46—1846.] 
THE GARDENERS' 
CHRONICLE. 757 
other flesh meat to form the chief ingredient, na 
theflesh, which I regret to state has been too thinly 
strewn in Irish soups for many years, and this is a 
feat that the fodder of the Potato never could achieve. 
—Alewx. Forsyth, Alton Towers, Oct. 26. 
THE AMATEUR GARDENER. 
EvrERGREENS.— lhe present season of the year is a 
kind of experimentum. crucis of the taste and foresight 
of the possessors of gardens, especially small ones. It 
is easy to make a plot of ground look well in the absence 
of John Frost ; but when that cold-blooded man begins 
his operations, beauty, which is only skin-deep, will 
speedily disappear. Nothing can be more striking than 
(Continued from p. 725, 
2) 
Dr. Lanxesrer, the Secretary, then read the 
following Paper On the Development of Vege- 
table Cells, by Amrmun HxwrnEy, Esq., F.L.S.— 
In some observations which I had the honour to lay 
before this section at Cambridge last year, I brought 
forward certain views I had adopted in regard to the 
multiplication of vegetable cells by division, which, 
then stated to be to a certain extent hypothetical, that 
is to say they were rather the only probable explana- 
tion of the phenomena I had observed than conclusions 
from an unbroken series of examinations of the process 
a 
= 
the contrast between some gardens in Sep an 
the same in November. In the former period they 
literally glow with the beauty of Dahlias, Fuchsias, 
Caleeolarias, Verbenas, and Scarlet Pelargoniums, In 
the latter month they exhibit the most meagre desola- 
tion, Even if the ruins of the cold have been removed, 
and the broom has done its best to make the garden 
simplex munditiis, the change is still very remarkable. 
What are called fanciers are sad hands in this way, 
since they too often neglect the general appearance of 
their gardens. aring for nothing but concentrated 
beauty, in the form of a Tulip bed or a collection of 
Picotees, when these favourites are withdrawn, their 
domains are as innocent of verdure as an Arabian 
desert. 
Such is the garden of those who have not the bump 
of pieturesqueness, or a taste for general effect. How 
different is the appearance presented at this season of 
the year by the grounds, whether large or small, of 
those who have an eye for natural beauties in winter as 
well as summer. Now all this difference is produced by a 
judicious use of Evergreens. As the objects contem- 
plated by works on Floriculture is to combine good 
taste with skill, the present paper will be intended to 
subserve this important purpose. This is the proper 
time for makiug alterations in the general arrangement 
of your gardens. I hope to persuade some of my 
readers that winter may be made interesting and de- 
lightful, by availing ourselves of Nature's varie 
riches. The most desolate spot can, on this side 
Christmas, be made to assume the features of verdure 
and pl » without i ing with beds intended 
for florist’s flowers ; and all seasons can thus be laid 
under contributions for * wreaths and posies.” 
And first, what garden should be without a portion 
of well-shaven and velvety Grass, which, green all the 
year round, is specially green among the russet hues of 
winter. ‘This is Flora’s mantle, found everywhere, and 
always pleasing to the eye and heart. How conspicuous 
is the difference between beds of flowers cut out of turf, 
and others surrounded by gravel. Grass, well culti- 
vated, will heighten the beauties of a garden in summer, 
and confer upon it a double charm in winter. By all 
means, then, introduce as much turf as you can, and 
Ancur extra expense and labour to have it good. 
Almost any Grass may by eare and constant mowing 
be brought, in time, to some degree of fineness; but it 
is far preferable to have it good at first. It should rest 
on a hard subsoil, and be very mathematically level. It 
is common to lay the turf on chalk or brick-rubbish, 
and perhaps, to secure fine Grass, a very rich soil 
should be avoided. 
In connection with the Grass-plot, introduce as 
large a variety of Evergreen shrubs as your space 
"he Laurestinus is invaluable for small 
will permit. 
gardens, as its growth is slow, and it forms round com- 
pact bushes of great elegance. Its flowers are never 
looked upon without great pleasure, being intrinsically 
beautiful, and set off by the green of the shrub, and the 
Season of the year, Varieties of Arbor-vitse, Phillyrea, 
and Aucuba japonica will furnish every shade of green 
requisite for effect. Let all your shrubs be taken up 
under your own superintendence from the nursery- 
ground, with the roots uninjured, and as much earth as 
possible adhering to them. Tread the soil well in, and 
tie them to stakes, if large enough to be blown out of 
their places by the wind. You will have the benefit of 
these shrubs immediately, and if they are well watered 
in the dry season of spring, they are sure to flourish, 
Ihave often wondered that the winter garden is so 
neglected, capable as it is of being brought to a high 
vee of beauty, and being, when properly managed, 
confessedly so attractive. Wild nature has its orna- 
ments in the coldest seasons, and many vegetable pro- 
ductions are never seen to advantage till the deciduous 
trees ave denuded of their foliage. When, therefore, 
art is brought to our aid, there is no reason why winter 
should not be highly attractive to the gardener, as in- 
deed it is to all thorough amateurs. The almost talis- 
manie power of variety, unknown in tropical climates, 
exerts its spell in these colder regions. Unbounded 
wealth and power once made iee tributary to luxurious 
greatness, and hyperborean frosts were compelled to 
exert their gelid sinews in the construction of a palace. 
Althou gh the Russian Czarina did not probably intend 
her winter masonry to teach such lessons, we may look 
upon it as emblematical of the power given to all of us, 
of making the most unfavourable circumstances tend to 
our convenience, and giving even the dreary months of 
Winter an inexpressible charm. 
“I saw the woods and fields at close of day 
A variegated show ; the meadows green 
Though faded ; and the lands where lately waved 
The golden harvest, of a mellow brown, 
Upturned «o lately by the forceful share, 
I saw far off the weedy fallows smile 
With verdure not unprofitable.”—Cowrer, 
=A Bi ý 
in its successive stages. 
I then gave it as my opinion that the division of the 
parent cell into new cells, is affected by the gradual 
folding inward of the primordial utriele, which organ, 
in virtue of its peculiar function, secretes the septum 
within that fold, the circular constriction thus produced 
arriving finally at the centre, the septum consisting of 
a double layer of cell-membrane becomes complete. 
It is chiefly with the view of confirming and substan- 
tiating this opinion and of supporting it by a reference 
to the evidence in its favour which has since been 
furnished by other and independent observers, that 
I have been induced to submit the present remarks to 
your consideration. 
t may be bered that I acl ledged last year 
"The same division of the perfect nueleus by “the sep- 
tum of the cell has been observed by Unger. This is a 
different thing from the original division of the nuclei 
which is said to occur at the earliest epoch of the life 
of the cell, but it is direct evidence against the assump- 
tion that the cytoblast is the active agent in the produe- 
tion of the new membrane. One thing at least is certain, 
that the cytoblast has nothing to do with the production 
of the permanent cell-wall, since it is always within the 
primordial utriele, eithersadhering to its walls, or at 
earlier periods suspended in the cavity by mucilaginous 
filaments. ` 
In the course of my investigations, to satisfy myself 
of the correctness of the view 1 had taken of the agency 
exercised by the primordial utricle in cell divisio 
have observed the process in several plants Cryptoga- 
mous and Phanerogamous. In no ease have I been able 
to trace the gradual progress of the formation of septa 
so well as in Achimenes grandiflora, This plant pro- 
duces a great number of axillary buds or bulbels, on 
the scales of which are found many capitate hairs. 
examined these hairs in young buds of from about half 
a line to a line in length, possessing at that period only 
six or seven scales. By dissection these scales were 
isolated and brought under the microscope, the hairs 
which fringed the margin of the scales were thus pre- 
sented free throughout their whole Jength, and being 
very t t afforded an admirabl: ity of 
that my investigations had been directed in the channel 
which led to the conclusions at which I had arrived by 
the elaborate observations on the primordial utricle 
published by its discoverer, Prof. Mohl. 
Toward the close of last year I was not a little grati- 
fied to find that the further researches he had insti- 
tuted into the office of this structure had led him to 
adopt precisely the same view of the process of cell- 
division in certain plants, which I had ventured to pro- 
pound as of general occurrence. 
Tn the memoir on the structure of vegetable cells in 
which he first described the primordial utricle, Pro- 
fessor Mohl stated that, in the Confervze, this organ, in 
]l-divisi ecam i a septum growing 
inward from the walls, which finally separated it into 
two ; but at that time he thought-it probable that this 
as a process totally different from that which took 
place in the Phanerogamia, where he believed that the 
primordial utricle separated into two before the pro- 
duction of the septum commenced, 
In a paper on the “ Division of the cells of Confervee,” 
published in 1835, before the discovery of the primor- 
ial utriele, Professor Mohl affirmed that the septum 
grew inward, directly from the cell-wall, and thus divided 
the cell into two. 
In the collected edition of his memoirs, published 
last year, he has re-written this latter paper, correcting 
it in several important particula n consequence of a 
new series of observations, he was induced to under- 
take to investigate the theory of cell-development ad- 
vocated by Nägeli. 
He there deseribes and figures the process of cell- 
division in Conferva glomerata, aud shows the produc- 
tion of the septum by the primordial utricle exactly in 
the manner which I had indicated as occurring in the 
hairs of the stamens of Tradescantia. 
M. Müller, in his remarks upon the development of 
Chara, declares that cell formation is effected by two 
different and apparently very distinet processes. Some 
of the cells, be says, are produced from cytoblasts in 
the manner described by Schleiden, from whom, how- 
ever, he differs in some respects, since he regards the 
membrane developed from the cytoblast as identical 
with Mohl’s primordial utricle, and, therefore, not as 
the permanent cell wall. 
In other cells multiplication takes place by division, 
and the figures in which he represents the condition of 
the primordial utricle in various stages of its division, 
agree perfectly with the appearances observed by Prof. 
Mohl and myself. ' 
With respect to the production of cells from cyto- 
blasts, I do not think the evidence he has offered con- 
clusive ; one of his figures, indeed, which he owns that 
he cannot explain, rather inclines me to believe, not 
that the cytoblasts are the efficient causes of the d 
velopment of new cells, but that their presence, in cer- 
tain cases of multiplication of cells by division, has led 
Müller, like Schleiden and others, to a misconception 
of their function. 
I will not venture an opinion as to the real function 
of the cytoblast, but this much I may state, that it is 
generally present at a very early period of cell-life, and 
usually of the full size, Now, cell.division often takes 
place, or rather commences, at an epoch when the cyto- 
blast completely fills that portion of the primordial 
utricle which is about to form a new cell on the sub- 
sequent expansion of the utricle its walls retreat from 
the periphery of the cytoblast or nucleus, which then 
remains suspended in the cavity or attached to the wall. 
This may be observed in the moniliform hairs of 
Tradescantia. 
It is evident that we have here an appearance simi- 
lating the development of membrane from a cytoblast 
as described by Schleiden ; and since I have never been 
able to see the production of cytoblasts themselves by 
the aggregation of the granules of the mucilage, I think 
it most probable that it has been a misinterpretation of 
similar phenomena which has given rise to Sehleiden's 
theor; á 
z 
[3 
Müller has represented a cytoblast or nucleus cut 
into two portions by the fold of the primordial utricle. 
the cells in their different stages in a perfect 
and uninjured condition, an important point, which 
cannot be secured in sections of growing tissues. 
In the earliest stage the nuclei were perfect and 
distinct one from another ; in the next the transverse 
lines indicate the commencement of the unfolding of 
the primordial utricle ; that the lines are not septa is 
seen by the appearance of hairs which had been kept 
in spirit several days. In these the primordial utricle, 
detached from the lateral walls, is continuous through- 
out the whole length of the hair. 
Different stages of the unfolding, that is, the progress 
of the fold toward the centre, were seen by the con- 
strictions exhibited by the mucilaginous cell-contents. 
When treated with iodine, the septa were incomplete 
in the upper part of the hair, but the lowest septum 
was perfect, the primordial utricle, with the cell-contents, 
having become retracted from it. In this septum the 
two new layers may be traced from the lateral walls, 
intimately united toward the centre so as to appear 
like one layer Such an examination shows that the 
layers forming the septum are continuous, with a 
new layer deposited over the inside of the lateral wall. 
Mohl states that each layer of new matter grows from 
the circumference to the centre, and that the septum is 
not produced by a succession of layers, each projecting 
a little beyond that preceding it. This point I have not 
yet been able to determine for myself. In the rfect 
cell the primordial utricle, with the nucleus, undergoes 
dissolution. 
These views which I have adopted of the nature of 
the process of multiplication by division are not suffi- 
cient to explain all cases of cell development. I allude 
particularly to the production of free cells in the cavity 
of a parent cell, such as occurs in the formation of 
spores and pollen, Supposing that this is not effected 
in the way described by Schleiden, namely by develop- 
ment from nuclei, it is necessary to suppose either with 
Nägeli that the primordial utricle divides into distinct 
portions, and becomes detached from the cell wal be- 
fore it begins to secrete membrane, or that the rew 
cells, formed within the parent cell, subsequently be- 
come free by the solution of those layers of membrane 
deposited immediately upon the primary wall. 
This is a subject of considerable difficulty, especially 
as an internal formation, such as is implied in all these 
theories, throws no light upon the external markings 
which are produced in definite arrangements on pollen 
grains, spores, &c. These points remain for future in- 
vestigation. 
MUMMY WHEAT. 
Ar page 653 mention is made of an ear of Wheat 
having been exhibited at the Newcastle Farmer’s Club, 
which was supposed to have been grown from s.cd 
found in an Egyptian mummy ease. Statements of ihe 
same general character have been put forth elsewhere ; 
and I lately met with one in a little work called “Bota- 
nical Rambles,” published under the direct - 
mittee of the Society for promoting Ch an Know- 
ledge. Two figures are there given of the kind ot 
Wheat alluded to, and an interesting and very marvel- 
lous inference is drawn from the presumed accuracy of 
the facts detailed. It is asserted that in Egypt of old 
it was no more uncommon to meet with seven ears of 
corn growing on one stalk, than seven kine feeding 
together in one meadow! On two or three occasions I 
have received specimens of this supposed * Mummy 
Wheat,” and in the Gardeners’ Chronicle for 1843, p. 
787, you have also stated that several had been sent to 
you. ‘The variety has proved to be nothing more than 
an old and well known kind of * Revel Wheat," ealled 
“Egyptian Wheat,” and which I have occasionally seen 
cultivated in this neighbourhood. I presume this 
variety has been so called in allusion to Pharaoh's 
dream, when he fancied he saw the anomalous fact of 
one stalk bearing seven ears. ‘This variety does not in 
reality bear more ears than usual, namely one only ; 
but it has several of the spikelets so much elongated 
that they bear more grains than usual. Tt is this cir- 
cumstance that gives it the appearance of a clu: 
ter 
compounded of several ears. It is a monstrosity which 
