- 
tion 5 and the ill effects will last for days or even weeks. 
Some serious accidents are recorded to have occurred 
with this plant even in this country, though it is only to 
be met with in the hothouses of our botanic gardens. 
It is said that certain tyrannical planters in the West 
Indies used to punish their unhappy slaves by obliging 
them to bite it. I have procured a sample of starch 
from this formidable plant, and find it abundantly de- 
posited in the stem. There is, however, a still more 
deadly poisonous plant, from which not only a starch is 
largely extracted for economical purposes, but the very 
tissue itself is extensively manufactured into a variety 
of articles for food. This is the Manihot (Janipha ma- 
nihot), which grows in tropical climates, and is much cul- 
tivated in Brazil, where, we are told, an acre of it will 
yield eight times as much wholesome food as an acre 
of Wheat (see “ Bot. Magazine,” v. lviii., plate 307). Its 
swollen fleshy root abounds ina milky juice of a poi- 
sonous nature. After the root has been reduced to 
pulp, by pounding or rasping it, this juice is re- 
moved by pressure ; and then the pulp is prepared for 
food under the form of bread or biscuit, called 
Cassava or Cassada, and with this our ships are often 
victualled in the West Indies. If the expressed juice 
is allowed to stand, it soon deposits an abundance of 
stareh, which may be readily purified by washing, and 
is then sold, either in the form of powder, as Brazilian 
Arrow-root; or, after being dried onhot plates, and when 
it has assumed the form of little irregular lumps, as the 
well known article called Tapioca. This again may 
readily be imitated by Potato starch. I believe I have 
now named to you the chief starches of commerce, and 
I show you these, and samples of some others are also 
before you, which I have procured from a variety of 
plants. For example, this starch is abundant in the 
common Pig-nut (Bunium flexuosum) ; this in Cro- 
cuses, this in the root-stalks of Irises, &c. It was the 
starch of one species of Iris (that which furnishes the 
Orris root of the shops), Iris florentina, which was so 
much in vogue in those days when the byegone ab- 
surdity prevailed of powdering the hair. Hair powder 
is either this starch or, as I believe, is more frequently 
the starch of Wheat so scented as to imitate it. 
Fig. 5. 
(To be continued.) 
Home Correspondence. 
The Fruit and its Judges at the Chiswick Exhi- 
bition.—Some remarks which appeared with reference 
to the above, at p. 403, having called forth replies from 
two of the judges, I had determined to let the affair 
rest, leaving the public to form their own opinions of 
the discrepancies. But I perceive in the leading article 
of last week a statement which requires explanation on 
my part, and likewise in behalf of the great object of 
these exhibitions, namely, the advancement of horticul- 
ture. The paragraph to which I allude is this :— 
* One of the judges states, in reply to his accuser, that 
instead of being penurious they are the reverse, having 
often given exhibitors prizes of higher value than was 
merited. This is admitted by the complainant, whose 
disapprobation seems indeed to have been mainly pro- 
duced by the judges having discontinued that practice. 
In fact, he would have the judges give a man more than 
he deserves to-day for the sake of enticing others to 
become competitors to-morrow, in the hope that they 
too may get more than they merit. Such is, we believe, 
the true meaning of the complainant's argument. Is 
that right? Surely not.” Now, I beg to explain 
that in advocating liberal awards rather than the 
contrary, with a view to the advancement of Hor- 
tieulture, I wish it to be distinetly understood, that 
the thought of giving'a man more than he deserved, 
for the sake of entieing others to become com- 
petitors, in the hope that they, too, would get more 
than they merit, never entered my mind. Anybody 
who will be kind enough to refer to my former commu- 
nication, will see that I aim at raising the characters 
both of exhibitors and their exhibitions to such a pitch 
as to swamp all inferior objects. That this is desirable 
all must admit. I shall endeavour to prove that it can 
be brought about by fair means, If a farmer choose 
to lay out a sum of money in improving his land, in 
order to obtain, ultimately, a superior sample of Wheat, 
no one ought to find fault with him for so doing, even 
although the outlay does not produce immediately the 
desired effect. Can anybody find fault with the Horti- 
cultural Society if it give notice to the effect that cer- 
tain medals shall be given, unreservedly, for the best 
collections of fruit? Something of this sort must be 
done ; or the judges must act liberally, as they did at a 
former period, when their so doing brought such abun- 
lance of good fruit under their notice, that there was 
no danger of a gold medal being on hand for want of & 
suitable collection whereon to bestow it, There was 
poor; and so they 
year, dispensing inferior 
awards ad infinitum without elevating the character of 
the producti above dioerity. The Society's 
medals go in a small form, and nothing great results. 
It is a state of things which neither the Society nor, 
indeed, any one would. wish perpetuated. "The object 
of the Society, as regards fruit exhibitions, is frustrated, 
and the money value of the medals next to thrown 
away. The collections have taken several years to fall 
into their recently observed depressed condition ; but it 
is in the power of the Society to say— Here are first- 
rate awards for the best fruit growers, strive to deserve 
them, for it has been determined that, in the ensuing 
season at least, they shall on no account be withheld." 
It is my firm belief there would be no necessity for 
withholding them. The place of bad or unripe fruit would 
soon be occupied by productions of a superior deserip- 
tion. The judges are p d to be “all h bl 
men ;” but I am not certain therefore that they cannot 
do wrong, for all men are liable to err. “One of the 
Judges of Fruit” pities my want of comprehension. I 
confess I am again puzzled, and so are others, by his 
statement that a well-grown Queen Pine-apple was 
found light in proportion to its size in the month of 
June. And again, on looking over the list of awards, I 
find Mr. Brewin had a silver medal for Muscat Grapes, 
similar to that which Mr. Ingram -had for his whole 
collection, which included also Muscat Grapes. Now 
‘One of the Judges of Fruit” admits (p. 429) that 
Mr. Ingram’s Muscats were the best ripened of any ex- 
hibited ; consequently they must have been riper than 
Mr. Brewin’s, and therefore Mr. Brewin has received à 
prize, a silver-gilt, too, for Grapes that were compara- 
tively not ripe ; and this others as well as I cannot 
comprehend.—d Fruit-grower, but not an Ewhibitor. 
Draining Pots.—l have tried for some months æ 
plan of draining pots for plants, which is, I believe, 
new, and which promises to be very useful. In lieu of 
the ordinary bottom crock, I use a piece of flat crown oF 
Sheet-glass, broken to suit the size of the pot. The pot i$ 
dipped in water, a little of the coarse river-sand used 
for mortar is shaken over the bottom, the loose sand i$ 
thrown out, and the glass placed over what adheres to 
the moistened surface ; a little of the same sand throw? 
over the glass: to the depth of half an inch completes 
the drainage. . The advantages of this method are, that 
a perfect drainage is obtained with very little trouble— 
that the greatest possible room is left in the pot for the 
mould or compost, and that worms are effectually ex- 
cluded. A large watering-pot drained in this manner 
and half filled with fine sand or charcoal-dust over the 
coarse sand makes an excellent filter. If any of your 
readers who may think a regular gradation of draining 
materials of varying dimensions essential to perfect 
draining will consider that in the ordinary mode of pot- 
ting it is in fact the upper layer of fine particles, o» sand, 
that is the free medium of communication between the 
mould and the aperture of exit, andthatthe substructure 
is of use only to support this and prevent its being 
washed away; they will perceive that the method I have 
described provides for everything that is required. The 
plate of glass being supported by a single layer of grains 
of sand at such a height as will allow a free passage t0 
water but not to mud, and the sand above supporting 
the soil by a freely permeable medium. As far as DY 
present experience goes, this method is applicable to 
every description of potting.—8S. G. 
Singular appearance of a Dew-drop.—1n last Num- 
ber Mr. P. Mackenzie refers to a eurious phenomenon 
presented by the rotation of a.dew-drop on the leaf of * 
Sow-thistle, which he well describes as resembling “® 
storm” within the rotating drop ; and he asks “whether 
the disturbance was caused by any external agent, oF 
proceeded from anything connected with the internal 
arrangement of the leaf?” The phenomenon your cor- 
respondent refers to, was, in all probability, caused bY 
what Dutrochet calls “Forces Epipoliques,'" i. ¢., 
the action of the forces exerted by particles on and nea 
the surfaces of all bodies. A piece of clean metal, suf- 
ficiently heated, will cause precisely the same phenome- 
non to be exhibited by a drop of water thrown upon i$ 
surface; i, ¢., the drop will instantly assume a sphe 
roidal form, and begin to rotate violently and appear 
“as if there were a storm in it." Hence the forces 
exerted at the surface of the heated metal, are analogous 
to those excited by the clean Sow-thistle leaf, and which 
Ihave observed on the common Nasturtium leaf; and 21€ 
exhibited, no doubt, by most or all other clean leaves 
Sir John Herschel, some years since, instituted a serie? 
of beautiful experiments, wherein he produced similar 
rotations, through the medium of voltaic electricity: 
This subject appears to be so intensely interesting, te 
so closely connected with an endless variety of other 
phenomena of molecular force in general, that I am sur- 
prised it has not hitherto met with that attention from 
philosophers which it unquestionably merits. At the 
present moment, when Faraday has, by his experiment 
on light, demonstrated the probable identity of intern? 
molecular action with that produced by electrica! forc? 
it would be peculiarly interesting to take up the study 
