228 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
[Arrin 8, 
by giving all the information which we are possessed 
of respecting the laying out and the management of 
small allotments, which may be considered as some- 
thing between a kitchen-garden and a field and if 
we can induce proprietors and occupiers of land to 
enter into our views, and encourage industry, sobriety, 
and honesty in the labouring population by a proper 
attention to their welfare, we shall be amp ded 
thing else that was contained in the same package. On 
the present occasion, the Chesnuts and Filberts were en- 
yeloped in a coat of Bees’-wax, so as to be in fact herme- 
tically sealed from the influence of the elements, and all 
at the same time to retain their natural moisture. It was 
intended to have enveloped the Chesnuts, &c. in a coating 
of gum, but the mucilage not being thick enough, ran off, 
and required some time to dry; bees’-wax is prefer- 
es 
for all the pains we have taken to investigate the sub- 
ject and to collect information —M. 
[In our notice of this subject in the last Number, 
we regret to find that “Colne” has been incorrectly 
printed for “ Calne,” and “ Burnhill” for “Bremhill.”] 
————— 
ON THE TRANSMISSION OF CUTTINGS TO 
INDIA 
Ow a former occasion (p. 539, 1842), you published an 
account of the attempts which had been made to trans- 
mit cuttings of fruit-trees to India, when the partial suc- 
cess with some, and the complete success with others, was 
detailed. It was then stated that almost all the cuttings 
of the Jargonelle Pear which had been sent to Bombay, 
and arrived in January, had rooted, and were very flou- 
rishing till the hot season came on. Bombay is 6000 
miles from Falmouth, and is the first point of India which 
the cuttings reach, after leaving the steamer; having, 
however, made a short journey across the Desert, or from 
Cairo to Suez. The equability of temperature at sea be- 
ing much greater than on land, the trial is much severer 
when seeds or cuttings have to be carried a long journey 
over the heated plains of a country like India. 
In the former communication, it was also stated, onthe 
authority of Dr. Falconer, that the cuttings of fruit-trees, 
especially of a Jargonelle Pear, &c., Malo di Carlo Apple, 
after making a further journey of 900 miles from Bombay 
to Saharunpore, had arrived there in a more or less vigo- 
rous state; and that when put into the ground, there was 
every prospect of the development of buds and of roots 
being effected. These cuttings had had their ends 
dipped in sealing-wax, were rolled up in cotton, and after- 
wards wrapped up in an envelop of India-rubber cloth ; 
the object being to retain the natural moisture of the cut- 
tings, and to prevent their being dried up by the exposure 
to great heat. 
So much success having attended this trial, it was de- 
termined to repeat the experiment at the favourable sea- 
son, that is, in November last ; when the cuttings are in a 
fit state to travel, and the temperature is lower than at 
any other time of the year, if we consider the time of their 
departure from this country, and that of their arrival in 
India. Some modification was made in the. mode of 
packing. Instead of the ends being dipped in sealing- 
wax, the whole cutting was coated with bees-wax, then 
wrapped in cotton, and afterwards enveloped in India- 
rubber cloth. é 
The packets were made up at the India House on the 
30th of October, and must have left Falmouth on the Ist 
of November. From Bombay, which the mail usually 
reaches in about 40 days, the cuttings had to be carried a 
land journey of about 1320 miles, to the Botanic Garden 
at Calcutta, which they reached on the 20th of December. 
A letter from Mr. Griffith states that three out of the five 
Apple-cuttings seemed quite fresh ; of these, two were 
Golden Pippins, and one Duchesse d’Angouléme. The 
ground having been carefully prepared for their reception, 
and the season favourable, it was hoped they would suc- 
ceed; but a postscript of the 15th of January states that 
the Apple-cuttings remained in the same state, but that 
the seeds sent were almost all coming up beautifully. This 
experiment was made rather for the purpose of ascertain- 
ing how the mode of packing would answer, than with the 
hope of the cuttings succeeding completely. But enough 
has been learnt for future trials with cuttings of trees 
better suited to the Calcutta climate. 
y By the same mail a number of cuttings were sent to the 
Botanic Garden at Saharunpore; these arrived on the 
28th of December. Dr. Jameson, who has taken charge 
of the Garden since Dr. Falconer has been obliged to 
Jeave in consequence of ill-health, writes on the 20th of 
January the following report of the state they arrived in: 
—1, Duchesse d’Angouléme, one specimen alive, the 
other dead, probably owing to the lateral twigs having 
been cut off and not sealedup. 2, Golden Pippin, with 
faint vitality, the pith discoloured, and the liber faintly 
green. 3, Glout Morceau, one dead, owing to the lateral 
branches having been cut off and not sealed ; two alive, 
being devoid of them. 4, Malo di Carlo, in fine condi- 
tion. 5, Gansel’s Bergamot, upper end faint vitality ; 
two specimens dead, the lateral twigs having been cut off 
and not sealed; three specimens in good condition. 6, 
Colmar,* faint vitality upper end. 7, Jargonelle ; eight 
specimens, all in good condition. ‘‘ From the above state- 
ment it will be seen that this transmission may be con- 
sidered a most successful one, and if cuttings void of 
Jateral branches are sent, no doubt every one will arrive 
in good condition.” 
The success baving been so considerable, and the addi- 
tional experience, with the adoption of Mr. Beaton’s sug- 
gestions (vide Gardeners’ Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 558), will 
doubt enable future trials to be made with complete 
* 
ent to Bombay do not seem to have 
ehod order as last year, nor indeed so 
at the same time to Calcutta and Saha- 
for which do not appear; but great 
able. r these, Dr. Gibson writes on 23d Jan.: 
« The cuttings look dry, but I do not despair of them. 
Most of the Chesnuts were in good, and I hope vegetat- 
ing, order ; so also the Filberts, whereof I tasted one, and 
it had not the slightest smack of rancidity. As I fear 
trusting them to the dry Deccan air at this season of the 
ear, I have taken the precaution of putting them in pots 
before sending them up the Ghauts.”” If these vegetate, 
the success will hardly be less important than that with 
the cuttings, for we may not only send such seeds to 
India, but also obtain from thence others, such as the 
Acorn, which we now find so much difficulty in obtaining 
in a vegetative state.—J. F. R 
FAMILIAR BOTANY.—No. XV. 
Un feuille m’instruit plus sur mon ¢tre, 
Que de vains arguments oii se perd la raison. 
Buds.—If any part of the curious economy of plants 
more than another justified this expression of the French 
writer, it may be found in the beautiful order and admir- 
able contrivance manifested by the buds which are now 
eyerywhere pushing out from the branches of trees and 
expanding into leaves, 
Only a few days since, these bodies were seemingly 
dead; they were dry tubercles sitting close to the branches, 
and scarcely distinguishable from the bark. Some were 
covered with wool, as in the Magnolia and a few of the 
Poplars; others were coated over with varnish, like the 
Horse-chesnut and Tacamahac tree 5 while others were 
guarded with serried rows of shelly scales. Now that 
the warmth and the rain and the sunny days of spring 
have come, the buds have aroused themselves frem their 
slumbers, and the wool, the varnish, and the guardian 
scales themselves, are disappearing. 
It was not without a motive that in the autumn the 
trees were caused to clothe themselves with wool, or to 
exude a varnish impenetrable to rain, or to form shell 
within shell, as an outer coating of their buds. An in- 
spection of the latter just at this season of the year 
explains the cause of all this unerring care. The buds 
are the seat of vitality; they are the points whence 
vegetable life is extended; they are the cases that in- 
close the tender organs which afterwards become the 
branches and the flowers. And most wonderful is the 
beautiful order with which these parts are disposed in 
their winter receptacle. Every tree affords a study most 
worthy of contemplation. Those, indeed, who look with 
idle eyes on the fair works of the Creation can perceive 
nothing extraordinary in a bud; for them it is a lump, a 
wart, an anything, rough and dingy, hard and dry—as little 
interesting asa stone ; they know nothing of the admirable 
symmetry with which its interior is arranged ; they dream 
not of its contents being as perfectly organised as the most 
complicated parts of their own frame. And yet an in- 
spection of the first tree that moves in the spring might 
read them a lesson well worthy their remembrance. 
Take the Abele tree: there we have row over row of 
dry, brown, downy scales, each forming a little cavity 
which intercepts the cold. Immediately beneath them lies 
a pair of tiny leaves rolled round each other, and buried 
in wool; if they are turned back another pair is disclosed 
yet smaller, again rolled over each other, and beneath 
these another and another and another pair, each smaller 
than the last, but each exactly like that which preceded 
it, until the eye is unable to separate the tiny forms that 
lie within the innermost of the many living chambers. 
Of these half-invisible forms, each will by degrees expand 
itself into the likeness of that which went before it; the 
centre of the bud will lengthen out to make room for 
them, and so from the; dry, brown, downy tumour of the 
winter, a living branch will by degrees extend. 
Look next upon the Horse-Chesnut,—Its bud consists 
of large, shining, varnished scales, impenetrable to rain ; 
these by degrees repel each other and drop off ; even the 
outermost and smallest of them are placed in opposite 
pairs, crossing each other ; their successors maintain the 
same position, but are thinner and greener; and they so 
stick together by their natural glue that they can hardly 
be separated by the hand without tearing; yet at the 
command of the sunbeams they readily slide over each 
other, and at last form a green rosette of many parts, 
looking like an early flower. In no case is the 
arrangement of overlying each other in opposite pairs, 
crossing and covering each other, departed from. But as 
we approachjthe centre of the bud, the varnish disappears 
and is replaced by a wool, thin at first, but thickening 
greatly as we approach the interior. Arrived beyond the 
outer circles’of the scales, we come upon little parts, folded 
like a lady’s fan, and looking like tiny hands clasped in 
prayer, but enveloped in the softest wool; these too are 
in opposite pairs, crossing each other as before, and so 
diminishing towards the centre that at last they become 
too ‘delicate and fine to be separated from their downy 
coating. 
‘And so it is with all buds; they are always organs con- 
taining the beginnings of leaves or flowers, most curiously 
disposed one within the other, and gradually unfolding as 
the powers of growth are renewed by the genial influences 
of spring. And, what is more especially worthy of note, 
each bud, of all the myriads that are borne upon a tree, 
is exactly like the others, in all their minutiz of struc- 
ture; on whatever plan one tender leaf is folded up in a 
bud, upon that exact plan are folded all the other leaves ; 
and every leaf, in every bud, of every branch, of every 
individual of that same species, is thesame. There is no 
error, no deviation, no uncertainty in this matter ; but 
the rule is universal and without exception. Can anything 
be a more wonderful evidence of design and admirable 
plan in the creation than such a fact as this? Can an 
conceivable circumstance exceed in beauty that of millions 
of buds on a tree, suddenly starting at once into leaf, each 
being so exactly like its fellow, that no one shall be able 
to detect a difference among them? The mind can imagine 
nothing more worthy of study than these curious facts ; 
they belong to a field of observation of which the idle 
world knows nothing ; they open out a source of admira~ 
tion, the stream from which is deep and wide, and inex- 
haustible. The quiet enjoyment which they supply, 
how infinitely is it beyond the unsatisfactory and painful 
pleasures of the idle throng of fashion ! 
Ab! world unknown ! how charming is thy view! 
Thy pleasures many, and each pleasure new. 
Ah! world experienced! What of thee is told? 
How few thy pleasures, and those few how old R 
ATHS. 
(Continued from page 206.) 
The next but principal item in Heath cultivation is 
the soil. Near London, some 15 years ago, the Wimble- 
don Common peat was sought after, and considered 
absolutely indispensable; within these few years, the 
Shirley peat has been greatly preferred. The former 
has caused the dissolution of several of my best plants, 
not only Heaths but other things. I can only designate 
it as a clayey peat, which, when wet, retains the moisture 
for along time. The Shirley is an improvement upon 
it, but it requires to be kept full two years in a mass 
before the fibrous or rooty portion of the sod has rotted 
and amalgamated with the peaty particles. This peat I 
consider also to have its defects; these are—a spungi- 
ness, with a considerable quantity of Grass, which ought 
to be carefully removed. I have found that the thin 
layers of peat found in woods on a gravelly substratum, 
yarying from three to eight inches in thickness, and con- 
taining white grit, is extremely light and porous, being 
composed of much vegetable matter. The wood growing 
on such soil is generally Oak underwood. I have found 
this peat, when mixed with a 12th part of Reigate sand, 
particularly adapted to the growth of Heaths, and in fact 
for most other purposes for which this soil is used, as it 
will bear to be pressed down in potting without fear of 
its stopping the water. 
In watering Heaths I do not regard the temperature ; 
I have never discovered any ill effects from using water from. 
the open air, provided the front sashes are open, which is 
the case on all occasions when the thermometer will 
maintain a height of 35°in the house. The quality of 
the water is the main point, and rain-water only should 
be used. The following will show, however, that sudden 
cold is not productive of injury to Heaths :—In Murphy’s 
winter, my careless gardener did not prepare against an 
unexpected change during the night ; a very severe frost 
took place, and the surface mould of the pots was actually 
frozen without injuring the Heaths, of which I had some 
60 or 70 sorts. My maxim is to avoid heat if possible ; 
therefore my gardener was partly exonerated, although a 
careful man should be on the alert for change of weather, 
if the night should be clear and cold. But when com- 
pelled, by unusually severe frost, to shut up the house, be 
careful on the return of mild weather not to expose the 
plants too much at first. It will be found that the shoots 
haye made a slight advance by confinement, and a sudden 
check therefore, produced by wind and air, will be liable 
to turn them brown. 3 
Having described my mode of choosing, potting, and 
watering Heaths, as well as selecting Peat-mould, I will 
subjoin my plan of treating these plants in summer, about 
which different opinions exist. Some collections are, about 
the middle of June, taken out of the house and fully ex- 
posed to wind, rain, sun, damp nights, &c., during the re- 
mainder of the summer. Others I have observed partially 
exposed, having the shade of trees from midday sun ; while 
a third collection is wholly kept within the house. The 
first plan is adopted by nurserymen, from the facility which 
it affords in watering ; and the plants being placed close 
together, they fare better than you would expect, an 
afford a kind of protection to each other. Still the burn- 
ing sun of July, August, and part of September, with the 
succeeding heavy dews, has the effect of depriving the 
plants of their leaves ; hence those unsightly things which 
exhibit a bare stem for three parts of their height. From 
first to last, the preservation of the foliage is the main ob- 
ject of the cultivator. Full exposure to the sun is certainly 
not the way to preserve it; and wholly depriving the - 
plants of it, encourages the mildew, or turns them pale 
My house is lofty and in a very airy situation, with the 
stage near enough to the glass to allow plants three feet 
high to stand on it; yet at its lowest side, it is five feet 
from the flooring of the house. I have a bench raised 
three feet from the floor, and five from the glass, at- 
tached to the supporters of the stage; and on this the 
specimens stand. Another bench is placed over the fue, 
but separated six inches froin it ; this I recommend 
to be as low as possible, that the plants behind may bavé 
the full benefit of air; whereas, if they were placed on u 
level with each other they would intercept the aryiDB 
breeze. I prefer the old flue to hot water, as, being *T 
tached to the brickwork, it certainly dries the house 
know it may be said that the dryness produced by @ ne 
is injurious to plants; but with Heaths, within 100 oe 
more miles of London, we are seldom obliged to usé ihe 
in a house perfectly closed, although in very sharp fro8 
a ee 
