THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
141 
1843.] 
12 in number, of which the outer ones spread horizon- 
tally, while those in the centre are divergently erect. 
such anomalous birth ? or roots of some plant unknown to 
me, accidentally confounded by Mr. Plant with his seed- 
They are 5 feet or more in length, 1} broad, and sup- | ling Gladfoli? Hippeastrum, the asserted male parent, 
ported by a stalk about a foot long, which is prolonged on |has one very extraordinary peculiarity, that its several 
the under surface of the leaves, into a thick lon- | species breed more willingly by the pollen of any hybrid 
gitudinal rib, with which many 
small ramifications | of its own genus, however complicated its origin, than by 
Communicate. When this herbaceous plant (for such, |'their own pollen. A bulb of H. organense, just imported 
notwithstanding its size, it really is,) has attained its|from the Organ mountains, having thrown up two two- 
greatest state of perfection, which it acquires in less | flowered stems, one flower on each stem was touched with 
than two years, @ thick peduncle issues from the its own dust, and the other by that of atriple mule. When 
centre of the leaves, covered with partial, concave, ovate, 
acute spathes, which are developed in proportion to the 
the flowers withered, the germen of each of the former 
swelled first ; but after a few days, the latter began to 
growth of the peduncle. When they have acquired the | swell also : and from that moment, the growth of the 
length of 3 or 4 feet, the flowers appear, from 9 to 14 in 
former stopped, and they soon withered ; both the latter, 
each spathe, and are followed by green hard fruit, 14 or 2 | proceeding rapidly, produced abundance of good seed. 
inches long, disagreeable to the taste and applied to no use 
Such has been the invariable result of six years’ experi- 
whatever. When the fruitis ripe, the stem perishes as in| ments; but we pave failed in all attempts to mix Hip- 
other herbaceous plants ; but a progeny survives in the | peastrum with the nearly-allied Habranthus or Zephyr- 
suckers, which by this time have made their appearance. 
‘As the old trunks are not proper for use, the natives | affinity to Gladiolus. 
usually cut them down whena year anda half old, at which pregnate G. blandus by H. crocatum. 
anthes. In the form of its seed and capsule, it has some 
I tried 30 years ago vainly to im- 
Can any person 
age this may be done with advantage. The stems being | recognise the above as the roots of any known plant? or 
cut off near the roots, and at the upper extremity a little has Mr. Plant bred an anomalous monster between the 
below the leaves, are slit open longitudinally in order to | two natural orders Amarylliddceee and Iriddcese, though 
separate the medullary substance from the fibrous strata, 
of which the outer are harder and stronger, forming the 
bandal\ used in the fabrication of cordage ; the inner con- 
sist of finer fibres, and yield the lupis, used for weaving the 
nipis and other more delicate fabrics, and the intermediate 
layers are converted into what is called tupoz, of which 
the guinarras are made. All these layers of fibres are sa- 
turated with a thickish fluid; to clear them from which 
they are cut into shreds two or three inches wide, and 
dressed like flax in a sort of heckle or long piece of wood, 
furnished with three narrow knives; which being held in 
the right hand, the shreds are managed with the left, and 
thus reduced into fibres, being by this process cleared 
from the fluid with which they are impregnated. In this 
state they are dried in the sun, picked, and applied to differ- 
entuses according totheir different qualities. Those intended 
for cordage, &c., undergo no further process ; but the 
others are rendered more soft and pliable by beating them 
with a wooden mallet. They are then fastened to each 
other by means of almost invisible knots, wound into 
balls, and committed to the loom.— Transactions of the 
Agri-Horticuliural Society of India. ' 
Plant's Vegetable Monster.—“ What is this, of which 
three roots are represented in the vignette? In conse- 
quence of the statement made by Mr. Plant, nurseryman 
of Cheadle, (See Bot. Reg., 1842, plate 53,) that he had 
obtained mules from a Gladiolus by an Amaryllidaceous 
plant, I was anxious to investigate minutely its correct- 
ness. It will be proper to premise, that the mule figured 
as Plant’s Anisanth isa true Gladiolus, raised between 
Glad. splendens (Anisanthus splendens, Sweet, Br, Fl. G.) 
and a hybrid, sold under the name of Colvilli, between G. 
blandus, cardinalis, and tristis. Mr. Sweet improperly 
made a genus Anisanthus of G.splendens and Cundnius, 
and another genus of G. abbreviatus, three species of Gla- 
diolus which have the lower lip abbreviated, a feature 
not more important than the conversion of the three pe- 
tals into short bristles in Iris setosa. 1 always considered 
that something nearly approaching to G. abbreviatus 
might be raised between G. tristis and Cundnius. Mr. 
Plant has frankly communicated all the information he can 
give, concerning his,monsters, and has sent three of his 
four roots to me. I have made a careful sketch of them 
as above represented. He states, that, in 1839, he carried 
from the greenhouse pollen of a plant, which by his de- 
scription is certainly a cross-bred Hippeastrum, closely 
akin to H. Johnsoni, having dark red flowers striped with 
white, to a flower of Gladiolus blandus in a cold frame. 
The seeds produced were rather deficient in the usual fo- 
liaceous wing. Four roots were the produce. He states 
that their leaves.were less erect and more glossy than those 
of a Gladiolus. In the second season, 1840-1, he was ill, 
_and they suffered from neglect. They are now at rest, 
after three years’ growth. The appearance is quite mon- 
strous. There is scarcely a vestige of a regular corm, but 
the base is irregularly formed and beset with yellowish 
fleshy substances, having some affinity to the scales of a 
Lilium, and topped with the wrinkled remains of tubular 
sheaths which enveloped the base of the leaves. One of 
them, from the number of those tubular processes, seems 
to have formed offsets. ‘To the eye, in their present 
nae ies certainly exhibit no immediate hope of vegeta- 
a me Eat a due time they will probably do so. Mr. Plant 
ike at rie were raised in a mixture of sand and rotten 
aches ae ae at therefore arises, whether these 
the Meher iyares co diseased Gladioli, analogous to 
oft intaeun ‘urnips, like bunches of keys, which often 
in highly-manured and hot sandy soil? or mules of 
all other persons have as yet failed in obtaining any mule 
vegetable between two genera decidedly distinct in one 
and the same order? I do not think disease could have 
produced such Gladiolus roots, Mr. Plant tried to make 
alike cross last year by the Hippeastrum on a hybrid 
Gladiolus; and he has sent me a bulb which is its pro- 
duce, and two seedlings from another pod not crossed by 
him on the same Gladiolus stem; but it is evident that 
these bulbs are all true Gladioli, though the two pods have 
been evidently set by the pollen of two different species 
or varieties of Gladiolus, which the bees might effect with- 
out his privity. Mr. Plant pays a great deal of attention 
to the state of the stigma and pollen; but I cannot find 
that he has done so more than I have done during the last 
30 years, when I was desirous of obtaining a difficult 
cross. Every encouragement should be given by culti- 
vators to Mr. Plant, who would perhaps effect much by 
industry and perseverance, if his means were equal to his 
zeal.” _W. Herbert, in the Botanical Register. 
Guano.—The following extract from ‘¢ Hovey’s Maga- 
zine,” forms portion of an Address delivered by J. EB. 
Teschemacher, Esq., at a meeting of the Horticultural 
Society of Massachusetts, United States, relative to the 
value of guano as a manure :—‘‘In the following experi- 
ments, I will first observe, that all those plants which 
were treated with guano were potted in a mixture, con~ 
sisting of plain earth without any manure, sand, a little 
leaf-mould and Peat, with which the guano was mixed ; 
that those plants which are compared with them have 
been grown in the richest compost, and that both have 
had the same attention, and been grown otherwise under 
the same circumstances. Fiichsia falgens, one year seed- 
ling, potted 17th June, when 2} inches high, with one 
tea-spoonful of guano ; repotted 9th August, then 12 
inches high, with another spoonful of guano, is now 1} 
foot high. The contrast between this and the two-year’s 
old plant is very striking, both as to luxuriance of growth 
and colour of the foliage, the plant with guano being 
vastly superior. I think also that the colour of the flowers 
is improved 5 it js well known among gardeners that it is 
rather difficult to grow this plant well. Pelargoniums—two 
seedlings grown with guano, and one of the same sowing 
without ; on the 17th June the two former 
were potted with one tea-spoonful of guano, 
and repotted on the 9th August with an- 
other tea-spoonful ; here also the difference 
in favour of guano is very great. China 
Roses—two cuttings, potted 17th June, 
each with one tea-spoonful of guano ; one 
was then 7 inches high, the other 43; they 
are now 34 and 28 inches high respect- 
ively, with large healthy foliage and stems ; 
these have not received a second applica- 
tion of guano. Celdsia cristata, or Cocks- 
comb—one seedling, with one tea-spoonful 
and one of the same sowing without ; the size 
of the stem, foliage, and head of that with 
guano is more than double that of the other, 
and the difference in the colour of the leaves 
q js remarkable. Salvia patens, with one tea- 
spoonful of guano—the effect here has been to lengthen the 
joints, and the flower appears smaller than usual, Acacia 
Farnesiana—@ seedling showing the size of the foliage and 
length of the joints previous to the application of a tea- 
spoonful of guano, and the remarkable growth of both after- 
wards. A Camellia,with two tea-spoonsful—This specimen, 
which was quite small and unhealthy before the addition of 
guano, as may be seen by the lower leaves, exhibits in a 
most marked manner, by its beautiful large deep green 
leaves and healthy bud, the action of this manure. 
a Camellia grown with a large proportion of fine wood 
charcoal, the foliage and buds are extremely fine and lux- 
uriant, and of a healthy green colour, but not at all equal 
to that treated with guano. One Balsam, two tea-spoons- 
ful, repotted 9th August with two more, to which a little 
lime was added. This is an ugly specimen, which 
confirms an observation in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 
that Balsams manured with guano produced smaller 
J have watched it carefully, and found that not 
a single flower missed bearing its seed-vessel, and that 
every seed-vessel [have opened contains from 14 to 20 
perfect seeds. From what I have seen of guano, itis 
Clear that its action’ is rapid and powerful on the stem and 
increasing their size and deepening their green 
our; of this fact there can be no doubt. I thinkit 
2 
i) 
probable that it diminishes the size of the flower in some 
cases, and that it improves the seed, both in quantity and 
quality ; of this, however, more experiments are required 
to prove the certainty. When those plants were repotted, 
which received a second application, the roots were very 
numerous, and appeared in the most vigorous health— 
thick, succulent, pure white, the tips with that hairy ap- 
pearance so well known by cultivators as a sign of strong 
growth. In Peru it is customary, when using guano to 
raise Pepper, to manure three times: first on the appear- 
ance of roots, then on the appearance of the leaves, and 
lastly on the formation of the fruit. I think the experi- 
ment of its action on all fruits, particularly the larger 
fruit-trees, as Apples, Pears, Peaches, &c., will be ex- 
tremely interesting, as well as on the Vine, which is well 
known to be excessively greedy for rich food, particu- 
larly for bone manure, the chief ingredient of which, phos- 
phate of lime, guano contains in considerable quantity.” 
Mr. Teschemacher then proceeded to show that guano 
contained, in large proportions, the ingredients necessary 
for the growth of plants in general, and for the maturation 
of seeds. ‘ The nectariferous juices, or, as they are com- 
monly called, the honey in flowers, are usually separated 
or secreted by glandular bodies called nectaries, and this 
honey has by many been supposed indispensable in the 
fecundation of the seed; but there are also glands: on,the 
leaves and leaf-stalks (petioles) of many plants, which per- 
form the same office of secreting honey ; here, of course, 
jt cannot be of use for this purpose. Such glands exist 
on the petioles or leaf-stalks of most of the Acacia tribe 5 
on the tips of three or four of the lower serratures on the 
leaves of Gréwia, on various parts of the leaves or stems ofthe 
Balsam, on Passiflora, and many other plants. These glands 
only secrete honey during the youth and growth of the 
leaf; it is then only that their operation and beautiful 
structure can be properly observed. When the leaf has 
attained its full growth and perfection, the active part of 
these glands dries up, the time for observing their powers 
is past, and the leaf then proceeds in its own important 
function of elaborating the sap. It has been lately sur- 
mised, and it appears to me with every probability of 
truth, that this honey is an excretion of the superabun- 
dant and useless part of the juices thrown off, after the leaf 
or flower has selected all that is necessary, precisely ana~ 
logous to the excretions of the animal frame. T will at- 
tempt very briefly to show that this view, if correct,is of 
some importance, both to agriculture and horticulture. 
Mr. A. A. Hayes, of Roxbury, in a beautiful, simple and, 
J believe, original experiment, before the Chemical Society 
of Boston, proved the existence of phosphoric acid (pro- 
bably combined in several seeds), by immersing sections 
of them in weak solutions of sulphate or acetate of cop- 
per; in whatever part of the seed phosphoric acid existed, 
on that part was deposited a precipitate of phosphate of 
copper ; this was particularly evident in the seeds of Indian 
Corn. A certain quantity of phosphoric acid, or phos- 
phates, is therefore necessary to the existence of these 
seeds; and that part of the plant (probably the flower) 
destined to perform the function of preparing the juices 
for these seeds, must go on exerting its utmost powers in 
selecting and rejecting until the requisite {quantity of 
phosphates and other ingredients for the seed are ob- 
tained. Now the phosphates in most soils exist in ex- 
tremely minute quantities ; therefore, those plants and 
fiowers whose seeds require them must extract large por~ 
tions of food from the soil before they can select the 
amount of phosphates necessary for the perfection of their 
seeds ; and probably only as many seeds arrive at matu- 
rity as the plant can procure phosphates to complete; the 
remainder, embryos of which are always formed in abun- 
dance, are abortive—that is, never come to perfection. 
The same line of reasoning, of course, applies to the other 
necessary ingredients of seeds. If, therefore, we present 
toa plant food containing an abundant’ supply of these 
ingredi it seems ble to suppose that we shall 
produce more seeds, or rather that more of the embryo 
seeds will be perfected. Now, the chemical analysis 
guano shows that it contains, in abundance, most of of 
necessary ingredients of plants and seeds, the pert 
its ammonia being absolutely requisite for the cel a ar, 
vascular, and other parts of the stem and leaves, an sie 
phosphoric acid, as well as its nitrogen, for a aia 3 
and if future experience should confirm what 2 ve au 
stated as an opinion, that the flowers of plan sep 
with guano become smaller, it may be aa ai for on 
the assumption that as there are I yeneec ve the plant 
these ingredient jn abundance, Pp a those neces- 
sary for the seed, the flower and its cnet ore office it 
is to prepare the latter, have less ord to perform, less 
food to analyze, less to select, and less to reject ; hence 
there is no necessity to have them of so large a size as 
where much exertion of these functions is required. The 
seed will also be larger and in greater quantity.’ 
Deicetion of the Presence of Potato Starch in the 
Powder of Rice and Arrow-root by means of diluted 
Hydrochloric Acid.—If powdered Rice or Potato starch be 
mixed with concentrated hydrochloric acid, in the pro- 
portion of about one part of the former to one and a half 
or two parts of the latter, they form almost immediately 
a thick mucilage. : The mucilage of Potato starch is 
nearly inaneparent 5 that of Rice, on the contrary, is 
opaque. ‘bey both emit the odour of formic acid. If a 
mixture of hydrochloric acid and water is used, a very dif- 
ferent action 1“ exercised on the two substances already 
named. The Potato starch forms, in a very short time, a 
mucilage so thick that the mortar may be ‘lifted up by 
means of the pestle used in making the mixture; while 
the powdered Rice does not acquire a similar viscosity in 
Jess than 25 or 30 minutes. If the Rice powder contains 
from four to six per cent, of Potato starch, it is easy to 
detect the admixture by means of this re-agent, For this 
