1843.] 
THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 615 
Botanists for practical application has caused a de facto 
separation of theory and practice, theoretical Botany, 
however, having often “sat upon addled eggs’’ (!!). 
He recommends therefore that Botanists should earnestly 
look to horticultural, agricultural, and forest operations ; 
morphological meaning of the different organs of plants,— 
into which theoretical disquisition we are not inclined to 
follow Dr. S., but rather refer those interested to the 
work itself. A 
The new term, Anaphytosis, is thus explained to be 
that which lies at the bottom of all vegetation, as well as 
the foundation of all vegetable metamorphosis; namely, 
acontinual repetition in the development of organs, which, 
although they are similar to each other, appear always 
novel, sprouting constantly out of the substance of the 
individual plant, and repeating in different forms the old 
type of vegetation. Thence, it follows, that those parts 
cannot only be divided and dissevered by art (without 
losing their vitality), but will divide spontaneously, and 
by the mere impulse of nature, which explains the prodi- 
gious increase of plants, especially in the tropics. This 
may take place by root-spawn, as in the Gramineous, 
Liliaceous, and Orchidaceous plants, or by branch-spawn, 
as is the case in the exotic Figs and Mangroves, whose 
lateral branches again form roots and twigs, by whose 
continuation, almost ad infinitum, a forest of plants is 
formed out of one plant, which, although yet connected 
together, still lead each its individual life. This infinite 
regeneration may take place, moreover, by leaf-spawn, as 
is the case with Ferns, many Sedums, and Liliacese, and 
more especially with Alge; or by trunk-spawn, as in 
Cacteous, Stapeliaceous, and Euphorbiaceous plants. 
Everywhere we find the same repetition of the same exte- 
rior organs of plants, similar to each other, and to the 
whole from which they are derived ; and it is this law of 
repetition (Wiederhalung), which governs all vegetation, 
In order to give a precise name to these phenomena, the 
vegetation of individual plants is called ‘their Anaphy- 
tosis ;”” by which name is meant the living reproduction 
of the same organs during the growth of plants, as well as 
their constant regeneration. It is this Anaphytosis which 
enables a plant to continue itself (sic !), to extend itself, 
to branch off, and multiply, ad infinitum, every part being 
always equal to that whence it is derived. ‘This, how- 
ever, takes place with relation to certain partitions, or 
separations, by which longitudinal growth is divided into 
iculati where Anaphytosi continually begins anew. 
The parts produced from this process of articulation, are 
called Anaphyta, or vegetative articulations. We have 
considered it right to attempt an explanation of that idea 
of the author, which he regards as important enough to 
be placed on the title of his book ; but we must refer again 
£9) the work itself for his views concerning what he calls 
1 : +s. EB 1 - 
ip , 5 Ce 
In a subsequent page Dr. S.dilates on the conditions of 
flowering. In stating the difference between a mere general 
growth and the art of flowering, he says :—‘‘ On this head 
a common mistake requires to be rectified, viz., that 
plants can be forced into flowering and fruiting by being 
deprived of nourishment, and especially by any such checks 
to their growth as pruning, transplanting,’ &c. It wa 
Linnzus who, in his doctrine of Metamorphosis, first in- 
troduced this error. A really stunted growth, however, 
(brought on in any way whatever), can never lead to 
vigorous fructification or flowering. We know that it is 
the flowering and fructifying of crops which most exhaust 
the soil, whilst mere herbage may be grown on worn out 
ground. Hence it follows, that it is flowering and fructi- 
a 
Protest against a mere chemical explanation of vital pro- 
cesses, mF 
The Physiology of plants has a great practical bearing 
On medicine, rural economy, and all the practical opera- 
tions of social life; and this importance is in consequence 
Of the formation of useful substances in the interior of 
Plants, Conceding every importance to chemical explana- 
tions of vegetative processes, yet, after all, the grand 
Sperations of organic life in plants overrule all chemical 
Phenomena ; and although the physician, the agriculturist, 
and the gardener may constantly refer to the chemical 
ak of Botany, they must always fall back on Physiology, 
a cause the vital principle is the bank where all chemical 
Sted tee be ultimately made.’’ The real relation 
hetwane ce. to physiology is founded on the contrast 
. life organised form and formless chemical elements. 
Ooae of plants with its power manifests itself only in 
form; and mere chemical substances can never 
become the exponents of life, without having first acquired 
organic forms. Vegetable life, in as far as substances 
enter into its forms, is the vanquishing of the chemical 
qualities of these very substances, and they obtain their 
proper forms (their isation) by the mysteri pro- 
cess of assimilation. his process has never yet been 
properly understood, and this is the reason of all the 
mistakes of organic chemistry. Every one conceives the 
assimilating process of nutrition to consist in a mere 
chemical change of substances ; but, on the contrary, we 
have to grapple with the entire annihilation of the mere 
qualities of substances, in their utter transformation into 
organis forms. If the process of assimilation were one 
merely chemical, chemistry would have to displace physi- 
ology, and the latter would be superfluous, or, at most. 
but a subordinate chapter of the science of chemistry. 
But we see, on the contrary, that it is botanical chemistry 
that has intruded on the province of physiology, and has 
carried there, like death, its ravages amongst the living, 
Sweeping away with its fatal scythe all traces of sublime 
organic life. 
Dr. Schultz himself answers the question as to assimi- 
lation, The very name (he says) is so closely connected 
with the inmost nature of the process, that we cannot but 
admire the greatness of the human mind that, by mere 
instinct, has expressed, in one word, the pure and entire 
truth. The Latin word (and still more the version of it 
into German—verihnlichung) tells us that we have here to 
do with the rendering dissimilar substances similar—with 
the conversion of shapeless nutritive substances into 
definite forms, It is this changing of chemical matter 
(chemismus) into organic life, which is the culminating 
point of all assimilation. These considerations, however, 
still lead us to the fact, that the substances to be assimi- 
lated by plants (their food) are of a chemical nature, and 
that it belongs to chemistry to elucidate their qualities. 
On the other hand, the organism of plants is, by their 
death, again resolved into chemical substances, and it is 
another of the provinces of chemistry to analyse and 
examine them in that state. 
But we have stated enough of the speculative part of 
Dr. S.’s book, and must devote the remainder of our 
Space to matters of a more tangible and practical charac- 
ter. In the chapter inscribed—‘ Formation of Sub- 
stances in Different Parts of the Plant,’’ the author says— 
“The difference in the formation of different substances in 
different parts of a plant is dependent, in the main, on a 
difference in their vital processes.” m this account, 
the parts of a plant above and below ground are often in 
as different a position as animals living in different 
climates. Nourishment and water, although they are 
absorbed by all parts of the plant, still arrive at the 
interior under different modifications of soil and air; and 
by an equally different reaction on the part of the organs, 
different substances are generated. It is, moreover, light 
to which the above-ground parts owe their peculiar and 
little oxydised substances, whilst the root and other sub- 
terraneous parts contain, in many cases, oxydised and 
weet ingredi All the dificati of vegetation 
are not brought on’by a qi but by a qualitati 
difference of the vegetative process, which, again, depends 
on the condition of the vital sap and the vital vessels ; 
by which, in fine, the condition of the sap formed in the 
parenchyma of the leaves, stems, tubers, and the roots, is 
determined, which are again reabsorbed and consumed in 
the formation of flowers. The concentration and organi- 
sation of the substances employed in forming the vital 
sap go always hand in hand. The sap of the woody fibre 
usually contains only 2 to 3 parts in a thousand (rarely 
2 to 4 per cent.) of solid substances. The vital sap, 
on the other hand, contains in plants near the period of 
flowering, 15, 20, nay 40 per cent. of solid substance 
The saline contents in the vital sap of a Mimosa pudica 
are so considerable, that a drop placed on a glass plate 
will instantly crystallise into the finest dendritic forms. 
This great amount of saline matter in the vital sap is con- 
nected with the fact, that the bark (the focus of the vital- 
sap vessels in most plants) contains a greater amount of 
ashes than the wood. The tables published by Mr. Wer- 
neck show that the amount of ashes in the bark of the 
Willow is 3,1 per cent., whilst the wood yields only 2,79 
per cent. ; in Pinus silvestris the proportions between 
bark and wood is 1.9—1.6 per cent. This great amount 
of saline matter in the sap is, however, only apparent 
towards the period of fiowering, and again decreases during 
and after that period, when those peculiar substances 
which are developed at that period are again absorbed. 
Mollerat has observed, that the herbage of Potatoes dried 
shortly {before blossoming, yielded 9°20 per cent. of its 
weight of ashes, but a month later only 5°12 per cent. 
The general supply of food is the same for all plants, and 
will suffice for their mere growth; but flowering and 
fructifying demand, in different plants, a certain amount 
of salts, different in each individual case. Thus we find 
that the toughness and hardness of timber depend on the 
mineral constituents of the soil. It is well known, that 
Oak grown in the most fertile humus of American 
virgin forests is useless for ship-building; whilst that 
grown on the calcareous soil of Germany is of a superior 
=) 
wn 
ally. 
« The chief effect, however, which salts would exercise on 
the flowering of plants, consists in stimulating (Reitaung) 
and contracting the vessels and cellular tissue, 80 as to in- 
crease evaporation and concentrate the sap which unites 
them. But it is essential that the saline stimuli should be 
kept in.a due proportion to the amount of general food : 
otherwise the sap will easily be decomposed ; and I believe 
that the brand in wheat and other grain is generally 
caused by such a disproportion between general food and 
saline stimuli”? The author’s remarks upon that subject 
occupy considerable space ; we can only afford room for 
the following extracts. Besides the general stimulating 
and exciting properties of salts, the phosphates and sul- 
phates appear to contribute towards the formation of 
peculiar substances,—such as albumen and gluten, as is 
apparent in fruits and seeds; whilst ammoniacal salts 
cause the development of pollen, which is nitrogenous. 
Phosphoric and sulphuric acid, and ammonia, may there- 
fore be considered both nourishing and stimulating sub- 
stances, and equally beneficial in flowering and fruiting. 
As to other salts, the acid of which they consist seems to 
exercise less influence than their base, for vegetable acids 
are apt to be much changed and transformed by the 
vegetative process. We know that many composite plants, 
such as Wormwood, Calendula, and Carduus benedictus, 
contain considerable quantities of saltpetre; whence I 
suspected that the Jerusalem Artichoke, which only 
flowers about Berlin late, and badly, might be brought to 
flower early by manuring it with a solution of saltpetre 
in water. By watering it during several summer months 
with a. weak solution, my Artichoke flowered in August 
and bore fruit. Further experiments made with beech- 
ashes gave the same result, and convinced me that it was 
merely the alkali which acted in this case, the vegetative 
process of the plant supplying the rest. I believe, there- 
fore, that plants are able to prepare nitric acid from the 
ammonia of dung and rain, if assisted by the calcareous 
contents of soil. 
Common salt and chloride of lime (continues Dr. S.), 
seem to be very advantageous inthe flowering of most plants, 
which, however, can only endure a small quantity of them. 
Salts of lime seem to have so much the same effect as those 
of potash and soda, that it is only necessary to place lime 
in their way, provided there is no deficiency of manure in 
the shape of general food. Lime will, in the main, pre- 
mote the flowering and fruiting of most plants to an 
astonishing degree, because calcareous salts promote eva- 
poration and: the concentration of the sap. Silica, how- 
ever, seems to act differently.on plants, as inthe family of 
Grasses, which absorb the greatest amount of it, in the 
form of a soluble silicate, especially that of potash. From 
a soil composed of sand without potash, even Grasses 
will absorb no silica; they will always grow badly in it, 
and it is only from decomposed feldspar that they will 
absorb the silicate of potash. Soil mixed with the detritus 
of feldspar is}therefore the best for Grasses and Grain,— 
whence the beneficial effect produced by manuring Corn 
with the sweepings of high roads macadamized with 
granite. But it is clear that plants can decompose the 
silicate of potash, and, form therefrom silica, as appears 
from the crystals of silica found in the stems of Grasses. 
The phosphates, sulphates, nitrates, and ammoniacal salts. 
do not act merely as saline stimuli, but their constituent: 
parts enter into the organic composition of flower and 
fruit in the shape of food ; for the plant assimilates the 
phosphorus, sulphur, and ammonia of these salts, and 
uses it in the formation of albumen, gluten, and pollen. 
The following observation completes the series of Dr. 
Schultz’s arguments :—‘“ The influence of the above and’ 
other salts, as well as of manures in general on vegetations 
has been hitherto considered too generally ; whilst there 
is a difference in their influence on growth, and on flowering 
and, fruiting. Hence a great many erroneous notions have 
originated, for mere growth requires so different a nourish- 
ment from flowering, that one sort of food will advance: 
growth but not flowering, and vice versd ; whilst many 
circumstances must combine to produce growth, flowering, 
and fruiting in the most perfect state.” s ? 
Although we have occupied so much space with a notice 
of a book whose title cannot fail to excite curiosity, we 
must confess that we find much less novelty in the matter 
than in the manner of it. 
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS for the ensuing week.. 
leaf! 
having a bud at its axilis to prepare proper nourishment for the: 
full development or organisation of that bud; that the leaves of: 
2 month or two to furnish the buds, as independent members of tha 
system. Now, if I bu 
; ee 
or September, or any time after the maturation of the buds, and find 
autumn will bud as freely as the Rose, and graft in the open air as: 
IY precaution that is necessary 
0 
the greatest freedom. The Rh 
as you would; buds, leave about an inch of the graft out, at the top 
of the incision, and use the firm part of this summer’s growth for the: 
