50—1846.] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
819 
NEW KITCHEN GARDEN 
SEEDS. 
No. 1—Complete Collection, consisting of 20 quarts 
of best kinds of PEAS and all other Seeds in pro- 
portion, and of the most approved kinds for one 
year’s supply s v. .. ae ne DB. S. 0 
No. 2—Compiete Collection, in smaller quantities, 
equally choice sorts .. .. .. ey awe: 
No. 3—Ditto, ditto, ditto . wap legliaalt 
ssrs. SuTTON and Sons have the honour and privilege of 
referring to Gardeners and Gentlemen residing at the under- 
mentioned places who have annually availed themselves of this 
economical and advantageous mode of obtaining the best sorts 
of GARDEN SEEDS, and who have expressed themselves in 
the highest degree pleased with the crops, viz., at or near 
asgow, Perth, Edmburgh, Aberdeen, Newport, Monmouth, 
i udlow, Gloucester, 
on application. 
Early orders are requested and recommended, as some sorts 
arein great demand, d 
*,* Parcels delivered free to any office in London, or any 
Sijon of the Great Western Railway between London and 
ristol. 
Remittances are not required from known correspondents, 
nor from those who give satisfactory references, 
Reading Nursery, Reading, Berks, Dec. 12. 
ORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.— 
Notice is hereby given, that the EXHIBITION OF 
FLOWERS AND FR in the Society’s Garden, in the 
ensuing season, will take place on the following Saturdays, 
viz., May 8; June 19 ; and July 17 ; and that Tuesday, April 20, 
isthe last day on which the usual privileged Tickets are issued 
to Fellows of the Society. 
earliness, to the old varieties, at 1s. 6d. per quart. | 
A general collection of HYACINTHS, &c., in the best 
varieties, 
The Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1846. 
MEETINGS FOR EAR FOLLOWING NEEE ARN 
Toxspay, Dec. l5—Linnean | . M. 
WxpsxsDAY, — 16—Socieiy of Arts, e. + 8 ran 
Nor an autumn arrives but it brings with it a re- 
newal of the question as to WHEN TREES SHOULD BE 
TRANSPLANTED. From the enquiries that are made, 
and the doubts expressed and the dogmatical asser- 
tions that come before us, one would think that the 
subject had never been previously considered. And 
yet it has been long ago disposed of conclusively by 
both experience and reason. "That the autumn is 
the proper season in this country for transplanting 
trees we have shown over and over again, and also 
that, upon the whole, November may be selected 
as the best of all months for the operation. We 
shall not again travel over the ground which we 
have thoroughly beaten in former years without 
starting an objection to this view ; if our previous 
volumes will not satisfy the planter, we have no 
means of earrying conviction to his mind, unless it 
be on one point, which has been little touched upon, 
although itis material to the enquiry. : 
The great object ofa planter is to induce his trees 
to strike root with the smallest possible delay, or 
at least to produce roots before there is any great 
demand upon their activity. This takes place most 
rapidly at two seasons; either when a tree is 
covered with full-grown healthy leaves, or when it 
is first bursting into leaf. Colonel GREENWOOD 
seemed theoretically right when he declared that 
the months of July, August, and September were 
the best for transplanting the generality of English 
trees (see “ The T'ree-Lifter? p. 61); but he 
neglected the serious practical difficulties arising 
from the exhausting action ofthe leaves. Whether 
in the first burst of spring, or in the autumn, the de- 
mand made upon a tree by the leaves for their sup- 
ort is enormous ; a demand such as young, feeble, 
ill-formed roots are unable to satisfy. Any object 
which might be gained by taking advantage of the 
tendency of a tree at that time to form roots, is 
more than counterbalanced by the exhausting action 
of the foliage. To profit by the great rooting 
power at that season it would be necessary to sur- 
round a plant with an atmosphere saturated with 
moisture, as is the case when it is placed under a 
bell-glass, which is, in practice, impossible. We 
therefore cannot safely avail ourselves of that season 
for planting which seems theoretically best. 
"Then comes the important question when, if not 
in the spring’s beginning or summer's end, roots 
will be formed without any such attendant danger 
as that we have just described. Our answer still is 
November; that is to say as soon as deciduous 
trees have lost their leaves. The air at that time 
is moist, the sky comparatively clouded, daylight 
Short, and the stimuli of heat and light enfeebled ; 
80 that evergreens will not suffer from the action of 
atmospheric forces upon their leaves, and deciduous 
trees are incapable of sustaining injury: from such 
causes, because their leaves are gone. 
But it may be doubted whether in the cold 
months of the year any trees will make roots. 
Some physiologists peremptorily deny the possi- 
bility of roots appearing in the absence of leaves, 
and therefore although they do not altogether 
object to the assertion that roots are formed in 
winter or late autumn, they only admit that possi- 
bility in the case of evergreens. Their theory is 
that roots are formed by the action of leaves ; and 
that therefore when leaves are off roots will not 
grow. heir theory is wrong; they should use 
their eyes. In 1845 we examined, on the 26th Feb- 
ruary, the roots of various trees, and we found 
young ones formed abundantly on Sambucus race- 
mosa, Ribes sanguineum and divaricatum, the 
Sycamore, Plum, Peach and Apple. Such ever- 
greens as Hollies, Garrya, Common Broom, and 
Portugal Laurel, had also produced them in large 
quantity. The statement, therefore, that roots can 
only be formed in the presence of leaves is un- 
true. We believe the fact to be nearly as stated in 
a passage given in the “ Theory of Horticulture,” 
which we venture to quote. 
* The immediate cause of the formation of roots 
is involved in obscurity, and is one of the most im- 
portant parts of vegetable physiology still to be in- 
vestigated with reference to horticulture. We all 
know how difficult it is to cause the cuttings of 
some kinds of plants to produce young roots, and 
how rapidly they are emitted by others; it is to be 
supposed that the difficulty would be diminished in 
all such cases if we knew exactly under what cir- 
cumstances roots are formed, Nothing, however, 
sufficiently certain and general to merit quotation 
as yet been ascertained concerning this important 
subject, except the following facts, viz., that roots 
are most readily, if not exclusively, formed in dark- 
ness aud moderate moisture, that they are not, like 
branches, the development of previously formed 
buds, but appear fortuitously and irregularly from 
the woody rather than the cellular part of a plant ; 
and that their production is in some way connected 
with the presence of leaves or leaf-buds, because 
portions of a stem having neither leaves nor leaf- 
buds, produce roots unwillingly, if at all; and that 
such roots perish if their appearance be not speedily 
followed by the formation of leaves. Thus, although 
the first appearance of the root in the embryo plant, 
at the time of germination, precedes the expansion 
of the seed-leaves, yet the young root will not live 
unless the seed leaves are enabled to act." Even 
this opinion must however be taken with some ex- 
ception; for the roots of such trees as the White- 
thorn will form and remain alive for a long time 
even if leaves do not speedily follow. 
It will, doubtless, be asked, “ what then is that 
power which calls the root into existence?” We 
reply, *the same power which causes the bud to 
sprout, the leaves to form, the pollen to act, the 
seed to produce its embryo ; which enables vege- 
tation to breathe, and. feed, and grow; which dis- 
tinguishes all organised beings from the brute 
matter of which they consist—which gives to man 
the high attributes of his nature. it is VITALITY ; 
à word which so called philosophers in their igno- 
rance, or presumption, may sneer at, but which in 
truth is the unknown force that controls the energy 
of matter, and directs it to special ends.* 
The production of roots is then a special exercise 
of vitality, of life, and it may bea question whether 
it may not be possible to excite that vitality by 
artificial means. Warmth is the great natural 
agent to bring about this end; and wherever it is 
applied judiciously its effect is certain; but in 
common plantations we have no great means of 
regulating itexcept by soil and drainage. There is, 
owever, an agent now coming largely into use, 
which certainly possesses the power of promoting 
rapid vegetation in a remarkable way, whether we 
call it a stimulant or not. This substance is super- 
phosphate of lime. It has been proved by Mr. 
Gorpon, in the Garden of the Horticultural Society, 
that it greatly promotes the germination of seeds 
and the vigour of the seedlings (“Journal of Horti- 
cultural Society,” 1. 309) ; its value in forcing the 
young Turnip rapidly into the rough leaf, so as to 
place it beyond.the reach of the fly, is past all 
doubt; and from some experiments with which 
we are acquainted, we are led to suspect that 
way or other, the 
orous system—endowed with no vitality other than the power 
with a little phosphate of lime and iron dispersed in the 
mixture. 
in plants of all kinds, woody or? herbaceous. If 
so, its value would be inestimable to the forester, 
and we strongly recommend those who have leisure 
to make inquiry on the subject. To those accus- 
tomed to philosophical investigation we need nottmake 
any suggestions ; but to others we venture to re- 
commend the following forms of experiment :— 
1. Take half a dozen young trees, exactly alikeTin 
age and size ; open a trench ; divide it into two equal 
parts; place three plants in each half; in the one di- 
vision dust the roots with the superphosphate, leave 
the others in their natural state. Fill in the soil, and 
injthe spring when the buds are beginning to swell take 
the plants up, and observe the state of the roots in the 
two cases, 
2. Try the same experiment; but leave the plants 
in the ground, and see which is best at the end of the 
summer's growth. 
3. Repeat the experiment with vegetables or peren- 
nial plants. 
4, Fill a number of bottles with water ; into some 
put a little superphosphate of lime, say a teaspoonful 
to a pint of water; put into each a Willow-cutting, 
taking care that the cuttings are all alike ; keep them 
in a sitting-room, where there is a fire, and watch the 
growth of the roots; noting carefully in which they 
first appear. This last. experiment would probably be 
as conclusive as any. 
We call the attention of such of our readers as 
are interested, to a letter from Mr. Bzcx, on the 
subject of Simmons’s Hygrometer. It is due to Mr. 
Beck to state that he has not the slightest pecu- 
niary interest in the matter. We have a communi- 
cation from H. Beryittr, Esq. of the Royal Ob- 
servatory, Greenwich, on the same subject, which 
we shall publish next week. 
CONTINENTAL GARDENING, &e. 
Iw an interesting tour, which I have just completed, 
on the Continent, my attention was directed to the 
botanical and horticultural aspect of the countries 
through which I passed, and I am induced to think that 
the result of my observations may be interesting to your 
readers. 
With respect to the cultivation of flowers, I saw no- 
thing in the whole of my tour through Belgium, Ger- 
many, and Switzerland, that E ised in any degree 
whatever with our English notions of propriety and 
effect. Isaw now and then a showy bed of Dahlias, 
but I did not see a single fi ded 
itself to the eye for the entireness of its taste and pro- 
priety ; while, universally, the disorderly state of the 
Grass, whether in lawn or edgings, gives a character of 
untidiness and neglect which nothing better in the 
flowers can possibly redeem. I strongly suspect that 
we are at issue with foreigners altogether in this respect, 
and that our principles of taste and propriety are 
wholly at variance. I do not know whether I am right, 
but I have the impression that they laugh at us for 
Shaving our Grass so closely. It isa point, however, 
which I think we can never surrender, and every En- 
glish gardener will agree with me, that the perfeetion 
of well-mown lawns adds the highest charm and delight 
to our flower-gardens. If allis right here, according to 
our views, many a fault in the borders can be endured 
with comparative ease. But in all directions I saw the 
lawns left to grow till the Grass was profitable, and 
portions only cut at a time, as needed for the cattle. 
This was the 'ease even in the pleasure-grounds at 
Baden-Baden, From the gardens of the prince to those 
of the peasant all presented the same character. I 
went into those of the Grand Duke of Baden, and, 
though the family was there, nothing could exceed their 
disorder. The conservatory plants were in wretched 
shape and general condition ; the flower-borders with- 
out an atom of taste, dirty, and disorderly ; and, in fact, 
I did not see a single object of interest except one 
arrangement, which was new to me, viz. Violets as an 
edging to a long bed in full flower: they formed a very 
even, pleasing line, and were (in October) in full bear- 
ing, and very fragrant. The poor ladies came out of 
the castle while I was there, and pounced upon this as 
apparently the only object of their regard. 
With respect to the lower classes, the best specimens 
I saw were, as in England, in the little plots of the 
policemen along the railways—an object always of pe- 
culiar. interest when one thinks how that class of men 
need something to relieve the monotony and weariness 
of their lives ; yet here was nothing to be compared 
with what we see continually on our English rail-lines. 
The most favourite flower in Belgium is the Nerium 
Oleander. We saw it continually in tubs in the yards 
and windows of the hotels, as well as frequently in the 
windows of the poor in towns. I was amazed to see 
with what freeness it put forth its beautiful flowers in 
the windows of the filthiest and closest dwellings of the 
worst parts of Lidge, the Birmingham of Belgium. 
Everywhere, even. to the end of Switzerland, it was 
evident that there was a native love of flowers ; not the 
smallest cotter’s plot was without a patch, and often 
a | scarcely a window in a town or village ; but all mani- 
fested a century in arrears behind England. 
I visited the public gardens in Belgium. The 
botanic gardens at Brussels might be very satisfactory. 
There is a fine range of glass ; but the plants, generally 
speaking, are wretchedly grown, and in no shape what- 
ever. ‘The only object of interest which I saw was a 
Palm tree, 60 feet high, said to be the largest in Europe 
